Truce for now

No other event can muster the kind of wealth, power and influence to gather all under the same roof at any given time than the State of the Nation Address (SoNA). And the absence of the red carpet was a welcome respite from the usual parade of high fashion, glitter, and gold during every SoNA in the hallowed halls of the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City.

Talk abounds about what the President mentioned (or did not mention, whether deliberately) so I beg your indulgence and look at the politics and power plays that went on behind the scenes until its culmination on Monday.

There were no surprises on the leadership front. As expected (but not without some last-minute attempts from the other group), Chiz Escudero was retained as Senate President after getting the Duterte bloc on his side. Meanwhile, as disappointed as many may be, the Representative from the 1st District of Leyte and presidential cousin Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez was given a fresh mandate as Speaker of the House of Representatives of the 20th Congress.

This early in the second half of the Marcos administration, we see an “independent” bloc in the making within the House. Independent, which really should be interpreted to mean not in opposition to the Marcos administration, but a standing threat and opposition to the leadership of Speaker Romualdez. That would-be “independent bloc” is thus far made up of the three names with one thing in common — they were all once floated as possible alternatives to Martin Romualdez: Toby Tiangco, Duke Frasco and Albee Benitez.

Their “insistence” on their independence as being neither with the majority nor the minority is notable. Also surprising is how Cong. Albee Benitez’s own son is with the majority. It may be that the much-publicized rift within the Benitez family has affected their politics as well. Cong. Albee has also deemed it necessary to issue a public statement explaining his abstention from voting in favor of Cong. Romualdez as if it interests the public.

This, to me, not only indicates that he is taking a “leadership” role within the independent bloc but that he is taking upon himself the role of being the “anti-Martin Romualdez” i.e., a continuing threat that should an opportunity arise for a change in leadership, Albee will make it so that he will be THE frontrunner. Hence, his publicly sworn allegiance to the Palace… just in case.

With the Supreme Court’s decision to junk the impeachment proceedings against the Vice President, any talk of impeachment will have to be set aside until after the one-year ban has lapsed. Miraculously, the internal politicking within the administration might get a respite. Although for how long we cannot say. But it’s just as well as this administration should maintain a united front if it wants to accomplish anything significant in the next three years.

But it’s unlikely that the truce will last long. The first major order of business after the SoNA is the budget call. As budget season begins anew, we can expect a lot of lobbying to resume within the halls of both the lower and upper chambers of Congress. How the 2026 General Appropriation Act turns out will be a litmus test for Martin Romualdez’s tenuous hold on the speakership.