There are two developing issues that if they were to happen will affect the country profoundly. These are the impeachment complaints filed against public officials and the possibility of the President declaring martial law throughout the country. There are two extraordinary measures that are taken only as a last resort. But since the genie has been let out of the bottle, impeaching public officials and declaring martial law seem to have become very easy.
There are currently two impeachment complaints being tackled by the Judicial Committee of the House of Representative and another might be forthcoming. The two are the complaints against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista. Both complaints are for various offenses but the common denominator is corruption. Another impeachment complaint might also be filed against the Ombudsman, Conchita Morales.
As a result, there are some sectors warning about the adverse effects of the House of Representatives always threatening to impeach public officials like weakening the political institutions of the country which will result in the country becoming a banana republic. To this, some might say that we are already a banana republic.
They are, of course, right but we have former President Noynoy Aquino to thank for masterminding the impeachment and conviction of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona for very flimsy reasons. Those who are now objecting to what the House is doing to Chief Justice Sereno should have opened their mouths then. Now, there is even a plan by the Department of Justice to use former Senator Jinggoy Estrada as a witness for the misuse of funds coming from the Development Acceleration Program to the tune of hundreds of millions of pesos. The former senator who has just been granted bail might testify that each senator who voted for the conviction of Senator Corona was given P50 million in DAP funds. If this is true, former President Noynoy Aquino and former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad will be in hot water.
Impeaching Chief Justice Sereno may indeed weaken the judicial system which is already weak. But those politicians who participated in the ouster of Renato Corona—and many of them are still around—should have also thought of the consequences of what they did. Now we have a lower house of Congress that also wants to assert its prerogatives under the leadership of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. This should not surprise anyone because that is what happens when the country has leaders who put their interests before the country’s.
It is always the nation and ordinary mortals like you and me left holding the bag. It is sad but that is simply the reality of our politics. Will we ever mature?
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By now, we are already accustomed to the speaking style of President Duterte. Unlike his predecessors who would normally deliver their prepared speeches, the President usually puts his prepared speech away and meanders to other subject matters—which, in many cases, end up about drugs.
Lately however, Senator Antonio Trillanes and his alleged foreign bank accounts and chairman Luis Martin Gascon, the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, have become his targets. When everyone is supposed to be afraid of the President, Senator Trillanes has the temerity to be throwing accusations against him. Whether these accusations are true or not is of course another matter.
How should the public view this ongoing word war between the two? One outcome of this is that it probably debunks what the critics of the President are saying about creeping authoritarianism. It shows that there is still dissent after all. The other subject that has also come up is the probability of the President declaring martial law throughout the country. This was discussed by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana who said that it is a remote possibility. Former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile has also discussed it. He seemed to be providing the justification for martial law.
If indeed martial law or a revolutionary government is declared, will it solve our perceived problems? What acceptable justification could be given? The drug problem? The ISIS and the CPP/NPA? It will be a little difficult to come with an internationally acceptable reason and this is not even mentioning how the Filipino people will react. All that it will show is that we have not learned anything from our experiences under martial law.
If there anything to be learned from our martial law experience, it is that it set the country back for about a decade. Our economy went down so badly that it is only now that we really are on the path to recovery. Do we really want to throw all the gains that we have worked so hard away? If we think, that by declaring martial law we can shortcut the solutions of our problems, we have to think again. This is because along with shortcuts are corresponding problems.
If we declare martial law or a revolutionary government which seems to be the preference of the President, our insurgency problem will multiply. At the height of martial law, the strength of the armed group of the CPP/NPA was 24,000 as opposed to the current strength of 4,500. We should not provide the CPP/NPA a recruiting tool. Another is that although our economic managers are not saying it, our economy will surely suffer as the sun rises from the east. We are seeing this happen in Thailand now. Our standing in the international community of nations will also suffer tremendously.
I do believe that we can solve our problems without martial law. We have to believe that.