What the May 12 elections is really all about

MINUS the ambition of local candidates who really couldn’t care less what happens beyond their local fiefdoms, the result of the midterm polls this May 12 would definitely shape the course of our country in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.

We hate to limit the consequences of what awaits us but the realist in us compels us to remind our fellow citizens that, believe it or not, the result of the midterm polls is simply a choice between the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte or not.

Of whether we really want to descend into political chaos with all the troubles that this would bring even to our ordinary lives or, whether we want political stability with all the benefits that this would entail for all of us.

The latter was what the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) eloquently manifested at least twice already. But against powerful political figures with dark, ulterior political motives in mind, even the INC proved helpless to change their mind.

Of course, everyone is free to disagree. But over the way things have develop since the rift between President Marcos Jr. and Vice President Duterte started in earnest more than a year ago, we are all witness as to how the government’s immense power has been wielded to continuously diminish– and subsequently made inconsequential– not only the name ‘Duterte’ and what it represents but also, anyone else identified with them.

Indeed, the railroading of the impeachment complaint against the Vice President early this year is another step towards ensuring the political demise of the Dutertes and open the way for the greater ambition of those watering in their mouth to replace PBBM after his term ends in 2028.

Thus, we should not be entertained nor should we be swayed by the “promises” of those running under the administration’s senatorial ticket.

We should bear in mind that the Senate’s first agenda when it convenes this July is not to seek solutions to the many ills that have been plaguing our nation as far back as we can remember. The Senate’s main task is to convene itself as an Impeachment Court to decide the fate of the Vice President.

The impeachment process itself is a political process where the result owes much to political loyalty, political expediency, and personal interest. It is a process where the nation or the public’s interests for that matter, are never in the equation.

As such, the Vice President’s fate would not be decided “based on the merit” but rather, on the political maturity and personal principles– or lack of them– of a senator.

In this developing charade, the real “aim” of course, is not to convict or acquit the Vice President but simply, to “remove” her and the name ‘Duterte’ from our political landscape.

We have been down this road of course, when President Joseph Estrada was impeached in 2001 over unproven grounds and Chief Justice Renato Corona was also impeached in 2012 because that is what the sitting president wants.

And where have all these events have taken us by the way? Have we progressed as a nation?