Edsa Dos Story 3: Impeachment Trial in the Senate

             An impeachment complaint is officially brought to Senate for a trial. Of course, President Erap denies the charges, among others, of receiving payola from jueteng, of owning a bank account where millions were deposited. A trial would be able to determine the culpability of the accused. The whole country is treated to an afternoon of legal and political drama on television and radio. 

          Prior to the trial, there was a suggestion of having the President to file a leave of absence not to exert undue influence on the process. For me it should be a leave of conscience. However, neither should be a question nor an option. Which is which is not purely a selection of greater returns to the peoples. It must be a decision founded on the aspiration of our dear nation, based on the call for justice, truth and probity.

            While the senate holds our eyes of interest inferring altogether, each senator tries to come up with a brilliant idea of dubious display of impartiality. Two senators have suggested the filing of leave of absence from any political parties that categorically identified itself either pro or anti of which a senator a member. Others already bolted from the administration party hoping those act alone signified singularly impartiality. And a solitary yet stentorian voice boldly predicted the fate of the trial, and in a way the doom of the disgruntled masses in the hands that rocked the nation.

            In the world of possibilities, these are welcome prefaces. In the preface of the world, this is possible. And in the possibility of prefaces, welcome to the world.

            No matter what we, the people do, either on the street, Internet or elsewhere, the entire affair of critical politics and economics is reduced to simple mathematics. In the Senate, it’s eight and in Malacañang, it is one.

            The sorcery of eight votes in the Senate that means acquittal is less intricate than the magic of fifteen which spells guilt. Never there will be a dramatic close than the senators’ votes sealing the end of a Constitutional process or selling the people’s trust and perseverance in the process.

            If all of us are wise as much discerning just the same, we need not drag the controversies besieging the country into the bottomless pit of shame and crisis. Unfortunately, all of us include someone in Malacañang. One noble resignation will have sufficed the discontent and dissatisfaction of the growling masses.

            It is reported that the defense team is hatching to quash the impeachment case even before it files its answer to the charges. What a way to say that the president is not guilty!

            Let us expect more of intellectual spectacles from the luminaries of our law regarding the issue. Like in the movies, we will grope in the dark, we will be entertained, we will learn and we will pay. Each day that passes by, may we master the art of optimism, hoping and endurance and the “power of one.” For these, as we wait, we pray.

            On December 7, the historic impeachment trial begins.

            Whether history will be good or otherwise to us, let us keep the words of Candid that all things are for the best, for now.

EDSA Dos Story 1: Erap Presidency in 2000

“That which depends on me, I can do; that which depends on the enemy cannot be certain.” – Sun Tzu, The Art of War

            In 2000, two years of Erap presidency hardly makes any impression on the plight of the poor (yet) – the same people who put him to power and in turn he must be indubitably biased for. His catapult to the highest office was seen as a messianic mission for the poor, by the poor.

                 His strategy to fulfill the role he has superciliously projected was contained in the Erap Para sa Mahirap Program. It would select the 100 poorest families in every city and province and direct the programs of the intervening government agencies like the DOH, DSWD, NHA, CDA and others to those families. The hope is to bring about a multiplier-effect thereby reducing the poverty incidence into a measurable figure. But the poor people are not numbers to be manipulated, and poverty is not a statistics. That is why I join those who appraised the program as dubious and superficial to its true objective of poverty alleviation. I agree with the many urban poor groups and NGOs that instead of pursuing a selective direction of program implementation, why not have a national framework where every poor family can be a subject, not mere object?

            The World Bank suggests that goals should not be imposed, rather to be embraced. The yawning gap between the rich and poor is swallowing any effort towards poverty eradication or alleviation of the government. That I wish is enough to cause hard-packed actions just like in the president’s previous movies. The people expect him to live up to his billing otherwise he might be acting without an audience.

            In the last SONA of the President, he asked Congress of the same laws he wanted prioritized way back in his first SONA. Doesn’t he have the majority of both houses? Where is the party loyalty? If it is expediently needed by the administration to fulfill its promises, by all means it has to go all out for it. I suspect the Congress truly sees the urgency of the matter.

            Now Mr. Estrada is asking for special powers to hasten the rehabilitation and development he envisions in Mindanao. Among the powers he sought are the CBA moratorium and the suspension of TROs for project implementation. Is he going to build a bridge without water underneath? Or is it creating a river to have a bridge built? In other words, are the special powers exceptionally called for at this point of time? Is the presidency lacking of powers? Has he already exhausted other means and measures that will result to the same end? Or, is he just indifferent to the powers available which are already mandated by law? Worse, is he conceding to his inadequacies and helplessness in solving the Mindanao conflict? These are the questions posed to the administration and to us citizens who are concerned with the possible scenarios if we let this come to pass.

            Then I have discovered the answer when I heard that various NGOs, the church, other civic-minded groups and individuals are reaching out to the victims of the war. They need not ask for any power, be it special or not. They simply do what has to be done. More than the special powers can give, I think what is needed is a heart, and a will to do things right.