The abomination of the Philippine Senate

The Philippine Senate has ordered the release of national security adviser Norberto Gonzales from its own custody, "on humanitarian grounds," about a month after detaining him for contempt.

If you think this is a happy turn of events, it is not. It reinforces the usurpation by the Senate of powers that are patently vested in the courts. Worse, it reasserts the Senate's capability to get away with it.

The three co-equal branches of government are very jealous of their respective rights, it is true. But they are also chicken-shit afraid to rock the shaky boat of government to so much as even tap the wrist of any interloper.

The Senate detained Gonzales for allegedly being uncooperative in one of the millions of hearings and investigations it has been conducting or plans to conduct since abdicating on its primary role of legislation.

The Senate has apparently forgotten that, in a representative government, all authority emanates from the people. Or that in a democracy, the government is of the people, for the people and by the people.

The people voted the senators who make up the Senate to be their agents in that legislative body because it is impossible for the all the people to sit together in one place and make laws.

As agents of the people, the senators are, in reality, in their employ. Their salaries come from the hard-earned money that people pay in taxes. From those salaries, the senators draw perks and privileges many taxpayers themselves never get to enjoy in their lifetimes.

But it does not matter to the taxpayers, provided the senators keep their half of the bargain, which is to remain as agents of the people and legislate laws that will be of practical and meaningful benefit to them.

As continuing agents of the people, the senators are obliged to be respectful of and obedient to their principals, or their employers. Beyond their perks and privileges, they must not rise above them in authority.

To be sure, as part of their legislative functions, senators may from time to time call on the people, their employers and principals, to appear in hearings and inquiries to shed light on certain matters. But only as an aid of legislation.

And because the senators are calling on their masters, they are expected to be respectful in language and decent and proper in behavior. People called to Senate hearings and inquiries are necessarily guests who must be treated accordingly.

But what have we seen of Senate conduct so far? We have seen the worse abomination of human social behavior. We have seen senators, some of them women of fine breeding at that, harassing guests at hearings and inquiries as if they were convicted criminals.

One female senator in particular went so far as to insult a guest by asking him if he had taken a psychiatric examination. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, even promised heaven to a convicted thief. But this female servant of the people had the gall to rip her master to pieces.

Now Gonzales. Whatever self-importance the senators may attach to their own selves, the national security adviser was still their guest and deserved to be treated as such. If he proved to be uncooperative, they could have dismissed him, and if they had the goods, sued him.

At least in court, which is the proper venue for whatever offense the Senate saw Gonzales as committing, he would have had his day and can properly work for his own defense, to prove his innocence until found otherwise.

But at the Senate, which was never the proper venue to find Gonzales guilty of anything, the national security adviser, a guest of the senators, never had the chance. If he said anything that was not to the senators liking, he was either cut short, scolded or insulted.

When Gonzales tried to assert his right, which was what any self-respecting guest should do, the senators ordered him detained, supposedly in contempt. In contempt of who? The Senate? If there is a more contemptible bunch of people in the country today, it is the senators themselves.