True partnership

First, full disclosure. I voted for the tandem of then senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and erstwhile Senate president Vicente “Tito” Sotto III in the May 2022 presidential and vice presidential elections. Sadly though, their tandem lost miserably in the landslide victory of then – and now defunct – UniTeam of now President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte.

PBBM acknowledged the valuable role of Sotto and Lacson by including them in the 12-man senatorial ticket of his administration-backed Alyansa ng Bagong Pilipinas. As the titular chieftain of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), Sotto entered into a unity coalition with PBBM’s Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) in May 2024, along with four other political parties in the administration coalition.

PBBM ran and won as the PFP presidential standard-bearer while VP Sara was still with the Lakas-CMD under the UniTeam. Less than three years later, the UniTeam disbanded following the breakaway of VP Sara, first from the Lakas-CMD and later as Marcos Cabinet member. She resigned as Department of Education secretary in July last year.

On the other hand, the genuine partnership of Lacson and Sotto manifested itself again when they joined together in their comeback bids to the Senate in the coming May 12 elections. Not a card-bearing member of the NPC, Lacson considers himself as a “guest candidate of the Alyansa coalition under the patronage of the NPC.” Actually, it was PBBM who “invited” the two – through a close friend and supporter of the Marcoses – to join the administration slate as early as June 2023, or long before the Alyansa was formed, Lacson revealed.

At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay last Wednesday, the two former senators demonstrated anew the give-and-take relationship as partners in politics. Through the years, their deepening partnership took root during their Senate stint together, starting from the 15th Congress. Lacson professed his respect for Sotto’s more than 20 years’ experience in the legislature as well as in navigating the bureaucracy. Their paths first crossed while he was still in the uniformed service of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Sotto was then the vice mayor of Quezon City for three consecutive terms. Sotto then ran and won as topnotcher in his first Senate term as member of the ninth Congress in 1992.

Lacson believes the two of them find common advocacy and platform to fight corruption in government and the illegal drugs menace in the Philippines through legislative reform measures they pushed through Congress before. Sotto could not agree more that he and Lacson will be able to continue their partnership to push their advocacy programs of government with their most probable return to the Senate. Both are turning 76 years old this year.

Sotto has consistently been placing among the top three in voters’ senatorial preference surveys. Lacson noted with a smile that he has been placing in the middle tier in the mock polls. Notwithstanding their good standing in mock polls, both are in their usual “running scared” mode. After all, there are 63 other senatorial rivals and all of their last names are alphabetized in the ballots.

Sotto is No. 59 while Lacson is No. 33. “But my waistline is just 32 inches,” Lacson wisecracks.

Most likely to enter the “Magic 12” winning circle in the Senate race – as the fate would have it – Sotto and Lacson would join the incoming 20th Congress as senator-judges in the impeachment trial of VP Sara. They conceded the Senate under the present 19th Congress will certainly not have enough time to complete the entire impeachment proceedings before they wind down on June 30.

Both chambers of Congress went into recess last Feb. 5 when the Lower House officially transmitted the fourth impeachment complaint against VP Sara. Lacson in particular agreed with the legal opinion of former constitutional commission (con-com) member and retired Supreme Court (SC) associate justice Adolf Azcuna in reference to Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero, who earlier declared they could only start the impeachment proceedings upon resumption of sessions on June 2.

Quoting Azcuna, Lacson believes two important constitutional issues must first be resolved. First, he said, the question whether the impeachment trial can cross over to the 20th Congress. And the second issue that must be settled is what constitutes “unreasonable delay” that Escudero is being accused of for not acting “forthwith” on the impeachment complaint, he added.

During his own talks with us at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last week, Azcuna maintained the holding of the mid-term elections could be a “reasonable delay.” But Azcuna asserted the Upper Chamber must still convene and constitute as impeachment court and for all the present 23 members of the Senate to take new oaths as senator-judges. By doing so, Azcuna offered his “humble opinion” this will enable the present Senate as a continuing body to take jurisdiction over the impeachment complaint.

Sotto and Lacson noted with concern, however, that the impeachment case against VP Sara has taken another complexion after the latter elevated the House-approved impeachment case before the SC the other day. Mindanao lawyers supportive of the Dutertes filed earlier that day a separate petition that sought the intervention of the SC to stop all the impeachment complaints against the VP as allegedly being constitutionally and legally flawed. But the very first petition filed asked the High Court to order the Senate to comply with the constitutional provision in starting “forthwith” the impeachment complaint upon receipt.

As a co-equal, independent branch of government, the two senators cited, the entry into the picture of the SC could further complicate matters for the Senate. “Anyway, several petitions were already filed, let’s await how these very interesting issues are resolved,” Lacson quipped.

Sotto and Lacson concurred that the present Senate would not have been faced with such dilemma had they acted immediately upon receipt of impeachment complaint. Their true partnership was attested to when they voted as senator-judges of the 15th Congress that convicted the late chief justice Renato Corona in May 2012.