Power is the only drug where the addicts call themselves public servants. A very sick group of people. Offer power, and they don’t usually decline. They faint first. Then they accept while fainting. Primitive jungle reflex. No self-control. No dignity whatsoever.
Then, during the recent Senate countercoup, Alan Peter Cayetano, Senate President, offered Mr. Abstainer, JV Ejercito, the majority leader position.
Huge job. Massive power. You control the Senate floor. Everybody kisses your ring. Senators suddenly laugh at your jokes. A very addictive lifestyle.
But JV said, “No, thank you. I’ll stay independent.”
Boom. Impossible answer. The brain rejected it biologically. Like a cow smoking cigarettes. People gather quietly, unobtrusively; nobody wants to scare the miracle away.
Let’s stop pretending Alan Peter suddenly woke up one morning overwhelmed by admiration for JV Ejercito’s leadership qualities, and start pretending Alan Peter woke up terrified he might become the shortest-serving SP in Philippine history. A very stressful victory. The humiliation needed reassurance immediately after winning. Very “Please clap.” Kings are supposed to look desirable, not needy.
Alan Peter talking about God during a shaky political moment has very strong “man gripping the airplane armrest during turbulence” energy. You notice this with politicians. The more unstable the numbers, the more religious they become.
JV’s abstention probably haunted Alan Peter more than the opposition votes. Opposition senators are easy. They hate you openly. Fine.
Abstainers? JV is terrifying because he still belongs to himself. Politicians despise that. Independence in politics is like somebody refusing to join a cult because they “need time to think.”
So when Alan rushed toward JV with majority leader hopes, JV probably looked at him the way normal people look at a cockroach. You know the kind. The flying ones. Cockroaches these days. They don’t even crawl anymore. Very ambitious insects.
He probably thought: “My God. Alan is trying to lay eggs on my reputation.”
No, thank you. JV looked at the situation and basically said, you know what? Maybe I don’t want to become assistant manager of whatever the hell this is.
Think about it. Everyone around him was grabbing positions, grabbing alliances, grabbing lifeboats. JV may have understood that when the ship starts looking unstable, don’t chain yourself to the captain immediately.
Because the Senate right now is exhausting. Before Alan Peter, “Senate President” still sounded institutional. Weighty. Respectable. The chamber still had some perfume of dignity. Now, everybody is emotional. Everybody is suspicious.
Now JV looks like the only guy in the room who cannot be cheaply bought. And now they drift toward the minority without looking fake because they never fully married the majority in the first place. Imagine Loren doing that.
JV preserved his distance from a Senate that is boarding the Sara Duterte future early.
“Because of principles.” Sure. And I go to girly bars for the salad. They call JV Ejercito the good one. And honestly? You can see why.