Susan’s Notes
By Susan Palmes-Dennis
ROCKINGHAM, North Carolina—Last Wednesday evening’s (May 15) shooting at the Senate—and before that the Senate coup that unseated Sen. Tito Sotto and replaced him with Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano—gave all indications of a ‘scripted drama’ by Senate allies of Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio.
I woke up to the news of the Senate shooting incident that eventually allowed Sen. Bato dela Rosa to escape only a day after the Senate coup just as the Lower House of Representatives voted to impeach Duterte. Good thing no one got hurt but the shooting gave the Duterte allies in the Senate and VP Sara some fuel to sow more hatred among their rabid followers/loyalists and stir public opinion against President Bongbong Marcos Jr.
An ensuing inquiry into the shooting showed that the shooting was instigated by acting Senate sergeant-at-arms Ma. Ranada Aplasca—said to be a former Philippine Military Academy (PMA) classmate of dela Rosa, both of them being batchmates of PMA class 1986. As of this writing, there’s no word on Bato’s whereabouts but the stink of complicity by Duterte’s allies in his (presumably) escape cannot be ignored.
While I have my reservations over the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte, I simply cannot ignore and stomach the way the Duterte allied senators pulled off Bato’s escape and make it appear that they were ‘under siege’ by the Marcos administration. Garapalan gyud (Utterly shameless). Since Cayetano is now Senate president, they have control of the security camera footage of last Wednesday evening’s shooting.
If they really have evidence to back their allegations against the administration then they should show the footage of the shooting. Last I heard, Aplasca at first denied then eventually admitted that he fired the first warning shot without provocation against agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) who were there to serve the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against dela Rosa.
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I had to go through some online research and listen to commentaries on the Senate upheaval that threatens to derail or sabotage the looming impeachment trial against VP Sara and Bato’s arrest is not just a side issue since the former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief turned senator is implicated in the ‘crimes against humanity’ charges leveled at former president Rodrigo Duterte.
The legality of the ICC arrest warrant on Sen. Bato is being questioned of course by the DDS loyalists but the fact that both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Solicitor General affirmed its legality and the Supreme Court had yet to rule on Sen. Bato’s petition for the temporary restraining order (TRO) didn’t prevent the NBI from arresting the senator who now looks to be on the run. And the current Senate majority bloc looked to be complicit in that escape.
Unless of course the Senate majority bloc can produce video footage supporting their allegations of an ‘assault’ on the Senate by NBI agents who would serve the ICC arrest warrant on Sen. Bato. And I don’t know if they can ensure that the footage won’t be tampered with, but then we have the PNP Cybercrime guys to verify whether the footage of Sen. Bato and the shooting have been tampered with.
Again, what I found distasteful and downright offensive was how the new Senate majority bloc achieved their coup to stave off Sara’s impeachment. The unseating of Sotto was to be expected I guess since they don’t lack the support they needed to achieve this but Bato’s re-appearance and eventual exit with matching gunshots to boot was another story. And it reeked of desperation on their part as well as that of VP Sara who certainly won’t be ignorant of these developments.
Anyway, the Senate ‘scripted drama’ is certain to raise tensions and high emotion not only in Congress but in everyday public discourse with the DDS loyalists and their paid online podcasters and propagandists working overtime to marshal public sentiment to their side through social media. But considering what just happened, it remains to be seen if they would succeed doing so. A survey is just about useful now in order to gauge public sentiment on these developments.
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But this impeachment saga is only beginning as Cayetano said they will proceed with the convening of senators to either accept or reject the articles of impeachment against VP Sara. That said, the Lower House will also field their prosecutor-lawmakers not only to pursue said impeachment but also to file obstruction charges against Cayetano and all those who allowed Bato’s escape in last week’s Senate upheaval.
As a Filipino-American who still has deep ties to my birthplace, I find it troubling that the Philippines is being highly polarized and driven to the edge of political divisiveness with this impeachment trial. Regardless of which side of the political fence one sits in, there must be reckoning and accountability not only on VP Sara’s part but also those who are implicated in the multi-billion peso flood control project anomalies.
Such a situation I fear would unseat most if not every sitting elected official in both the legislative and executive branches of government. I don’t know of any who had yet to lay claim to being clean of corruption and I guess no one wants the communists or any other rebel group to seize power at the moment, though it’s safe to assume that’s the kind of scenario/situation that the diehard DDS fanatics want to and are practically begging to happen.Bottomline, it remains to be seen if the court of public opinion swings in favor of or against Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio now that the ball is on the court of the Senate with this impeachment. Would the Senate accept or reject the articles of impeachment sent by the Lower House? And will the majority bloc draw any fallout from last week’s shooting and midnight run of Sen. Bato? Those are questions to be answered for another day. Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
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