Let us wait until the actual competition starts when organizers begin closing roads all over Metro Manila, causing carmageddon during an already intensely busy Christmas season, for all hell to break lose.

​Just like in high school, a senior picked on a freshman with the goal of humiliating him in front of a crowd. In this story, Sen. Bong Go, in his defense of the P6.5 billion budget of the Philippine Sports Commission to host the 30th Southeast Asian Games, was taken off-guard at first, but he came back swinging to shut down veteran lawmaker politician Sen. Frank Drilon, with all his years of experience exposing anomalies in government.

​Center to the questioning done by Drilon is the now well-publicized P55 million cauldron, now a household name better known as the “kaldero.” By degrading, desecrating and disrespecting the work done by the team of National Artist Francisco “Bobby” Mañosa, Drilon successfully placed dirty politics in the highly important sports competition to be hosted by the Philippines. In his questioning, Drilon raised what is the use of the “kaldero” after the SEA Games, and that the funds should’ve been used to build 50 classrooms instead.

Officials have called for a ceasefire on dirty politics in view of the nearing opening of the SEA Games this coming Saturday, 30 November. We do not see Drilon stopping with his determination to expose irregularities, although he did submit to his colleagues in the Senate when Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano showed up voluntarily to divulge information as head of the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee. President Rodrigo Duterte even came to the defense of the cauldron, saying that it is a work of art put into material form. However, these are all too late since the country has since been divided.

Drilon’s exposé has brought the entire nation’s attention to the cauldron and now to the actual preparations for the SEA Games. Filipinos are now observing each detail through a microscope thanks to social media. It is now so easy for netizens to update each other by snapping a photo using their smartphone and posting it on Twitter. As of this writing, we have seen updates on the continuing construction being done at the Rizal Memorial Stadium, PhilSports Arena (Ultra) and Cuneta Astrodome, and imagine how can these be finished by Friday. And of course, the public is now informed that the bowling competition will be held in Starmall Edsa — an ideal place to hold your inter-office bowling competition, but definitely not for an international tournament — owned by the Villars, the leaders of Cayetano’s political party.

More stories have been cropping up by the minute, from the hideous welcome tarpaulin displayed at an airport, to the reports from international media about the poor treatment by SEA Games officials of the athletes that have already arrived (i.e., Myanmar and Timor-Leste football teams and the Cambodia delegates), and the complaints of our SEA Games volunteers who will be devoting their time and effort to assist in the tournament, but are left unfed. Let us wait until the actual competition starts when organizers begin closing roads all over Metro Manila, causing carmageddon during an already intensely busy Christmas season, for all hell to break lose.

Drilon asks what to do with the cauldron after the SEA Games? Easy. Put the corrupt officials behind the lackluster preparation in there in time for noche buena.