For a start, a few disclaimers.
First, I am against all political dynasties. Their self-serving rule has resulted in the poverty of roughly half the population of the country.
Second, the impeachment trial is a complete waste of time and money. These are better spent solving structural problems like poverty and corruption.
Third, impeachment actors, all members of political dynasties, are accountable and impeachable officials. They are contending on articles of impeachment they could all be guilty of.
It is from the above context that I react to the prosecution’s dropping of three articles of impeachment and the presiding officer’s ruling thereof. If our highest officials can dispense with fair play in trying a sitting Vice-President (after having surrendered our sovereignty in the case of former President Duterte), one cannot help but wonder how unfair they would be when ordinary Filipinos are on the chopping block.
One is sorely tempted to suspect something sinister in presiding officer Chiz Escudero’s ruling after the prosecution dropped all but one of the articles of impeachment. The ruling came very quickly but yet it was too coherent to be anything but pre-prepared. It’s almost like this has been pre-agreed between the prosecution and the presiding officer.
Anyway, it was unfair of him to rule that respondents need not present their case on the articles that have been dropped by the prosecution. The prosecution wasted so much time and resources to present witnesses and evidence to support two of three articles dropped. But now, Escudero rules to inhibit the respondent from wasting time and resources in presenting their side on these two articles. It’s like ruling that only the prosecution can waste the time and resources of government but not the respondent.
This is foul and unfair. Sure, the dropped articles cease to have adjudicative value. But prosecution has already destroyed the respondent’s reputation with witnesses and evidence that can no longer be rebutted. That puts the prosecution’s case squarely in the subconscious of the senator judges and will influence their final verdict. Not that they need convincing as I suspect they have already convicted the Vice President. (Like, why did they reduce to 14 the votes needed to convict?)
Escudero also ruled that both prosecution and respondent are now no longer covered by the sub judice rule for the dropped articles. This is also unfair. The prosecution had the use of both live-streamed court hearings and of other platforms whereas respondents can only use other platforms to present their side. If rules of court are to serve justice, this is one time a rule must be bent in the interest of doing what is right and fair.
If the prosecution really doesn’t want to waste any more time and money than what they have already wasted, the right thing to do, as improbable as this may sound, is to drop all charges and let the people decide in 2028. Anyway, only political dynasties have the party machinery and cash to contest our elections. It, therefore, wouldn’t matter which dynasty wins. The country’s development will still move backwards, at best sideways, but not forward as is usual with any dynastic rule.