THE Philippines will commemorate 127 years of independence this week, amid a growing public clamor for the Senate to discharge its Constitutional duty to conduct an impeachment trial – forthwith, otherwise defined as immediately.
Given these developments, this year’s commemoration takes on an even greater significance. As it should.
The Senate President finally took his oath as presiding officer of the impeachment trial on Monday, with the rest of the senators being sworn in as members of the impeachment court Tuesday. There was some debate on whether the court should be deemed already convened after all the oaths have been taken.
Late in the day, the situation remains fluid, unfortunately depending on the whims and preferences of the Senate leadership.
Clearly, after hemming and hawing for the past four months during which they could have acted expeditiously on a grave political issue, now the senators are running out of time.
But the leader does not constitute the entire body.
The newly-constituted court will have a narrow window to discharge its function as the senators also fulfill their regular legislative tasks.
It will be difficult, but it will be necessary.
Independence presupposes that an entity – a country, a person, a society – is free and self-governing, able to make choices from an array of options known to it. While the Philippines obtained its independence in 1898, numerous threats to it have kept our situation far from ideal. Precious freedom has been lost several times after the declaration, and reclaiming it took a heavy toll on our people.
And even then, there remain threats to this independence, threats we face on a daily basis.
As the senators prepare to push through with the impeachment trial, may they be moved by the spirit of June 12 and the example set by generations of Filipinos who fought so hard to achieve independence.
They may be driven by their own political survival and interests, true. But the impeachment trial of the VP is also a moral trial for the Senate. Our senator-judges will themselves be judged by how fiercely they fought for what is right – not to decide any specific way, but to conduct a fair and transparent process.
Generations from now, we will be talking about how our senators lived up to the demands of their mandate.
Or, tragically, how they failed.
