I don’t know about you but students of law will agree that the “untimely” ouster of the late Supreme Court CJ Renato Corona by the past BS Aquino III regime may have set an ugly precedent in our highly-polarized political system.
Everybody seems to be knowledgeable or familiar, to say the least, about impeachment proceedings. Even the ordinary layman seems to be all ears to the progress of the impeachment complaint against CJ Lourdes Sereno in the Lower House of Congress.
The House of Representatives is almost done with its chore. It needs only to gather at least a third of the total HOR membership (which is currently pegged at 98) and therewith toss the complaint over to the senate which then organizes itself into a court that will decide the fate of the impeached official.
Earlier, the committee on justice chaired by Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali has already voted favorably to tackle the impeachment complaint against CJ Lourdes Sereno in the plenary where the chamber’s majority coalition belongs to the administration party.
Since impeachment proceedings become almost certain because the prosecuting parties have the numbers, the likelihood is that Sereno, an appointee of former president Noynoy Aquino, will get the boot once the trial concludes.
This is a forecast that political observers seem to share. And the millions of die-hard Duterte supporters, too.
What is very lamentable is that the LPs – headed by PNoy – started it all by scheming to kick Corona out not only because he was an appointee of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo – and therefore, was an unwanted thorn in the second Aquino government – but also because he was taken to be responsible for the High Tribunal’s collegial decision that finally settled the Hacienda Luisita agrarian trouble in favor of the more than 5,000 tenants.
It was easy to spot that the LPs were targeting GMA herself and her appointees. First, there was Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez who escaped the embarrassment of the impeachment by resigning as a matter of compromise.
Aquino and the LPs succeeded in taming the usually anti-Establishment mainstream media and got them to their side such that unabated series of damning articles and opinion columns painted a sinister picture of targeted political enemies of the previous Malacanang tenant.
After sending GMA to hospital arrest, the LPs also trained their sights on three opposition senators – JP Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla – who were humiliated by their media minions and eventually held under police custody inside Camp Crame for their alleged involvement in the Napoles PDAF scandal. (Enrile has since posted bail, Estrada just recently granted bail likewise and Revilla expected to follow soon.)
From the campaign trail leading to the May 2016 polls until today, paid media hacks and anti-Duterte broadcast giants continue to hound PRRD and his duly-constituted government in the hope of successfully staging a third “People Power” uprising.
Even if this were a folly, the Aquinos and their rabid followers believe they can do it – again.
However, Duterte is having the last laugh.
While stalwarts of the LP and its allies will fight tooth and nail to prevent or delay the impeachment of Sereno in the Senate, there are rumors that two or three of her colleagues in the SC – as publicly declared by impeachment complainant Atty. Larry Gadon – may be willing to testify against the lady Chief Magistrate.
If Gadon’s declaration comes to the fore, it could be the end of Sereno’s tenure in the SC. It will be her word against theirs.
As you can see, the LPs, their corporate allies and media cohorts are steadily increasing their criticism of Duterte – finding fault every inch of the way – in the hope of gathering a new wave of defiance and resistance.
It is well and good that Duterte has Mocha Uson to his side, she who blogs and gets support from more than 5M social media followers. Despite her raw, if crude, un-journalistic writing style, Mocha gets her message across among the broad cross-section of the lower B, C, D and E economic brackets.
The truth is, I’m a fan of Ms. Uson. I love her better singing and performing as lead of the Mocha All- Girls Band. But what the heck, she is effective as a communicator. (Email your feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) Ps.1.1:6: “For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!
