Back to regular programming

If it’s any consolation to Alan Peter Cayetano, his Senate presidency is not the shortest on record in our country.

By now he surely knows that the dubious honor goes to Camilo Osias, who served as Senate leader for all of 13 days, from April 17 to 30, 1952.

Even back then, alliances in the Senate were constantly shifting. Osias, a member of the Nacionalista Party, won the Senate presidency by 13 votes, but the opposition worked quickly to unseat him, replacing him with Eulogio Rodriguez.

Since leadership changes in the current Congress are not governed by shared values or principles but by personal interests, and political parties are so weak, alliances can shift overnight.

Sherwin Gatchalian is the fifth Senate President under the Marcos administration, with four of the leadership changes happening in less than two years.

Cayetano’s brief stint, however, will be remembered for the sustained chaos in the chamber under his watch. This stemmed from the way he was installed, through the emergence from hiding of his colleague wanted for crimes against humanity, Ronald dela Rosa.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson released a statement yesterday, placing the amount of public funds spent in the 21 non-productive Senate days at P700 million. The new minority may dispute this, but it’s clear that so much was wasted in those days of chaos. And for what?

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The reason indicated for the leadership coup was the supposed watered down and partial report of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee under Lacson on the flood control scandal. The report, already submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman, implicated several senators in the Cayetano bloc, but stopped short of pinning down President Marcos, his son Sandro and cousin Martin Romualdez.

When the Cayetano bloc took over the Senate, their first order of business was to hold a hearing of the Blue Ribbon under the Drama Queen, featuring the 18 self-proclaimed former bagmen of Zaldy Co.

But with Sen. Loren Legarda in attendance, the 18 amended the revelations in their original statement and omitted her from their list of alleged kickback recipients. Legarda’s switch to the Cayetano bloc had added to the votes that allowed his coup.

The 18 then proceeded with more dagdag-bawas, adding Lacson’s allies Senators Vicente Sotto III and Erwin Tulfo to the list of supposed kickback recipients.

By the next public appearance of the 18, their statements had become so riddled with holes that even their handlers in the Cayetano bloc no longer bothered to show up.

If their testimony was the argument for Cayetano’s coup, it was a dud. Too bad, because some details in their original affidavit seemed to carry a grain of truth.

What Cayetano’s short-lived stint did was to present the Senate as a refuge for scoundrels, and himself as someone who clings to power like a gecko, kapit-tuko, even at the steep cost of institutional damage – an observation that he will surely find unfair.

From his pronouncements, it looks like he hasn’t entirely given up, especially considering the tenuous loyalties at the Senate.

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Watching the members of the opposing blocs interacting on Wednesday, some naughty observers wondered if Sen. Rodante Marcoleta was holding a knife as he patted new President Pro Tempore Vicente Sotto III on the back. But Marcoleta doesn’t seem capable of Orocan moments, and that gesture of goodwill seemed genuine.

I’m reminded once again of Jose de Venecia Jr. Years ago as rumors swirled that he would be kicked out as House speaker, he told some of us STAR editors that in Congress, smiling colleagues would pat each other on the back, feeling for the best spot to plunge the knife.

Sen. Pia Cayetano still appeared to be in a snit, but give her credit for attending the special session. Legarda seemed to have abandoned her spirited defense of her short-lived position as Senate president pro tempore. For a while, she had stood firmly behind Cayetano even as Malacañang, the House, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, business and civil society groups were publicly recognizing the legitimacy of their bloc’s ouster from their Senate posts.

As for us their employers, we can only heave a sigh of relief that this disgraceful bunch is back at work.

There’s a silver lining to this tumult: a greater awareness that senators are on the public payroll and they’re not being paid to slack off.

Sen. Robinhood Padilla, who as a senator keeps behaving as if he’s starring in a B-movie, joined Cayetano in snubbing the first day of the special session on Wednesday. Padilla was shameless and clueless enough to post where he preferred to spend his working day: attending a special screening of his action film “Bad Boy 3” in Cebu, which he produced, starred in and directed.

Folks, that’s where our taxes go.

Padilla’s post, however, was quickly taken down amid online flak. At least he isn’t completely tone-deaf to public opinion.

Yesterday, Gatchalian said “Senateflix” was over and the chamber was “back to normal programming.”

Under his watch, it does look like the Senate turbulence has calmed down. Let’s see if it’s not just the calm before yet another storm.