Impeachment baby
My dad has always joked that I became a journalist because, while I was still breastfeeding, my mom was glued to the impeachment trial of Erap.
It was late 2000. I was born that October.
By the time I was in junior high school, the country was watching another impeachment — this time of former Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Now, it is Vice President Sara Duterte.
Only now do I understand what impeachment truly means — a constitutional process, a test of accountability, and now, for me, a story to cover.
The impeachment stories my parents once told me have become my own.
They spoke of legal giants like Hilario Davide Jr., Juan Ponce Enrile and Miriam Defensor Santiago. Those were names I first encountered in family conversations and textbooks.
Now, I am watching a new generation of senators, lawyers, and public officials write another chapter of Philippine political history.
This time, I am not just watching. I am witnessing it.
In many ways, it feels like a full-circle moment. But perhaps it is also a sobering one.
Looking back, there has almost always been a high-ranking public official facing impeachment or impeachment proceedings. That says something about our politics—and perhaps about the leaders we continue to entrust with power.
I wonder whether, years from now, I will admire the lawyers in this trial the way my parents admired those in Estrada’s impeachment. I wonder how this case will be remembered. More importantly, I wonder whether it will deliver what impeachment was designed to achieve: accountability.
Three of the trial’s 92 allotted days have now passed. It is still too early to know where this case is headed. But if the opening days are any indication, a just, swift, and efficient trial still seems elusive.
Proceedings have repeatedly slowed over procedural disputes and technical questions that often appear detached from the bigger issue — such as extensive arguments over why the original raw file was unavailable or why Open Broadcaster Software was used, even though the video in question had already been made public.
Perhaps that is due process. Or perhaps it is simply politics dressed in legal robes.
I wonder if, years from now, I will tell my own children stories about this impeachment the same way my parents told me about Erap’s.
— Vivienne Angeles
