We saw last week some groundbreaking activity in the Senate, where the senators, newly sworn in as supposedly-impartial senator-judges, sent the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte back to the House of Representatives where it originated.
The House then forthwith reverted to its counterpart, with a resolution saying that the process fully complied with the requirements of the Constitution.
In fact, before this, some lawmakers stretched the limits of being a senator-judge by behavior akin to a defense panel, circulating drafts of resolutions calling for the dismissal of the complaint.
It baffles the mind how a group of public servants, with the entire nation as their constituency, could so glaringly violate the universally accepted delineation between the defense team on the one hand, and the disinterested judge.
The senators assume the position of judges and wear a robe to emphasize their duty to go beyond being politicians in the event of an impeachment trial. The Constitution establishes all of this to ensure checks and balance, as well as accountability on the part of the lawmakers.
It may be true that they have their own political color – no one, after all, is completely unbiased. But their political color must be secondary to their commitment to uphold a process that ensures that the trial is conducted fairly and that they decide independently.
And then, two senator-judges joined the person they would be trying on a trip to Malaysia, curiously for “Independence” Day celebrations. One of these even announced a potential political alliance between the other senator-judge and the Vice President.
Impeachment is a political exercise. A complaint requires numbers to propel it to the Senate. Numbers will also determine a verdict of innocence or guilt. But impeachment is also a legal process– this is why the judges take an oath and don a robe. And this is why they must conduct themselves in an independent manner.
It is true that the rabid nature of the discourse and the unabashed way in which certain personalities have been revealing their partiality have made Filipinos shed the illusion that the trial will be completely fair and neutral.
But is it too much to ask that they do not parade their biases, keeping it only to themselves instead of making overt actions that tell us we can never expect a shred of objectivity from them? Such behavior erodes the trust of people in institutions and our democratic processes altogether.
