Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s performance at the Senate and the House of Representatives in separate committee hearings put in stark contrast how these legislative chambers could be characterized. The Senate treated DU30 as if he was a tiny specimen seen through a microscope, whereas Congress saw him as an approaching ship through binoculars.

Both chambers proceeded with their respective inquiries without a common ground but incongruent objectives. There is, per se, no such thing as a Quad Committee in Congress’ long history in terms of how precisely a committee evolves.

It’s akin to putting four separate chairs beside each other to create the illusion of a long bench. One therefore can readily imagine how uncomfortable they are pretending to navigate to a shared objective, albeit they have nothing except perhaps some unknown motive.

The very essence of committee organizational and functional structure is precisely to departmentalize general and specific legislative affairs. To argue a common ground between and among the committees that form this so-called quad comm in Congress is a mere invention that is non-contributory to any collective legislative purpose — a naked parliamentary maneuver piloted by chairpersons largely dependent upon Google-aided knowledge or “cognitive prosthesis,” a gross disappointment not only to larger legal circles, even more so the general public.

No wonder then that in one of this paper’s editorials titled, “Quadgaroo court,” it was aptly referred to as the “unending soap opera.” Even senatorial hopeful Rep. Rodante Marcoleta of SAGIP Partylist doubts it performs any legislative purpose, much less will it produce a well-thought out legislative measure.

When somewhat like-minded personages become “ringleaders” of a merely merged four committees, entirely lacking in legal sophistication and finesse, it is predictable how it will navigate like a rudderless ship over disturbing issues. One classic case of observed notoriety was Col. Hector Grijaldo’s revelation before the Senate hearing of how two Quadcomm chairpersons tried to coax him to affirm the earlier narrative of Col. Royina Garma.

Clearly, the “seal of good housekeeping” is alien to the Quadcomm however it dismisses Grijaldo’s sworn account as a “brazen lie.” But to roughly paraphrase a famous quote, “If clowns play in Congress, the latter becomes a circus,” and they, the four musketeers, did just that and it would appear they are doing it for the “do-re-mi” or commendation.

This happenstance more likely confirms the suspicion of Vice President Sara Duterte that House members are simply following a script except that the chips aren’t falling where they are expected. To the extent of a breach of legislative protocol, the alleged effort or attempt to persuade, nay coach, a vital resource person to testify in accordance with a script shown to him clandestinely bespeaks of the fact that the (dis)honorable men are bound by instruction from above rather than by conscience.

It succeeds only when “good men do nothing,” but in this case it is consoling to know that brave and righteous police officers have not become extinct. Could the Quadcomm mimic a politburo?

It is hardly even a powerhouse of legal luminaries, moral metricians, public intellectuals, or social engineers who can introduce into the policy landscape at least novel legislated enactments. In the realm of public sector reform, what new policy, if any, have our good legislators intended to operationalize that could bar future presidents from committing purported “acts against humanity?”

What trailblazing legislated enactments could the Quadcomm produce for the betterment of our democratic life? If the deliberations with the former president being pushed to the edge of a cliff were any gauge, it looked like DU30 gladly jumped over with a golden parachute — to the chagrin and dismay of these Quadcomm musketeers.

The next time we watch committee hearings conducted by either chamber, consider it pure entertainment until the cows come home.