WOMEN IN THE IMPEACHMENT
CASE
By Wilhelmina S. Orozco
How have the women fared in
this impeachment case? Actually, I saw how knowledgeable women are of their
positions like Ombudswoman Carpio-Morales and Secretary Leila de Lima. They
have been able to stand their ground against all kinds of questions and with
great finesse. They did not descend to use gutter language as the Chief Justice
did when he took the stand.
No, he did not mince words
and was terribly harsh to the Ombudswoman. Actually it is quite unthinkable how
a man could do that to a woman in public, to someone who is equally serving in
government.
No, his behavior cannot be
called being a statesman. Our national heroes had written and shown in their
actions that women are to be respected and revered as they themselves had been
borne and given life by a woman. Hence, they upheld chivalry to all ladies, girls,
and most of all to elderly women. This was why, all the women during the 1898
revolution joined to raise the Philippine flag in our country, alone.
Thus, if the CJ could do
that to a woman, his own former colleague, what other things could he do? He
set a very bad example of being a man to all men, to all the people, as if to say, “I will call anyone who crosses
my path whatever I want.” Is that befitting of a CJ?
I think that the CJ had been
given the wrong advice, or had not been given anything at all because he just
released his tirades without thinking of the consequences.
Miriam
How about Sen. Miriam
Defensor? I choose her maiden name because it was through that name I came to
know of her in the sixties at the UP.
I remember then when Miriam
was still a student of law at the UP. She gave the female students that example
of being a woman intellectual who could parry arguments of male debaters with
great aplomb. She was a guiding light to women students because her sharp ways
of thinking were rare then and actually until now especially in the field of
politics.
But as the decades have worn
on, it seems that Miriam has become a traditional politician instead of one who
would dent Philippine politics with a populist view of life, assert that men
need to respect women and women need to aspire for lofty things in life.
Her life in politics seems
to have become a case of pragmatic existence – keeping her party or patrons’
loyalty -- instead of a chance to combat the ills besetting the country, and
keeping the majority of the people from reeling in poverty. Her harangues of
the members of the prosecution and a witness do not speak well of someone who
has an international stature as a judge.
And to whom is Miriam siding
now, but with a CJ whose credentials are highly questionable.
Her objectivity as a judge
is gone. Her chance to be etched in Philippine history as a rare woman with
highest intellectual pursuits and deeds is getting eroded by her actuations.
If she goes by her
actuations, her presence in the International Court of Justice will no longer
be much appreciated as foreigners could say, “she is not a product of the People
Power regime in the Philippines
What is being a product of
PP but of turning our society from a life of decadent monopolistic and cartel
economic systems to one where the people would be enjoying three square meals a
day at the very least.
Characteristics of a chief justice
Maybe we have no set
standards for a chief justice. The Constitution has only given us descriptions
and the ethical requirements of positions in government. It is up to us,
through enactment of laws, to show what kinds of persons must be holding on to
them, what kinds of men and women including the third sex, should be sitting in
them.
CJ characteristics
What are the characteristics
of a chief justice? Chiefs of the justice system exercise restraint in speech,
thought and emotions. Restraint in speech means that they speak with caution and
take great care to use only appropriate language and not ad hominems. They shun arguments that are less than refined, speak
in a grand manner, as said by some erudite professors. This means that every
single speech they deliver makes the audience think, act, feel and speak of the
more noble and greater aims in life.
Instead, when he sat down to
deliver his monologue, he gave us an ad misericordiam
narration of his life coupled with a bashing of his political opponents and of
the Ombudswoman. I was really shocked to hear those words from him.
And when he tore down to
pieces the deceased father of his in-laws, mostly women at that, I came to the
conclusion that indeed to this man, he does not make any difference anymore
between a male and a female opponent. He is just out to wield all the weapons
at his disposal. No longer was he capable of thinking of the consequences of
his actions, as judges ought to.
Flight stewardesses
Flight stewardesses
constitute the majority of servers in the Philippine Air Lines. Their case has
been pending at the Supreme Court due to his wishy-washy administration. First
they were supposed to reinstated and then the decision was recalled.
Flight stewardesses are a
unique type of employees. They work 20,000 to 50,000 miles up in the air. They
balance the food and drinks they serve the customers. They also keep a smiling
demeanor even if the flight gets bumpy, trying to calm the nerves of the
passengers. When a passenger gets too drunk, they have to think of ways to control him so as not to bother the
other passengers in that very cramped plane. But worst of worse working
conditions, they get pinched in the buttocks, get seductive glances and offers,
and all sorts of sexual harassments.
So what has the CJ done to
alleviate their problems?
Then a lowly woman employee
of the Department of Justice was removed from office, and divested of all her benefits,
for not having declared her owning a market stall in Davao
I had a labor case
concerning my column in a newspaper, Feminist
Reflections from 1989 to 1992. After working for two years and a half,
regularly writing and submitting weekly articles at precise days so that they
would come out on the designated day, my column was terminated. My basis for
reinstatement was the Labor Code provision that when a worker is under the
control of the management then he/she should be regularized. I wanted to keep
my column because it was a way for me to help keep Cory’s administration, the
first woman president’s, intact.
For 14 years I spent lots of
money for transportation, meals, Xeroxing briefs, for treating a lawyer to food
and drinks as I could not afford to pay her fees, and had to plead to Senator
Rene Saguisag of the MABINI to help me with my case as my lawyer had refused to
continue working with me (although I was the one writing my briefs).
The Supreme Court, with the
CJ as one of the signatories, denied my pleading for reinstatement.
Is this truly the guy that
has been appointed to that highest post in the judicial system? Should he
continue, what more ungracious treatment of women from the justice system can
we expect?
By the way, to my mind, the
woman president to whom he owes his appointment, does not represent Filipino
womanhood. She is nothing but a wheeler-dealer of political and economic deals
to gain power and wealth not just for a certain period but forever for herself,
her family and her underlings. Her ascendancy to power was questionable. Her
re-election was questionable. She used the military, the Church, and the people’s
coffers, just so she could stay in power for 9 years.
How many media practitioners
died during her regime? And now she is under arrest for electoral sabotage.
Is this the kind of woman
that the CJ upholds as worthy of political positions in our government, the
kind that would change our society to being more humane, egalitarian and
democratic? No it is a dream.
By the way, her hospital
arrest is abominable after all that she had done. She should be staying inside
an ordinary city jail first and then in Muntinglupa in order to divest her of
all those feelings of false grandeur. She should be with those of her kind some
of whom could probably teach her how to be humble, kind and lead a new life.
But will the CJ be
convicted? Will he step down from office? Women in the Senate must use their
intuition, their maternal instincts to the fullest. They need to think and
think hard what kind of society they are helping create with the continuance in
office of this individual.
And what could be the
response of the Filipino people should he continue on as chief justice?
“Oy CJ, i-share mo naman ang
dolyares mo.”
“Sobra-sobra ang dolyares mo. Aba, madadala mo ba yan sa libingan?”
“Kakarmahim ka rin”
“Kumusta ang amo mo? Buti
hindi kayo parehong nakakulong.”
“Ang matarik lumipad, kung
bumagsak ay lagapak.”
No comments:
Post a Comment