Rep. Toby Tiangco Can’t See the Forest for the Trees.

House Rep. Toby Tiangco claims he bolted out of the majority bloc in his dismay over the leadership's inability to defend the independence and integrity of the lower house. He attributes his allusions to the fact that in the caucus to impeach the chief justice, he was not given a copy, hence could not have read the content of the complaint, the same merely conveyed to them via presentation by Neil Tupas, chair of the justice committee.

I would not question his motivation, but the lower house is not a paragon of virtue when it comes to attention, listening while other speaks, let alone reading first before signing a measure. I am sure he has seen the house, perhaps with himself in it, covered live on tv while in session and how it has behaved: rambling around; throwing high-fives to one another; talking in groups of after-session rendezvous; etc. All while one of their so-called, yes they dare call him, "esteemed colleague", "gentleman from wherever" delivers his privilege speech (to the birds & bees).

It's tempting to say: quit the fake niceties, and get real. Solons don't read before they sign, but they are informed of what the issue is. The copy follows after, for even if they're given the copy on time, still, very few would read it before they sign.

One reason is party politics, there is implied trust in the party leadership. Another, some reps might need someone else to read it for them. Come on, they could have slight eye defect, sight trouble, many have, that's what I mean. You may have to re-read it “many” with a single "n."

You can’t be extra careful. It’s treacherous ground to touch on some words that might be mistaken for some big names.

One former solon once joked in an aired interview that you may pass around a napkin in the house, i'm hoping a table napkin, and reps would obligingly, readily, and mindlessly sign it, with the only likely question: whose is this? No, not how much is this for? Of course, it is laced with hyperbole, but the idea is axiomatic and hardly gainsaid.

Last Note

One who feels so alarmed about the impeachment exercise may be one who is poised to do wrong and hopes to get away with it like in the old times, thus abhors a functional accountability measure. The exercise is within the constitution so let us just sit tight and watch democracy play out, and hope to learn from it.

Let us trust the prosecuting lower house, the judging upper house, and the respondent chief justice, not the Supreme Court as others would like to portray.

They are the pillars of our democratic society. Once in while they may tussle up in the spirit of checks and balance consistent with our system of government.