Estoppeled by the Constitution

The word “estoppel” is a legal term that generally means that the subsequent acts of an individual are constrained by acts, statements, or positions previously taken where the subsequent act may either contradict, nullify, or effectively lead to a zero sum.

Here, we import the word “estoppel” from its legal provenance, deliberately verbing it (estoppeled or estopped) and loosely applying it to inconvenient if not intellectually challenging dichotomies faced by a public completely inundated by systemic corruption.

As factions confront corruption, they have also broken into separate columns differentiated by competing prospects for 2028, dynastic ties, political ideology, business rivalries, or geopolitical alliances (pro-China, anti-China). The differentiating variables and coefficients are endless, and the tangled Venn diagram of these factions resemble a monster dust bunny.

One common denominator is that the government officials implicated in this perfect storm were either directly elected or were appointed by an elected official to whom vetting powers were surrendered.

At its genesis is a flawed electoral system. Per nostram culpam. We created this mess. Now do the math. The original sin spawned from electing thieves is quantifiable and is measured either in the tens of millions of votes won by these crooks, or the even greater number of billions of plundered pesos surrendered to government in the form of infrastructure allocations, congressional insertions, taxes, preneed reserves, and budgetary appropriations.

Karma is a b*tch. Perfect hindsight which exists only in fantasyland should have warned us of the inevitable “lesser-evil” option between two competing forces now confronting us, compelling us to seek not simply extrajudicial and unconstitutional solutions but perhaps divine relief.

Praying makes sense. Our infernal corruption has been so embedded in both government and society that it has institutionalized and has become organic in nearly every area of the three branches of government.

The decay appears not only from the two chambers of the legislature but apparently the rotting fungus infects all the way to the executive branch. So universal is the putrefaction now that it even threatens the credibility of the judiciary, from the regional trial courts to the Office of the Ombudsman, the Sandiganbayan, and heaven forbid, the Supreme Court.

Where the Philippines ranked as 64th among the most fragile states in 2024, our consistent and continuous decline following the technical definition of uncontrollable failure may sweep us into the ignominious ranks of failed states. Given a 2025 update and the extent of the corruption and its irrepressible nature, we may already be one without technically being labeled as such following the criteria set by political economist Max Weber in the latter half of the 1800s.

That is what happens when there can be no sides the public can find succor from should the public insist on upholding its principles, its traditional values, its insistence on a constitutional democracy, and the avoidance of being estoppeled by those foundations.

The competing agenda of the factions, either sinister or sincere, commonly calling for accountability indicates that principles and values and reverence for the Constitution are situational and in many instances performative.

Those who seek the fall of a sitting president through a resignation or nonconstitutional means, either deliberately or inadvertently, support the stepping up of the constitutional successor. By doing so, they essentially advocate an insidiously hidden power grab before 2028.

Others seek the impeachment of the constitutional successor as a priori. Unfortunately, this effectively props up an unacceptable status quo characterized by corruption.

Others recklessly seek military intervention, throwing their support behind retired generals leading to the unconstitutional installation of either a junta, a caretaker transitory commission, or a communist-inspired politburo. Within this subset, there is a cliché “fifth column” sympathetic to external geopolitical interlopers.

In between each of these propositions, the permutations and combinations are endless and unconstrained by the Constitution.

The Philippines is therefore caught in a perfect storm. And it seems that it will remain within the Philippine area of responsibility beyond 2028.

—————-

Dean de la Paz is a former investment banker and economics professor.