Wha...

It’s spelled “wha” – as in “whaaat?” – and not “wah” as several Ilonggos said the word of disgust should be spelled.

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, the not-so-gentle lady from Iloilo, yesterday provided the official spelling of her expression of disgust, which became a buzzword the other day at the Senate impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Since then many suggestions have been made about the appropriate punishment for prosecution lawyer Vitaliano Aguirre, who had the nerve to cover his ears during Santiago’s harangue of all the “gago” or idiots in the prosecution team. When you call someone stupid, you’re presuming that you’re not, that you know better. There are several brilliant lawyers in the Senate who don’t go around flaunting their brilliance by denigrating others.

Unlike lead House prosecutor Niel Tupas, Aguirre was unfazed by Santiago’s tirade. Santiago might have been correct in suspecting that the private prosecutor, at least subconsciously, was deliberately provoking her by cupping his ears and even grinning as he tried to shut out her voice.

Some quarters are saying Santiago should also be censured for her un-parliamentary language, and the government should reconsider her nomination to the International Criminal Court. I know certain foreign diplomats who, if they had watched her hyperventilation the other day, would have shaken their heads and told their colleagues who endorsed her for a seat in the ICC, “We told you so… don’t blame us!”

We can use a bit of entertainment in the impeachment trial, but shrillness is not entertaining. The level of discourse should be unusually high in that trial. Instead we have been treated to gutter language and infantile gestures.

I have always admired Santiago’s brains and wit, but the other day I had to turn down the volume of my car radio while listening to the impeachment proceedings on the way to the office because she was screeching. She was picking a fight with everyone, including students. Those 500 University of the Philippines students who participated in a survey on Corona – no doubt unscientific – should feel honored that a senator was taking them on. A senator should know enough to pick her enemies.

Santiago’s brother, former military chief of staff Benjamin Defensor, can be just as witty and entertaining, but without the abrasiveness. He likes to introduce himself as the “saner” member of the family.

Yesterday, Aguirre apologized and offered to quit as prosecutor, aware that his run-in with Santiago could render him ineffective in his work. The resignation will not help Aguirre evade punishment for direct contempt of the impeachment court.

Among the suggested punishments, one of the most popular is to detain him for two days in a room where a tape of Santiago’s harangue – regularly punctuated with “wha!” – will be played over and over. But that might constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Another suggestion, from those who think the two are both suffering from arrested development and deserve each other, is to detain them together in the same room for two days, employing various forms of sleep deprivation.

After the prosecution team publicly apologized to the impeachment court for Aguirre’s behavior, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, the presiding officer in the trial, accepted the apology. But Enrile, in explaining the senators’ censure of Aguirre, said respect for the impeachment court had to be “enforced.”

Genuine respect is earned. If it has to be enforced, it may be undeserved.

* * *

Another group that seems to be stewing over lack of respect is the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC).

It’s a free country and freedom of worship is guaranteed under the Constitution. But why should prayer and communing with one’s Maker create so much inconvenience to others?

That INC rally on Tuesday, seen by certain quarters as an attempt to remind national leaders, particularly Benigno Aquino III, about the size and clout of the church, went for maximum disruption.

There ought to be a law against religious gatherings being held on weekdays in densely populated areas. What’s wrong with holding prayer rallies on weekends? The size of the crowd will still be played up by all media organizations, and political speeches – or their absence – will be duly noted.

If a particular date is preferred – to coincide with a birthday or anniversary, for example – and the date has to fall on a weekday, surely there is a suitable venue for the gathering that will not call for closing major thoroughfares. That area around the Mall of Asia, for example, is still full of wide, open spaces, with ample parking for all those buses ferrying INC members.

As it is, the road network in Metro Manila is already woefully inadequate to accommodate the crush of motor vehicles. Closing even one major thoroughfare such as Roxas Boulevard affects traffic in the rest of Metro Manila.

If the speculation is accurate that the INC simply wanted a show of force following a growing list of perceived slights by P-Noy, several people close to him say muscle flexing is likely to have the opposite on this President. He can be as bullheaded as Miriam Santiago.

As for public perception, many of the non-INC millions who were inconvenienced from morning till night by that rally will likely applaud P-Noy for standing up to religious groups of all persuasions.

All religious groups, if their reason for existence is truly faith, should go back to their avowed principal mission, which is ministering to the spiritual health of their flock.

They should leave matters of state to the state, and stop lobbying for the appointment of their members to positions in government, or for the members’ retention when accused of criminal activities. Such lobbying is one of the biggest reasons for the nation’s failure to develop a merit-based society.

But I guess this is too much to ask at this point. Religious groups have done a lot of good in this country, and they can be a potent force for more goodness. Alongside all that capacity for goodness, however, is the reality that from the time the Spaniards conquered this country with the so-called Cross and the Sword, religion has always been about political power (and consequent vast wealth) in these islands.

Rather than be a disruptive force, religious groups can serve as catalysts for positive change in this country. But this looks like wishful thinking for now. Within religious groups, the response to such a silly suggestion is likely to be:

Wha!