Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. “Death of Leonardo da Vinci.” 1818. Oil on canvas. Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, France. From abc-gallery.com
In a matter of days, it would take another year for any window to open to impeach President Gloria, as the one filed would be referred to the Justice Committee in a couple of days.
To be fair, last summer after the elections, one administration congressman pointed out that the “opposition” in the House (if you would consider them such) was not inclined to get the President impeached because 2010 was just around the corner and near enough to wait for, and if the President were convicted on impeachment, Vice President Noli de Castro would succeed and serve the remainder of the term and would not be barred from running for President and you would have an incumbent President with all the government resources at his command (again) as presidential contender. So the opposition would just wait for 2010.
I don’t think they would just wait for 2010, the “presidentiables” would be guesting in comedy gag shows, game shows, talk shows, and try to buy as much media mileage and raise funds too, for 2010.
The trouble with not impeaching a President when there is prima facie evidence of betrayal of public trust, is that, even if he/she bows out of power it would be more difficult to indict him/ her; as the constitutionally tasked public officials to do that (the Ombudsman, etc.) are his/her appointees; and without evidence that could be summoned by the coercive powers of an impeachment court, you’ll be starting from scratch at the end of the presidential term.
Maybe we’ll just leave her chances to 2010 and hope that the next President after her is independent- minded enough to pursue such cases.
You like taking chances?
The trouble with not impeaching a President when there is a prima facie case is that: we never learned our lesson.
(or maybe they think they are applying the lesson by not letting again any vice president to take over, whatever the cost of that tactic is. I thought the lesson was: we impeach everytime there is prima facie evidence of betrayal of public trust. Everytime. Or try our darndest, so people will see what they should not put to power. Everytime.)
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haha! the window was permanently closed when the supreme court usurped the Congress exclusive and sole powers over the removal of constitutional officers. I don’t see how the tactic of filing a flawed complaint can ever be defeated. If the House cannot define WHEN an impeachment proceeding has been initiated, how “exclusive” is their power over it? The problem is not therefore the “morality” or “honesty” of legislators but the destruction of separation of powers. Davide? Yecch!
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In one of ABS-CBN’s Saturday afternoon fantaserye Pedro Penduko at ang mga Engkantao’s episodes, there was a scene where the talents were portraying members of the Sigma Rho fraternity initiating their neophytes. The scene showed the members of the fraternity hitting at one of its neophytes with a baseball bat, while the neophyte was shouting “I love Sigma Rho!” and the other neophytes standing and line waiting for their turn. The scene was not essential in establishing the story. The fantaserye’s villain was looking for a certain person and she did not know where to look. She only happened to pass by the venue of initiation where she was not able to find who she was looking for.
this scene in the fantaserye contains violations in the code of ethics for broadcast media. first of all, showing the public how a certain crime is done, in this case they showed how hazing in fraternities is done, is discouraged because other people may imitate it. second of all, the scene was shown at the height of the cris mendez hazing issue. it was obviously against the sensitivities of those involved in the case, both the family of Cris Mendez and the members of Sigma Rho. For the Mendez family who were still in deep grief over the death of their son, they would not like to relive for themselves, and even for other people the way they think their son has died. And for the side of the fraternity, whose members were in deep trouble already and suffering from negative public opinion, the scene only served to worsen the situation for them.
In short, the scene did not have any social value at all. Instead, it only served to worsen the situation for all the parties involved in the Cris Mendez case.
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just saw you on Media in Focus with Cheche Lazaro. You made the best points I thought. I’d forgotten about that infamous Davide circular on SALs. It may seem a small matter to some, but I see a world of irregularity in that, stemming also from the impeachment of Davide and the Supreme Court interfering with the congress’ exclusive jurisdiction. Now the bribery case in the SC itself really focuses our concern over check and balances against the Supreme Court. I don’t think Democracy can actually survive for very long with such a Supreme Court. It is a Rogue Supreme Court now.
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There is a fog that must be dispelled in the public’s mind about the Supreme Court–you said it yourself and struggled with the conundrum–they must not be above the law, but where does one appeal as simple a thing as the refusal to show a guest logbook, which any visitor to the Court signs and accesses. You said we must appeal to their reasonableness. You realize of course that this cannot maintain the integrity of our conceptions of justice and Rule of Law. There must be a functional, institutional check and balance to the Supreme Court. And of course, it is obvious that the Congress itself possesses a JUDICIAL power as strong as the High Court’s –no stronger!– in the matter of Public Accountability of impeachable officers.
How this balance is to be restored escapes me also though, but it cannot be to the reasonableness of possible lawbreakers that we are forced to appeal. No Ma’m! I would burn down Padre Faura first than swallow such a bitter dreg.
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