“Good morning, Ed. I read your version of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Well written and deeply painful because it forces us to confront the terrible political mess we are now in. Perhaps your next piece should offer some Solomonic advice on how ordinary citizens like myself can still make even a small difference for our children and grandchildren.”
Those words came from my good friend Louie Sison, a man too modest to acknowledge the respect and gravitas he commands in both public and private life.
I am neither Machiavelli nor Solomon, yet Louie’s tongue-in-cheek challenge deserves a response because what the nation witnessed during the 11 May Senate upheaval was not merely a leadership change. It was a tragic public drama exposing the erosion of restraint, dignity and political maturity in what was once an august chamber.
The 13 May shootout that followed deepened the public disillusionment. Many Filipinos no longer view the Senate as a deliberative institution guided by reason and statesmanship. It appears instead as political theater staged under the unforgiving glare of television, social media, and mob hysteria. Alliances shifted overnight. Accusations recklessly flew. Rage replaced sobriety while noise overwhelmed reason.
The Senate once produced a Recto, Diokno, Tañada, Salonga and other statesmen whose words elevated the national discourse rather than degraded it.
Senator Bato may have mockingly called it the Philippine “See Neet,” but many citizens saw something far more disturbing than a mispronunciation. They saw a republic slowly losing its moral bearings.
The greater danger is not political ambition or corruption alone. Democracies have survived both. The greater danger begins when citizens surrender to cynicism, hopelessness and moral exhaustion.
We are slowly transforming the Senate from the country’s school of statesmanship into a national cockpit of permanent political combat.
Disillusionment undermines civic virtue when citizens begin believing that all leaders are the same, that principles no longer matter, and that public office has become merely a marketplace for ambition, enrichment, revenge and betrayal.
Scripture warns us: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people mourn.”
History teaches the same lesson. Nations rarely collapse overnight. They decay gradually when citizens stop defending civic values and begin accepting abnormal behavior as normal.
We must relearn civic patience, humility, critical thinking, and basic decency. We once called it Good Manners and Right Conduct — values now ridiculed in an age addicted to outrage, instant gratification and hollow indignation.
Today’s politics transforms disagreement into emotional warfare. Citizens are pressured to choose sides instantly, often before the facts are fully understood. Balanced discussion disappears. Every criticism becomes betrayal and every disagreement personal hostility.
No democracy can survive indefinitely under permanent hysteria.
The Senate was never meant to be an arena for gladiators intoxicated by applause, ego, and factional loyalty. It was created to be a chamber where restraint, wisdom and sobriety prevail over mob passions and political theatrics.
Filipinos must stop rewarding leaders who inflame division for personal gain. Citizens must also hold all sides accountable equally. One of modern politics’ deadliest poisons is selective morality, condemning wrongdoing by opponents while excusing it among allies.
The rule of law cannot survive a double standard.
As Scripture reminds us: “Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child.” A nation is weakened when immaturity overtakes statesmanship and political theater replaces governance.
When governance becomes indistinguishable from show business, societies lose the ability to distinguish statesmanship from performance. Viral insults replace thoughtful policy. Public humiliation becomes spectator sport. Leaders become performers seeking applause rather than stewards safeguarding the nation.
An old proverb warns that “a fish rots from the head.” Yet republics also decay from below when citizens tolerate vulgarity, normalize dishonor and remain silent before institutional collapse.
Republics rarely die from one dramatic explosion. They die gradually when conscience yields to blind loyalty, noise overwhelms reason, and fear replaces moral courage.
That is why the 13 May Senate shootout should not merely anger us. It should alarm us before the democratic erosion becomes irreversible.
For when institutions lose their dignity, nations eventually lose their stability. History teaches that when statesmen disappear, chaos eventually takes their place.
Perhaps, Louie, the country today needs less Solomonic wisdom and more collective moral courage before our political Gunfight at the OK Corral becomes the permanent condition of the Republic.
