Impeachment pros

No, this week’s title is not alluding to the savvy lawyers (including the Senator Judges) parading their court room skills and antics, nor to the commentators providing legal quarterbacking to tele-radyo viewers and hearers, nor to the political junkies, kibitzers and “uzis” latching on to every brilliant move and misstep of the prosecution and defence teams. Rather, I am referring to the benefits derived by the Filipino people from the ongoing impeachment proceedings.

In the beginning, there were those who were worried that impeaching the Chief Justice risked dragging the people into needless divisions and threatening the independence of the judiciary. To be sure, the scenario is difficult, not only because it creates awkwardness, and perhaps strain, in the working relationships among the three branches of government, but also because it impacts the private lives of those closest to the impeachee.

Yet now that the impeachment proceedings are in full swing, it is becoming more apparent that there are more pros to this impeachment than we nearly got conned into believing otherwise. In the past, political upheavals of this nature would send the economy into a tail spin and dampen the national mood. Yet surprisingly, the stock market is at an all-time high, the peso is stable, our democratic institutions are perceived to be working and the people seem engaged. The constitutional crisis that doomsayers warned us about quickly waned, when faced with the reality of the impeachment process as it is being presently conducted.

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After two (or three?) “People Power” revolutions, quite frankly, it is refreshing to see the rule of law animated and reflected not in the rhetoric of the road named EDSA, but on the basis of the people’s sovereign will as expressed in our Constitution. And as has been pointed out, being a process provided for and enshrined in our Constitution, its use can only intensify and make more vibrant our democracy. The greater risk was in allowing impeachment, as a constitutionally-valid and -sanctioned process, to fall into irrelevance, by virtue of our non-use. In essence, what was designed by our framers in theory is now being realized and actualized into the realm of reality.

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Another benefit we are seeing is that the impeachment process is forcing people to think about issues of accountability and, consequently, how to take our public officials to task more seriously. Public office is a public trust. It is, first and foremost, about serving the people. And it is a duty that one does not enter into blindly.

People who join government service can reasonably expect that they will be overworked, but underpaid. With that expectation, there is no reason for anyone to entertain the delusion that one can join government service in order to amass wealth. On the contrary, because of the expectation-and the prevailing skepticism and suspicion, when it comes to the lifestyles of public officials-the latter must strive to lead modest lives.

The allegations in the impeachment complaint are charges against the Chief Justice, specifically, but some of them are directed to our legal system and stern reminders for and rebuke of public officials who will dare squander and betray the people’s trust.

In trying the Chief Justice, we are also testing the process of impeachment — an exercise that can only serve to further, expand, and enrich not only our conception of accountability but also hasten (and hopefully deepen) our political maturity.

Lawyers and law students are big beneficiaries as well since the trial has provided the former with free continuing legal education, and the latter with clinical legal education to supplement their classroom training.

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Finally, as a people, we have been criticized for being too soft and forgiving. In some ways, our democracy is marred not by weak institutions, but because of institutions weakened by our will. In the past, all we could talk about were abbreviated attempts to impeach our highest public officials. If there is anything that this impeachment trial will (hopefully) achieve, it is that it will reach its proper conclusion. Months from now, we can speak of our experience of the impeachment that was, and not just that which we could only entertain in our minds. When we speak, it shall be with words made deeper by the experience made rich by the encounter.

Even before that time comes, as it is occurring now, we are all partaking of the lessons of this impeachment. And regardless of the outcome — be it a judgment of conviction or acquittal, or even an abbreviated end through resignation — I believe the Filipino people will all be better for it.

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Under his gavel, the Senate President has been conducting the proceedings in a manner that is fair (and to his credit, always interesting and, sometimes, entertaining). Funny how life turns. From someone tagged as the muscle behind martial rule, he is now tasked to lead the Senate to prove that our democratic institutions work. Thanks to his obvious expertise, the legalese and jargon become more understandable to the general public. And, in the instances where the practice goes beyond the competence of practical knowledge, there is enough public discourse to help inform and educate the public.

From great crises come great opportunities. Let there be no mistaking it, this is an opportunity for all of us to be great. After this first encounter, we won’t be pros at matters pertaining to impeachment, but hopefully, we won’t be novices at the imperative to do and be better.

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Greetings: Special four centavo greetings are extended to Dona Ma. Luisa Madrigal-Vazquez who celebrates her birth anniversary today. Now the eldest, and only surviving second generation heir, Tita Ising serves as the matriarch of the fabled Madrigal clan.

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“We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insolvable problems.”

— John W. Gardner

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