‘Barzagulan’

The young cat in Congress has been suspended anew.

Over the past weeks, his social media posts have once again irked and fueled the ire of his colleagues in the House of Representatives, who voted almost by a landslide (238 lawmakers against 10 objections and nine abstentions) to suspend him again.

It almost seemed like Cavite Rep. Francisco “Kiko” Barzaga was raring for a fight, or to do something dastardly enough to be expelled.

“That is how cats behave,” he told Deputy Speaker Janette Garin on why he wanted to fight with Garin’s daughter, Iloilo Board Member Rica Garin. In the news, he is also said to have expressed a desire to be expelled “so he can go to the casinos.”

If that is not a cry for help, then it must be an innate imbalance that could require a professional diagnosis.

Obvious to all is that Kiko Barzaga remains unrepentant, even after the first suspension and his next actions, including dragging the good name of a billionaire businessman.

His behavior, the Ethics Committee agreed, “has no place in governance.” But does this mean an expulsion will soon follow? Why give another 60 days, albeit without pay or powers, to a perceived rabble-rouser? 

Is Barzaga someone who voices issues that some consider better left unsaid, or simply one who is so bored with convention that he tries to shake up an institution already beleaguered with credibility issues as it is?

Barzaga has courted controversy from the time he left the National Unity Party and began needling the President’s son Sandro Marcos and his uncle, Martin Romualdez. 

During those tense moments for the nation, when Filipinos became increasingly aghast at the revelations that had unfolded during the flood control project anomalies investigation, Barzaga’s unusual tactics were considered a breath of fresh air in an institution that had somewhat been tainted with secret machinations on alleged budget insertions.

Soon enough, the cat’s caterwauling became an irritant, plagued as it was with falsehoods and unfounded accusations.

The latest Ethics rap came after members of the political party he left, Reps. Jeffrey Ferrer and Rolando Valeriano, brought up Barzaga’s social media posts accusing NUP members of being bribed by Enrique Razon Jr. to support the speakership bid of former House Speaker Romualdez. He also had a disrespectful comment about the late Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop.

Razon filed two cases of cyber libel against Barzaga, and now his fellow lawmakers have chastised him for the same posts.

Such “malicious and defamatory content” was evidence enough for the House Ethics members to declare that the irrepressible lawmaker had to be sanctioned for violating Section 141, Rule 20 of the Rules of the House.

Is there, to quote Garin, “hope in making him understand”? Is 60 days enough time, or does he need more?