“Uneasy lies the head of others in the benighted land!”
UNEASY lies the head which wears a crown.
The minority of nine tried twice before to wrest Senate leadership from Tito Sotto.
First the failure to get the magic number of 13 was because Bato de la Rosa was in hiding.
Next Bato was somewhere near the Senate building, waiting for his cue to vote for a lady senator as the new president. But Malacanang and a power broker got wind of the impending coup, and while a delegation was on its way to inform Sotto, these powerful persons called three senators with threatening messages.
And so, though they had already signed the articles of decapitation, they made themselves scarce. Since change in leadership requires a physical vote in plenary, the second attempt fizzled out.
The retained Sotto made a beau geste to Loren Legarda, promising her a crack at the Senate presidency before her elected term in 2028 ends.
But the plotting by the ringleaders of the minority never ceased, and the secretive wooing persisted.
By Sunday last, the die was cast, the magic number reached. And while a power broker in the second attempt anchored his objection to the lady who would have been the first president of the Senate, the plotters decided to nominate Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano instead.
The DDH yak about this Senate coup being tied to the impeachment of their bete noire, Inday Sara who is visiting her father in Den Haag yet she found out only when the news broke out.
Sotto thought his leadership was safe and was already in earlier discussions with his House counterpart about a Malacanang-inspired plot to convene Congress into a constituent assembly to revise the 1987 Constitution. This was the subject of our Monday article in this space, and a SPOKES interview over the Bilyonaryo News Channel yesterday.
The givens are clear to most political observers.
The Senate dice, this time to get a magic 16 to convict the vice-president is not going to roll. Six re-electionists come 2028 cannot afford to face a backlash of “rage” in Mindanao, Central and Eastern Visayas, and even NCR.
Even if they get Bato into Scheveningen, and hale Chiz, Jinggoy and Joel into the Sandiganbayan, the 16 needed to convict is immutable.
If the vice-president is acquitted, the path to her presidency would be clear. Leni, the great hope of the pinklawans, would stick to her word not to run for president, and Raffy Tulfo would opt for re-election, which is a certainty rather than lose his Senate seat after June 30, 2028.
And the president along with his coterie of bootlickers would not only find themselves jobless, but some of them might also be prosecuted for the never-to-be-forgotten flood control scandal and more.
It is a specter that they cannot countenance.
So Cha-cha, already floated by Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno of the powerful NUP is now swimming into the realm of the possible.
Still, the unexpected Monday development in the Senate has discombobulated the plot.
Trust me, it has not died. It is just back to the “cleaners” for laundering and at the right time, be trotted out from the closet.
For while Inday Sara’s fate is existential to the Dutertes, the same is existential to the Marcoses, minus Senadora Imee.
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Former Finance Sec. Sonny Dominguez, worried that the first quarter inflation reached 7.2 percent (with only March oil prices galloping), and economic growth registered a very low 2.8 percent, with the national debt now a dangerous 65.8 percent of the GDP, up from 62 percent pre-Iran, has this message for the new Senate majority:
“The dramatic change in the Senate leadership is an opportunity to shift the focus of the government leaders AWAY from intense partisan politics, towards addressing the very serious economic challenges faced by our people.
“Inflation is now over 7 percent and is likely to remain even high for some time. Food prices are steadily rising (13.2 percent of the first quarter increase is attributable to food prices, rice included) due to higher fertilizer and transport costs and will likely continue even up to next year as a Super El Nino is expected starting late this year.
“GDP growth starting from the last quarter of 2025 has been only 50 percent of government’s target – and will likely remain low for the rest of the year.
“This economic slowdown and low investment levels is creating more joblessness, with even underemployment levels worsening.”
The portents of gloom are heightened even more by surveys which show rising pessimism, even hopelessness, among our people who are convinced their government is not serious in addressing inflation and alleviating the worsening economic condition of the majority of our people.
To quote a former president, Erap Estrada: “hungry stomach knows no law.”
Uneasy lies the head of others in the benighted land!
