“There is certainly no lack of excitement in the halls of power, especially when talk circles around the involvement of Presidential daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio in the matter.

“Stunned” was the word on Monday afternoon, just minutes before President Rodrigo Duterte was to deliver his third State of the Nation Address.

The whole thing left those in Congress aghast – as well as many of the viewers waiting to listen to Duterte’s (always memorable) speech to begin – and frankly, just a little bit discombobulated.

What happened was immediately tagged as “power grab.” Was it, however, a hostile takeover?

But in the end, the ouster of House of Representatives head Pantaleon Alvarez by Pampanga Representative and former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Monday overshadowed the President’s speech.

The much-awaited message from the heart became anticlimactic.

Huge question marks hung over the whole shebang.

Alvarez’s fall took place in ninja moves that had Alvarez’s allies adjourning the session to preempt ouster moves, in the process failing to ratify the proposed Bangsamoro Organic Law in time for President Rodrigo Duterte’s signing before his SoNA. Congress was quickly reconvened, reports say, where “182 lawmakers signed a manifesto supporting Arroyo as the new House Speaker,” according to Rep. John Bertiz.

It was a dramatic moment that Arroyo, shouting from a dead microphone, took to the hilt.

The timing was spot-on, “grabbing headlines” indeed, as former Sen. Orly Mercado called it.

Memories of the Edsa “takeover,” where Arroyo was also in the thick of an ouster move, that time targeting former President Joseph Estrada, surfaced.

My, my, my. Arroyo, who led the country from 2001 until 2010, made history once more as “the first former President to become House Speaker.”

It was deemed, according to a CNN report, “a stunning return to power for the 71-year-old Arroyo, who spent nearly five years under hospital detention for alleged corruption until the Supreme Court dismissed the case against her and ordered her release in 2016.”

There is certainly no lack of excitement in the halls of power, especially when talk circles around the involvement of presidential daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio in the matter.

Hours before the SoNA, radio was blaring about the Davao mayor allegedly calling congressmen one by one, “asking for support in ousting Alvarez and electing Arroyo as the new House Speaker,” says the CNN report. Talks had been going on, apparently, since March or April.

The Sara-Pantaleon tiff was also no secret ever since they exchanged sharp words on social media when the Secretary-General of the ruling party, PDP-Laban “allegedly declared her as part of the political opposition when she formed a regional political party, Hugpong ng Pagbabago.”

If the rumors are true, then I guess he “messed with the wrong girl.” Either that or we have just seen another SoNA surprise akin to Duterte going off-script and going all candid, that we had not counted on.

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