When it rains, it pours, it is said. And pour it did starting last week. Conflict and controversy, I mean.
Whatever possessed the administration to try and arrest the long-hiding Senator Ronald dela Rosa right at the doorsteps of the Senate, I’ll never know. Especially since it came at right about the same time the House of Representatives had voted overwhelmingly to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte.
That should have been the news: the arch-rival of the President going to trial on charges of corruption and betrayal of public trust. Government, with its vast media resources, could have seized the narrative and used it to further pillory the Veep.
Except that it wasn’t the big news anymore. Something more dramatic happened in the Senate.
In the midst of a change of leadership wherein De la Rosa’s was the swing vote, the public was treated to the spectacle of Dela Rosa running to the plenary hall to vote, outrunning the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents.
Then, at almost the exact same time that the articles of impeachment were being transmitted to the Senate, an exchange of gunfire attracted all the attention. After that, Dela Rosa slipped out of the Senate building with his partymate, swashbuckling action star Senator Robin Padilla.
Then came Dela Rosa’s motion for a temporary restraining order before the Supreme Court; the denial thereof; and the order of the Department of Justice to hunt him down. All this ensuing noise buried the issue of the impeachment trial.
Then came the viral cold indifference of Senator Hontiveros to the plight of her colleagues during the shootout, Sen. Pia Cayetano’s emotional response, the suspension of Senate sergeant-at-arms Mao Aplasca by the Ombudsman, the uncouth treatment of Dela Rosa’s lawyer Jimmy Bondoc by Ces Drilon, and the Senate reorganization.
Of particular interest then was the chairmanship of the Blue Ribbon Committee. Sen. Pia got it; Marcoleta is one of the members.
What impeachment trial? The pivot of public interest was the reopening of the hearings on Floodgate, the trillion-peso-plus flood control scandal, which Sen. Lacson made a mess of during his chairmanship of the BRC.
Of course, the attention will eventually swing back to the impeachment proceedings. But the initial impact — that the administration was expecting to spin against VP Sara — had been effectively blunted. And by the Executive’s own doing.
What the people saw was the heavy-handed manner by which the Executive mobilized its armed resources to try to thwart a leadership change and to implement a warrant from the International Criminal Court that is of dubious enforceability in the country, trying to sow terror among the senators.
To top it all off, the rains will come in the midst of the impeachment trial. It already did, for less than half a day in Bulacan, and more than half of Bulacan was submerged. More rains and widespread flooding will serve to bring more reminders to the people that the impeachment of VP Sara is a stupid exercise in petty political persecution while the country becomes awash in floodwaters again.
Good luck to Marcos Jr. in gaining the people’s sympathy for his government’s empty protestations for accountability in the midst of a veritable rain of terror.