Obnoxious senator-judges

By Artchil B. Fernandez

Two weeks into the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, some senator-judges are not only showing their true colors but have also become a national sore. These obnoxious senator-judges are so irksome that public consternation over their grating behavior is reaching a boiling point.

These senator-judges are the Cayetano siblings and Robinhood Padilla. Their partiality is on full display during the trial sessions, as they are doing a better job of defending the vice president than her own defense lawyers. Their fanatical defense of Sara Duterte has reduced her defense team to extra actors in the trial.

The Cayetano siblings seized the starring role as defenders of Sara Duterte as soon as the impeachment trial began. Except for the defense team, everyone is a target of their ire. They act condescendingly toward their fellow senator-judges, lock horns with the prosecutors, berate the prosecution’s witnesses, and pontificate before the public.

In a berating manner, the Cayetano siblings told their nonlawyer fellow senator-judges, who make up the bulk of the Senate, to study the legal proceedings. They rubbed salt into their insults by brandishing the law schools where they earned their law degrees. Their petty and cheap demeanor has demeaned the impeachment process.

It is amusing to watch the Cayetano siblings dumb themselves down just to block the prosecution. For example, the prosecution requested that the impeachment court subpoena the bank records of Sara Duterte and her husband. The prosecution argued that these bank records would prove its contention that Sara Duterte amassed ill-gotten and unexplained wealth. Sensing that such a move could seriously damage the vice president, the Cayetano siblings immediately tried to block it. Even the defense team refused to stoop as low as the Cayetano siblings.

Pia Cayetano likened a subpoena to a search warrant, wrongly citing the famous 1967 Stonehill v. Diokno landmark Supreme Court decision, which struck down 42 search warrants as unconstitutional. The reference to the case was laced with malice, as the House prosecutor leading the subpoena request was Rep. Chel Diokno, son of the great Sen. Jose Diokno, who prosecuted the case against Stonehill.

The elder Cayetano’s deceit was brilliantly shredded to pieces by Chel Diokno, who lectured her on the difference between a subpoena and a search warrant. Obviously, Pia Cayetano was feigning ignorance just to push her twisted reasoning. She was willing to appear stupid and foolish to prevent Filipinos from knowing whether Sara Duterte amassed ill-gotten or unexplained wealth, an impeachable offense. What fanaticism!

Alan Peter Cayetano outdid his elder sister in notoriety in the impeachment court. He was not only openly defending Sara Duterte before the impeachment court but also ranting about matters unrelated to the impeachment, such as the National Bureau of Investigation’s plan to reopen the investigation into the 2019 SEA Games scam, in which he is the principal suspect. He could have talked about the case during the Senate’s regular session. Bringing it into the impeachment trial was another attempt to sabotage the process by cheapening it. He was trying to turn the whole trial into a joke to delegitimize it.

The male Cayetano caused national uproar this week during the impeachment trial when he claimed that his fellow DDS senators, Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta, are political prisoners. This is the most outrageous, outlandish, and contemptible claim Alan Peter Cayetano has made among all his despicable utterances. Estrada and Marcoleta are charged with graft and corruption — plunder. Political prisoners, on the other hand, are prisoners of conscience persecuted for their political or ideological beliefs. If his sick thinking were followed, all criminals would be political prisoners.

The notoriety of the Cayetano siblings is matched by that of their DDS chum, Robin Padilla. The public has difficulty defining him. Is Robin Padilla a clown, a troll, or a combination of both? Like the Cayetano siblings, Padilla is passionate about defending Sara Duterte. While the Cayetanos cloak their bias in a professional or intellectual coating, Padilla does so with a grand display of an empty mind.

When the presiding chair ruled to subpoena Sara Duterte’s bank records, which were viewed as anomalous and suspicious, Padilla demanded that the bank records of all senators be opened, unaware that impeachment cases are exempt from bank secrecy laws. Previously, Padilla sent the country into pandemonium when he demanded a master tape of a livestream in which Sara Duterte issued threats against the president, first lady, and a former speaker. Padilla cannot distinguish digital technology from analog technology.

Padilla outdid himself in stupidity this week when he appealed to the prosecution to be neutral in the impeachment process. The prosecution, he argued, should approach the case with cold neutrality. It is clear that Padilla cannot distinguish the prosecution from the defense in a case or understand the role of a court. He is confused about the roles of the prosecution and the judge. While he admonished the prosecution to be neutral, he himself is not, which is what he is supposed to be as a senator-judge.

While senator-judges in an impeachment trial have leanings, they are supposed to act with cold neutrality, at least in public. They are expected to be impartial, even if only for pretense. This is necessary to maintain the integrity and credibility of the impeachment trial. Defending the image of the Senate is a paramount obligation of senators. But rogue senator-judges like the Cayetano siblings and Padilla have thrown caution and even shame to the wind. They are brazenly shameless in displaying their bias and partiality.

But the obnoxious senator-judges are not helping Sara Duterte with their dirty, insidious, and filthy antics. On the contrary, their disgusting behavior is a major turnoff to Filipinos. If Sara Duterte loses in the court of public opinion, they are to blame.