12/06/2025
๐ก๐ผ๐ ๐ค๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฒ, ๐ก๐ผ๐ ๐ค๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ผ๐บ. โ๐ ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐๐ฒ๐๐โ ๐ฎ ๐๐ถ๐ฒ.
The true fight for freedom does not cease, not even for a second, because freedom, truly lived, was never merely the absence of the oppressorsโ chains. For freedom is beyond just what we inherit. It is what we insist upon. It is a state of active reckoning. To be free is to rise each day with the resolve to build a nation where integrity reigns and impunity dies. By such a measure, it is no understatement to say that perhaps ๐๐ฒ ๐ต๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ป ๐๐ฟ๐๐น๐ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ.
Freedom, as we define it, is not merely the waving of flags, nor the singing of anthems beneath the clear June skies. Instead, it has always been the presence of conscience. And in moments when injustice knocks loudest, silence is not neutrality, but an action nothing short of betrayal. So when the call for accountability thundered through the halls of Congress last February, when the House impeached Vice President Sara Duterte for betrayal of public trust and misuse of power, it should have compelled forthwith duty.
However, the Senate did not deliberate; it instead dragged its feet and simply stalled. For four months, the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte sat untouched, buried beneath the weight of political silence. Then, on May 29, the Senate moved the opening of its session from June 2 to June 11, the very last day of the 19th Congress. And on June 10, with barely a day left, they finally acted, not to confront the charges, but to remand and send the complaint back to the House.
Not dismissed, they claimed. Just returned. Deferred. Derailed. Delayed.
Call it however you please; even if disguised as an act in the nature of the due process, all that took place was a barefaced, blatant instance of political evasion. Even Senator Ronald โBatoโ Dela Rosa admitted the truth behind the pretense, saying the Senateโs action was, "๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด," a dismissal. To plead for โclarificationโ after months of inaction is not due diligence, but a strategy of delay.
๐ญ๐ดโ๐ฑ. That is the ratio of the retreat. Of the flagrant and willful delay. Of a chamber that cloaks itself in procedure to avoid peering into the mirror of accountability.
The timing is no coincidence. Played once again by the oldest play in the book: wait out the initial outrage, run down the clock, and then pretend that your hands are all tied. When it was seemingly all laid out, the Senate had the audacity to toss the complaint back like a chore unfinished, all while claiming the Constitution is intact, devoid of a political-institutional crisis unfolding.
๐๐ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ผ๐บ?
๐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐ป๐๐ฟ๐ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ป๐ฎ๐บ๐ฒ, ๐ฏ๐๐ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ๐น๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ?
Where justice is postponed until itโs politically convenient? Where accountability is delayed into irrelevance? We call ourselves free, and yet at every turn, truth must fight for air.
The Vice Presidentโs charges are not simple clerical oversights; they expose a governance style that treats public funds as personal assets and public office as spectacle. Consider the numbers: โฑ612.5 million in confidential and intelligence funds disbursed from 2022 to 2023 by the OVP and DepEd, with โฑ125 million spent in just 11 days after Sara Duterte took office in 2022. Investigators flagged โฑ254.9 million as possibly โghostโ spending. Meanwhile, the Commission on Audit has demanded the return of โฑ12.3 billion in funds disallowed from the DepEd budget, money that never reached classrooms struggling with infrastructure. In 2023 alone, just 192 of the targeted 6,379 classrooms were completed.
If this impeachment is buried in red tape or sidelined by procedure, the message is clear: tyranny hasnโt disappeared. The Senateโs inaction, its hesitance cloaked in legalese, is not neutral. Institutions donโt fall overnight; they erode in silence. When a chamber built to uphold accountability becomes a refuge for evasion, it fails not just its constitutional role, it ultimately fails its soul.
๐๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น๐น: ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ผ๐๐น๐ฑ ๐ต๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ป๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ฒ, ๐ฎ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ณ๐๐น. It is an institution intended to be a mirror, one that must reflect the will of the people and the demands of the Constitution. Otherwise, it becomes a ceremony without substance.
To claim that accountability is โdivisiveโ is to misunderstand democracy itself. A nation stitched together by silence is not stable. It is only one suppressed truth away from rupture.
This Independence Day, let us not simply celebrate what we escaped, and instead confront what we, as a society, are still chained to. Let us measure freedom by our ability and courage to hold the very powers we elected accountable.
Because this impeachment is not just about one name. It is a mirror held to our institutions, to our political will, and our democratic maturity.
So the question echoes louder than ever:
Are we still a people who care enough to hold power accountable?
Do we still believe that our Constitution is not a decoration, but a declaration?
Justice is not and must never be a formality. It is a consequence.
And true freedom is not something we wait for. It is something we demand.
Let this be the year we admit the truth.
That we let this be the day we declare: ๐๐ฒ ๐ต๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ฟ๐๐น๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ป ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ โ ๐ฏ๐๐ ๐๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ป๐ผ๐ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ฒ.
Editorial by E-Soul
