The Speakership yesterday, the party today

“So why do it the illegal way? Why don’t Talag and his group break away from the ruling political party?

Not content with having unseated Pantaleon Alvarez, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives without honoring the rules of the House, the faction of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP) is reportedly ready to try a bigger coup—the ouster of the current national leaders of the political party, such as its secretary-general, ex-Speaker Alvarez.

A national assembly of the PDP-Laban National Capital Region chapter, Willy Talag, party president of Makati City council and chair of the membership committee of the NCR chapter, said the current leaders of the party have “committed violations” such as conducting mass oathtaking of members “without proper basic seminar” and swearing in officials who are “involved in illegal drugs.”

That’s really rich, coming from them, as they appear to have committed far more serious violations, such as staging a coup and taking over power and position without even respecting House rules.

The same faction appears poised to conduct an election of officers within the day and this would start the coup ball rolling for them to start the expulsion of the party president, Koko Pimentel, and the secretary general, Alvarez—imagine just like that.

Naturally, even as this group wants its founding members and officers out, Talag said he and his group would still continue to support President Duterte. But of course. What would the PDP be without Duterte as president?

So why do it the illegal way? Why don’t Talag and his group break away from the ruling political party? Why steal a political party? Why not form a new political party and pledge their allegiance to the party and eternal loyalty and devotion to Duterte?

“There has never been a Philippine president who was immediately succeeded by a relative.

Talag is a party member for four years and wants to become the secretary general, also denied that they are illegitimate members and that their national assembly event is unauthorized, as claimed earlier by Pimentel.

He has 10,000 members and they are true-blue PDP? Hello. When Duterte won, there were only two PDP members left as Laban, its coalition partner, broke off earlier.

Not that I care for the political party of PDP or any other political party, since these parties grow or shrink in memberships depending on who the Malacañang tenant is.

This appears to be fate of political parties in the Philippines which is why a parliamentary system of government will never work well for democracy in this country.

Filipino politicians are such turncoats and political butterflies that they quickly drop their parties despite their sworn allegiance to their earlier parties and quickly embrace the political party of whoever sits as President.

What will happen then will be a formation of a supermajority, no different from what the House has today and even yesterday. No one wants to lose his committee chairmanship, allowances and the perks of the office and titles.

In exchange, they do not oppose whatever proposals and bills presented and quickly approve these bills even without reading them.

Of course, there will always be, within a supermajority, those who are salivating for more power and perks, along with chairmanships, so they have to stage coups and with the changes, the cycle starts all over again—or maybe not, since such a practice has been this cycle that has been going on for decades and decades.

These grabbers of power already have the Speakership, the chairmanships of committees, the deputy speakerships, the majority floor leadership—nay, even the political party and its supermajority—all grabbed illegally of course. What more do they want?

They have been quoted as saying that they will drop out of the party and join the political party formed by presidential daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio, despite its being a regional party.

Perhaps they know something the general public does not know, such as Mayor Sara running for a seat in 18th Congress and ending up as its Speaker or even become its Prime Minister, should a parliamentary system replace the present system and even if a presidential-parliamentary system is ushered in?

After all, the President under the federal system, may not have any great powers and the real power would be in the hands of the Prime Minister.

But these politicians should think twice or even more times. There has never been a Philippine president who was immediately succeeded by a relative.

If this trend continues, then Mayor Sara is not likely to succeed her father as president—or perhaps as prime minister.

But then again, there can always be a first time.

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