MORAL CRISIS: We are faced not with a constitutional crisis but a moral crisis. The political leadership, and by extension the entire nation, is in a moral mess.

Our top leaders are locked in an Olympian battle that threatens the very life of this nation in spite, not because, of the Constitution. Officials sworn to defend the Constitution are themselves tearing it apart.

The Constitution commands that only one impeachment complaint may be initiated in one year against the same official, yet a second case was initiated against Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. within four months of the first.

The Constitution guarantees due process for each one of us, yet the House of Representatives insists on railroading the impeachment charge to the Senate without verification and the requisite investigation to determine probable cause.

The Constitution reserves impeachment for “culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust,” yet the House trivialized it by initiating charges based on expenses for curtains, cars and cottages.

The Constitution assigns to Congress the enactment of laws and to the Judiciary their interpretation, yet the House insists on its own interpretation of the Constitution and threatens to defy interpretations and orders of the Supreme Court.

The Constitution commands the Congress to pass a law against political dynasties, yet it has refused for the past 15 years to do its duty, resulting in dynasties now controlling the legislature and arrogantly impeaching those who dare stand in their way.

The Constitution may not be perfect, it being the handiwork of frail human hands, but we should at least respect it. Without respect for it, this nation will be swallowed by a bloody upheaval.

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COMPROMISE RULES: The mess started in the House of Representatives where political dynasties, power brokers and lobbyists bursting with money hold sway.

With Speaker Jose de Venecia obsessed with searching for ways to shift to a parliamentary setup than with shepherding the House in its lawmaking chores, the chamber has been taken over by operators pushing their own selfish agenda.

When a bloc of about 60 congressmen allied with businessman Eduardo Cojuangco launched a campaign to hound the Chief Justice out of office and thereby intimidate the high court and the rest of the judiciary, De Venecia did not dare do anything.

Stalling could mean the Cojuangco bloc’s withdrawal of support for the Speaker. His habitual resort to the “art of compromise” is part of the moral crisis we have started to talk about. Many times, conscience flies out the window when compromise enters the door.

Note that the Constitution has nothing to do with the mob rule in the House. There is no constitutional crisis, only a moral crisis.

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ONUS ON THE HOUSE: With the crisis having been triggered in the House, the obligation to look for a solution rests on Speaker De Venecia and the coalition that props him up.

They started the trouble. They should settle it. It is entirely in their hands to end it, if they want to.

Congressmen should not toss to the Chief Justice the onus of solving the crisis. Why should they ask their victims to agree to compromise? That is tantamount to asking him to surrender the Supreme Court!

Neither does the primary duty of solving the crisis rest on the Executive, a separate branch caught in the crossfire. Actually, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is herself an indirect target of the impeachment campaign.

There are forces that have not forgiven nor forgotten that in January 2001, Mrs. Arroyo took the presidency from Joseph “Erap” Estrada with Chief Justice Davide providing top-gun legal support.

These stragglers are still on war footing, doing everything to make sure the Arroyo administration fails. They just have to bring her down, even if in the process they bring down the Republic with her.

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STENCH IN THE AIR: When congressmen ridiculed the Chief Justice for allegedly buying chairs at P120,000 each and depriving court personnel of their 80-percent share of court fees, they knew they were misleading the public, but they persisted.

The congressmen and their attack dogs glossed over the official audit finding that the chairs cost only P27,000 each and that court/justice personnel actually received more than the 80 percent intended for them!

It turned out that it was not the Chief Justice but the court en banc that approved the purchases, and this was on recommendation of committees handling the procurements. Yet congressmen and their attack dogs zeroed in on the Chief Justice.

Rushing the impeachment charges without preliminary investigation, they told the Chief Justice that he could prove his innocence anyway during the Senate trial. Nobody treats the Chief Justice, or any plain citizen for that matter, in such shabby manner.

With Davide abstaining, the Supreme Court — the final interpreter of the Constitution — asked all parties not to move and disturb the status quo while the legal issues were being sorted out. The House, as did the Senate, served notice that it would go ahead.

The contempt for law and order, the malice, the arrogance — ang kawalan ng malasakit sa bayan — is so heavy in the air that one can smell the stench several mountains away.

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AUDIT THEM TOO: Since the congressmen seem to be obsessed with how public funds are used, the Commission on Audit and a respected citizens audit team should initiate an honest examination of pork barrel and other public funds passing through the sticky fingers of lawmakers.

As they themselves are forcing the issue, congressmen should come before the impeachment court with clean hands. The financial accountability of each congressman, and senator, must be published while the issue is still hot.

Having learned that public office is the shortcut to wealth and power, politicians with dynastic delusions have passed on their posts to their wives and children. They probably think they are blessed with the divine rights of kings.

There should be public pressure for the present Congress to pass, once and for all, an anti-dynasty law, before De Venecia and his ilk muddle the situation by amending the charter and rewriting the rules.