The Senate’s odyssey

I finally found time this week to watch Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey. It was mesmerizing. His retelling of Odysseus’ decade-long journey home was emotionally gripping and rich with timeless lessons. One scene, in particular, struck close to home; it was Odysseus and his crew trying to navigate the deadly passage between Scylla and Charybdis.

In Greek mythology, Scylla and Charybdis are twin monsters lurking on opposite sides of a narrow strait. To get home, Odysseus must pass between them. He must choose between the two. Scylla, the monster perched on the cliffs, snatches sailors one by one. Charybdis, the monstrous whirlpool, swallows entire ships whole. Together, they are the mythological equivalent to the English expression “caught between a rock and a hard place.”

Watching that scene, I couldn’t help but think of the impeachment trial of twice-impeached Vice President Sara Duterte. The Senate, now sitting as an impeachment court, seems to be navigating its own Scylla and Charybdis – the Cayetano siblings.

On one side is Sen. Pia Cayetano, now embroiled in controversy after sharing a pro-Duterte spliced video that falsely portrayed the House prosecution, particularly Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno, of conducting a “fishing expedition.” The irony is hard to miss. Days earlier, Pia, along with her brother, repeatedly lectured their fellow senator-judges on the importance of rules and legal procedure and on how to conduct themselves properly. Yet, by amplifying malicious content against a member of a co-equal chamber of the legislature, the lady senator breached rules and basic parliamentary courtesy. This was after Diokno publicly schooled her on the basic legal difference between a search warrant and a request for subpoenas to obtain Duterte’s bank records, a comparison she clumsily made. Talk about a bruised ego finding comfort in a manipulated video. Can’t win a legal argument in real life? Win it in an edited video, complete with a laugh track.

The fallout was swift. Lawyers, civil society groups and ordinary citizens condemned her actions and urged her to take down the video and apologize. She did neither. Silence, it seems, is the language of her impunity.

Pia, who has long fashioned herself as a women’s rights champion, was slapped with an ethics complaint, filed by women advocates, feminists and women academics, who once upon a time stood with her on gender advocacies. Their argument was straightforward. They said that sharing manipulated content that overwhelmingly favors a respondent in an impeachment trial raises serious questions about her impartiality as a senator-judge.

Then again, this is hardly unfamiliar territory for her. Before this, she presided over a widely criticized Blue Ribbon committee hearing that many dismissed as fake after her bloc already lost all of its committee chairmanships. She even personally escorted into the Senate the infamous “18 maleta boys,” whose stories about millions of pesos stuffed inside suitcases seem to evolve each and every time the Senate’s majority-minority dynamics shift. Apparently, in Pia’s version of truth-seeking, doctored videos and shape-shifting testimonies both qualify as evidence.

On the other side is Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, the worst Senate president in Philippine history, ousted from the post after barely three weeks for plunging the Senate into complete chaos. He tries to present himself as an opposition leader, even growing a beard, as if this would make him more credible. It could hide his jawline but not his hypocrisy.

Alan Peter’s conduct as a senator-judge has increasingly made him look like a member of Sara’s defense team. Time and again, he has taken the podium not to uncover the truth but to recycle the Vice President’s talking points that a death threat isn’t really a threat unless someone ends up dead, that the threat was “only conditional” and that her multimillion-peso bank withdrawals may be “unusual but are not necessarily illegal.” Even two-time Olympic gold medalist Carlos Yulo wouldn’t dare compete with Alan Peter’s mental gymnastics.

Like his sister, Alan Peter is in hot water after Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson reportedly uncovered compelling evidence and witnesses pointing to ghost and anomalous projects in Taguig City, the bailiwick of the self-proclaimed “Ambassador of Jesus Christ.” As usual, the Senate’s live-seller appealed to the Court of Facebook. His livestreams were painful to watch. They were a cocktail of political attacks, condescension, self-righteousness, Bible quotes, victimhood and backhanded insults. One moment he was defiant. The next, he was pleading not to be singled out. Then, after reports surfaced that he had sought a ceasefire with Lacson, he denied sending feelers.

Together, the Cayetano siblings embody some of the worst things in Philippine politics. They represent the despicable power and entitlement of political dynasties, lack of accountability, performative politics and false narratives over public service.

In Homer’s epic, Scylla and Charybdis were monsters that Odysseus eventually sailed past. In Philippine politics, their equivalents seem less like obstacles and more like permanent fixtures.

The Senate was meant to be the nation’s chamber of sober judgment, the ballast that keeps the ship of state steady through turbulent waters. Right now, it resembles a vessel forced to navigate various recurring political abominations, with the Filipino people left as the crew hoping the next wave doesn’t finish off what remains of their hope and aspirations.

Sometimes I think Odysseus had it easier. At least the monsters he encountered stayed in caves and in the seas. But ours? They have public offices and political pulpits.

Let’s take inspiration from Odysseus’ journey. But unlike him, we are not condemned to choose between one monster and another. We are citizens in a democracy. We can refuse them all. If we truly want to sail our country toward calmer seas and brighter horizons, then it is not enough to merely navigate around political monstrosities; we need to banish them from public office altogether.