Here we go again. 

Time was when every exhortation by then President Rodrigo Duterte to kill or threat to kill (“I will kill you”) was dismissed by his apologists as hyperbole or exaggeration. Until the dead bodies started piling up and no amount of deflection and denial could cover the fact that he meant what he said quite literally, earning him a lasting place in infamy as the first Asian head of state to face the charge of “crime against humanity of murder” at the International Criminal Court.

Obfuscation and misdirection are the favorite tactics of people who use language to cover up instead of reveal, to evade responsibility instead of face accountability.

Just as those who are truly shameless make no attempt to hide where their loyalties lie and behave like they do no wrong in being partisan, as certain senator-judges in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment case did, even when they claim to represent the people and derive their authority from a national constituency. But in a twisted, ironic way, you respect at least their honesty and sheer audacity. Steeled and steeped in a culture of impunity, they feel that being in positions of power allows them to behave in unprecedented ways, like acting as defense lawyers a priori even just minutes after being sworn in as senator-judges.

What happened to decency and statesmanship? Certainly, politicians play politics and this influences their decision-making. But to be so blatantly partial? They have sunk to an abysmal level of shocking behavior. Somehow, I could not even ask “Why?” because I know that the utterly simple answer is “Because they can.” 

Lawyers speak of seeking remedy by accusing these senators of “grave abuse of discretion.” This is like fighting a main battle tank with a plastic fly swatter. Grave abuse of what? The discretion is so all-encompassing that they are practically untouchable.

The power of democracy is such that the illusion of choice is laid bare by the quality of the chosen.

In the rock musical “Jesus Christ Superstar,” Jesus chides Simon Zealotes, who has been urging him to help inspire Jewish resistance against the Roman occupiers:

Neither you Simon

Nor the 50,000

Nor the Romans nor the Jews

Nor Judas

Nor the 12

Nor the priests nor the scribes

Nor doomed Jerusalem itself

Understand what power is

Understand what glory is

Understand at all

Understand at all

It is clear that Jesus was referring to something far greater than earthly power. A transcendental power. A power not fleeting. Even today, were Jesus and Simon Zealotes around, they would feel right at home and see no difference between the Galilee-Samaria-Judea of their time and the Netanyahu-led modern Israeli state. 

Power. Defined by Oxford Languages as “the ability to do something or act in a particular way…the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.” Whatever those may be. Or whatever they may lead to, creation or destruction. While the entire world knows that the only answer to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the two-state solution, Israel insists on its genocidal behavior and blocking the creation of a Palestinian state. Why? Because it can.

At first glance, it might seem beyond us. Ungraspable. But we all can have it. When we put our values and principles beyond the malign hands and words of the rotten and the corrupt, we can have true power.

Power is that much sought-after thing. Like eternal youth. Like love. We all want it. But the world being what it is, there are many obstacles, limitations and pitfalls.

If our earthly power is limited to one solitary vote, we must use it well. That vote could be exercised through the ballot box, or exercised in our daily lives, in social media, in our physical exertions—we can use our feet to march, our voices to denounce. Little by little, we can exorcise the corrupt and the evil from our lives. That is the one true power we all have. 

Then maybe the senator-judge cum defense lawyer abomination can be but another expression of a misplaced power. Then maybe the bombing of an entire people to kingdom come can end.

Why seek an eternal power beyond understanding? Because we can.