It took them decades to build the integrity of the Senate,” captions a collage of past senator-statesmen on the upper half of a meme making the rounds. Below it, a collage of today’s 13 Senate majority members is captioned: “It took them just three days to ruin it.” The Philippine Senate had traditionally been known for respected, well-credentialed, experienced, and principled statesmen/women. “Statesmanship” connotes integrity (ethics, honesty), wisdom (deep understanding of the common good), and diplomacy (bridging divides, building consensus). Lorenzo Tañada, Jose Diokno, Jovito Salonga, and Miriam Defensor Santiago were among our most prominent senator-statesmen, all known for firm principles and untarnished reputations. Senates dominated by such high-caliber individuals are now history. As a recent article put it, we now have a Senate not of statesmen but of showmen, where each pursues his/her own self-serving agenda (more on this below), in defiance of their solemn duty to uphold the interests of the people they represent.
At the outset, it’s nothing short of obscene that today’s Senate has four pairs of siblings (half-brothers in one case), a full third of the chamber’s total membership. Anyone would question how a country of 116 million people—and surely a large number with qualities far more deserving of the “honorable” appellation ascribed to the motley crew now occupying those seats—could end up with such an anomaly. We all know why, of course, but I’m not dwelling on that here. But the Senate coup and the theatrics that turned the body into an illegal refuge for an internationally wanted criminal reveal the glaring lack of a moral compass in those who now recklessly and fecklessly wield power therein.
To claim that the leadership ambush is not related to the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte insults everyone’s intelligence. The whole script and playbook exude a rotten stink. One, the sudden appearance of fugitive Sen. Ronald dela Rosa just to vote on the Senate presidency, admitted to have been transported there in the very car of the one who was elected, screams premeditation and deliberate planning. Two, his cowardly, stumbling stairway dash to evade arrest, and his pathetic effort to draw sympathy with bandaged fingers injured in the process, only further diminished the man who once arrogantly brandished the power he held as the President’s chief executioner. Three, coddling him with a “protective custody” that has no basis in law—yet previously denied to two senators of opposite persuasion—reeks of arbitrariness and double standards. Four, the farcical exchange of gunfire, now known to have been started by Senate security personnel themselves, a senator’s plainly heard instruction to “hide the CCTV,” then calling it an attack, all suggest bad faith and deception. Five, seeing senators conjure a panicked victim image of being “under attack,” yet being seen feasting on a buffet and shamelessly posting flippant antics, was stomach-turning.
As for those in the new but tenuous majority, another meme circulating on social media shows their self-serving motivations for doing what they did. Six are implicated in the flood control corruption scandal. Two must answer to the International Criminal Court. One has always openly supported the disgraced former president, hence also his two colleagues, even having earlier declared that he would gladly join them in prison in The Hague. One is seen aiming to be the running mate of the Vice President in 2028, if not to run for president herself. One is out to protect her embattled son from a P24-billion government liability. And one is the sister of the newly installed Senate leader, whose fawning allegiance to the former president explains much of how he acts and behaves. And that’s why no right-thinking person would believe that the timing of the Senate coup has nothing to do with VP Duterte’s impeachment. “Tell it to the marines,” I heard someone say.
The past week’s events have dragged the Philippine Senate down to its lowest depths ever, and it will be a steep uphill climb to recover the nation’s esteem and trust for the chamber. It has literally become the “Lower House” in people’s eyes, even as members of the other chamber have long preferred the term “Larger House.” It’s unfortunate that principled members of the Senate minority dissociated from the farce must also suffer the collective ignominy. But in them lies people’s hope that they manage to overturn the very thin majority the infamous 13 now have, which political analysts say is not only doable, but probable under fickle Philippine politics. We pray that some of those 13 may yet listen to their inner conscience, decide to be true statesmen, and help redeem the tattered image and stature of their institution.
As for the rest of us, we can only sit tight and keep praying for our nation’s deliverance and our children’s future.
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