by Diego Morra
Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano has destroyed whatever dignity the Upper Chamber has and he would surely hold on to his turf the way he tried to glue his pair of pants to the speakership after serving on half of the 30-month term he shared by Marinduque Rep. Lord Alan Velasco based on deal brokered by Rodrigo Duterte.
His avarice for power and his hunger for recognition is vintage Cayetano, perhaps from his La Salle Greenhills days to his campus political career as Nagkakaisang Tugon head honcho in UP Diliman, when he fulminated against “ideologies” like now- UP President Angelo Jimenez of the Independent Student Alliance (ISA) in 1991, and campaigned against Samasa. Both demanded “new activism” to replace the tradition of the First Quarter Storm (FQS.) Ironically, he was not able to secure a slot at the UP College of Law to pursue campus political career and landed at the Ateneo College of Law.
With his rough and rowdy ways at Diliman, his double-dealing at the House of Representatives and the frequent booze sessions at Ozone, where the girls bloom and where a cool cat played matchmaker for lawmakers and women out to have some fun, Cayetano became a media hog, playing cute about issues and raising hell inn exchange for sound bites and column inches. Those were the days whe
Alan Peter, the “Kano of Taguig” started to establish the Cayetano political dynasty. Ther city is now dominated by the Cayetanos even if there appears to be some rift within the nuclear family, just as Loren Legarda suffered a big hit when her son practically denounced her for joining the Team Unity senatorial slate. No, it is not Leandro who slammed Mommy but somebody else who has common sense and is not obsessed with selling a congressional franchise.
Now, 152 UP student leaders who belonged to Nagkakaisang Tugon, Samasa and ISA at that time found Cayetano not only liable for inviting the fugitive to snatch the Senate leadership but also to dash the ambition of Sen. Loren Legarda to become Senate President. They denounced Cayetano in an official statement. Tagging him not only as a traditional bourgeois politician but also as a lapdog of the Duterte political dynasty. He is the only citizen of Taguig who invented the fantasy that since his matrimonial bed is right smack at the boundary of two Taguig congressional districts, he and his wife can represent both jurisdictions. No wonder, the people of Taguig know what US imperialism means.
Cayetano’s being the mastermind of the May 11, 2026 Senate coup is no longer debatable. He asked de la Rosa to attend the session to kick out Sen. Tito Sotto and provided him with the vehicle to enter the premises. De la Rosa was supposed to be the icing in Cayetano’s cake but he never thought that the NBI and other law enforcers would be gunning after Bato, who was scared shitless when two female NBI agents wearing stilettos ran after him to serve the ICC warrant of arrest. Nobody thought that the brave and cunning Duterte PNP chief was so afraid of joining Duterte in The Hague as he, and a fellow Digong servitor, Sen. Bong Go, had earlier vowed. They wanted to serve the “old man,” to the extent of brown nosing him? Men of character they are not. Police character maybe.
After the NBI tried to serve the warrant, Cayetano and the newly-named Senate Sergeant-at-Arms retired Maj. Gen. Mao Aplasca, Bato’s mistah at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) the Cayetano faction crafted as “crisis” that instigated confusion at the Senate itself. Aplasca, who was shipped out of NAIA after his boys were caught stealing cash, “evacuated” the second floor of the building to prevent any coverage of their attempt to arrest an armed man. Firing 27 warning shots into a dark room and shattering glass panels, Aplasca and Cayetano a false flag operation. The NBI agent they “arrested” was not at the scene of the shooting but in another floor. Talk of bilocality. Videos showed Aplasca firing into the void, perhaps as the void looked at him with menacing eyes.
With Cayetano’s manufactured “attack” on the Senate, he has been caught spinning lies and slamming the new Senate minority for going home early and not sympathizing with the “beleaguered” majority. Cayetano apparently has a continuing quarrel with the truth. He blasted the minority for thinking about the impeachment of Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio when a solitary attacker was surrounding the Senate and threatening to “massacre” Cayetano and his ilk. Cayetano is not entitled to his truth and neither can he fire reality. Playing the victim card only worsens the Cayetano plot to control the Senate preparatory to scheming again to convict Sara and get her out of the way on his journey to Malacanang in 2028.
Yes, Stage 2 of the Senate plot has everything to do with 2028. Cayetano has never been coy about his presidential ambition. Sensing that the Duterte patriarch doesn’t have a Chinaman’s chance of avoiding conviction, Cayetano can start the ball rolling at the Senate while talking with taipans for contributions. One usually silent taipan already rejected his importuning years ago. A friendly P200-million would suffice but the wily mogul rejected the plea. With what happened at the Senate, kahit lumuhod pa si Cayetano sa asin at ingudngod niya ang noo niya sa sahig habang nananalangin hanggang ito ay dumugo, walang tataya sa kanya. While humanity may doubt him, Cayetano said God doesn’t doubt him. Well, the shrink is waiting. The only other guy who claims that God talks to him is Apollo Quiboloy y Carreon. Baptist ministers in South Korea told him to see an analyst.
