It does not require rocket science to readily identify who will again run for the Senate come 2028. Considering that it’s a little over two years from now, we should critically reflect on whether to vote them back in or on whom we can turn to in lieu of the likes of Dick Gordon, Gringo Honasan, Frank Drilon, Nikki Coseteng, Sonny Angara, Sonny Trillanes, Gibo Teodoro. This is contemporaneous with the incumbents who will seek reelection, they being eligible under the two-term limit.

There are X number of faces who will do an encore — the first-timers in the game, the old returnees dreaming of dying in the line of duty. That’s existential proof that politics is a lifetime career, a market product with no expiry date.

Randomly, the phenomenal young blood includes Vico Soto, Kiko Barzaga and Leandro Leviste. A mixed pack of wannabes like Benjie Magalong, Ariel Querubin, Nicolas Torre, Rowena Guanzon, Heidi Mendoza, together with such others who lost in their 2025 bids, might join, not discounting Leila de Lima and Chel Diokno, who made the House of Representatives their subway station or back-door entrance to the Senate.

As long as politics is a zero-sum game, losers have nothing to lose and winners have everything to gain. Other noisy personalities like Ronnie Puno, Harry Roque, Ace Barbers, Mike Defensor, Anthony Taberna, Karen Davila, Ronald Llamas, Jay Sonza, Antonio Carpio, Cielo Magno might find themselves caught up in the adrenaline rush. What if some late-bloomers join the bandwagon as well — like Edwin Lacierda, Trixie Cruz-Angeles and Solita Monsod, who have been making themselves visible in broadcast media?

Note that at the other end of the fulcrum, we have those barred from reelection following their term limits, namely, Win Gatchalian, Risa Hontiveros, Joel Villanueva, Juan Migz Zubiri, but who knows might aspire to be the next president or vice president?

There cannot be a solidly grounded or general theory to show that the 2025 election had weeded out the shenanigans in both chambers of Congress or whether change had cascaded to the local government level.

The “accidental” entry of entirely new faces in the upper chamber in the persons of Rodante Marcoleta and Raffy Tulfo does not constitute a game-changer. Indeed, the ambitious 12-0 bid in favor of the President’s candidates despite the shameless “ayuda sprawl” fell by half, although “old-returning” senators got in instead.

This establishes the strong conclusion that the electorate has always been after selfish gain, not good government. We probably don’t have a collective moral code that would ensure we get good men in the business of governance. The 2025 voter turnout was hardly a conclusive indication that more shady characters will be out of a job in 2028 as long as the cult of personality favors celebrities and dynasts. Worse, wicked politicians know how to tame the electorate who trade their votes for a few thousand pesos.

This explains the infusion of mammoth (mis)allocations and (mis)appropriations in the 2025 national budget, spilling over to the 2026 budget, by technically converting hard into soft projects. It’s just another form of “looted public funds” intended to bribe constituents come election day.

The disaggregated amounts going to ayuda of various acronyms are still considerably larger than the more urgent allocations of government agencies. There’s a yearly budgetary uptrend for these doles.

The large-scale embezzlement of taxpayer money is tantamount to a grand corruption operationalized behind treacherously legitimate or legal covers that escape notice by even the trained eye. When public funds cease to be safe in the custody of those supposed to protect it from pillage, why must citizens bother to pay their taxes, pray tell?