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Impeachment Complaint Filed vs Duterte



The impeachment complaint filed by the opposition lawmaker Gary Alejano in the House of Representatives today, May 16, 2016, is the glue that pieced together what seemed in the past as dispersed efforts to destabilize the current administration.

The opposition would vehemently deny that this is an act of destabilization.  Most of them would say that their mere intention is enlighten the public and to ensure that the truth is known to all Filipinos. 

To put things into perspective, let me define what “destabilization” really means.  Oxford defines destabilization as, “The process of upsetting the stability of a region or system, especially of government.” With this internationally accepted definition, I can only conclude that impeachment, although considered as part of the democratic process and embedded within the laws of our land, is nothing more than a legal and organized form of destabilization.

It is clear from the very beginning that, even before the then president-elect Rodrigo Duterte was declared the overwhelming winner of the 2016 Presidential elections, the only goal of the opposition, i.e. the Liberal Party along with its horde of followers, is to destabilize the Duterte administration.  They have done so in so many ways, under the guise of the “public’s right to be informed of the kind of President we have”. From the constant linking of Duterte to the DDS despite lack of concrete evidence presented or brought to courts, the allegations on the hidden ill-gotten wealth that we are yet to see proofs of, to the tagging of all killings that happen in the country as “extra-judicial” and state-sanctioned. The list is endless.

No credit was ever accorded to any of the good things that the Duterte administration brought to the nation.  All that we hear from the opposition are the negatives and all that the media intently covered were the statements and the sentiments of the opposition.

Despite all these, the President’s approval rating remained high, and so is the confidence of the Filipino people on his administration.  The failures of the previous administrations to address the most basic needs of the nation have fueled the common Filipino’s flame of hope on the Duterte administration burning bright.  We finally have a President who tirelessly works, despite all the destabilization efforts, for the betterment of our nation. This is the flame that the opposition has been, and still is, trying so hard to extinguish.

The past nine months of constant efforts in undermining the government has not borne any fruits. In my humble opinion, all efforts have been so unfruitful that I somehow smell as sense of desperation from the opposition.  This is apparent with the overdrive in the destabilization efforts in the past few days. The old methodologies seem not enough to bring down the old man anymore – from De Lima, to Trillanes, to the opposition lawmakers ensuring the noises about the “DDS” and the “extra-judicial killings” constantly fill the chambers of the House despite the apparent lack of any probative value.  None of these are able to impact any credible or lasting effect on the President. Even with the help of the pro-opposition media in intensifying the voice of dissent, relentlessly and generously giving airtime to the anti-Duterte witnesses and their handlers to further hurl accusations at the Duterte administration, despite the use of various artistic means to author up news that look, sound, and feel like the opposition’s voice is the true voice of the entire Filipino people, they couldn’t solve their problem that is Duterte. 

The nation has grown tired of the tirades and now refuses to believe the anti-Duterte witnesses, who have repeatedly shot themselves on the foot by delivering inconsistent statements or admitting to having lied under oath.  With the local stage tired of the circus, the opposition figured something new and more creative had to be done. They needed a new and bigger audience. The ICC, the UN and the EU have given them just that, with a little help from the international federation for liberal political parties.

The next thing you know, Matobato’s lawyer is on his way to Hague to file a case against Duterte for “crimes against humanity”. But they need more than just a testimony from a self-confessed criminal to make a statement.  They needed a bigger voice, a name much bigger than Senator De Lima.  That came in the form of no other than the Vice President, Leni Robredo herself.  Just last night, she leaked a disgraceful video that she intends to show the world through the United Nations.

Watching the Vice-President’s smiling face on TV as she paints a grim picture of the Philippines sent chills to my spine.  I could just not make sense of such "grim statistics", if they were indeed true, being delivered with all smiles. Is she actually happy to report about it?  The image of our society she was trying to portray through her lens is completely different than what the people on the ground actually see and feel.  Is she really that disconnected from the reality to claim that Filipinos are now more afraid, hopeless and helpless as compared to the previous administration? Is she really that disconnected from the government that her view and assessment of the current situation in the Philippines is so different from the view of the government and the rest of the wider nation? 

Now, if what she really said are true and the new allegations she’s presented on the video are real, and if what she holds inside her is a genuine concern for the welfare of our nation and its people, is speaking to the entire world, destroying the image of our society really helping the nation?  Is providing reasons, founded on erroneous and distorted facts, to inspire outside elements to interfere in our own internal affairs really the morally upright thing to do?  To me such an act is no different than a family, where the mother and father could not agree on the method of disciplining the kids and the mother goes on and airs out her dirty linen in public and incites the public to participate and have a stake in the family’s affair.  

Before the hangover of watching the tasteless and disgraceful video has passed, everything started unfolding clearly. The video was the signal that set things in motion.  Just a few hours after the release of the controversial video came the news that the EU lawmakers are discussing and will be taking a vote today to call for an independent probe on Duterte and for the release of De Lima.  And before one could even react, another news breaks about the opposition lawmaker, Rep. Alejano, the ‘mistah’ of Trillanes and a participant of the failed Oakwood mutiny who was sentenced for treason but pardoned by former President Aquino, officially filed an impeachment complaint in the House of Representatives.

For what was made to appear as seemingly isolated and uncoordinated acts of undermining the administration to all converge in such a manner, at such an opportune moment, with such an impeccable timing, only a fool would believe that these are all just a mere coincidence and not a destabilization plot in motion.

Now what really scares me in all these is the author of the impeachment complaint went ahead in filing it despite his acceptance that it is an “uphill battle” and it will be a big challenge to win.  This to me only means one thing – IMPEACHMENT IS NOT THE END GAME FOR THE OPPOSITION. If that is not enough to convince you, perhaps the statement below from the author of the complaint himself would drop some hint as to what they envision to happen:

“…we still believe that impeachment would be fought not only inside the halls of Congress but also outside. There’s the church, schools, civil society and the many Filipinos who did not vote and do not support and not in favour of the policies under President Duterte.”
This is clearer than a sunshiny day.  This is a call for another EDSA People Power.  If we are to really learn from our history, the past two EDSA revolutions have brought us exactly to where we are now – a wrong that the current administration is trying to undo.  This is exactly the same blueprint: Impeachment Complaint + call to EDSA, like they have done with Estrada. Question now though is, “Is EDSA the end game?”  It could may well be. But considering the numbers they managed to pull off during the last EDSA anniversary celebrations, I think this particular call to EDSA is more of a tool that an end game. Every Filipino who takes to the streets, regardless of what he/she actually stands for, eventually adds to the number that can be, and will be, used to add to the numbers of “civil unrest”.  This can then be used to encourage international intervention.  But then again, if we are to learn from history, just revisit what happened to all the nations that have clamored for international intervention and got them. 

If the impeachment complaint filed by the honorable lawmaker is a testament to anything, it is of these two things:  (1) Democracy in our country is very much alive, contrary to the claims of the opposition; and (2) that we have not really learned anything from history.  I really do hope time proves me wrong on the latter.

This is a very volatile time, and it is not the time to stay in the middle of the road in this ongoing rage.  We are going to get hit one way or another, so better choose a side and stand up for what you believe in. Between a leader who is crude, unconventional and lobbies for the death penalty (including the crimes that his opponents accuse him of) and a leader who opposes the death penalty, petitions for human rights especially for suspected criminals and paints a grim picture of her own country to the international community while wearing a big smile, the choice is simple.  

In an unstable political scene such as ours, where political power can shift in an instant, the true sincerity of a leader can be measured by what he/she is fighting for and what he/she stands to lose and gain when the political power shifts.  In the case of Duterte, he’s got everything to lose (even his life if the death penalty passes) and nothing to gain. In the case of Leni, she’s got everything to gain and nothing to lose. 

Duterte is my President.  If this political fiasco is eventually turned into a numbers game, this is my +1 for DU30.  

#Impeachment
#WeArePhilippines
#DU30+1
#LeniResign

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