Gaslighting continues

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) is indeed slow to anger. To his credit though, PBBM has been showing calm and restraint during critical times whenever his leadership is challenged.

Now entering its fourth year in office, Malacañang admitted PBBM is “disappointed” at the recent developments that followed the latest Senate leadership change. PBBM’s disappointment obviously stemmed from the fact that many of the actors in last Wednesday night’s drama at the Senate were his former colleagues at the Senate.

One of them was newly installed Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano, whom he worked with from 2010 to 2016 as a senator. Also caught inside the Senate siege was presidential sister Sen. Imee Marcos, who joined the new Senate majority that installed Cayetano as new Senate President after they ousted sitting Senate chief Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.

This was after gunshots were exchanged between armed elements of the Office of the Sergeant-at-arms (OSSA) and agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). Two days earlier, Cayetano called out NBI director Melvin Matibag for sending NBI agents without proper prior coordination with the Senate leadership to serve a warrant of arrest against a sitting senator, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, while they were in session.

Not known to Sen. Bato, two plainclothes NBI personnel were waiting for his arrival at the Senate last Monday. He sneaked in using a vehicle lent to him by Cayetano to take him to the Senate after being no-show for more than six months. The NBI agents were there to serve the Interpol arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Sen. Bato on his alleged crimes against humanity.

Sen. Bato later admitted he “wrestled” his way out of the clutches of two female NBI agents. Some wearing NBI bullet-proof vests, the agents gave chase to Sen. Bato at the stairwell, all the way up at the Senate but failed to catch him. Reaching the session hall, Sen. Bato cast the swing vote of 13 senators to elect Cayetano as their new Senate president.

After they wrested the Senate leadership, the Cayetano-led majority approved a resolution granting Sen. Bato “protective custody” to stay inside the Senate premises. Citing among other legal grounds, Cayetano maintained that the ICC-issued arrest warrant is not legally binding to the Senate as an independent co-equal branch of government.

Cayetano subsequently replaced the head of the OSSA, retired Air Force Maj. General Rene Samonte. After the chase incident, Sen. Bato openly reprimanded Samonte for failure to protect him as a member of the Senate from alleged illegal arrest. Retired Police Maj. Gen. Mao Aplasca was designated to take over as new OSSA chief. Aplasca is a lower classman of Sen. Bato at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).

Smarting from narrowly getting elected Senate chief, Cayetano started spewing out his conspiracy theories in his media interviews the next day. He claimed that certain quarters, possibly including senators, tried but failed to stop Sen. Bato from attending to his duties as duly elected official. He blamed these elements as being behind the inappropriate NBI service of arrest warrants, resulting in the disrespect of the Senate institution. Cayetano disclosed complaints might be initiated before the Senate ethics committee against unnamed senators.

Directly responding to Cayetano’s accusations hurled through media, Sotto stood up on the Senate floor at the resumption of session later that day. Sotto clarified the NBI went to his office Monday morning and informed him about the arrest warrant on Sen. Bato. Since the named official in the warrant had been absent from the Senate for the past six months, Sotto pointed out, he told the NBI “to coordinate” with the OSSA.

“The OSSA knows the rules in the Senate,” he stressed.

In an interview with Senate media earlier that day, Aplasca disclosed that Wick Veloso, president and general manager of the state-owned Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), called his attention about vehicles passing through the GSIS property. Incidentally, the Senate is housed in an adjoining building owned by the GSIS. Due to the previous day’s chase incident, the Senate has been placed on a heightened alert status as reported by the media on the visible roaming around of gun-toting OSSA personnel in Senate uniform.

Hours later, rumors were rife that “something big” will happen. So much so that media had been alerted about this and were advised to stake out the Senate premises. Then came the more action-packed and dramatic but unexpected siege at the Senate Wednesday night. Cayetano came out on his Facebook livestream at the height of the “alleged attack” at the Senate on the night of May 13.

PBBM immediately responded in a video message aired later Wednesday night. PBBM assured the Cayetano-led senators the national government had nothing to do with the reported deployment of heavily armed NBI agents. The President cited he ordered Matibag to “pull out” NBI personnel from the Senate premises after the Supreme Court (SC) order came at 4 p.m. that day on the petition of lawyers of Sen. Bato. Although no temporary restraining order (TRO) was issued, the SC ordered all concerned parties to comment on Sen. Bato’s petition and submit it within 72 hours due to the “urgency” of the matter.

PBBM assuaged the beleaguered senators that he had called up and ordered Matibag to pull out NBI agents from the Senate premises. With all calmness, the Chief Executive reassured the entire Filipino people the government is in full control of the situation.

When the smoke cleared the next day, 27 bullets from the OSSA and five from the NBI side were recovered from the scene of the exchange of gunfire.

Yesterday – or six days after the Senate siege – Malacañang presented to media the initial findings and conclusions of police investigations into the gunshot exchange.

One much used idiomatic expression is that a fish is always caught by its mouth.

Have you caught any so far? Gaslighting continues.