Susan’s Notes
By Susan Palmes-Dennis
ROCKINGHAM, North Carolina—As I’ve repeated time and again, I thought the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio would result in further dividing an already politically fractured Philippines and I still believe it to this day.
As provided in the 1987 Constitution, there are already provisions in place to safeguard against the abuse of impeachment as a political vendetta weapon against any sitting elected official. But impeachment is a political process and ever since the onset of the millennium, impeachment has been the primary means of unseating not only an elected official but also two chief justices of the Supreme Court.
And last Wednesday’s (Sept. 23) failure by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano to push for the deferment of voting on the voting threshold for VP Sara Duterte-Carpio’s conviction looks to have sealed the end of the impeachment trial.
Punctuating that assumption is the Senate majority bloc’s voting to lower the voting threshold from 16 votes to 14, with the final vote from Sen. Mark Villar whose sister Sen. Camille Villar cried copius tears and stayed with the minority bloc led by the Cayetano siblings. Of course that led to speculations as well as the prevailing public perception that the Villars are hedging their bets aka namamangka sa dalawang ilog (rowing in two rivers).
And by the way things stand as of this writing, it seems as if VP Sara has two options left to salvage her 2028 presidential ambitions: resign, which is not a guarantee that the impeachment trial won’t continue even if she exits or option No. 2, file a petition to question the voting threshold before the Supreme Court. That second option was entertained by her lawyers who also threatened to boycott the proceedings along with the minority bloc.
Unfortunately for VP Sara and her allies, Senate President Win Gatchalian said the impeachment trial will continue even without them. And unless Senators Loren Legarda and ‘Bato’ dela Rosa show up—and risk facing arrest—the minority bloc can hardly expect to shore up their numbers with the detention of Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta on non-bailable plunder charges.
With the Senate determined to finish the trial on or before Christmas, things are looking bleaker for the Dutertes in their quest to reclaim Malacañang. The only consolation for the Duterte loyalists as of now is the arrest and detention of VP Sara’s biggest rival, former House speaker Martin Romualdez, but it remains to be seen if the Ombudsman is determined to go all the way in prosecuting him and not just ‘for show’ to enable the Marcos administration to save face.
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The latest school shooting in Cotabato province should compel the Department of Education (DepEd) to take more proactive measures in securing both public and private schools. For this school year, there were three school shootings with the first occuring in June and the second happening last August. And thanks to social media, the chances of copycat killings are high to the detriment of the students’ safety.
While private schools can afford to hire extra security, I wonder how DepEd can secure the country’s public schools considering how they failed to even build classrooms let alone provide enough teachers and counselors to students. And while extra security in school campuses is no fool-proof guarantee, at least it would make would-be troublemakers think twice about inflicting violence in their campuses.
And while lawmakers are debating and lobbying to pass bills that would protect the country’s students, I still wonder if the government can do what other Western countries are doing which is to restrict social media use by minors. But what’s this I heard that the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) rescinded its ban of both social media platforms Reddit and Discord in the wake of these school shootings?
Granted that some parents are to blame for creating social media accounts for their children thus opening them to online abuse, exploitation and exposure to violent and criminal behavior from their peers and even strangers. And as in the case of the three school shootings, the perpetrators knew how to secure the guns and weapons they used to kill school mates, often because their family/guardians failed to secure their firearms properly.
But the ill-advised DICT blanket ban of Reddit and Discord—which is being used by adult Netizens for business, education and networking—shows how narrow-minded the government’s technocrats and so-called experts are in dealing with this situation. A blanket ban on social media isn’t the answer but studying and finding ways on how to restrict social media use for minors should be considered if only to limit its debilitating influence on school children.
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As expected, President Bongbong Marcos signing into law the postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections until 2028 and extending the terms of office for barangay and SK officials to five years is a political consolation prize that may likely play a crucial role for local incumbent officials two years from now.
This development came amid a recent Supreme Court call to Congress to pass the anti-dynasty bill which had been rotting in their version of ‘Deliberation Hell’ for decades now. But us ordinary Filipinos can expect nothing less from a Congress dominated by the moneyed elite who along with past administrations even abused the partylist system to restrict representation from sectors who needed it most.
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