‘He has spoken out against vote-buying and other demeaning campaign practices, but he is in a huge quandary in avoiding personal and political compromises.’
ARE the possible grounds for impeachment of President Duterte now at the center of a “grand conspiracy” to defraud the government of billions of pesos with Chinese friends and public officials far from the minds of members of the House of Representatives? Can the House, populated by minds lowered by self-seeking and aggrandized pursuit of power and wealth, regain its “balls” and pursue the constitutional authority to make the sitting president accountable for abuse of power or criminal misdeeds?
A possible move for impeachment by the leftist bloc at this time will be promptly shot down after otherwise offering a token dissent against the governance of the President. Time is not on the side of impeach proponents although the weakening administration coalition battered by the President’s expressed protection for corrupt Pharmally, DBM and DOH officials may open a window among disgruntled congressmen who project that the President may turn voters away. The ball is on the court of the House whether to render him as a lame duck President.
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Sen. Manny Pacquiao was in the news giving out P1,000 in cash to residents of a town in Batangas. And he was not even sure that he would have their votes come election time. His Christian piety seems to contradict this traditional way of indirectly buying votes. His high-flying ambition seems to cloud his deeper and reverent purposes to restore respect and dignity to the voters lost in unsavory decadent politics. He has spoken out against vote-buying and other demeaning campaign practices, but he is in a huge quandary in avoiding personal and political compromises.
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This is indeed a heartwarming read for our democratic society that struggles to be “for the people, by the people and of the people.” From “Amazing Things” posted on FB, an anthropologist showed a game to the children of an African tribe. He placed a basket of delicious fruits near a tree trunk and told them “the first child to reach the tree will get the basket.” When he gave them the go-signal he was surprised that they walked together, holding hands until they reached the tree and shared the fruits! When he asked them why they did that when everyone of them could get the basket only for himself, they answered: “Ubuntu, that is, how can one of us be happy while the rest are miserable?” Ubuntu in their civilization means “I am because we are.” That tribe knows the secret of happiness that has been lost in all societies that transcend them and consider them civilized societies.
