Raise hell! Defend the impeachment process

The Duterte stable last Wednesday sent its usual clowns to the Supreme Court to file charges of indirect contempt against Akbayan lawmaker Perci Cendaña, political analyst Richard Heydarian and several others, for daring to speak out against the Court’s decision declaring the Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte, which the House had transmitted to the Senate, unconstitutional. According to this motley crew, the high court was “gravely disrespected.” Oh, please.

The irony is simply too rich to ignore. Leading the pack was a line-up straight out of a political circus: the Duterte Youth, still fronted by a middle-aged DDS mascot pretending to be a youth leader; a lawyer known for his admiration of Adolf Hitler and a former congressman accused of snatching a mobile phone from an Akbayan lawmaker in 2018. Just like many Duterte-era scripts, this latest round of legal harassment attempts to weaponize fear to police thought and silence dissent. Sadly for them, this playbook expired years ago. At best, it’s comic relief.

In truth, the backlash is only growing. No less than three former Supreme Court justices, including one former Chief Justice, have publicly questioned the ruling. Rep. Perci is not alone; he is in good company.

Retired Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban said the decision was rushed. A status quo ante order, he argued, would have allowed for more careful deliberation and understanding of the case. But no, not even the recent floods that submerged many parts of the country, including those around Padre Faura, could deter the high tribunal. While most government offices sent their employees home for safety, the Court, as if it were a matter of life and death, handed down its ruling.

Constitutional author and retired Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna, for his part, invoked the Doctrine of Operative Fact. He criticized the Court for changing the rules mid-game. While the decision may be “legal,” he said, it should not be applied retroactively to penalize members of the House who simply followed a previously accepted process. Put simply: you can’t move the basketball hoop after the shot has been made.

Former Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio also denounced the Court’s suspicious timing and warned of judicial overreach. He stressed that impeachment is a political process, not a judicial one. Citing the Constitution, he pointed out that once a third of the House supports the complaint, the articles must be transmitted to the Senate “forthwith.” Period. He even raised a damning hypothetical: if the Supreme Court’s new rule were applied retroactively, both the Estrada and Corona impeachments would be nullified. That’s how absurd this gets.

Meanwhile, over a hundred professors and lecturers from the UP College of Law have urged the Senate not to abandon its constitutional duty to proceed with the Vice President’s impeachment trial. A premature dismissal, they warned, would undermine the core democratic principle of checks and balance.

But the outrage isn’t confined to legal and academic circles. From social movements, youth and students, to various religious denominations and ordinary citizens, the public is angry. And in typical fashion, the Dutertes have now trained their sights on the loudest voices, chief among them, Akbayan Rep. Perci Cendaña.

But if they think Perci will be cowed, they clearly don’t know who they’re dealing with. A former UP Diliman student leader, he was the university’s first openly gay student council chair at a time when “LGBT” was still seen as alphabet soup, and coming out was considered a career-ending move. During the 2022 elections, he openly called out then-presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos for tax evasion. And in his first few months in the 19th Congress, he endorsed the first-ever impeachment complaint against the Vice President. Perci is no stranger to tough fights. He is the sharp end of Akbayan’s spear.

And speaking of Akbayan, this is also the party of Sen. Risa Hontiveros, former Human Rights chair Etta Rosales and now, incumbent Representatives Chel Diokno, Kaka Bag-ao and Dada Kiram Ismulah. For its 27 years of existence, 21 of them have been in opposition. After getting nearly wiped out in the 2022 national election, Akbayan clawed its way back to become the number one party-list group in the 2025 midterm elections, even getting the most votes in party-list history. If the washed-up sycophants of the Dutertes think they can scare off such a party with their recycled legal theatrics, they are grossly mistaken.

But it is not only their fight, it is ours as well. The arguments over the ruling by the Supreme Court should not be limited to lawyers and scholars of the law. If democracy is just for the “credentialed,” then we shouldn’t be able to complain about our crumbling roads and bridges without being civil engineers or protest the price of rice without earning PhDs in economics.

Democracy doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t belong in ivory towers. Democracy takes form and is enacted and lived among people, everyday people willing to stand up and be heard, calling upon our leaders for better, holding them to a higher form of governance.

Last Friday, brave citizens made a Motion for Reconsideration before the Supreme Court, asking it to reconsider its decision. The House will probably do the same. On Aug. 6, the Senate will decide if it will continue the process of impeachment. Until then, let’s be louder, organize harder and take to the streets in greater numbers.

Let’s raise hell! Democracy is not always a walk in the park. It won’t always be spoonfuls of sunshine and rainbows. And, when the stakes are high, our fight must be loud, disruptive and relentless.

H