Are we getting to be awakened sovereign people?

I’m gladdened to witness the apparent awakening of our countrymen. We are getting interestingly involved in the affairs of our government. When, few days ago, my son, Byron, deposited me at the port terminal for my sharing of thoughts on parliamentary procedure with Bohol local government officials, I saw groups of people in varying numbers engaged in somewhat animated exchange of ideas. I took a vacant seat near a bigger group purposely to eavesdrop their conversation. They weren’t the usual “marites”. I heard from them such explosive topic as “flood control projects” as related to president’s words “mahiya namam kayo!” I had to control my smile.

Within an hour of waiting for boarding announcement, I intentionally transferred seats to listen to other groups. I made sure that from their appearances, they came from different societal strata. Most discussions however were somehow related to the topic of the first group. Articles of impeachment. Supreme Court ruling. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Congressman Gardiola, a name unfamiliar to me. Surprisingly, there were no brickbats. Only heavy thoughts about governance.

Then, I heard an elderly-looking personality talking (he was lecturing?) about separation of powers. Somewhere in his lecture, he mentioned the name Tocqueville. Although I didn’t fully comprehend him, his naming of the French social scientist recalled for me my own classroom discussion of the topic. Even if I wanted to join him, boarding announcement came.

Was the man talking of separation of powers? When I came back home from my two-day Bohol sojourn, I got two books even before I unpacked. One was “Democracy in America” by Alexis de Tocqueville. There were highlights in many parts of the book which I must have made when I first read it years ago. This line, on page 44-45 of the book caught my sight: “The chief care of the legislators was the maintenance of orderly conduct and good morals in the community; thus they constantly invaded the domain of conscience and there was scarcely a sin which was not subject to magisterial censure.”

Legislators and magistrate (a judicial officer)? These words could be point where the second book that I retrieved from my small library, “Constitution of the Philippines” by Chief Justice Enrique Fernando, mentioned about a misreading of Tocqueville.

What our elementary knowledge of separation of powers tells us is that it refers to the constitutional demarcation of the authority of our three major government branches. Such boundaries make the legislative, executive, and judiciary co-equal and co-independent of each other. Impeachment, as a process, is accordingly defined by the constitution to be a power solely lodged in the legislature to the necessary exclusion of the executive and the judiciary.

The rules laid down by Congress in the exercise of its constitutional authority cannot be interfered with by the judiciary. The Supreme Court declared it to be so when it decided the case of Osmeña v. Pendatun because the matter depends mainly on factual circumstances of which the House knows best but which cannot be depicted in black and white for presentation to, and adjudication by the courts. For one thing, if the court assumed the power to determine whether Osmeña conduct constituted disorderly behavior, it would thereby have assumed appellate jurisdiction, which the Constitution never intended to confer upon a coordinate branch of the government.

The court definitively ruled in another case (Angara v. Commission) that the theory of separation of powers demands in such situation a prudent refusal to interfere because each department has exclusive cognizance of matters within its jurisdiction and is supreme within its own sphere.

The unanimity of the court in declaring the impeachment articles against Vice President Sara Duterte Carpio as unconstitutional was not reflected in the divided numbers of the people discussing about it at the port terminal. The fact, however, that they seemed to have decided to express their views on that impeachment issue and other related government topics warmed my heart. We are apparently awakened such that our officials need now to tiptoe.