The impeachment casket smells

The strife was long. It likely drained our resources. The conflict was highly emotional. It severely distracted us from our more productive concerns. Yes, the impeachment complaints lodged against Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, pursued and defended with all the vigor our leaders could muster so blurred our reasons that we skirted with a constitutional crisis. We were so wearied a nation that we wanted, even in haste, to end the hostilities and close that chapter of our history, no matter what the outcome was. Last Tuesday morning, the casket, reportedly bought from the extravagant and imprudent ways of our government and rhetorically crafted with the fiery orations of our legislators closed bearing inside it the impeachment charges against the sitting president.

Yes, for a moment, I thought that the complete dismissal of the impeachment complaints could somehow dampen the enthusiasm of the quarters opposed to her. I really hoped that the opposition among our people, leaders and ordinary citizens alike, would just accept the verdict wielded by an overwhelming majority of the Lower House as an acceptable alternative to the search for the truth and move on. More importantly, I also thought that the victorious president and the members of the triumphant majority, their collective talents no longer diverted to upholding a regime, could omit the euphoria and focus on rebuilding our country. After all, the impeachment process was, to me, an exercise written into our rules and enshrined in our democratic way of government for everyone, the administration, the opposition and the citizenry, to accept.

However, the events that followed the junking of the impeachment complaints proved me wrong. True, the opposition suffered a dramatic loss but they would not want to be counted out, as yet. In fact, there were new players fighting Pres. Arroyo than the dismissal of the impeachment complaints could silence. Movements sprang like mushrooms after a thunderstorm. The number of street parliamentarians grew and their cries of truth resonated stronger. These developments pained me too as they must have on many of our people. We were saddened that rather than serve as a unifying point for our people, the vote of the majority seemed to nurture the seeds of distrust and discontent.

I, for one, could not totally reject the insinuations that the president used foul and inappropriate tactics to remain in power. Why would Sen. Richard Gordon, the president's own ally, angrily reveal to the nation that Pres. Arroyo might have forged some unlawful arrangements with the Magsaysay family (not including, Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr.) in probable exchange of a vote against impeachment? The smirk on Rep. Imee Marcos's face when she was asked if there was any relation between recent talks about allowing the remains of former Pres. Ferdinand Marcos to be finally buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani and her disappearance during the crucial moments of the impeachment process only succeeded to reveal insidiousness. The joke proffered by Sec. Eduardo Ermita to substitute an outright denial of an alleged secret deal between Malacañang and some quarters for the latter to withdraw their support from the impeachment move was on the president.

The creeping movements against our president are more than just observable pockets of dissatisfaction. They are ready to challenge the old order of patronage and pork barrel mentality. Their collective shoulders can provide moral strength to the opposition whose impeachment debacle only serve to cast aside differences to attain a common goal. It has become imperative upon the administration to assume a non-confrontational stance. Instead of assuming a combative posture like it did in the impeachment, Pres. Arroyo should try another tact. For a starter, let her use all government resources to bring former Comelec Commissioner Garcillano to the open. Then the truth shall set us free. As it now is, out of the casket that bears the impeachment complaints a rotten smell flows. When the truth is finally bared, we shall have the panacea to counter it.