Congress has impeached Vice President Sara Duterte, with 215 of its 306 members voting for her impeachment, primarily for betrayal of public trust. In the Negros Island Region, all of its representatives have apparently voted with the majority.
However, the impeachment process is stuck at the Senate, as it adjourned its session without tackling the complaint that was transmitted by the House in the afternoon. The Senate will resume session in June, which is already after the midterm elections. That means our senators will probably wait for the results of the ballot to see how much sway the Duterte dynasty has over the voters, before they decide the fate of the daughter of the former president.
It is interesting to see how quickly the interests of our “representatives” have changed over the span of a couple of years, as that house is still composed mostly of the same people who could bear to simply look away during the Duterte drug war and the political prosecution of its foes, when they allocated hundreds of billions in confidential funds to the dynasty that was in charge, and quickly obeyed when ordered to shut down the media conglomerate ABS-CBN.
It has become clear that whatever it is they are representing is obviously not the people’s interests, but only those in power and to further their own desire for more power. The take down of the Dutertes, in the name of doing “good” is probably calculated only because they see that it will do their own dynasties more good in the end.
For Filipinos, seeing the powerful political families squabble so publicly brings comfort only because when they do that, they are not helping each other plunder the nation and advancing their own selfish interests, which is how “unity” is defined. When they throw mud at each other and dig up the bodies, the squabbling that slows down “progress and development” gives our justice system and impeachment process something to work with, instead of being continually bastardized and rendered impotent by their machinations.
How this impeachment process will end, time will tell. But whatever the outcome, the true winner won’t be the Filipino people, because our interests and future are only a byproduct of the intentions and actions of the people that our voters put into power. Whatever they do, it is to stay in power for as long as possible, so they can protect their own vested interests. If we are lucky, they get to sprinkle some blessings over the land that they supposedly serve, and for doing that, they will always remind us of their “accomplishments”.
It may sound cynical to assume that our politicians are only concerned for themselves, but if you come to think of it, that is not only a Filipino thing. If you look at the United States of America, the supposed bastion of democracy, their leaders are also the same. Donald Trump wants to be president only to prevent himself from going to jail. Everything else is secondary. Now that he has won the presidency, courtesy the American voter, he can move on to his secondary goals, which unfortunately for our friends in what they like to think is the greatest nation in the world, do not concern them, but are more concerned with Trump’s personal wealth and the interests of the people who wormed their way into his brain.
The USA under Mr. Trump is flirting with a global trade war threatening tariffs left and right, blaming diversity for a plane crash, shutting down government institutions and mass firing government workers, and intends to take over Palestine, along with Greenland, the Panama Canal, and even Canada. All this while someone is systematically dismantling the protections, checks and balances of the US government. And less than a month of them being in power.
It would be nice to think that all that bombast and posturing is going to benefit the Average Joe, but if you come to think of it, it looks like Trump and his gang will probably get first dibs on everything as soon as their government collapses from their trying to “fix” it. That’s what they get for putting a convicted felon in power, and for the next 4 years (hopefully) the USA will be the prime example of the saying “you vote for the government you deserve.”
For those of us who are watching what is happening to Trump’s USA project, there are two sides of the coin. Those who are disgusted at it, even if they are enjoying the schadenfreude, should take notes and learn from their experience so we can take steps to prevent it from happening to us. But we must also note that the politicians and power brokers are also doing the same, but their goals are different as they would rather replicate Donald’s success in their own backyards, and also try to destroy the government and its institutions that have so far been able to hamstring their attempts at “reform”.
After all this experimenting is over and humanity figures out the form of government and types of leaders that work best for the long term, we can only hope that the next generation ends up in a better place than we are in right now, where they can actually trust that their leaders are doing what’s best for them.*
