The Palace fingerprints

Malacañang wants the people to believe the Senate coup was an internal affair.

That claim became harder to swallow the moment the Palace rushed to recognize the new leadership before the dust had even settled.

Within minutes of Sherwin Gatchalian’s installation as acting Senate president, Palace officials were declaring the move legal and in accordance with the rule of law. The House leadership quickly followed with its congratulations.

Coincidence?

The leadership shake-up came just as the Alan Peter Cayetano bloc was pursuing a flood control inquiry that threatened to generate damaging headlines for personalities linked to the Marcos administration. The hearing was immediately undermined, its legitimacy challenged, its schedule disrupted and its witnesses attacked.

At the same time, the Senate is the arena where the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte will be tried. Controlling the chamber means controlling the pace, direction and environment of the most consequential proceeding in the Marcos presidency.

The Palace insists that it merely recognized a Senate decision.

But what unfolded was more than a change in leadership. It was a consolidation of political power.

The balance of power in the Senate shifted. The flood control probe was sidelined. And the administration secured a more favorable stage for the looming impeachment battle.

Whether the events were planned or merely exploited, Malacañang emerged as the clear winner.        

 — Jason Mago

Noise is the point

What do Kiko Barzaga and Leandro Leviste have in common?

They are loud — relentlessly so. They criticize everything and everyone, on the left and on the right, without apology — and for that, they are dismissed. Too noisy, people say. Too much.

That is exactly the point.

Philippine politics has been corrupt long before the 1987 Constitution was even drafted — let’s not kid ourselves. Every administration. Every year. The same faces, the same plunder cases, slam dunked thrice, the same families, the same dynasties maximizing term limits — then handing the seats to relatives, then taking them back.

The corrupt officials — the “crocs” Barzaga calls them — have had decades to entrench themselves, gorge themselves, protect themselves, and perfect the art of looking legitimate while stealing from the very people they had sworn to serve.

They will not leave quietly.

This is not the noise of someone like Alan Peter Cayetano — too clever, too calculated, too in love with the sound of his own intelligence. The crocs thrive in quiet water.

Barzaga and Leviste are making waves. Good.

Keep going.    

— Carl Magadia

Upper shame-ber

Relief and prosperity remain far from the reach of ordinary Filipinos — if anything, they are even farther away today.

There appear to be two Senates. One is consumed by leadership fights, committee chairmanships, and political maneuvering. The other — the Senate Filipinos actually need — is nowhere to be found.

Look around. Food prices continue to rise. Public services remain inadequate. Floodwaters keep returning. And government seems more preoccupied with itself than with the people it is supposed to serve.

For three days, Senate lawmakers chose not to show up.

Meanwhile, the janitors came to work. The security personnel reported for duty. Rank-and-file employees showed up and did their jobs. The media — whom Senator Marcoleta claimed were “bayaran” — waited for stories to write. 

Instead of covering laws being passed or reforms being debated for the benefit of Filipinos, they were left reporting on the latest twists in the battle for the Senate presidency.

Senators called their absence a protest. I can’t afford that kind of resistance. If I don’t show up for work, I don’t get paid.

This entire episode should remind us not to put too much fath in any camp. Politicians are still politicians. They carry their own interests, alliances, ambitions, and sometimes personal vendettas into public office.

We’re fortunate if we can still count on our fingers the genuine public servants in government.

The real question is whether anyone is still fighting for the Filipino people. Because while the senators battle for power, the truth appears to have lost its seat in the chamber.                

— Vivienne Angeles