The 2nd Impeachment

WHEN NEWSPAPER headlines and radio/TV anchors reported the dismissal of the impeachment complaint against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, the Inquirer reported that “Gutierrez and her allies celebrated the dismissal . . . in a restaurant in Quezon City.”

And how did Filipinos receive the news? With mixed reactions, a lot of which were laced with expletives, showing the outrage and the accompanying impotence felt by our countrymen on the decision reached through the strength of numbers. House Committee on Justice chair Rep. Matias Defensor declared the impeachment complaint dismissed after 38 committee members raised their hands to signify they wanted the complaint “thrown out.” According to him, only 28 votes were needed to “junk the complaint.” As a result, those in favor of pursuing the Ombudsman’s impeachment were not even asked to vote. Even for the record.

No impeachment process in the last eight years, during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has ever prospered. (The only impeachment proceeding that the Philippines witnessed, the case against President Joseph Estrada, was aborted and he was ousted by the ensuing People Power II.)

There is per se nothing wrong with this; but when the country has consistently been rated as one of the most corrupt in this part of the world, it just underscores how corrupt the system really is.

The truth, which the impeachment process is expected to reveal, has thus been set aside. Without the truth, the constitutional policy of transparency, accountability and integrity in the administration of government would not be possible. Without the truth, there can be no justice, and corruption and abuse of power would go unabated.

Evidently, our Constitution has been rendered inutile by the adroit and manipulative use of plurality by the House of Representatives. Our Constitution guarantees that (1) a separation of powers exists (2) among the executive, legislative, and judicial arms of government (3) through a system of checks and balances.

The impeachment process, Philippine-style, nullifies all these three aspects. For a major act such as an impeachment complaint to be so easily set aside and invalidated by a mere plurality of our elected congressmen acting in concert to nullify and ridicule it, certainly this was never the intent of the framers of our Constitution. Very simply put, what if the majority is on the side of wrong? How then will the wrong be corrected?

Judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court, the highest tribunal in the Philippines and one of the three equal arms of government. Judicial power includes the obligation to protect the right to life, property and the pursuit of happiness against the tyranny of violence or abusive power or unscrupulous ambitions. If our impeachment process is used to hide the truth, an essential element of justice, should the Court continue to remain on the sidelines and be a mere spectator—or should it proactively step in and push for the search for truth? Does the Court agree, by its silence, that the impeachment process is just a numbers game? If so, this is a serious flaw in our Constitution that needs to be corrected.

This failure of governance—and the resulting corruption and injustice—is the primary reason why Filipinos so often resort to extrajudicial means to correct the wrong and why we continue to bear with poor infrastructure, poverty, criminality and insurgency in this country. In fact, extrajudicial recourse is a two-edged sword. As witnessed by history, the Filipino people have resorted to coup d’états to remove power-hungry and greedy tyrants when all else failed. At the same time, immoral and corrupt powers use the same extrajudicial means to destroy and forever silence those who would rather stand firm by the Constitution to be heard.

As provided in its Preamble, our Constitution is the framework for building a just and humane society for the Filipinos and for establishing a government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality and peace. However, how do we protect ourselves against the very institutions that render the Constitution weak and dysfunctional? With no clear signal from the judiciary, the deceitful and greedy stay in power under dubious and unconstitutional means. The resulting mockery of the rule of law renders the Constitution to appear tainted and powerless.

Many of us are looking forward to the coming May 2010 elections to possibly elect the leaders who could effect the changes that we long to see for our country. Could this election truly provide the solution to our country’s ills? I, for one, am not very optimistic for it is highly likely that majority of our incumbent politicians and elected government officials will win and thus continue with their patronage politics. And again, the reforms that we need may not see the light of day.

The solution, I believe, could be achieved only when there is a critical mass of Filipinos who would speak loudly with one voice to initiate the reforms that will make our government officials accountable for their actions or inaction, and to reveal the truth so that justice may be served and the guilty punished swiftly and mercilessly. The sovereign will of the Filipino people is supreme and it is this kind of People Power that we need to flex and use to achieve the drastic reforms that our country sorely needs.

David L. Balangue is chair of SGV & Co. You may write him at david.l.balangue@ph.ey.com.