The loss of conscience and soul

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and Sen. Loren Legarda have been at the receiving end of scathing criticisms from school and sectoral groups they’ve been associated with. The criticisms stem from their roles in two very controversial events that took place in the Senate recently.

First, the two senators are being condemned for their roles in the Senate leadership change, which is widely viewed as a move to undermine the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. Cayetano has been elected as Senate president and Legarda as Senate president pro tempore, courtesy of a new group of majority senators whose core members are Duterte diehard supporters. Second, they’re being blasted for their participation in giving “protective custody” and in facilitating the escape of Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, while he was in the Senate premises, and despite being the subject of an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant of arrest.

Cayetano’s batchmates at the Ateneo Law Class of 1997 signed a statement titled “Call for Integrity and the Observance of the Rule of Law,” where they pressed their former classmate to “study carefully” the Supreme Court case Cayetano himself was a respondent in, and in which our country’s highest court declared that the Philippines must still cooperate with the ICC on crimes committed during its membership. Cayetano’s law school batchmates further declared that: “Regrettably, at the helm of this crisis is a member of the Ateneo Law Class of 1997. We, therefore, appeal to our batchmate, Senate President Alan P. Cayetano, to remember what we were taught in Ateneo and to adhere to our oath as lawyers and officers of the court.”

The Ateneo lawyers also decried their classmate’s role in Dela Rosa’s appearance and escape from the Senate by stating that “the Senate has clearly gone beyond its powers, abrogated powers reserved for the two other departments and, by doing so, disturbed the balance of these three coequal branches of government.” They described the Senate’s act of giving shelter to Dela Rosa as “a criminal offense of harboring a fugitive from justice dressed up with convoluted legal jargon to make it appear like the supposed tradition of “protective custody.”

Cayetano was also the subject of a call to resign signed by more than a hundred former student leaders of the University of the Philippines’ (UP) political parties, Samasa and Nagkaisang Tugon. Cayetano was a Tugon student leader during his UP student days. The former rival political parties jointly denounced Cayetano’s recent actions as a “profound failure in judgment, leadership, and institutional responsibility.” They expressed the belief that the Senate under his leadership became a “stage for political theater, confusion and brinkmanship.”

On the other hand, Legarda was the subject of pushback from students of her two former schools. The student council of Assumption College San Lorenzo, where Legarda finished elementary and high school, supported calls that resulted in the taking down of Legarda’s portrait from the school’s Wall of Empowered Women, saying her actions “no longer reflect the values that Assumption upholds.” The Assumption Alumnae Association also issued a statement calling on graduates of their school to “return to the women they were formed to be” and to let conscience guide them “more than convenience or political safety.”

Legarda was also condemned by the UP Broadcasting Association, calling her vote to install Cayetano as “stand[ing] in contradiction with the principles of accountability, public service, and democratic responsibility that UP students are taught to uphold.” Legarda was the president of the association when she was a Broadcast Communication student at UP.

A group of renowned artists and poets who have collaborated with Legarda in an arts and culture event named “Kislap Diwa,” held annually at the National Museum, was the latest to issue a statement condemning the senator. They declared that “[a] senator who invokes the language of culture has now joined a bloc whose inaugural act was to shield an individual from international justice … Whatever her reasons, the effect is plain: she has lent her name and through her, a portion of ours, to a Senate that has chosen to be a refuge rather than a forum.” The artists and poets invoke the words of Emilio Jacinto: “Ating hanapin ang Liwanag, tayo’y huwag mabighani sa ningning. We therefore formally dissociate ourselves from Senator Loren Legarda. We do not consent to our names, participation, or work under Kislap Diwa being used as part of her cultural legacy or in support of her political conduct. We will not accept further invitations to appear, read, or be honored in any capacity associated with her office.”

When longtime friends, valued colleagues, and institutions that have shaped you, openly denounce you and express utter shame for their association with you, and yet you are unaffected and unmoved, you have lost your conscience and soul.