When the honorables become dishonorable
WHEN the level of discussions between politicians from the opposing sides has reached to a point where it already involves 'wig', liking, and sex life, you can immediately determine the kind of politics the country has.
Plain stupidity. Perhaps, that is how spectators and the audience perceive the endless exchange of tirades by President Rodrigo Duterte, Senator Leila de Lima and other government officials.
All of this drama started when De Lima, then chief of the Senate's committee on justice and human rights, conducted a probe on the spate of killings of suspected criminals all over the country.
Drama never ran dry from the testimonies of self-confessed Davao Death Squad (DDS) member Edgar Matobato to the separate inquiry to probe the proliferation of illegal drugs inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) initiated by the House of Representatives where high-profiled inmates from NBP were presented by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II as witnesses.
Instead of focusing on revealing the truth in their respective inquiry, these public officials have launched personal attacks against each other on information not even relevant to the investigation. De Lima earlier accused Aguirre that all evidence against her was fake same as the latter's wig. The unbelievable part is when she asked whether Duterte likes her that much that he has been destroying her since he assumed office as President.
Now even the lawmakers who are close allies of Duterte at the lower house are planning to show the alleged sex video scandal as an evidence for an investigation that is centered on illegal drugs.
The severity and extent of De Lima's wrongdoings and failures as justice secretary may have been big but this clearly violates human rights and several laws to protect women and children from exploitation.
This is the time when we miss the presence of the country's brilliant lawmaker Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago who battled lung cancer and succumbed in her sleep last Thursday morning.
Perhaps, Santiago could have lectured fellow lawmakers and government officials on maintaining the discussion in the professional level.
Just stick to the issue. Is De Lima a protector of these drug lords or not? Is the spate of killings in the country, extrajudicial?
Instead of wasting the people's votes and resources on these personal attacks and sex video, let's unravel the truth on these issues.
It is about time that public officials should get their acts together before the Philippines and Filipinos become the laughing stock in the international community.