The Great Misconception about Impeachment

Another mail, from Enteng Romano again of E-Mandirigma. Read the whole thing:

My fellow e-Mandirigmas,

I’ve heard it asked many times. “Why are you people pre-judging GMA? Why don’t you let the rule of law take its course and prove her guilt through a constitutionally prescribed due process?”

They are, of course, referring to impeachment. And they believe this is the forum where GMA should be properly accused, evidences presented, and GMA defended. At the end of the exercise, they expect a determination with finality (which means it cannot be appealed) of whether or not she is guilty.

And there lies the great misconception... because impeachment is not a judicial process where determination of guilt or innocence is based solely on evidence. Impeachment is a purely political process decided by politicians, for whatever reason.

Regardless of the evidences presented, Congress can simply decide to quash the proceedings.

Take the impeachment case of COMELEC Commissioner Tantangco, for example. The evidence compiled by the impeachment complainants could have indicted Tantangco with over 100 counts of electoral fraud and corrupt acts in a court of law. But Congress thrashed the impeachment complaint just the same, because it was not in the best political interest of the justice committee members. Besides, there were no other interested parties aside from the complainants, and therefore no political pressure upon them to even pretend looking at the merits of the complaint.

And because this is a political exercise, it is important that we, the people, participate.

How?

First, we have to make a judgment based on the information available to us – the transcript of the Garci tapes, the testimonies, the maneuverings of both the opposition and the administration, and the political developments as they unfold before us.

Next, we have to bear upon our legislators to make a decision based on our sense of right and wrong.

Speaker Joe de Venecia arrogantly declared on national TV that the impeachment is dead because he has secured firm commitments from 280+ Congressmen who will vote down the complaint. And this, even before they could decide which complaint to process, and even before a single evidence is presented.

But you know why they still have not voted it down? Because many of the Congressmen are still not sure whether it is the “politically correct” thing to do… because many of them fear that it might trigger a “second-envelope” scenario that led to EDSA 2, and they might find themselves on the wrong side of the political fence… because there are people who have not relented on making it known that we will not allow the process to be railroaded.

I believe it is time to assert our voice in this political exercise that is called impeachment. In the coming days, we will flood the mailboxes of targeted Congressmen to make them know where we stand and to appeal to them to, at least, give opportunity for evidences to be presented, so that we – the people, might know the truth.

Those of you who have been with me during the Erap eLagda days will remember this as the e-Mandirigma campaigns. Well.. it is time to activate it once again.

I invite those of you who share my belief to please send a blank email to Moral-Majority-subscribe@yahoogroups.com where I will be giving instructions on the target Congressmen and the suggested message for the day.

By God’s grace, if we make a stand now for our moral convictions, we may yet see a better Philippines for our children.

God bless and God save the republic.

enteng
e-Mandirigma

Cheating is a moral issue where there are no shades of gray. There’s only black and white.