A case of an adjunct Congress

BACKBENCHER

Rod. P. Kapunan

11/17/2007

The laws of the land are supposed to reflect the purest of the collective wisdom of our people. This is a positive view since it is assumed that the legislators enact laws and pass resolutions based on their merit and on the reasonableness of their judgment to meet the mettle of public interest and common good. Whatever action is taken in deciding the fate of this nation is accorded the advantageous interpretation as being reflective of the collective wisdom and will of our people.

But what the members of Congress do today hardly reflects that political tenet. The sovereign contract they entered into with the people is now a petrified political system rather than a mechanism to make our rambunctious democracy work. Instead of being beholden to our people or in asserting their cognitive independence by observing that constitutionally enshrined principle of separation of powers, we see them as a shameful horde of queuing political sycophants trying to outperform each other in wanting to please the enthroned power-grabber.

The episode of impeaching Gloria Arroyo, whose checkered political career was marred even more through her ousting of the duly elected president and of committing massive electoral fraud just to extend her stay in office, has turned into a shameful annual political spectacle. The majority of the lackeys refused to accept amendments to a complaint seeking to impeach an utterly unpopular political swindler.

The decision of the House committee on justice in rejecting the supplemental information that would have put substance to the complaint filed by that suspected operative of Malacañang, lawyer Ruel Pulido, was expected. The henchmen voted by 43 to one to declare the complaint “insufficient in substance” after it methodically refused to accept the supplemental information that would have denied them of their own lousy excuse to dismiss the complaint.

If one analyzes how the controlling majority did it, one has to agree that they acted like a cabal of criminal syndicate. Instead of liberally accepting the amended complaint and having this consolidated, they decided on the issue of accepting the sham complaint. There was arrogance for their task is to mainly direct the complainant to file his complaint in accordance to form and put substance to it.

Only when he refuses to comply can it summarily dismiss the complaint. In fact, when the committee members acted to dismiss the complaint, they substituted themselves as representing Congress which was anomalous because that plenary power belongs to all the members of Congress acting jointly and collectively.

Notably, the duty to accept additional or supplemental complaints is to give justice to the complainants as well as to the accused since the right of the accused to be heard is premised on that equal legal precept that the legal venues should be open to all. Otherwise, the right of the accused to be heard of the charges filed against him would end up as rhetoric for there would be nothing for him and the court to hear if the procedure is restrictive. It would only bolster the claim of political cynics that the impeachment resolution is a game of numbers with no reason, wisdom, logic or even law to put it in question, but only the passion of those bootlicking political sycophants to apply Alexis de Tocqueville’s ugly observation about the tyranny of the majority.

Maybe the opposition is also to blame for its lack of zeal which is why a segment of our people considered the move as an exercise in futility. But whatever is the final outcome of the impeachment complaint against Mrs. Arroyo, the net effect is the irreparable damage to the institution the congressmen represent. There is nothing we can expect because, as filthy politicians, their existence is mainly co-terminus with their “pork barrel” and cash outlays doled out by their patroness.

Deep in the recesses of their conscience, they know they are doing the most unpatriotic act of denying our people their voice and justice in wanting to be vindicated.

People can never be wrong because they see Congress today as a subordinate adjunct of the executive lorded over by one with a questionable mandate, not as a branch of government co-equal with the executive and the judiciary. It is the servile conduct of the ruling party that made haste to trash the complaint, which is why Filipinos now have their deep suspicion of the kind of laws and resolutions that are approved. One can observe the build up of cynicism that at times erupts to an open defiance.

The trend is getting dangerous, for once our people are conditioned to the idea that our laws are enacted not to serve their interest or that negative resolutions are approved to prevent a valid ventilation of their grievances, then we have a serious problem of institutional breakup. The political syndrome that began with the vandalism of the executive branch which vandalism was affirmed by the judiciary has now contaminated Congress. The result is a political apoplexy that any time could trigger a violent political convulsion. In that instance, the members of the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police would have no more reason to separate their sentiments from the people saddled by poverty and hunger, and now through a serious case of political paralysis.

(E-mail: rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)

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