Unserious

Without due process, we have nothing.

- ALEX MAGNO

The regime of justice promised by a functioning constitutional order will be an empty one.

Last Friday, the Supreme Court struck down the impeachment complaint filed by the House of Representatives for being unconstitutional. Due process was not properly observed.

Since the impeachment was invalid, there is no basis for a Senate trial to proceed — although a handful of senators with no legal training think the chamber ought to exercise its "co-equal" standing by proceeding with the farce. One cannot have a trial without a valid cause.

The House spokesperson declared the lower chamber will file a motion for reconsideration. Good luck with that. The ruling was unanimous. The highest court never reverses a unanimous ruling.

Whatever legal hairsplitting happens from hereon will be fruitless. Those who craved for yet another impeachment circus to keep us entertained while we wade in the floods will be disappointed.

Impeachment of an elected official is about the most solemn act state institutions could perform. Yet our congressmen have consistently chosen to trifle with it. Impeachment complaints were filed with reckless abandon and a surfeit of hubris.

Recall the contrived drama accompanying the passage of the articles of impeachment against then president Joseph Estrada: attaching the motion to the opening prayers to foreclose floor debates. The resulting trial produced a fiasco.

Chief Justice Renato Corona was impeached on grounds later established to be unfounded. He was adjudged guilty only after legislators were showered with millions in funds for their pet projects.