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.)
