CARTOON BY: AARON PAUL C. CARIL

EDITORIAL

Selective Fury

So the first week of impeachment is here, complete with the usual theater: serious faces, heavy words, and people suddenly sounding like they sleep with a copy of the Constitution under their pillows. Fine. Let the process begin. Public officials are not untouchable, and accountability should never be treated like a personal attack. If someone abused power, betrayed public trust, or treated public money like private change, then by all means, make them answer.

But here is where it gets uncomfortable: the law starts to look less noble when it seems to have favorites. It cannot be fast and fierce when the target is a critic, then slow and sleepy when the trail leads to bigger pockets and better-connected names. That is not justice. That is choreography. Impeachment should be a serious constitutional remedy, not a convenient stick to wave at people who refuse to behave.

This is the part we should all be watching closely. Dissent is not a crime. Criticism is not rebellion. People do not become enemies of the state just because they ask questions, call out hypocrisy, or refuse to join the applause. A government that is confident in its mandate should be able to survive noise, anger, satire, and protest. The strong arm of the law should go after the corrupt and the abusive, not the loud and inconvenient.

And while all this drama is unfolding, there is the bigger, wetter, dirtier issue staring at us: flood control. Billions have been poured into projects that were supposed to keep communities safe, yet every heavy rain still reminds ordinary people that corruption has a way of floating back to the surface. Somewhere between ghost projects, poor construction, favored contractors, and political commissions, public money disappears while families are left sweeping mud out of their homes.

That is why this impeachment should not be judged only by how loud its first week has been. The real question is whether it will lead us to a wider kind of accountability, or whether it will simply give the public one dramatic show while the bigger scandals keep their VIP passes. If the government is serious about cleaning house, then it cannot clean only the room where its enemies are standing.

So yes, let impeachment take its course. Let the evidence be tested, and let officials answer where they must. But let the same energy be used on the flood-control mess and every other corruption issue that has drowned public patience for years. The law should not be a flashlight pointed only at dissenters while the well-lit thieves walk away. If this first week teaches us anything, it is this: we cannot claim to be draining the swamp while using the flood to silence the people shouting from the roof.