VICE President Sara Duterte recently said the House of Representatives was conducting a practice run of her would-be impeachment in the latest hearing on the Office of the Vice President (OVP) budget utilization. Sara divulged during one of her previous appearances before the committee on appropriations deliberations regarding the OVP's proposed budget for 2025 that legislators were having numerous conversations regarding her impeachment.<\/p>\r\r
As a check-and-balance tool against the two highest elected officials of the land, members of the Supreme Court, the Ombudsman and members of constitutional commissions, impeachment has been prostituted of late. The only impeachment case that had merit was in 2000 against President Joseph Estrada, who was accused of plunder for receiving P545 million worth of jueteng money, among other transgressions.<\/p>\r\r
The subsequent impeachment cases filed against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez in March 2011 and Chief Justice Renato Corona in December 2011 \u2014 notice the quick succession between the two cases \u2014 signified the naked desire of President Benigno \"Noynoy\" Aquino III to weed out the remaining allies of his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, in key government positions. The cases of Gutierrez and Corona opened the floodgates for bastardizing the lofty intentions of the impeachment process.<\/p>\r\r
Thanks to Aquino's short-sightedness and unquenchable fire for partisan politics, the impeachment process has become a convenient tool for Malaca\u00f1ang to remove rivals from influential government positions.<\/p>\r\r
**media[420175,420177,420174,420176,420178,420179,420180,420181,420182,420183,420184,420185,420186,420187]**<\/p>\r\r
Beyond Aquino, what makes me say Malaca\u00f1ang is behind all the previous impeachment cases?<\/p>\r\r
Technically, all the impeachment cases originate from the House of Representatives but Malaca\u00f1ang is the one that pulls the strings. Take note that our country has not had an independent legislature since the 7th Congress was padlocked out of existence with the declaration of martial law in September 1972. Since then, all the subsequent legislatures have been beholden to Malaca\u00f1ang. The multiparty system in the 1987 Constitution, in particular, institutionalized the control of the executive of the legislative branch.<\/p>\r\r
How?<\/strong><\/p>\r\r As the multiparty system caused political parties in the country to splinter into powdered alkaloid, political families began to rely more on their own individual\/family\/clan devices to ensure political survival. Political parties \u2014 except Malaca\u00f1ang's \u2014 had limited capability to support local politicians so congressmen began to accumulate resources for their individual political battles. Consequently, they became more inclined to convert their congressional votes in Malaca\u00f1ang's favor in exchange for pork barrel funds, and the speaker of the House essentially became the president's hatchet man, not just in the House of Representatives but for the entire administration.<\/p>\r\r\r\r
