Decoding the Impeachment Online Noise
When the legal evidence gets tough, the internet scripts get louder. Here is a look at the logical fallacies driving recent trending topics, and why they fall apart under actual scrutiny:
1. The Xerox Gags vs. Rules of Admissibility
The Script: Mocking Atty. Amando Ligutan’s manifestation on the court’s acceptance of photocopied evidence by posting videos of people literally copying banknotes and passports.
The Fallacy: Straw Man & Reduction to Absurdity. It turns a precise, technical legal provision into an exaggerated visual joke to make the prosecution’s evidence appear ridiculous.
The Reality: Under the Rules of Court (Rule 130), clear duplicates are fully admissible if the originals are unavailable or part of public records. The court doesn't treat a photocopy of a passport or a bill as literal sovereign currency; it admits it to prove a forensic paper trail. Transforming a document into a meme does not erase its legal content.
2. Superficial Mockery vs. Legal Substance
The Script: Flooding comment sections on Day 1 with personal insults targeting Representative Gerville Luistro’s "laway" (saliva).
The Fallacy: Argumentum Ad Hominem. This fallacy is abusive and is a clear manifestation that the argument cannot be dismantled.Â
The Reality: Rep. Luistro’s opening points were built on statutory facts. A speaker's physiological strain during a grueling opening presentation has zero impact on the legal soundness of her data. When structural merits cannot be broken down, commentators resort to superficial personal degradation to foster confirmation bias.
3. Disqualifying the Expert vs. Technical Cross-Examination
The Script: Dismissing NBI Cybercrime Senior Agent John Mark Calilung on Day 3 by claiming that a "few months" of specialized training (via the US DOJ and Interpol, among others) is insufficient to make him an expert witness.
The Fallacy: The Genetic Fallacy (Credential Insufficiency). Judging the validity of a highly technical forensic conclusion based solely on the arbitrary duration of a specific certification track.
The Reality: Under Section 49, Rule 130 of the Rules of Court, a witness is deemed an expert based on a comprehensive matrix of specific knowledge, skill, experience, and training. Furthermore, expert qualification is legally determined inside the chamber through a judicial evaluation called voir dire—not by viral consensus on social media. If his video authentication findings were flawed, the defense would have dismantled them under cross-examination instead of critiqued his credentials online.
4. The "₱25-Million a Day" Outrage vs. Fixed Appropriations
The Script: Claiming the Senate is wasting ₱25 Million of taxpayer money for every single day of the trial sessions.
The Fallacy: Red Herring (Financial Distraction). Triggering economic anxiety to divert focus from constitutional accountability.
The Reality: The Senate operates on a fixed annual budget already allocated under the General Appropriations Act (GAA). More fundamentally, this argument establishes a dangerous premise: that constitutional accountability measures are optional expenditures that can be bypassed to save money. Impeachment is a mandatory check-and-balance mechanism required by the state constitution to safeguard public trust.
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For what it's worth, there is a profound, quiet power in applying structural logic to the noise of contemporary discourse. Logic, as a subject, was not integrated into our educational curricula as a mere academic formality; it was given to us as a vital tool for discernment. Dedicating even a brief moment to do research has the collective power to preserve public clarity. Let us choose to be genuinely informed, rather than merely reactive.
