For media to publish and broadcast that former President, now congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is among the worst absentees in Congress is a new low even for the native media. Now the monkeys are really throwing the coconuts.

GMA has been under detention continuously since she was elected to Congress. The few and short times she has been granted bail, she attended congress, and the government cited her attendance in Congress to disprove her claim of necessary and vital medical attention.

That her absence is actually marked against her by the House leadership shows that it is as morally, if not mentally disabled, as GMA claims she medically is. And it flies in the teeth of privilege and tradition of protecting the dignity of the legislative office - not to say the liberty - of one of its own.

When GMA issued warrants of arrest against the leftists in Congress, Speaker Joe De Venecia rejected the warrants and gave the leftist lawmakers the sanctuary of his office until the warrants were quashed. JDV showed the separation of powers in action.

When one branch of government pushes too hard, the other branches must push back harder. There are no exceptions. A show of weakness is fatal not just to the branch that gives way but to democracy whose vitality depends on the effective separation and the balance of its powers. Good night and good luck.