Deep, low, messy

Deep, low, messy | Daily Tribune

What is it about being elected to the upper chamber of the legislature that makes some senators think that they have been suddenly imbued with knowledge that takes others years of study and decades of experience to obtain. These legislators should realize — and quickly — that getting millions of votes does not mean getting millions of extra brain cells instantly, lest they become instant figures of fun.

It’s because of this mistaken notion of automatic genius that the present political phrasebook is now replete with absurdities such as “bend the law” and “ignore the Supreme Court.” But it appears that the current crop of know-it-alls in the Senate isn’t through; they seem determined to launch more imbecilities.

Take the case of the outrage against China. After a factotum in the Coast Guard publicly badmouthed the Chinese President — and caught lying through his teeth about it, too — the Chinese diplomatic mission naturally fired back, only to have half the Philippine Senate come down upon them like the wolf on the fold, to paraphrase Lord Byron’s “The Destruction of Sennacherib.” Terms such as persona non grata, “get the f*ck out” and “freedom of expression” were brandished. Terms that the speakers thereof clearly did not understand completely, or the implications thereof clearly known by them.

Aside from the fact that it is the Executive that sets the direction of foreign policy, the said outbursts from some senators are amateurish and naïve. Aside from ignoring the Churchillian dictum that “diplomacy is the art of telling someone to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions,” such intemperate and unbridled language succeeded only in generating a lot of heat and practically no light. Calling to sever, or at the least, downgrade, diplomatic relations with a country that is a major world player would be, as a saying in Batangas goes, “para mong pinagtampuhan ang bigas.”

That such rhetoric was but a hollow shell was placed front and center when the Chinese embassy called the senators’ bluff, and said that the embassy staff was ready to all go home and to close down its embassy. This led Malacañang to quickly declare that, no, it did not agree to any of that persona non grata crap from the upper chamber. Thus making those in the Senate who made the call emerge with eggs on their faces.

But then, as if immune from chastisement from that “diplomatic” faux pas and his earlier “unanimous mistake” comment on the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) striking down Vice-President Duterte’s impeachment complaint, Senate President Tito Sotto, displaying an intellectual capacity sufficient only for throwing around cheesy one-liners, now comes bristling with righteous indignation against the SC’s rebuff of the House’s motion for reconsideration (MR).

Speaking ex cathedra as if he had a law doctorate under his belt, he called the decision on the MR an “unconstitutional overreach” and basically implied that the en banc of the Supreme Court lacked the knowledge that every law freshman possessed. Sotto should fire whichever of his lawyers drafted that insolent statement for exposing his boss to contempt charges.

These unfortunate episodes can only expose the abysmal, deep, low and messy threshold of ignorance that some of our supposedly elder statesmen have on diplomacy and Constitutional Law. We can only hope that our voters will elect a better class of senators come 2028.