Congress Achieves Rare Bipartisan Unity Around the Concept of Not Being Present

Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — In a development that political scientists are calling a masterclass in the art of democratic participation through strategic absence, the Philippine House of Representatives voted 257-to-25 last week to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte for the second time in two years, with large numbers of lawmakers from her supposed regional strongholds choosing to express their views on the matter by not attending at all.

Impeachment by Absence: A New Form of Democratic Expression

The impeachment vote, which ultimately represented 80 percent of the entire House membership, was accompanied by a parallel statistic of equal or greater political significance: a substantial portion of the legislators from Mindanao and Visayas — the regions most closely associated with the Duterte political family — were simply not present for the vote. They did not vote yes. They did not vote no. They voted, in the most literal possible sense, with their feet, and their feet were not in the chamber.

Bicol Saro Party-list Representative Terry Ridon, who performed the civic service of actually counting these things, reported to a Saturday News Forum at Dapo Restaurant that 43 out of 50 Visayas congressmen voted in favor of impeachment, while 41 out of 61 Mindanao solons also voted yes. These numbers are remarkable not because of what they represent about the vote’s outcome, but because of what they suggest about the political landscape: even in the regions where the Duterte family has historically commanded its strongest loyalty, the overwhelming preference was either to vote for impeachment or to develop a pressing prior engagement.

The Geography of Conscience

The “Imperial Manila” theory — beloved by those who prefer their political explanations with regional flavor — held that the impeachment was being driven by Luzon lawmakers flexing their traditional dominance over national politics at the expense of Mindanao and Visayas. Representative Ridon’s numbers have complicated this narrative considerably, in the manner of facts complicating narratives generally.

Luzon lawmakers did overwhelmingly back the impeachment, with 125 out of 142 voting in favor. But the theory that this represented an imposition of Manila’s will on the regions ignores the rather important detail that the regions mostly agreed, or at minimum declined to show up and argue. A coup requires at least some resistance from the victims to qualify as a coup. What the numbers describe instead is something more like a consensus interrupted occasionally by loyalty, geography, and the kind of political calculation that produces abstentions rather than clear positions.

Political observer Dr. Ramon Dela Cruz of the Philippine Institute for Governance Studies (not a real institute, but should be) told reporters that the regional voting pattern “suggests that the Duterte brand’s geographic reach has become more limited than its narrative reach,” adding that “narrative reach” was not a formal political science term but felt appropriate given the circumstances.

The Charges: A Brief Summary for the Confused

Vice President Duterte’s impeachment, for those who have been occupied with other matters, involves several distinct allegations: the alleged misuse of P612.5 million worth of confidential funds from her various offices, untruthful declarations in her statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth, unexplained wealth of uncertain but apparently significant magnitude, and — in the charge that required the most creative legal drafting — death threats directed at President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

The death threats charge is the one that most resembles a plotline from a political drama that would be described as “too on the nose” if a writer submitted it to a production company. The alleged threats were issued during a period of escalating political tension between the Marcos and Duterte families, who had previously been allied and whose separation has generated the kind of sustained political entertainment that the Philippine media industry approaches with barely concealed gratitude.

The confidential funds allegation — P612.5 million is approximately the GDP of a medium-sized municipality — is the more substantive charge in terms of legal consequence, though the death threats are unquestionably more interesting to cover.

What Happens Next: The Senate

The impeachment documents have been transmitted to the Senate, which must now conduct a trial. The Senate, which is a different institution from the House and operates under different political dynamics, will determine whether Duterte is convicted and removed from office. Senate conviction requires a two-thirds majority, which is a higher threshold than the House’s 50-percent-plus-one, and which means the vote arithmetic will be different and the outcome less certain.

The Vice President’s defense team, which faces the challenge of addressing charges that include both financial irregularities and alleged threats against multiple members of the first family, has not yet outlined its strategy publicly, though sources close to the proceedings suggest it will not be brief.

Sara Duterte, for her part, has not commented in detail on the impeachment since it occurred, which given the current political climate is probably the wisest available posture and represents a restraint that the commentary-generating portions of her political biography suggest is somewhat uncharacteristic.

The Philippine political situation, which has been described by international observers as “complex” since approximately the Marcos period and has not substantially simplified since, continues to generate the kind of high-quality democratic theater that makes other countries’ parliamentary proceedings look positively sedate by comparison.

For ongoing Philippine political developments covered with appropriate satirical distance, see Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat, where British writers observe Southeast Asian democratic processes with a mixture of fascination and the comfort of geographical remove.

The Rappler and Inquirer.net maintain authoritative records of the proceedings for those who prefer their coverage without editorial embellishment.

More political satire: The Onion and NewsThump.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/