To strike a balance between both internal and external threats, extraordinary statesmanship or tradecraft is necessary to bring the ship of state to an even keel.
LIFELINE at sea A Filipino fisherman receives fuel from the civilian-led Atin Ito Coalition during a humanitarian mission in the West Philippine Sea.
Ted ALJIBE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Equally unsettling to the understanding and misunderstanding of most Filipinos to this day is the issue of the West Philippine Sea (WPS), unless and until we can arrive at a more nuanced view of the 2016 Arbitral Award.
Like the impeachment trial pitting the counsels of the respondent and the prosecutors of the House of Representatives, not a few of us have developed tunnel vision that depends largely on our own, presumably biased, stand on what is deemed legal from illegal, right from wrong, public interest from self-interest.
In this case, the face of the latter reflects the senators and members of the House of Representatives, most of whom are indicatively beholden to either big business, the powers that be, or one of the above; heretofore bolstering Samuel Huntington’s notion that “the interest of the presidency is consistent with nothing else.”
The survival of the nation is at the heart of this polarized, plutocratic ecosystem.
Whereas, the face of who champions the public interest is the panel of defense counsels appearing for and in behalf of beleaguered Vice President Sara Duterte, aka VPS, and they seem all conscience-bound to challenge what they believe are violative of pertinent laws and are firmly focused on the controlling themes embedded in the Bill of Rights.
But the impeachment court thrives on its sui generis character, the broad and porous interpretation of what constitutes betrayal of public trust being over-simplistically equivocated to any sense of fitness, the almost sophist-style skill of the presiding officer in moderating the clash of legal doctrines and beliefs propounded across.
In short, the good presiding officer cum discussant supplies a semblance of balance, nay open-minded liberality on both sides of the discussion, at some “critical juncture” throwing caution to the wind notwithstanding.
To add to these two major contemporary and thematic debates in our national conversation is the still unresolved issue of the Floodgate financial scam by top bureaucrats and their ilk operationalized much like a mafia.
Within the larger bureaucratic governance system, this mafia becomes a sub-governance system that evolved its own sub-culture. The resulting crime may well be literally described as an “inside job,” a la a thief in the night, when everyone else is sleeping.
Amid this fund scandal of unimaginable proportions, the people in general developed an attitude to side only with anyone who stands on the moral high ground. The latest survey results did not fail to correctly approximate or fathom how the public at large perceives these developments that now cry for a total overhaul.
The more the state retaliates, however, via institutional strategies, the more its effect feeds upon the people’s underdog mentality — they are a primordial element of the state.
The good presiding officer, in fairness, cannot be prejudged in any negative way at this point in time; he ably rolled out the scope and frame of this crucial discussion on the grave threat charges and inciting to sedition rap being lodged against Sara.
It’s easy to imagine how it could have been a grand mess were it the Senate President playing the role, which is why his proxy has become acceptable.
It isn’t hard to imagine how chaotic the whole proceeding could have been were it the Senate President who presided over this impeachment trial. In short, a trained legal mind matters, be that four years of law school versus three decades of lawmaking.
Meanwhile, the impeachment trial overshadows the West Philippine Sea issue as well as the Floodgate fund scandal. To strike a balance between both internal and external threats, extraordinary statesmanship or tradecraft is necessary to bring the ship of state to an even keel.
So long as key economic tailwinds still prevail (i.e., GDP growth, overseas remittances, upper-middle-income track), our country is still in good hands. So long as no threat reaches the national security threshold, our people are safe.
Let’s all be good, let’s all be safe.
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