A MASTERCLASS IN DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW
8 August 2025
A MASTERCLASS IN DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW
By Teddy Adarna
In an era of synthetic populism and legislative erosion, the Philippine Senate often caricatured as a mere arena of political theater rose above its own caricature. On August 6, 2025, the chamber did not just cast votes or deliver speeches. It enacted a profound constitutional exorcism, invoking not emotion, not impulse, but the sharp blade of the rule of law.
This wasn’t just procedure it was philosophy in action.
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The Hour Democracy Was Tested
The impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte had ignited national tension. It threatened to plunge the country into yet another protracted political war. But as the noise outside reached a fever pitch, inside the Senate halls, something rare and remarkable unfolded: wisdom prevailed over wrath.
It was here, in this fragile chamber of democracy, that men and women often accused of partisanship chose country over circus.
And at the forefront of this constitutional moment stood two senators whose oratory and clarity summoned the weight of history.
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Cayetano: The Legal Archer with Fire in His Tongue
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, with the precision of a constitutional surgeon, dissected the Supreme Court’s ruling not as an abstract doctrine, but as living law to be respected, not reinterpreted. His voice was not merely legalistic; it was prophetic:
“If we do not follow the Supreme Court’s decision, we risk tearing the Constitution apart.”
Cayetano’s brilliance was not in theatrics, but in his discipline. He reminded the chamber and the nation—that the rule of law is not a menu from which politicians can choose what suits them. It is a covenant—a promise we make to each other in a democracy.
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Escudero: The Philosopher-Statesman Emerges
Then rose Senate President Chiz Escudero, measured and resolute. Where Cayetano brought fire, Escudero brought the ice of constitutional restraint. He reminded his colleagues that to uphold the rule of law is to defend democracy itself, even when it is inconvenient, even when it is unpopular.
“That we disagree does not mean one side holds the monopoly on patriotism.”
It was not merely a line it was a sword swung against the tribalism of modern politics. Escudero, once dubbed a “boy wonder,” now stood fully grown the philosopher-statesman of a bruised republic, refusing to surrender the Senate to the winds of populist vengeance.
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Brilliance, Not Bluster
What was witnessed in that historic plenary session was not the decline of democracy but its renaissance. In the age of TikTok politics and outrage algorithms, the Philippine Senate reminded us of something sacred: the mind still matters.
Cayetano and Escudero did not grandstand. They stood ground armed with legal knowledge, constitutional memory, and a deep love for this fragile experiment called the Republic.
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Why This Moment Matters
When the Senate voted to archive the impeachment complaint, it was not to shield a politician but to protect an idea: that due process cannot be bypassed, that the Constitution is not a mere suggestion, and that power, to be legitimate, must bow to principle.
They did not obey the Supreme Court out of fear. They followed its ruling out of fidelity to the Constitution, to the people, to the invisible threads of history that bind one generation of patriots to the next.
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A Message to the Nation
To the Filipino people: You may not always see brilliance in the halls of power. But on this day, you did.
You saw a Senate worthy of its marble walls, of its historic echoes, of its burden to protect the republic not from bullets, but from the slow corrosion of democratic decay.
Cayetano. Escudero. Marcoleta, And their peers who stood with them. They were not just lawmakers. For one luminous moment—they were guardians of the Constitution.
And that, in a time of smoke and mirrors, is not only rare.
It is revolutionary.
Let the record show: on August 6, 2025, the Senate did not kneel to noise. It stood for the law. And in doing so, it stood for us all.
