EDITORIAL - A Farce In The Making?

Any further attempt by the admi-nistration to take credit for the dramatic surge in the peso and stock market last Monday should stop after the markets’ performance yesterday. Amid reports that President Estrada and his allies were moving to block his impeachment, the stock market tumbled by 34 points while the peso slid anew, closing at 50.10 to $1.

Securities analysts, who have joined the call for the President’s resignation, had attributed the markets’ rally last Monday to perceptions that the Chief Executive was on his way out either through resignation or impeachment. That day the justice committee of the House of Representatives had endorsed the impeachment complaint, making it almost certain that by Monday next week, the case would be forwarded to the Senate for trial.

The other day, the President conti-nued to make the right noises, publicly prodding his political allies to speed up the impeachment process so he could clear his name. Even as he spoke, however, his congressional allies were announcing in public that they were planning several moves starting Monday that would effectively delay impeachment. In both the Senate and the House, members of the administration’s Lapian ng Masang Pilipino coalition intend to question the leadership following the defection of Senate President Franklin Drilon and Speaker Manuel Villar Jr. The new majority in the House has said Villar won’t lose his seat. But settling the leadership question alone could take several days, and LAMP congressmen can delay the proceedings simply by not showing up so the House won’t have a quorum.

Over at the Senate, the President’s allies also want Drilon replaced, committee memberships revamped and the new majority and minority blocs redefined. Opposition lawmakers say the administration has raised up to P1 billion to encourage senators to vote against the President’s conviction – a charge that Malacañang naturally has denied.

You can see why these developments renewed jitters in the markets and strengthened the resolve of the President’s critics to continue marching in the streets. If people have misgivings about impeachment and prefer his resignation, it’s because they fear that the congressional process will simply be a numbers game without transparency, to be settled through the usual political horse-trading. The President must make sure that the impeachment process, which he claims will vindicate him, does not turn out to be a farce.