Criticize government, but do not undermine it

According to newspaper reports, the Makati City Hall is battening down "to protect" Mayor Jejomar Binay in case Malacañang decides to issue and serve a suspension order on the mayor for allegedly maintaining "ghost employees."

According to the reports, the usually open back entrance to the spanking new 22-story building was closed and walled in by galvanized iron sheets. Groundfloor glass panels were shuttered and none of the seven elevators went up to Binay's 21st floor office.

It would not surprise anyone if Binay himself turns out to be the director and producer of the entire dramatic extravaganza. The mayor of the country's main financial center is, after all, not beyond the lure of spectacular gimmickry.

Early on in his political career, he was commanded to pay a fine of P5,000 and he dutifully showed up before the authorities, dressed in a complete Boy Scout uniform, and paid the fine - in a jar full of five centavo coins.

But this is not really about Binay. He is mentioned here only because he provides the extreme example of how supposedly responsible people are in the forefront of a creeping attempt to undermine authority and erode public confidence in government.

Other examples are exploding all over the place, although they are often not recognized for what they really are. To mistake them for something else is easy because they often are part of something whose highly controversial nature effectively disguises them.

Former University of the Philippines president Francisco Nemenzo and Novaliches Bishop Antonio Tobias, as well as several others, have been tagged as coddlers of mutinous soldiers and some of them have been appropriately charged.

But most people do not see it as an attempt to undermine government. Rather, it is being viewed, especially by the opposition, as part of an attempt by Malacañang to silence its political enemies.

That is, of course, a petty and shallow argument, one that focuses on particular trees but completely ignores the entire forest. Even granting the charge against Malacañang is true, the whole episode still stinks of treason and must not go unpunished.

The head of the Professional Regulation Commission, Leonor Rosero, apparently sensing that public sentiment is against a retake of the leakage-tainted 2006 nursing board exam as threatened by Malacañang, is having a field day thumbing her nose at an anticipated Palace order.

The popularity of the cause against a retake, bolstered by NBI findings that the leakage only affected tests given in Manila and Baguio and not the other test areas nationwide, has obscured the fact that Rosero is trying to undermine the authority of Malacañang.

Meanwhile, officials of Philcomsat have sued at least four senators in the wake of a raid conducted on their offices in accordance with warrants issued by the Senate for ignoring summons for them to appear before a public hearing.

The nature of the face-off forces us to focus on the clash of important personages. We are being titillated by the anticipation of some dramatic battle royale. The issue of the Senate self-destructing as an institution of authority has been rendered obscure and almost irrelevant.

The Senate has been transforming itself into an investigative agency, with a bent to do police work such as arresting people for their effrontery of snubbing summonses to hearings. It has undermined its own authority as an institution vested with the important power to legislate. There may be so much to assail government for. But there is still a need to preserve it as a unifying authority, vital in instilling order and discipline in an increasingly diverse and demanding society.