Dutertismo: A decade of impunity
Not long ago, Vice President Sara Duterte triumphantly dared the Senate to conduct her impeachment trial after the most polarizing elections on record. “Bloodbath” is what she looked forward to, presenting herself as, at once, an innocent martyr as well as a defiant hero. By this time, many had assumed that the Senate would finally—after months of violating both the letter and the spirit of the “forthwith” provision in our Constitution—act upon the impeachment case transmitted by the House of Representatives. After all, there was no longer the excuse of “we are busy with the elections,” even if Sen. Imee Marcos seamlessly conducted multiple hearings at the height of the campaign with no logistical difficulty whatsoever.
As soon as the Senate began to reconvene, however, another excuse was floated: there were new legislative priorities; therefore, the impeachment trial could be postponed anew. But as outgoing Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel points out, even the Senate’s own rules mandate that impeachment trial proceedings should take precedence over legislative matters. The logic is simple: the trial should be concluded swiftly so that any (presumed innocent) high-level official is not stuck in limbo for far too long and if acquitted, can immediately return to his or her duties.
Then things took an even more bizarre turn, with Duterte-leaning senators speaking of dismissing the trial altogether. One tried to couch the prospect of impunity in legalese shibboleths, but the most brazen attempt was from Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who proudly claimed to have been behind the resolution seeking to nip the trial in the bud.
Apparently, Bato had cornered enough colleagues—let’s call them “Team Piattos” for you know why—to deprive Sara Duterte of her moment of heroic vindication. But the move heavily backfired. First, it exposed the paucity of Duterte camp’s claim to decisive election victory and, crucially, the Vice President’s innocence. If they have enough senators in their pocket to block conviction, then why fear a pro forma trial to begin with? Didn’t Dela Rosa once counsel people fearing extrajudicial killings that there is nothing to fear from the law if one hasn’t committed any crimes?
Worse, Dela Rosa’s shamelessness only galvanized an outraged citizenry, which was now putting the very institution of the Senate on trial. At least three different authoritative surveys made it clear that the supermajority of Filipinos wanted the Vice President to face trial based on the articles of impeachment.
Perspicacious members of the chamber quickly realized the direction of the wind. Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, a top donor to Sara Duterte’s campaign, underscored the categorical imperative for his colleagues to hold the trial as a matter of constitutional obligation. Earlier, Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito made a similar intervention.
What I found interesting about Ejercito’s intervention, however, were the caveats—namely, his argument in addressing “many pressing problems and challenges that need urgent attention,” such as infrastructure, energy, and agriculture, saying the Philippines has “been left behind“ by our Southeast Asian neighbors. We all can agree that economic issues are, understandably, a primary concern for our folks. And yes, the Philippines has been overtaken by Vietnam and Indonesia in recent years.
But this line of argumentation is not only a “false binary”—since a hardworking Senate can perfectly handle both legislative and quasi-judicial duties, but also potentially counterproductive.
After all, the main reason the Philippines has failed to attract high-quality investments to jump-start inclusive development is the complete absence of the rule of law. Over the past decade, countless big-ticket investors, including the Chinese, have avoided making big commitments precisely because they see the country as a tad too lawless and politically unpredictable. Think of tens of thousands of extrajudicial killings, including high-profile cases involving foreign businessmen, which made the country look like a banana republic.
Most of our neighbors suffer from similarly high levels of corruption, but theirs is “predictable.” And their politics is nowhere as “colorful” as ours. Last time I checked, Sara Duterte is the only vice president in the whole region, if not the world, who has openly threatened to assassinate the President. No matter how many big, beautiful laws our Senate passes, if the decade of impunity under the shadow of the Dutertes continues, then one of Asia’s most promising economies may slide into the ranks of “Fourth World” nations.
