I usually detest putting in lengthy quotations in my columns, because they smack too much of extenders. But in this case, I will have to make a rare exception so as to properly give context to my dissertation.
My first quote comes from the landmark case of Neri v. Senate Blue Ribbon Committee (2008): “No matter how noble the intentions of respondent committees are, they cannot assume the power reposed upon our prosecutorial bodies and courts. xxx Congress is neither a law enforcement nor a trial agency. xxx Investigations conducted solely to gather incriminatory evidence and ‘punish’ those investigated are indefensible. There is no congressional power to expose for the sake of exposure.”
And then there are the pithy words from Calida v. Trillanes (2019): “It must be stressed that persons invited to appear before a legislative inquiry do so as resource persons and not as accused in a criminal proceeding. Thus, they should be accorded respect and courtesy since they were under no compulsion to accept the invitation extended before them, yet they did so anyway. Their accommodation of a request should not in any way be repaid with insinuations.”
Of course, in my long years of experience with legislative hearings (11 and counting), the constitutional principle (Article VI, Section 21) that the rights of resource persons shall be respected by Congress has been honored more in the breach than in the observance. Hence the abundance of Supreme Court cases — the latest of which is Ong v. Senate — where the High Court had to use its powers to reign in legislative committees gone berserk.
This is where I have come to admire neophyte Senator Robinhood Padilla. Reviled and scoffed at by elitist snobs who decry his lack of high education and his showbiz origins, superstar Robin has shown more sense of decency and, yes, observance of the injunctions of the High Tribunal on the conduct of legislative hearings than most of his highly educated colleagues belonging to political royalty (some of whom are lawyers and should know better). Truly, good manners and breeding, adherence to the rule of law, as well as a sense of decency and delicacy, do not depend on educational attainment, family or even political experience.
In the hearings I have witnessed with Padilla at the helm, one of which I personally attended as an invited resource speaker, I have seen how decorously and deferentially everyone appearing before his committee is treated. It doesn’t matter whether you may have been a victim or even the alleged perpetrator of a sex crime universally disdained and detested by millions, Robin will address you politely, assure you that the senators (or at least he) are not there to judge, but to gather information for proposed legislation.
He does not bully, bamboozle or browbeat witnesses, nor does he force them to confess to any probable crime they may have committed. And in a welcome break from the rules, he allows legal counsel to speak, although the rules do not require it. He does his job, but in a gentlemanly way. Which is how elder statesmen are supposed to act. No wonder so many high-value women — Sharon Cuneta, Vina Morales, Leah Orosa, Jobelle Salvador, Ruffa Gutierrez and Kris Aquino, to name a few of the many dozens, had fallen head over heels for him.
And he is gutsy, to be sure. His act of trying to overturn the contempt order against Pastor Quiboloy is proof positive that he has the courage of his convictions, and that he is not a slave to the tradition of misplaced esprit de corps when he thinks he is in the right. He has exhibited more courage than the overrated blowhards such as Hontiveros, Cayetano and their unsavory ilk.
The Filipino people were right in voting him to the top of the Senate heap in 2022. Oftimes, true leaders emerge from unlikely places. A newfound respect for Senator Robinhood, who should now henceforth be likewise called RobinGOOD.