Until all this wheeling and dealing stops, accountability will remain a joke. It’s what made us the pathetic case that we are in the first place — a nation plundered blind.
Finally, the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte gets going, after being derailed twice, even before it could actually start.
The Supreme Court laid the decisive obstacle. It ruled that the House of Representatives had impeached Duterte sooner than prescribed by the Constitution — a year after the last attempt to impeach her, an unsuccessful one, as it happened. The ruling remains disputed; the contention revolves around where the count for the yearlong ban should have begun. The House did protest, but did not insist; in the end, it decided to impeach another day and concede to the court.
The other obstacle was put up by Chiz Escudero, who, as Senate president at the time, would have presided at Duterte’s trial had not the Supreme Court had time to intervene. In fact, he was commanded by the Constitution to mount the trial “forthwith,” but he quibbled with the word and made other excuses — the Senate needed its recess, it had other businesses to attend to. He glossed over the very reason why impeached officials should be judged right away — forthwith: their continuation in office and power could cause further serious and immediate danger to the nation’s well-being.
