What is happening in the Senate today is a classic and supreme irony in the convoluted world of Philippine politics. In its entirety, the fragile Cayetano-led majority is in truth and in fact the only surviving minority.
Political power and control of the purse reside in Malacañang, which purchases the loyalty of corrupt and left-leaning legislators of both chambers. It also dispenses plunder cases or exacts retribution against uncooperative legislators as exemplified by Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Chiz Escudero.
On the Senate agenda are two historic issues. The impeachment trial of Vice President Inday Sara Duterte who dominates the surveys on the 2028 presidential race and the probe into the unprecedented corruption arising from the trillion-peso kickbacks from ghost flood control projects and billions of pesos in budget insertions in unprogrammed funds.
If one reckons from where all these emanate, all leads to the Palace beside the murky waters of the Pasig River. President Bongbong Marcos himself reported in one of his State of the Nation Addresses that his administration had implemented over 5,500 flood control projects.
As to the unprogrammed funds, it is dispensed by the Department of Budget and Management which is under the Executive branch. Then DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman and Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin were made the sacrificial goats. Without their knowledge, they were deemed resigned as announced by none other than presidential spokesperson Claire Castro.
The outrageous fortune of Amenah, however, has not ebbed. She and Bersamin “resigned” after their departments were mentioned in allegations related to anomalous flood control projects that are under investigation.
This time, moreover, Amenah Pangandaman is facing a complaint for alleged technical malversation, graft, and other administrative raps over the unconstitutional transfer of the P60-billion excess funds of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and the P107-billion funds of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) to the national treasury.
The last time I read about this issue, it was former Finance and now Executive Secretary Ralph Recto who was in the vortex of this controversy.
Back to the mutiny in the Senate, Cayetano’s leadership was challenged following the incarceration of Senator Jinggoy. If we are to believe Estrada’s statement, he claimed that he was “offered many times to abandon the independent majority bloc in exchange for the dismissal of his case,” but he declined. He added that it was his “conviction to remain with my colleagues in the independent majority bloc.”
The other member of the Cayetano-led majority was Chiz Escudero. The Office of the Ombudsman accused him of plunder, graft, and indirect bribery over a flood control project anomaly and he was in a bind.
Last Wednesday, when the Sotto-led minority was in the Senate session hall sans Cayetano’s group, Escudero walked straight to the minority senators who were in a huddle and was received like he was a divine chameleon. In so many words, Chiz explained his defection, but the air has been rife with talk that he did it to avoid the fate of Jinggoy.
As I write this piece, it appears the Senate is in a volatile situation. Sen. Ping Lacson, in a TV interview, said the Senate has no legitimate Senate President and that Sherwin Gatchalian, having been elected Senate President Pro Tempore, will act as Presiding Officer.
It’s not that simple, Cayetano says. I must confess that at this stage, I am confused and hoping that the Supreme Court will rule on this stalemate.
In the final analysis, it is apparent that the imbroglio in the Senate is happening because there are members who want to dispense with the Blue Ribbon Committee investigation over the trillion-peso kickbacks, who are among the government officials who received a windfall unprecedented in Philippine history.
