Half a victory
CROSSROADS |
Jonathan De la Cruz |
Of course, it was a victory. Of sorts. A kind of half a victory. Our fragile democracy did not implode as some people had predicted when the full force of the executive branch and half the Congress was mustered in what Senator-Judge Joker Arroyo decried as “naked use of power” to bring the country’s chief magistrate — the head of a co-equal branch of government — to his knees.
Even Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile whose legal acumen and even handedness were highlighted throughout the entire impeachment period was aghast at the manner by which the complaint was brought to the Senate (loose, haphazard were just some of the adjectives used) and the prosecution’s tendency to inject “unverified and unauthenticated” evidence to the court. If not for his mastery of the law and his deft handling of the entire process itself, it is very possible this first ever impeachment of a Chief Justice would not have been completed at all.
Thanks to him the Senate was able to rise up to the occasion and did its duty as the trier of impeachable officials. If only for that we can rightfully say that our democracy, no matter how fractured, if not tortured, works. But a lot more needs to be done and the senators know it..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120601com5.html
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