IMPEACHMENT WEEK # 1

​This impeachment of the sitting Philippine Vice-President that unfolded last July 6 is remarkable for being the first such political exercise under the glare of social media – for anybody interested and to the world.  With a high unemployment rate, with 120 million souls this side of the globe, it can be assumed that most with free time on their hands would go watch the Senate Impeachment proceedings live on the palm of their hands. Anybody with a cheap China cellphone with internet connection can access the goings-on in the Senate from the bang of the gavel to mark its opening to the unfolding political, social and legal drama enabled by our digitalage.  Not only were people watching and hearing every bit of the process, they are even allowed the luxury of making a running commentary of the events, much like a basketball game being watched and commented on as it progresses.  

​And this is so unfamiliar territory to those who have been in law practice and are aware of the prohibition to make an on-going audio-video coverage of hearings from the Municipal Court to the Supreme Court. This sets the Impeachment proceedings really in a class of its own, a political drama, legal spectacle and soap opera all rolled into one. 

​One advantage of the liberality in the coverage of the Impeachment is the extension of the public forum of the Roman Senate to reach the whole Philippine Islands and the world, through the internet.  Democracy had returned to the people, so to speak, and the Senator-Judges, will vote in the name of the people or not. We do hope they realize that they represent the people and that may be too much to expect.  We hope and pray that  truth and justice prevail for the sake of the country.