That was a sudden twist of events in the Senate last Monday afternoon. The patchwork coalition which was formed right after the Duterte victory was sundered.
One recalls that as early as the middle of May 2016, even before Congress proclaimed Rodrigo Roa Duterte of Davao City the duly-elected President of the Republic, behind-the-scenes (though clearly seen by the political publics) maneuvers were being made by the 24 “august” individuals constituting the Senate. Alan Cayetano and Koko Pimentel eyed the post of Senate President.
In quick fashion, Senator Franklin Drilon, the head of the Liberal Party contingent made a deal with Senator Koko Pimentel, chairman of the PDP-Laban. There were six Liberals in the Senate: Drilon, Kiko Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros, Bam Aquino, Leila de Lima and Joel Villanueva, although the last, Joel, was non-committal because of his personal friendship with Cayetano. Senator Ralph Recto, who ran under the LP banner for reelection, did not become party to the deal. With five votes compromised to him, Pimentel then parleyed with the so-called Independent Bloc, composed of Senators Tito Sotto, Ping Lacson, Chiz Escudero, Grace Poe, plus Senator Gringo Honasan and Nancy Binay of the UNA, which included in their sphere of influence Senator Sonny Angara, the lone LDP, and Senator Loren Legarda and Sherwin Gatchalian of the NPC, plus Senator Manny Pacquiao. Pimentel had the numbers.
His rival for the Senate presidency, Alan Cayetano, Duterte’s running-mate who lost in the VP race, was quite cautious. He wanted to give certain committees to those who he ascertained to be “friendly and cooperative” with the new president’s agenda. In Alan’s selectivity mode, Koko beat him to the punch.
Alan’s loyalists were Senators Cynthia Villar, Dick Gordon, Migs Zubiri and JV Ejercito. Senator Antonio Trillanes, who lambasted President Duterte throughout the campaign, had clearly predefined himself in the opposition.
The only lever who could tilt the numbers for Cayetano was the President himself, and even that would be a bit difficult. In the end, Cayetano’s dogged loyalty to the new president proved to be political undoing. One would not expect President Duterte to parley with the Liberals, particularly with the likes of Senator Leila de Lima, who even as chairman of the Commission on Human Rights was a pain in the neck for the then-mayor of Davao.
And since Duterte ran for president under the PDP-Laban of which Koko was head, and his father the former senator Nene was founder, Duterte would be hard put to intervene.
In the end, Alan Cayetano had to ensure that his loyalists, Gordon, Zubiri, Villar and JV were not left with crumbs in the division of committee chair “spoils.” Pimentel was proclaimed Senate President, with a technicolor coalition the fulcrum of which were Liberals, whose presidential candidate Duterte trounced.
Only in the Philippines, but then, such is Philippine politics under a presidential form with a multi-party system. Queer, but such is the way the cookie crumbles.
Things went rather well until the irrepressible De Lima started her vociferous campaign against the draconian measures the new president had to employ against the scourge of drugs. She delivered a privilege speech excoriating the executive days after his first State of the Nation Address where he was even remarkably warm towards his pronounced nemesis, the senator from Bicol.
Days before, a common friend and San Beda co-alumnus talked to the senadora so that there could be some modus vivendi between the two Bedans. The meeting was at her instance. And then the privilege speech.
Meanwhile, findings from the National Penitentiary showed traces of the senadora’s seeming involvement with figures from the drug trade. Her successor at DoJ, another Bedan, scratched beneath the surface and soon enough, the Bilibid rigmarole unraveled, along with some rather unseemly incidents.
Meanwhile, too, the Liberal vice-president, Leni Robredo was appointed to head the cabinet-level HUDCC, thence dis-appointed in quick fashion, because the palace began to be leery of the behind-the-scenes maneuvers (destabilizing?) of certain powerful members of the party.
The nation became polarized, with social media becoming the hot battleground. But the general public in three successive poll surveys showed their continuing support of the President.
Things came to a head in the days prior to Feb. 25, the day the Yellows have claimed to be their franchise, even if it really belonged to the entire nation.
A Muntinlupa RTC judge issued a warrant of arrest for the senadora from Bicol. Earlier, her comrade-in-arms against the President, Senator Trillanes, trotted out a supposedly “conscience-stricken” retired policeman, Arthur Lascanas, who months before gave the lie to a confessed “hitman,” Edgar Matobato, whom De Lima brought into the Senate halls to testify about the DDS.
The pattern of Yellow attacks seemed to be too concerted as to give any level of comfort for the administration.
Duterte had offered the hand of conciliation, both in the Senate as well as in the House of Representatives, where a legion of former Liberals swore to cooperate with the new government.
Now it seemed to those in the palace that they misread the Yellows.
Last Monday, after a “divided” nation commemorated Edsa Uno, with one stage being “exclusively” Yellow (and a paltry audience) and another stage at the Luneta (with 25 times the other audience in size), the administration must have decided to call it “somos o no somos.”
With us or against us?
The administration has crossed its political Rubicon.