Carl Schmitt famously made a distinction between politics and the political. For him, the distinction is necessary if any duly constituted state were to find legitimacy. He believes that the political can be defined on the basis of that friend and enemy relationship, in the same way as morality is about good and bad, aesthetics between the beautiful and ugly. The distinction is crucial because the political tells us how we see ourselves as a community. To reduce everything into constitutional norms without saying that these norms are wrong, is to betray the essence of the political relationships between people.
Precisely, in the case of the impeachment of the Vice President, what is apparent is that the demarcation line is clear. Some groups believe that the senate is not doing its job or that SP Chiz Escudero is unnecessarily delaying the impeachment. Meanwhile, SP Escudero says that he is acting within the bounds of the authority of the senate, invoking that the plenary is the supreme arbiter if a question arises pertaining to the rules of impeachment. Senator Francis Tolentino says that the trial cannot be continued by the next congress with the leader of the senate even suggesting that the next congress cannot be bound by the one that preceded it.
Atty. Romulo Makalintal expressed that the rules of the senate prevent any continuity. The constitutional expert Christian Monsod and lawyer Tony Lavina think otherwise. In fact, when you look at the whole issue, it’s not a question whether the senate has a constitutional duty. Our good senators know and believe that they do. SP Escudero in fact is trying to interpret his moves on constitutional grounds. But what is clear is that those who are against the Dutertes disagree with the position of the Senate President while those who support the Vice President side with the position of what is now perceived to be a bigger number of senators who want to throw the complaint altogether.
Schmitt believes that in the establishment of legitimacy, the state must live with the fact that conflicting groups are homogenous, which means that opposing factions often find and embrace a sense of commonality in terms of their own unique identities. Neutrality in politics hence is a myth. Conflict is the starting point of the political. This is something that is simply fundamental. In our case, the exclusion of Mindanao and the Bisaya from national politics has enabled a group of people to find a sense of solidarity together against the elites in Philippine society, including those who have been with the enemies of the Dutertes.
The problem therefore is that some people, liberal folks for instance, believe that conflicts among human beings can always be solved to everyone’s advantage through agreement and reason. But liberal reformism in this country has been a failure. Liberals tend to believe that all things political can be explained by means of deliberation. The problem is that any attempt to explain everything on the basis of reason fails to take into consideration the realities that in the first place give rise to political enmity.
We have been bombarded with position papers, some of which are meant to provoke instead of invite learned discussions. More importantly, these exhortations prove the antagonism that you find in our political relationships and life in general. The political is not solely limited to state functions. The same exists in our daily lives when we perform our roles in pursuit of the concept of the good which can inevitably go against the interests of others who are outside our own moral circles.
The problem of liberalism is that it is founded in the desire to celebrate the values of the West but dismisses the power dynamics of political communities that in the first place constitutes the meaning of group identity. Indeed, good people will form their political opinions and beliefs not on the basis of right and wrong but in view of that group identity. In this case, this is the battle of the Bisaya and Mindanao against the hegemonic order in Philippine society. The struggle against elite rule lives on.
