Bring out the popcorn and snuggle down in your favorite seat and watch with bated breath as our dirty political landscape unravels.
It’s perhaps the creepiest dark comedy you’ll ever see, even better than the edge-of-your-seat political dramas on your television. “House of Cards” pales in comparison and even the web of corruption and political turmoil in the brilliant “The Bagman” series suddenly seems so drab.
Welcome to Manila, welcome to mayhem.
Truth really is stranger than fiction. Here we are now suddenly finding ourselves as unwitting – or, perhaps for others, unwilling – spectators in this ongoing political drama.
The plot thickens everyday. I’m referring to ongoing moves to change our Charter. The country’s supposedly esteemed chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate, are now head-to-head over the issue.
They are now in a fierce battle to raze one another to the ground, with the Senate suddenly confronted by an existential threat.
Senators signed a manifesto last week opposing the so-called gathering of signatures for a people’s initiative to amend the Constitution.
Motivated by self preservation, all 24 senators expressed disapproval of the people’s initiative spearheaded by PIRMA or the People’s Initiative for Reform Modernization and Action, which allegedly involved bribery and other illegal activities.
The PI, said Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, only seeks for both Houses of Congress to act as a constituent assembly and vote jointly – which would clearly render bicameralism and, in effect, the Senate, futile.
“While it seems simple, the goal is apparent – to make it easier to revise the Constitution by eliminating the Senate from the equation. It is an obvious prelude to further amendments, revisions or even an overhaul of our entire Constitution,” Zubiri was quoted as saying.
‘Politiko’s initiative’
House Speaker Martin Romualdez is being blamed for this initiative even as he has been distancing himself from it.
As if on cue, a video of him from December last year, talking about amending the Constitution, suddenly re-surfaced.
“We are thinking right now of addressing the procedural gap or question as to how we amend the Constitution.
“So, we would like to amend the Constitution vis-a-vis how we procedurally amend the same. And that’s either we vote jointly or separately. We would like to have the result by and through people’s initiative,” Romualdez was quoted as saying last Dec. 11, 2023.
This, Senator Francis Escudero said, is clearly a politiko’s and not the people’s initiative.
“How can Speaker Romualdez deny he is not behind the ‘pekeng initiative’ when he bragged about it last December and took credit for it? History has taught us that nothing good comes out of anything that begins with a lie,” Escudero said last week.
It is, as I said, a full blown war between both chambers.
As for the group behind the people’s initiative, they are confident they will succeed this time.
On Sunday, supposedly the Sabbath Day, there were two rallies – one was the Bagong Pilipinas rally, which is Marcos 2.0’s Bagong Lipunan version, and another was held in Davao, the kingdom of the Dutertes.
Spotted at the Davao rally, on the other hand, were the Dutertes led by patriarch Rody Duterte and presidential sister Imee Marcos. It was meant as a protest against Charter change. Vice President Sara Duterte, on the other hand, went to both rallies.
As I said, welcome to the land of mayhem. How dirty our politics can be when politikos face threats to their existence.
What is unfolding is as dizzying as it is entertaining, but what happens next is anybody’s guess.
Let’s not be fooled though that our politicians and lawmakers are doing all this for the people. It’s all about power and for themselves.
Ordinary Filipinos, unfortunately, are too busy with the daily grind to care.
For now, what is clear is that all these moves toward Charter change have become a major distraction.
The government and Congress should be working together to fix our problems – from strengthening our economy to creating jobs for our citizens.
The problems are serious and in need of serious attention – from the gaps in education and health care to the worsening traffic situation to the growing tensions in the West Philippine Sea and many, many more.
Against this backdrop, the country’s tycoons and businessmen are as quiet as sheep, refusing to say anything in public about the ongoing moves to amend the Constitution.
“It’s too dangerous,” one businessman said.
But make no mistake, they are closely watching the developments as a possible constitutional or political crisis would definitely affect investor sentiment.
It’s not to say though that the business community does not support Charter change. Business groups have previously expressed support for moves to ease economic provisions of the Constitution.
Only time will tell where this Cha-cha train will lead us, but it has clearly become divisive and has widened the rift between Marcos-Romualdez and the Dutertes.
Some conspiracy theorists feel the conflict is just a smokescreen to confuse the opposition and whatever is left of the Left, but whether or not this is just for show, there would be collateral damage for sure.
President Marcos has been quiet about the whole thing but he can’t keep being the good cop.
He would have to intervene at some point. Otherwise, we may soon face a full-blown constitutional or political crisis.
And when that happens, it’s not really our politicians who will suffer but the economy and ordinary Filipinos.
* * *
Email: eyesgonzales@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.