Trial inevitable

The impeachment trial in the Senate of Vice President Sara Duterte is forthcoming and inevitable.

Denying that it will happen is not only delusionary but a waste of time. In fact, judging from how the Veep’s camp is so far behaving as the House conducts its impeachment hearings gives us a sense that they are resigning themselves to a trial.

Their resignation, in fact, provides the context for last week’s dogfight of undisguised insults between Senator Panfilo Lacson and Duterte lawyer Salvador Panelo.

Out of the blue, former Palace spokesman Panelo casually described Lacson as a pusakal (street cat) for his likely vote to convict the Veep. Panelo similarly described Senators Vicente Sotto, Risa Hontiveros, and Francis Pangilinan with the same colorful epithet.

Bristling at the insult, Lacson retorted that Panelo was “ungas” (dumb), a butiki (lizard), and called his remark “nonsensical.”

Far more revealing to us that the Veep’s camp is actually preparing for trial was Lacson’s remark that “we haven’t reached the trial stage, why is he (Panelo) preempting us and calling us pusakal?

Lacson’s emphasis on the word “preempting,” in effect, indicated that it is a matter of time before the House impeachment hearings will lead to a case in the Senate.

Coincidentally, amid the prospect of a Senate impeachment trial within the year is the marked public support for it.

An OCTA Research Survey last week showed that 69 percent of adult Filipinos believe the Veep should face trial in the Senate, with even respondents in the Veep’s political bulwark of Mindanao posting a 61-percent approval of a trial.

What the public thinks, however, isn’t the whole story. This time again, the Veep huffed to the Supreme Court to block the impeachment proceedings in the House, the second brought against her.

But this time around, the High Court did not rescue the Veep from Congress. Observers say the High Court is not likely to intervene further for the Veep in the coming days or months.

At any rate, a showdown of aligned political forces in the Senate impeachment trial is now in everyone’s sights, with Panelo’s tirade last week seen as the start of the predicted fireworks.

Admittedly, however, predicting how the trial will go is an exercise in futility.

As it is now, it won’t be easy to come up with the two-thirds vote among the senators required for the Veep to be found guilty and consequently removed as Vice President.

But this doesn’t mean, in the meantime, that the Veep’s ongoing tiff with the House has had no pronounced political effects on her, particularly on her ambition to succeed her former ally Mr. Marcos Jr.

Many of her critics at this time confidently believe the live broadcast of the House hearings will reveal more of the Veep’s political sins and who she really is, terrifying both her and her fanatical supporters.

The Veep is facing allegations of betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, bribery primarily related to the alleged questionable use of confidential funds. She also stands accused of allegedly contracting an assassin to kill Mr. Marcos Jr., his wife and former speaker Martin Romualdez.

All of which now leaves but one relevant question: Should the House hearings cause further irreparable political damage, can the Veep hold her nerve until 2028 and keep her shine as the frontrunner?