De Lima’s political demise

Is the current situation of Sen. Leila de Lima consistent with the saying that “haste makes waste?” 

We ask the question because it appears that the former justice secretary is now reaping the negative consequences of an apparent effort to vilify President Duterte. It seems that that effort has been too hurried. As a result, it may now be backfiring on De Lima.

De Lima’s first hasty move was to call that unfortunate Senate justice committee hearing on alleged extra-judicial killings. It may have been too hasty because De Lima called for it at a time when the new administration had just launched a decisive war against illegal drugs.

That campaign had just taken off the ground and had yet to gather momentum when De Lima decided to call for the hearings where she paraded supposed “witnesses” wrapped in head covers and sunglasses, which made them look more like Talibans rather than victims.

That sideshow was amateurish; so was De Lima’s handling of the questioning of her “witnesses.” She “interrogated” them the way a seasoned and street-smart prosecutor would – but not the way a veteran legislator would have conducted it.

De Lima’s ill-timed move merely raised suspicions that she was out to derail the anti-illegal drugs campaign. It created doubts regarding her motives and positioned her against an initially much-applauded display of will and decisiveness by the new administration.

Did that ill-timed move contribute to the view held by many that she may have had something to do with the unbridled prosperity of the illegal-drugs trade during the Aquino administration?

Did that move lend credibility to suspicions that she is on the side of the illegal-drugs business and that some people closely identified with her benefited from that trade?

Was De Lima’s ill-timed move simply the result of an amateur bungling a crucial decision? Or, was that move the result of an urgent need that pushed De Lima and her handlers to move with haste that brought about much waste?

Was the “urgent need” the removal of the President before certain developments take place?

Do those developments have something to do with an electoral protest – former Sen. Bongbong Marcos’s case against Vice President Leni Robredo?

Were there shadowy political operators who advanced the view before De Lima that the President has to be removed before Marcos’s protest prospers?

The questions may have been brought about by another view – that Robredo is the only viable rallying point for an oust-Duterte campaign. To overthrow Duterte without Robredo’s assent and full cooperation would be to invite a full-blown military coup that could lead to the assumption of a Junta that has no civilian and political representation.

This assumption holds water. From a strictly constitutional viewpoint, Robredo’s assent and cooperation could help bring back the Aquino-Roxas forces in power. In a Robredo-less scenario, the incumbent Senate President and Speaker of the House are next in line. Both have to be ousted before a Noynoy Aquino-appointee assumes power – Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno.

Is this the scenario that has pushed De Lima to act recklessly in an obvious amateurish manner?

Is this the scenario that has apparently set the stage for an early political demise on the part of the neophyte senator?

De Lima’s problem is that her woes have so far miserably failed to position her as some kind of Joan of Arc. Or a latter-day Cory Aquino. There is no massive outpouring of sympathy. In social media, those who castigate the President for allegedly “persecuting” De Lima are the same netizens who were clearly identified with presidential election losers Mar Roxas and Grace Poe.

We doubt if De Lima’s situation could create a groundswell of anti-administration sympathy that could whip up an Edsa 4. We predict that the ranting against her supposed “persecutors” would be confined to social media and done mostly by the very same campaign mouthpieces of the also-rans in the last presidential elections.

The sad part of this scenario is that De Lima could end up cementing for herself a discredited political persona. Unless a major political miracle happens, this could be De Lima’s first and last Senate term.

We can only commiserate with De Lima. She held much promise. But she hurried. She launched her cause minus a stature solid enough to withstand the assault of opposing political forces.

She did so without first gaining the experience and acumen of the veterans in the legislature.

She can only blame herself for a looming early political demise.