They laughed boisterously as a huddled mob and signed the articles of impeachment. They hurried before the sun set, scooting through Manila traffic to catch the last few minutes of the Senate session which, like the House of Romualdez, was to adjourn for the election season.
The Senate Secretary accepted the documents but within seconds, Senate President Chiz Escudero banged the gavel to close the session. Expectedly, some self-assertive congressmen grumbled and with gall and childish impertinence demanded that Escudero continue with the session pronto and convene as an impeachment court.
But Escudero, who has intellectual ascendancy and knowledge of legislative rules and nuances over the scheming apostles of Speaker Romualdez, would not be intimidated. They bullied the Senate President, even defining for him what “forthwith” in the rules of impeachment meant.
From the ringside, characters who hated the rise of the Duterte brand of leadership and envied the popularity of Vice President Sara Duterte attempted to sway Escudero into convening the Senate, but no way. If at all the impeachment court will hear the case, it will be after the President’s State of the Nation Address in July, Escudero declared.
The 215 representatives who signed the impeachment complaints expected that by doing so they had detonated explosive issues that would completely obliterate Inday Sara Duterte from Speaker Romualdez’s path to the presidency. The reverse, however, happened. It exploded all right but the fallout was on them.
To a man, those who signed were subjected to the people’s wrath. They were denounced for selling their votes for what some quarters estimated to be P150 million each plus a guarantee of Ayuda and AKAP that ranged from P20 million to P25 million per. All told, the bonanza totaled P32 billion in taxpayer money!
Presidential son Rep. Sandro Marcos, who led the salivating congressmen in signing the impeachment charges, stoically denied there had been an exchange of moolah and guarantees of windfall ayudas and AKAP funds. He was not aware that not a few of them had already confessed to their constituents that they had signed precisely because of the sweeteners.
The plotters thought all the while that having impeached VP Sara she would cry a river, resign or maybe commit harakiri. To their surprise, a cool Inday Sara met the press to say, “God bless the Philippines.”
In another interview, she quipped with an impish smile, “Mas masakit pa ang maiwanan ng boyfriend or girlfriend.” She went about her daily chores, the latest of which was directing her staff in the Sorsogon satellite office to dispatch relief goods to victims of a recent calamity.
Frustrated over failing to derail VP Sara, her malefactors childishly complained and rebuked her for her “unserious” reaction to her impeachment. VP Sara is correct. With these characters swarming in the House of Romualdez, we can only implore God to bless the Philippines.