Political drama fans may have just been given another show to obsess on. It is real-life, albeit often stranger than fiction with a dash of comedy.
The Philippine Senate is at a stalemate over attempts by its current leadership to allow a member currently in hiding and others facing impending arrests to cast votes remotely during the upcoming impeachment trial against Vice President Sara Duterte.
In an increasingly rare opportunity, the chamber showcased a spirited (more than its mind-numbing usual) debate on Tuesday evening over a motion by a Duterte-allied senator to amend Senate rules and allow absent members to participate via online voting.
The current theme actually started last May 11 when a fugitive senator came out of hiding – running away from two female arresting officers and tripping on the stairs – to cast the tipping vote in wresting the Senate leadership from Senator Vicente Sotto III. Senator Ronald dela Rosa reverted to being a fugitive three days later on May 14, squirreling away in plain sight, while chaos – including gunfire and vehicular switcheroo – were being staged in the Senate premises by the new leadership.
Dela Rosa’s flight – despite his dodo-like, albeit bald, built – was ordered arrested by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. When arrested, he would be transported to The Hague to face trial with former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte for allegedly conspiring to kill tens of thousands of suspected drug dependents in a bloody campaign from 2011 to 2018.
Heated debates, leadership changes
Dela Rosa’s absence has put the current Senate majority at a very slim margin of 12 over the minority’s 11.
Tuesday evening’s heated debate was sparked by a May 14 motion by Senator Rodante Marcoleta, a decidedly pro-Duterte legislator. He wanted an addition to the Senate rules to allow absent senators to cast votes remotely, obviously to allow dela Rosa’s vote to influence the upcoming impeachment trial against Vice President Sara Duterte.
Marcoleta’s dogged insistence also came after the Philippine Ombudsman announced this week that he is very near to submitting plunder charges against two majority-aligned senators. When arrested, Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva’s absence would shift the configuration from 12-11 to 10-11 in favor of the current minority.
If so, Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano, a Duterte ally voted into the chamber’s leadership only last May 11, may be replaced by the minority’s candidate to become Senate President: Senator Win Gatchalian.
The possibility of becoming the shortest serving Senate President has forced Cayetano to step down the podium on Tuesday and join the floor debates as acting Majority Floor Leader. It was him who tried to force a division of the house over the Marcoleta motion.
After Marcoleta again rubbed his legal background in non-lawyer Senator Risa Hontiveros’s face, non-lawyer Senator Erwin Tulfo, a member of the minority, stood up to call out the dig he described as ad hominem. He then stated plainly that Marcoleta’s motion was to obviously allow pro-Duterte senators to vote even while in hiding or in jail and ensure a not-guilty verdict on the impeached vice president.
Assuming having the upper hand by plain numerical advantage, Cayetano pressed for the division of the House. That was when the minority bloc sprung its masterstroke: Its members walked out of the plenary hall, leaving Minority Floor Leader Senator Tito Sotto behind to demand a quorum call.
Marcoleta insisted on having the vote, pointing out that there was quorum when the session started. He even ran after Senator Lapid – a most restrained member of the chamber – from joining the majority in the walkout.
But even Cayetano and presiding officer Senator Loren Legarda had to concede that the determination of a quorum takes precedence over any motion on the floor. “I thought he (Marcoleta) said he is good with rules?” non-lawyer and Wanbol University alum Sotto taunted.
A House divided
“We walked out because what happened on the floor looked less like orderly deliberation. The proposed rule change affects how senators may attend sessions, participate in proceedings and exercise their mandate through remote means, and such a measure should be opened to healthy public debate instead of being rushed by the tyranny of the majority,” the 11-strong minority stated after their walk out.
They pointed out that Marcoleta’s motion had been referred by Senate President Cayetano to the Committee on Rules as soon as it was made last May 14. “How could there have been any action or discussion before the Committee on Rules when no Committee on Rules has been organized to date?” they asked.
“If the proposal is truly defensible, then let it pass through the proper route,” they added.
The gravity of the majority and the minority’s arguments notwithstanding, the Philippine Senate’s majority has a problem with dela Rosa in hiding. While the majority may have the nominal numbers, the minority has deployed a procedural weapon. Raring to regain leadership of the chamber, the minority can always walk out and demand a quorum call whenever it disagrees with the majority.
It is turning out to be a riveting chess match at the Philippine Senate even before Vice President Duterte is put on trial.
The people can only hope that the people’s clamor for accountability, the crux of these all, will be given a chance to be heard amid all the noise. #
