Call him playful or call him a fool, but President Duterte just played it cool when he manifested the fact that he does not support Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano's bid to become House Speaker despite an earlier endorsement of the supposed term-sharing deal rammed down his throat by Cayetano himself.

Cayetano had thought he had the speakership in the bag when he tagged along his two other rivals, Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez to a meeting with Mr. Duterte last week, trying to break what for him was a deadlock by insisting on the 15-21 "Magellan formula."

It was supposed to halve the last three years of Mr. Duterte's term with Cayetano taking his turn first with a design to steer Congress for the first 15 months, while leaving the last 21 months for Velasco to lead.

Romualdez was "reduced" to being the Majority Floor Leader. But it was offered to last for three years, so he took it.

Easy, simple and sweet. But it was not.

Cayetano does not have the numbers to propel him to the speakership. There is, in fact, a general sentiment among the congressmen against Cayetano.

For them, it should be anyone but Cayetano for the House speakership, Daily Tribune was told.

Earlier in the race, Partylist Rep. Mikee Romero had expressed his fellow partylist congressmen's impression of Cayetano as having the tendency of being a dictator. They sensed his highhanded ways of dealing with any matter, whether personal or official, that Romero and his group earlier announced that they were throwing their support to Velasco.

Earlier in the contest (and some say until now), Velasco was seen to have an overwhelming majority of congressmen backing his speakership bid.

He also has Sara Duterte, the Presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor, behind him.

Mr. Duterte's son, Paolo — the Davao City representative, even hosted a dinner for what was already the majority membership of Congress several weeks back in Malacañang for Velasco. The President showed up in the affair.

Meanwhile, Romualdez was also doing his homework by gathering what he and his principal, former President and former House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, could muster to bolster his own speakership campaign.

But Cayetano, true to Romero's description of him, insisted that he should be the House Speaker despite having a miniscule base of support.

Cayetano sees the Chief Executive as his only ticket to the speakership. But he also knows that he could not get his anointment, so he made the so-called "Magellan formula."

Like Magellan, the formula seems laid out on the table for the slaying of his own Congress peers.

Cayetano had tried other formulas, but to no avail, it now seems.

In Japan, when the President paid a working visit to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Cayetano's wife Lani (also a Taguig representative but who is representing the other district — yes, the other district!), issued a tearful plea for Mr. Duterte's support.

Then Cayetano offered the continued chairmanship of House committees even after his part of the term-sharing deal, leaving Velasco with nothing but a "ministerial" share of the supposed agreement.

He also offered to extend the term of the members of Congress. He scored big with that one.

Sensing he does not have the support of his Senate counterparts, Cayetano threatened to slash the senators' term to half from six to three years. He lost big on this one.

He needs to amend or change the 1987 Constitution to make true with those statements.

The biggest rebuke he received from the President, however, transpired outside of the Congress when Mr. Duterte declared that Cayetano's Phisgoc Foundation could not and should not take part in the organization and management of the coming 30th Southeast Asian Games set to be hosted by the country starting 30 November.

Cayetano had also forced his Phisgoc Foundation to take the leadership in the hosting, which will have P6 billion for a budget, excluding the private deals and partnerships snagged by Cayetano's men on Phisgoc's behalf.

The rightful franchise holder of the SEA Games, however, is the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), which Cayetano's Phisgoc had tried to sideline.

The proper government agency to handle the funds released by government for the SEA Games is the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), which the Phisgoc Foundation also tried to blindside during the months when Cayetano's men pretended to be on top of the Games.

Phisgoc's meddling in the SEA Games affair only delayed the preparations for the hosting. The PSC and the POC will now have to scramble to meet the deadlines.

Speaking for the first time about the government's sports program during an exclusive pre-State of the Nation Address (pre-SoNA) interview by *Daily Tribune*, Mr. Duterte explicitly said that he will not allow the Phisgoc Foundation to organize the hosting of the SEA Games.

"I have to be responsible for this. Give (the SEA Games) to government," the Chief Executive said.

"Government is the most interested in winning the medals. That Phisgoc Foundation only muddles up the issue. So many fingers are dipping into the hosting. It should only be government. I want just one, just the government. This is how it should be," the President said.

With this, Cayetano knows his House Speakership bid is crumbling.

On Saturday — a day after the President's statement — Cayetano scampered to meet with Velasco and Romualdez in an effort to ensure and validate their support to the Magellan formula.

But just minutes before that, the President had an intimate dinner with Velasco's family at the EDSA Shangri-La.

It's not hard to figure what's happening in the sidelines of this hotly-contested speakership race.

For sure, Cayetano is aware that he does not have the speakership firmly in his grip. He still has a lot of hard work to do to clinch the post.

He has a week left to ensure his victory.