What is happening between the Senate and Malacañang these days resurrects in the mind an adage that is better quoted in its original Pilipino version: “Ang hindi makuha sa santong dasalan ay kunin sa santong paspasan.”

It simply means that if you cannot get or win over support or loyalty by wooing and pleading, then use coercive and intimidating force.

That was the original meaning then. We have seen how this has evolved, given the institutionalization of graft and corruption in the government.

The “santong paspasan” now includes a more persuasive sweetener — absolution from charges plus persuasive petty cash in suitcases delivered to one’s doorstep.

The saying also reminds us of Judge Giovanni Falcone who dedicated his life to serving as an Italian magistrate and prosecuting judge who spearheaded the fight against the Sicilian Mafia, also known as Cosa Nostra.

Falcone was given two options by the Mafia which was engaged in drug trafficking, extortion and illegal gambling. Either he accepted their offer of oodles of cash and stopped his crusade against them or he would end up in his grave.

Judge Falcone chose the grave so that Sicily could live.

In the Philippine setting, we have senators who were offered freedom from suit and suitcases of cash — not from drugs, extortion, or gambling, for that would have been too much trouble — but from kickbacks derived from ghost flood control projects and bawdy insertions of unprogrammed funds into anomalous government budgets.

These senators now call themselves “the majority.” That now consolidates the forces of kleptocracy whose primordial agenda is to bury in the catacombs of forgetfulness the anomalies of the flood control projects. That will wash away the accountability of all the characters in the executive and legislative branches.

The 13 of them will now go for the kill, so to speak, to convict VP Sara in the impeachment court so that they will live happily ever after. But 13 is not enough.

It is a futile option for the rats that jumped ship to seek refuge in what they thought was a rescue boat that sailed from Malacañang through the murky Pasig River. The 2028 election is not far off and if perchance VP Sara becomes president they will have to settle their obligations pronto.

Recall how Lucio Tan refused to settle P6 billion in arrears owed to the government and how the smarting MV Pangilinan told the newly elected President Rodrigo Duterte to leave the telecom industry alone. Then with an overdose of hubris MVP, for his part, demanded P3 billion for him to surrender the 3G radio frequencies which the government earlier awarded to CURE, an idle PLDT subsidiary. The frequency spectrum was to be awarded instead to the country’s third major telecommunications player.

In response, Duterte asked Pangilinan to pay the government the very amount he demanded, which MVP complied with in less than 48 hours. Well, that is the brand of leadership some senators and oligarchs abhor should another Duterte become president.

And where are we today? We have a new majority in the Senate who are bound together not by any noble agenda but to avoid cases of malfeasance.

Meanwhile, we witnessed another classic absurdity where Malacañang directed the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to sell itself to itself for P48 billion.

This explains the bewilderment of PBBM when he asked: “Ang nais ko talagang malaman, paano ba tayo umabot sa ganito? Bakit nagkaganito yong gobyerno natin? Paano natin hinayaan na maging ganito kalala ang sitwasyon? Hindi ko maintindihan…anong gagawin natin?”

(“What I really want to know is how we got to where we are. How did our government get this way? I don’t understand…what should we do?”)

In disbelief, I asked Senator Imee what her brother was up to. Her curt reply: “He forgot he is the President.”