Navotas Congressman Toby Tiangco, the campaign manager of the Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas Senate slate for the midterm elections, has made the rounds of the news and social media. In a nutshell, he blamed the filing of the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte for the humiliating performance of the administration’s candidates in the recently concluded elections.

I found myself shaking my head as he talked about the “adjustments” he purportedly made given the administration’s low approval ratings in Mindanao. All I heard was: Mindanao is not worth it, and that it was a waste of the administration’s resources to hold sorties or rallies there.

Toby played right smack into the Manila-centric mindset that has been the issue of the South against Imperial Manila for the longest time — at least until FPRRD occupied Malacañang. Imagine the administration-backed slate being too afraid to go to Mindanao. Is PBBM president only in the Visayas and Luzon?

But that is not even the stupidest part of his “explosive revelations.” As he sat there seemingly all self-righteous in exultation over the position, he claims he took on the issue of the VP’s impeachment, all Toby Tiangco managed to accomplish was to look desperate and weak as he put himself on his imaginary pedestal to muster the wherewithal to say “I told you so” to everyone. Where was all this indignation over the impeachment during the campaign?

Perhaps Toby forgot that the President’s son was the first to sign the impeachment complaint. And if the presidential son, and all the others who signed, were coerced, who remembers the statements made by the young Marcos in the aftermath of the impeachment of VP Sara Duterte on why he signed? Something about digging up the remains of his grandfather and throwing it in the West Philippine Sea and threatening the lives of his parents. Nothing about those candid passionate statements seemed forced or coerced.

Glaring too was Tiangco’s hint of more than just political ramifications in whatever transpired behind the scenes in the matter of the impeachment and the controversial General Appropriations Act of 2025. From his narration of whatever mode of quid pro quo arrangements that were peddled, regardless of who did which, ultimately, the question becomes: were the conditional funds eventually released?

So, if it’s criminal liability he is insinuating, perhaps, someone should caution the good congressman and advise him to instead exercise will power to keep from indulging in what seems to be a frequent affliction of diarrhea of the mouth hounding those close to the President, since all roads lead to the Palace.

Alleged threats, coercion, force or intimidation anchored on greed, political pressure or retention of power on all sides, does not constitute legal justification or absolve participants in a conspiracy from liability from any of the punishable acts under Section 3 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act or RA 3019.

If Congressman Toby Tiangco is seeking to lay the groundwork and premise for a leadership change in the 20th Congress, he may not be going about it the right way. The thing with pointing fingers is that, more often than not, you will likely find yourself on the receiving end of other fingers being pointed at you.

Whether as Speaker or chairman of the much-coveted committee on appropriations, Toby Tiangco, unfortunately, lacks not only the gravitas but also the political acumen to be effective in any of these roles.