‘Supermajority’

The speed with which the national political landscape has shifted, since the election of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as president, has been dizzying. The use of the earthquake analogy is appropriate; in the House of Representatives and, to a lesser extent, in the Senate, the change has been seismic.

Or, to change metaphors: The rapid ripening of the balimbing or star fruit in the political orchard has been one for the farmer’s almanac. The President-elect joined the PDP-Laban only recently; on May 9, only three of its candidates for Congress won. But a month after the elections, PDP-Laban is set to become the new majority, not only in the House but also in the Senate.

The shifting of alliances in the House will not look out of place in any episode of “Game of Thrones.” From a tiny base of three, Representative-elect Pantaleon Alvarez was able to grow his support to about three-fourths of the entire chamber—in part because as a longtime friend he is Duterte’s choice as speaker, in part because of savvy decision-making and alliance-building. Alvarez reached out to the controversial but politically adept Rodolfo Fariñas, reelected to his seat in the first district of Ilocos Norte, to offer him the post of majority leader. The majority-in-the-making allowed some just-elected or reelected congresspersons to join the coalition without leaving their parties, while encouraging others to join PDP-Laban. The new majority also worked to ensure that Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. of the Liberal Party would find himself not in the minority (as he had originally declared) but as part of the ruling coalition; this is a key development, as Belmonte is one of the country’s most influential politicians. He was thrice elected speaker, remains the dominant political force in the country’s richest city, and played an instrumental role in the victorious campaign of Vice President-elect Leni Robredo.

The maneuvering in the 24-person Senate was less dramatic, but no less consequential. At least four members had a real chance at forging a new majority and becoming Senate president: Senate President Franklin Drilon, and Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Aquilino Pimentel III, and Vicente Sotto III. This week, though, Pimentel, the PDP-Laban president, was able to reach an agreement with two of the other contenders; of particular note, Drilon was able to bring the LP and its allies into the new coalition, a development which Pimentel, who has enjoyed good relations with the LP, must have welcomed.

Aside from the speed of the shift, the size of the change is also noteworthy. Those speaking for the new majority in the 17th Congress talk of a “supermajority.” It is less accurate to use this term when it comes to the Senate; as of today, Pimentel seems to have the support of 17 senators a month and a half before the actual vote on July 25. That’s four more than necessary to elect a new Senate president, but that also means that a not-inconsiderable number of seven senators makes up the minority. The shift in loyalty of another bloc of five or six senators can change the complexion of the Senate completely.

In the House, however, the use of the term is precise. Very many of the 290 or so members will form part of a true supermajority. Everyone hastens to add that the House will not be a rubber stamp of the Duterte administration, but with margins like these, we can expect the key legislation that it will make a priority, including the reimposition of the death penalty and the revision or amendment of the Constitution, to pass readily.

But all this talk of a supermajority sharpens the sense that a fundamental principle of our constitutional government is at risk: The crucial importance of the separation of powers between three branches of government is one of the essential lessons we have learned from our bitter experiment with martial rule. To hear the new leaders of the House and the Senate announce to the world that they will vote for Duterte’s choices, and then to hear them trumpet supermajorities as though these were an unalloyed good, is to see cracks forming on a founding, constitutional principle.