By Alex P. Vidal
“Every time there’s an institutional issue like impeachment, there’s concern from the outside about what will happen.” —Michel Temer
TWO of the most likely Iloilo solons who might vote in favor of the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio are Iloilo first district Rep. Janette Loreto-Garin and Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raoul Danniel Abellar Manuel.
As of this writing, however, there was no such audacious move from the Lower House yet even if the vice president has been acting like Aspasia, who urged Pericles to crush the island of Samos, Miletus’ old rival, and to provoke war with Sparta.
There have been no impeachment tocsins even if the vice president has been bellyaching the solons were clandestinely trying to tighten the noose around her.
For this, we implore the other Iloilo solons—or those from Western Visayas and Negros Island Region—to move away from any scuttlebutt about impeaching the second highest elected official of the Philippines.
If they cannot help abort or thwart any impeachment plot—just in case there is one—at least they must not be part of it.
The last thing the Philippines needs today is a strenuous and counterproductive political process like impeachment.
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Any move or attempt to remove a duly elected high public official before and even after the midterm elections will always be messy especially for a country wracked by interminable political and economic instability like the Philippines.
It will galvanize the malcontents who think our leaders have the temerity to prioritize political bickering over lowering the prices of basic commodities and agricultural products like rice and other staple food, safeguarding our OFWs, generating employment opportunities, building more infrastructure projects like farm-to-market roads, building more schools, economic prosperity, among other urgent social necessities.
Loreto-Garin and Manuel have been visible and active in various committee hearings in the House of Representatives where Duterte-Carpio’s tension-filled participation had sparked ugly swapping of insults between her and numerous solons; the tumults became the talk of the town and even hot topics in the social media.
Several solons have repeatedly denied there’s a move to impeach Vice President Duterte-Carpio, accused of mishandling her P125-million “confidential” funds in 2022 (the Commission on Audit has issued a notice of disallowance in P73 million of the total amount).
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Some of them, however, have started to openly castigate her for disrespecting the House of Representatives and refusing to explain how the Office of the Vice President (OVP) spent the controversial funds.
If the solons want to put the vice president in her proper place, so to speak, the most effective means, I think, should be to let her say what she wants to say in public, let her perform the kind of performance she wishes to accomplish in public—and let the people decide.
If she opts to commit a political hara-kiri by her nondescript and bizarre verbal and optical acrobatics, it’s her call.
A visual and graphic evidence of skullduggery shown “live” on television and even the social media constitute a sufficient weaponry to crush a political personality wishing to destroy her or his own legacy.
By all means, steer clear of any impeachment imbroglio. Not now. Not in the near future, not under the present administration.
Filipinos need to preserve their energy and focus their attention on the more thorny melee: a diplomatic slugfest vis-à-vis Chinese bullying in the West Philippine Sea.
China hasn’t done with our ships plying the Ayungin Shoal yet. We are facing a bigger battle in our quest to protect and defend our sovereign rights against the ultra-aggressive and numerically superior behemoth.
In order to tie an elephant, Filipinos need to unite first, not to impeach erratic and recalcitrant leaders like “Inday Sara” while in the bigger picture, China is preparing to bury its teeth on our pride, dignity, sovereignty.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)
