BUSHWACKED, CIRCUMLACKOTERY, KABILUNTULAAN!

June 14, 2025 Opinion

The ongoing impeachment against the Vice-President has recently enriched my vocabulary and probably yours too with words like Bushwhacked, Circumlackotery, Kabiluntulaan! Senator-elect Vicente “Tito” Sotto, who is casting a moist eyes on the Senate Presidency occupied by Chiz Escudero says the Impeachment case against the Vice-President has been “bushwhacked” by the SP. I thought it was one of the knock-knock jokes of Tito, Vic and Joey in their long running show Eat Bulaga. But then again, since it was my first time to hear the term, I looked it up at the Meriam Webster dictionary in Google.

It defines Bushwack as “to attack (someone) by surprise from a hidden place” in other words an :AMBUSH, ie. James Gray says “the American banditti robbed trains and bushwhacked stagecoaches and settlers’ caravans with equal enthusiasm for fistic violence and gunplay.” So when Tito Sen says the Senate leadership of Francis Escudero “bushwhacked” the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte on the very day it was transmitted to the Senate, he means that Chiz made a sneak attack against the prosecutors and the Constitution.

This is because the complaint was not forwarded to the Senate’s rules committee when it was directly transmitted to the chamber on Feb. 5, the last session day before its four-month long break Again , when the Senate resumed session on June 2, the impeachment complaint was not read on the floor despite a scheduled set before resumption. Escudero reset the House prosecution panel’s reading of charges to June 11, two days before the sine die adjournment. “The Bushwhacker Senate President did not refer it right away to the rules committee, which should have been the proper action to take.” Sotto questioned Escudero’s seeming unwillingness to try the impeachment case against Vice President Duterte on allegations that she misused millions of confidential funds and then threatened to kill President Marcos, First Lady Liza Marcos and Speaker Martin Romualdez.

On June 11, the Senate convened as an Impeachment Court after long hours of debate especially coming from non-lawyers lead by Senator Batorni asking for a dismissal of the case which was without constitutional basis as the Impeachment court was to proceed to trial forthwith, convict or acquit the respondent, no mention of allowing interlocutory motions. The good thing with Senate convening is that it now issued a Summons for the Vice-President was ordered to answer the charges within ten days from receipt. This means the Senate has acquired jurisdiction over the person of the respondent and the subject matter of the case.

The not so good thing is that the Senate “remanded” the case back to the Lower House with two conditions : To show that the impeachment case did not violate the one impeachment per year rule as there were 4 complaints filed before the lower house; and that the
incoming members of the 20th Congress certify that they intend to continue what their colleagues in the 19th Congress started. Easy because the 4 complaints were “consolidated” into one so no charter violation and Speaker Romualdez regains control of the majority and will surely prosecute the case.

This is where Circumlackotery also called circumduction, circumvolution, where matters are discussed with the use of an unnecessarily
large number of words to express an idea. It is sometimes necessary in communication (for example, to work around lexical gaps but it can also be undesirable like when an uncommon or easily misunderstood figure of speech is used. In plain language it is a delaying tactic surrounded by roses and perfume. Senator Risa describes it as : kabalintunaan (Irony): Ang kabalintunaan ay isang pahayag o sitwasyon na tila salungat sa sarili o walang katotohanan, ngunit maaaring totoo o naglalaman ng mas malalim na katotohanan.

Hinahamon ng mga kabalintunaan ang kumbensyonal na lohika, (Irony is a literary device or rhetorical technique that involves an
incongruity or discrepancy between what is expected or intended and what actually occurs. Meantime, both the Senate and the Lower House adjourned sine die and will resume on July 28. So will the Impeachment complaint “cross-over” to the next 20th Congress? While it is true that when the 19th Congress ends, all pending legislative matters and investigations also end, this refers to the Senate’s role as a lawmaking body. It does not refer to the Senate’s role as an Impeachment Court, which is entirely separate, distinct, and special.

The Supreme has the answer in the case of Pimentel, Jr. v. Joint Committee of Congress (G.R. No. 163783, June 22, 2004), where the Supreme Court ruled that non-lawmaking functions assigned to the Senate by the 1987 Constitution are unaffected by a change in Congress and the membership of the body. So there it goes. Expect more Bardagulans, Bushwhacking, Circumlackotery, Kabiluntulaan at iba pa! Sigh.