"x x x.
The Philippines is known in the world as the stinking backside of governance. NBN-ZTE, Garci tapes, Ohara kidnapping by NBI operatives, World Bank aid anomalies, Ampatuan-Maguindanao Massacre, the NAIA Terminal 3 and the worst international airport in the world, a president who coddled the underworld, etc. We need governance renewal like plants need water. No meaningful governance reform can progress without accountability. But all accountability cases invariably end up in the Supreme Court. If the latter is itself not accountable, it could just convert "due process" into "dues process." The Constitution has an answer: Supreme Court justices are impeachable! But impeach the chief justice?
But a compromised democracy that cannot heal itself will soon be fodder to an autocracy. If democratic self-healing calls for pressing accountability on the final fountainhead of accountability, the Supreme Court, so be it. The stakes are enormous. One can view the present impeachment trial as a fool’s errand or one can view it as a historic spectacle of our democracy defying the odds; that is, democracy trying to heal itself. I prefer to view it as a shaking of the foundations without the saber-rattling of men in uniform.
x x x."But a compromised democracy that cannot heal itself will soon be fodder to an autocracy. If democratic self-healing calls for pressing accountability on the final fountainhead of accountability, the Supreme Court, so be it. The stakes are enormous. One can view the present impeachment trial as a fool’s errand or one can view it as a historic spectacle of our democracy defying the odds; that is, democracy trying to heal itself. I prefer to view it as a shaking of the foundations without the saber-rattling of men in uniform.
