The Senate impeachment court is right in punishing private prosecution lawyer Vitaliano Aguirre for contempt of court. However, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s verbal abuse of the prosecution panel, calling them “gago!” is utterly despicable. What arrogance of power—wha…ng-wha…ng protected by immunity!
Anyone, especially a senator, who has no respect for the innate dignity of every human being, loses his or her personal worth and dignity. The lady senator no longer entertains, she disgusts with her shrill, outrageous harangues and self-congratulatory displays of superior knowledge and experience in judicial proceedings; in fine, she dishonors the impeachment court.
Does the impeachment court condone such insufferable behavior? What sanction has it for contemptuous disregard of basic human dignity? Why is she not herself detained to stop her from committing more dishonorable acts? If her fits of rage and displays of self-satisfaction should continue at the International Criminal Court, she would inevitably become our country’s disgrace and a world-wide object of ridicule.
—GÉMINO H. ABAD,
university professor emeritus,
Department of English,
University of the Philippines,
Diliman, Quezon City