There is no document posted in my home, clinic, or classroom that says everything must be done forthwith. There is no framed Magna Carta of Household Emergencies or a Bill of Mommy's RIghts. There is no Republic Act, no Constitution. And yet, somehow, the unwritten rule of my life is exactly that: all things must be accomplished with haste, urgency. Rarely, there are electives. But when dealing with toddlers, patients in shock, or a medical school about to release its first batch of graduates into the world, everything is stat unless proven otherwise.
"Mom, wash my butt now!" Forthwith.
"Mom, I want my milk now!" Forthwith.
"Doc, you have a STEMI and he's having Vfib!" Forthwith.
"Doc, you need to encode your grades now!" Forthwith.
That is the state of my life. I live in a permanent state of immediate response. No one needs to define “forthwith” for me. I feel it in my bones, in my ligaments, and in the unblinking, bloodshot stare I give my to-do list at 2 am. And yet, in an institution where everything is supposed to be governed not by maternal instinct or a nurse’s glare, but by the Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, the word "forthwith" has suddenly caused a national cognitive collapse.
"Forthwith". That pesky little adverb has apparently become so confounding that a Senate impeachment court that is supposedly composed of highly educated and allegedly competent public officials had to halt its proceedings just to consult their collective understanding, or maybe a dictionary. Or perhaps ChatGPT. Or GMG. Google mo, gago!
Obviously, this farce is just a delaying tactic. That critical judicial process that is supposedly to give the Vice President a platform to defend herself or to be convicted, one that affects the public trust, the rule of law, and perhaps the very fabric of our democracy was delayed. Why? Because some senators were confused about what forthwith meant.
Every Filipino who gives the tiniest thought about this country knows that this wasn’t real confusion. This wasn’t an innocent lexical lapse. This was performative ignorance, the kind that insults every Filipino who passed Grade 4 English or owns a cellphone that can access Google. The kind that assumes that the rest of us overworked, underpaid, taxed to the max, and chronically exhausted ordinary Filipinos are too busy being moms, teachers, and doctors to notice the political theatre unfolding.
Well, surprise! I may be on 3 hours of sleep and running on expired coffee, but I noticed. What is more disheartening is the contrast. I don’t have a constitutional duty to act with speed. But I do. Every day. Because people depend on me. I move not just with efficiency, but with urgency grounded in love, duty, and literal life-or-death decisions. I understand forthwith not as a vocabulary word, but as a lived experience, and a necessity of life.
So when our lawmakers, who are supposed to be public servants, pretend that they are stupid to delay justice, they aren’t just playing games with language. They are playing with the intelligence of the people they claim to serve. They are mocking the same urgency that drives teachers to check 100 papers over a weekend, doctors to respond to codes mid-meal, and moms to find a dinosaur costume in a mall that only pajamas and slippers.
If "forthwith" is too difficult to understand, perhaps we should help them out. Let’s use it in a sentence:
"The people demand transparency and accountability, forthwith.”
“We request for immediate action against corruption, forthwith.”
“Please resign, forthwith. Yes, after you learn to use Google."
At the end of the day, perhaps it’s not that they don’t understand the word. It’s that they understand it too well and what it demands terrifies them. At the end of the day, perhaps it’s not that they don’t understand the word. It’s that they understand it all too well. What it demands terrifies them. They fear exposing their stupidity and corruption to people determined to leave no stone unturned.
As for me, I will go on living my forthwith life, responding to chaos with speed, grace, and occasionally, stress eating. I will do it without privilege, without fanfare, and without confusing adverbs. And when the stress eating becomes too frequent, I would have to remind myself that I need to lose weight forthwith. For that matter, I will feign confusion too, just like our honorable senators.
