Although Congress is deeply embroiled in the investigation of the failed multibillion peso flood control projects, the Marcos administration should not set aside the pursuit of two other issues: China’s hegemony in East Asia and the impeachment trial of Misfit Sara.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives will look with a combined sense of vigor and vigilance in their separate but parallel probes of the corruption in those dubious flood control projects, as they uncover the identities, dynamics, and interconnections of the unscrupulous contractors in connivance with equally greedy and unscrupulous lawmakers, and DPWH officials in defrauding the government of its resources.
There is no way to describe their efforts but a conspiracy against the Filipino people to deprive the Filipino people of the vital resources for their defense, education, health care services, and disaster management.
But the administration should continue its opposition of China’s expansionist policy in the East Asian region, stopping its inroads in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), and bringing the issue of Chinese hegemony before the bar of world opinion. The current condition has become perfect to pursue a policy of opposition against Chinese hegemony.
A very recent opinion poll conducted by the OCTA Research, according to Dr. Ronald Pernia, an OCTA fellow, showed that 85% of its 1,200 respondents were distrustful of China’s intentions to the Philippines. This anti-China sentiment was being shared nationwide except in Cagayan, where certain towns seemed to agree to China’s policy of annexation of Taiwan, Pernia said.
Although Taiwan exists as a separate and distinct country, China views Taiwan as a renegade province that should be annexed even by force. The “one-China” policy complicates the issue, as China asserts that the People Republic of China is the only China, which the world community should recognize.
The change of the country’s national defense policy to stress external defense instead of the internal is another factor to stress the struggle against Chinese hegemony, according to Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, spokesman of the Philippine Navy on WPS issue. This puts the leverage against China at its strongest, he said.
Despite its acrimonious nature, the impeachment issue against the Vice President is not a close issue even though the Supreme Court has ruled with its July 25 decision that the Articles of Impeachment against her was “unconstitutional” and ineffective from the start.
The involved amount is only P612 million, when compared to the hundreds of billions of pesos believed to have been defrauded in the flood control anomaly, but it does not mean that the impeachment trial of Misfit Sara is an issue to be set aside. Misfit Sara has not explained in a public hearing by the Senate impeachment court and this should be regarded a top priority.
Despite the unparalleled erudition and flamboyance, which Associate Justice Mario Victor Leonen showed in his July 25 ponencia, the disdain and criticisms from legal eagles have been equally unparalleled too. No less than two retired chief justices and several retired magistrates claimed the decision was premised largely on inaccurate information. From wrong facts came wrong conclusions, they claimed in their separate papers.
The House and two other groups have submitted motions of reconsideration (MRs), urging the Supreme Court to reverse its earlier decision. The Vice President’s camp has answered the MRs by asking the High Court to let its July 25 decision stand.
The congressional probes pursued as separate motu propio initiatives by both the chambers of Congress have generated considerable public attention and such public approval is expected to escalate as more details are to be revealed in the next public hearings. This issue will occupy the public attention in the next two months.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is advised that he should not let the issues of Chinese hegemony and the impeachment trial of Misfit Sara take a backseat. He has to keep the two issues equally alive and kicking for the country’s sanity and survival.
