One of the political institutions that is destroyed by the current regime is the impeachment process. The impeachment is the only way to hold an incumbent president accountable for his actions. This political exercise is vested on Congress as representatives of the Filipino people.

Unfortunately, it went the way of the dodo in 2005. Many attempts at reviving it were made, but all of the attempts were sabotaged by the usual suspects.

This year’s attempt was sabotaged by the opposition itself.

First, you do not announce your war plans. Unless it is an attempt to fool the enemy, the blustering by Harry Roque is sheer foolishness. He should know that the Fortress was already anticipating this year’s impeachment (see that pathetic attempt by Oliver Lozano to mail-in his complaint); after his foolishness, the House Secretary General fled the coop and went to Switzerland for Heaven knows what for. You just cannot book a flight to Switzerland that fast. But you can always cancel or reschedule a flight.

Second, you do not disarm your own weapon. Dropping the unconstitutional Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain from the complaint is like firing blanks. Granted that the complaint contains substantial charges, the Fortress’ attack dogs will only say that this year’s complaint is just a rehash of last year’s complaint (as they are saying now) and thus deserves the garbage bin. If you have to throw the book, make sure that the book is thick enough to hurt. In this case, they threw a thin pamphlet.

Now, many people are questioning the wisdom behind the impeachment process. Some people are now saying that we should concentrate on the economy instead, a line that was gleefully picked up by the regime as a propaganda line (brilliant, by the way). Some people say it’s futile anyway, so why bother? Heck, even one oppositionist not only echoed the standard propaganda line about the economy, he also said it will only give more money to the Fortress attack dogs at the House of Reprehensibles!

Our country will never be the same again after this. All of those institutions that were established to keep things check are no more, subsumed by ambition and greed. And this time, aided and abetted by the opposition itself.