The greed behind the signatures

A congressman from Batangas said it all. Coming out to speculate why he was kicked out of a chairmanship of a Congressional committee, he attempted to fathom the probable reason of his ouster. According to this gentleman, his refusal to sign the impeachment complaint did his committee chairmanship in. He tried to explain that he was rushed into signing the document even if he was not yet able to read the complaint, a thing that he would never do. It was to him immoral to affix his signature to any paper the contents of which were unknown to him. And if I may add, it was not an ordinary document. It was an instrument of the highest constitutional prominence that required the most premium of legislative prudence.

That should explain the blinding speed with which the impeachment complaint gathered the qualified number to breeze thru. It was reported that in less than an hour, all the needed signatures of close to two hundred congressmen were affixed unto the document. Whew, that was faster than Superman.

The following day, we learned that some of Cebu lawmakers did not sign the impeachment. These nationalistic legislators, experienced parliamentarians and top caliber lawyers could not be rushed into signing a paper without calculating its impact in our cherished democratic institutions. Congressmen Eduardo Gullas, Pablo Garcia and John Paul Garcia, take a bow. Withholding their pen despite some foreseeable political repercussions was a laudable exercise of sacrifice. Of course, they were joined by ANAD Partylist representative.

If our constitutional crisis looms graver than ever, it is not only because of the bellicose attitude of His Excellency President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III. True, his popularity ratings are impressively high and it is possible that this could have gone to his head such that on this account, he might have felt that he could do no wrong. But, I shudder at the thought that he might have been misled by this fleeting fame into pushing his luck too far.

I am beginning to confirm my earlier suspicion that he has not inherited the wisdom of his father. This gung-ho style of management tells me that the president is unable to visualize far into the future the ramifications of his actions. In my earlier article, I was very cautious in adopting the term “unpresidential” that our editor used in describing the wayward salvo fired by the president against the Chief Justice. Yes, it was a clear signal that PNoy, while enjoying the giant shadow cast by his dad is, quite sadly, not of the latter’s mold.

The worse part of this presidential waywardness is that he gets the mindless props of his rah-rah supporters. A classic case of blind, nay dangerous, devotion was shown by the congressmen who signed the impeachment complaint without knowing what kind of a document it was. The deepening crevice between the president and the chief justice is aggravated by this impeachment thing. Rather than look for ways to forge a solid and common endeavor among the heads of the three great departments of our government for national growth and advancement, our legislators, by moving for the impeachment of the chief justice, have irreversibly burned what could have been a bridge of unity. Why?

The increasing buzz indicates that the availability of the pork barrel hastened the assembly of the number of signatures required to push forward the impeachment complaint. Reports had it that lawmakers quickly lined up and even contested among themselves who should sign ahead because of a promise of an early release of the pork. Of course, every legislator will now and henceforth deny this. By the fact that this is mentioned only stokes the fire of our imagination. But, believe me it is most sickening to hear.

So, if the impeachment proceedings will serve as the biggest single example of our eternal wrangling, I can only blame those men and women in our Congress who, in their utter greed, signed it in speedy exchange of their pork share.