Praying for a courageous Senate

The Philippine Senate is going to be at the center of Philippine politics in the next few months because of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. At this point, it is almost a certainty that the Vice President will be impeached in the House of Representatives and the actual trial will be conducted in the Senate.

I am one of those wondering how the Senate will conduct itself in this impeachment trial. Perhaps it is a good time to remember the origin of the Senate.

The Latin word “senator” was adopted into English with no change in spelling. Its original meaning comes from a very ancient form of simple social organization in which decision-making powers were reserved for the eldest men because they were considered the wisest members of society. The Senate is therefore, first and foremost, a deliberative body.

The three most important qualities of a senator therefore are wisdom, integrity and courage.

Wisdom is the power to recognize what is true and worth. This knowledge of what is just and right has made wise persons champions of human rights.

However, wisdom requires the power of discernment. The wise men and women must have the mental power to comprehend and to perceive with the mind.

It would be advisable for our senators to remember what Plato said many years ago: “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.”

Our Congress is obviously overrun by fools. It is also populated by those who are neither wise nor fools because they have absolutely nothing to say.

Integrity is the uprightness of character or, more simply, honesty. In our society, a clearer meaning of upright is to be “free from fraud.” The best measure of a person’s integrity is to examine his public and private life.

The recent investigation into the flood control mess has revealed the frauds that have run literally into billions of pesos.

In our political world, the most important requirement to maintain integrity is that the person must remain independent. The person must be able to exercise his own judgment and decision without the control or even the influence of others or other vested interests.

This capability to have the freedom to act or say anything is extremely rare because public servants are either controlled by vested interests or by their own ambitions to accumulate more power.

Finally, courage is that quality that can meet danger or opposition with intrepidity, calmness and firmness. It is synonymous with bravery and fearlessness. To other politicians, political courage is sometimes identified as foolhardiness.

To many people, courage is the foundation of all our virtues. Winston Churchill once said, “Courage is the first of the human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all the others… Without courage, all other virtues lose their meaning.”

An often overlooked form of political courage is the bravery to think for one’s self. Most of our politicians and even some in the Senate do not have the courage to think for themselves and base their decisions on what their vested interests tell them what to do or decide.

Many people have already given up hope on the present Senate and its ability to arrive at a just and impartial decision. We are told that most of the senators will base their decision during the impeachment trial on their political interests. This belief, unfortunately, has been buttressed by the statements of some senators that their decision will be based on their loyalty to a political family, and not to the evidence. In fact, one senator had the temerity to publicly state that the public should understand that his role as an opposition senator was simply to oppose whatever the majority wanted to do.

The most worrisome and unbelievable thing was that this senator said with conviction that his decision would not be based on evidence.

But I refuse to give up hope. In any critical period of our nation’s history, we have turned to great wise men of our race. There were dedicated leaders who spoke with such fervor and acted with such sincerity, selflessness and wisdom. Many of those were in the Senate.

There was Claro M. Recto, who kept the spirit of nationalism alive even when his voice was a lonely voice crying in the wilderness. There was Lorenzo M. Tañada, who was the beacon for integrity and made the Senate Blue Ribbon committee the bulwark against corruption. There was Jose W. Diokno, whose name became synonymous with justice and the fight against corruption. There was Joker P. Arroyo, whose nationalism like Recto had many times been mistaken for anti-Americanism and even communism. The two shared a love of country and the belief that they must continue the struggle for a nationalist reawakening.

These were senators who were members of a political party but they all disregarded party loyalty when it came to denouncing acts of corruption that added to the misery and poverty of the Filipino people.

I have always thought that the ideal prayer for our senators is the Serenity Prayer: “God, give us the grace to accept with serenity the things we cannot change; the courage to change the things that should be changed and the wisdom to tell the difference.”

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