📷: Bagong Alyansang Makabayan | FB
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan said the delay in the impeachment trial of Vice President Duterte is caused by the self-serving, shameless, and opportunistic maneuver of politicians who equate national interest with their political survival.
The people continue to clamor for transparency and accountability but the impeachment is not moving forward because politicians are more interested in unprincipled negotiation and compromise.
Politicians are ready to delay and even block the impeachment trial if they think they can exact concessions from doing this.
The impeachment is undermined by the lack of political will of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos and his allies, the inaction of the Senate leadership, and the malicious efforts of the Duterte camp to belittle and denigrate the charges against the vice president.
It reflects not just the bankrupt wheeling and dealing of transactional politics, but also how corruption is normalized especially since well-entrenched plunderers and officials accused of betraying the public trust are allowed to broker dishonorable deals and arrangements with those who are supposed to uphold the rule of law.
The Dutertes and their apologists are decrying the divisiveness of the impeachment trial even as they continue to sponsor vicious disinformation and destabilization operations, and desperately deploy underhanded tactics to evade accountability and justice by blocking the impeachment in the Senate and vilifying the International Criminal Court.
The Dutertes have found partisan allies among politicians who reduce the impeachment into a mere numbers game instead of recognizing it as a platform to probe abuse of power and hold accountable corrupt officials. In the case of VP Duterte, there is too much focus on the number of Senators who will support or reject the impeachment instead of presenting the numbers that really matter such as the amount of unaccounted confidential funds of her office and the unexplained wealth of her family.
The Senate is mistaken that it only has to deal with the pressure from Malacanang and the Dutertes if it refuses to hold an impeachment trial. The delay is tantamount to ignoring the call of citizens and various stakeholders for accountability; while the deliberate blocking of the trial is to subvert the demand for justice.
Bayan enjoins the public to hold vigils and protests to condemn the delay and to demand that the Senate constitute itself into an impeachment court. More importantly, the protests will serve as a reminder that fighting corruption is a concern of ordinary citizens who are deprived of adequate social services since public funds are diverted to the pockets of politicians. #
