BLIND SPOT: Based on Waste
“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista became the first official to be impeached under the Duterte administration on Wednesday, October 11, after the House voted to overturn an earlier justice committee resolution that junked the complaint.” Not only that, he is the first Comelec commissioner to be impeached by the Philippine House of Representatives (Some achievement, huh?) What makes this ridiculous is “Wednesday morning, Bautista announced to media that he was resigning from his post effective December 31, 2017, through a letter addressed to the Comelec”. (www.rappler.com ) Okay, let me get this straight. This is like firing househelp who’s telling you that she wants to resign effective at the end of the month. In such a scenario, any employer with some sensible thought left, would go, “Okay, let’s wait for the end of the month then”. (That’s assuming she’s not some murderous kleptomaniac. In that case, you’d probably want her out that minute. No offense to our hardworking househelp. That’s just for laughs.) Well, you get my point, right? There won’t be much cause for yelling, “Layas!”, when the evictee is packing his bags in the first place, and just buying some time to set some matters straight. You’ll look like the character in a gag show on whom a joke is played on. Now, here’s something interesting. (I wish I got the name of the congressman who said this and the actual quote.) I heard this over TV. This male congressman was saying on a high tone the resignation doesn’t matter; that in whatever case, it would go on official records and down on history that Mr. Bautista has become the first Comelec chair to be impeached in the Philippines; and he says this with much bravado, like he just discovered the all-time solution for Philippine poverty and corruption. Let’s play that out again. He doesn’t really care if Mr. Bautista is resigning; what’s important is that we put this person down; and it be written on books for posterity. If you followed the events, this same sentiment seems to be prevalent among the lower house lawmakers. I’m not sure if we’re on the same page here; but this is all too funny and revolting at the same time. Think of a Grade 3 pupil asking, “Ano po ang impeachment?”. An adult would go, “Papahalion sa puwesto”. Then, the kid would go, “Mahali nap o baga”. Let’s lay it down. It appears that the primary priority of congressmen for this movement is to set on record that Comelec chair Bautista has been impeached, and making him the first at that; and thereby I suppose, shame him. Getting him out of office isn’t the real agendum; because he’s getting out already. (You’ll just have to wait. Come on.) The real objective is to make him look bad. We could go on and analyze the merits of the impeachment complaint, on what did he really do that’s so bad, on why do so many congressmen want him impeached despite the committee report; but all these reveals some things that so much more disturbing. This is and would be all a waste of time (not to mention, government resources and taxpayer’s money). By the looks of it, the House is determined on proceeding with impeachment process in the guise of following procedures; and they would go on with this and supposing, Mr. Bautista would be true to his word of leaving office while fireworks are flying at the end of this year, what has all the effort been for? Maybe, it would be more virtuous for Congress to discuss matters addressing real problems of Filipino citizens; instead of ganging up to put one man down. This has exposed a misguided sense of priority. Regardless of other matters, the main purpose is to put on permanent record, the dishonor of one person. They are serving the people by working to make a monument of one person’s disgrace. I do not know how that makes sense. Fascinatingly, this gag show segment comes in the wake of Congressman Fariñas request of exemption for congressmen from traffic rules, (That reminds me of that old Steven Segal movie, “Above the Law”.) and that infamous 1 peso budget for the Commission on Human Rights and two other agencies (which had now been proven to be nothing but a waste of time and display of dominance). What will they think of next? If they want to write history, they are already going down in history. “You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away” Haggai 1: