The Philippine Senate used to take pride in its independence and the wisdom of men and women that comprised the upper chamber, but that wisdom apparently flew elsewhere in 1972, and the Filipino now has to suffer the pain of seeing lemons dominating a legislative body that lacks the ability to articulate the people’s interest.
Certainly, it is not a replica of the Roman Senate, which murdered a would-be dictator and ended up defanged by internecine warfare. Here, the Senate, which was derived from the Latin term “senex” or “old man” generally understood to be at least 45-years-old, has castrated itself, yielding to the demands of the executive and subverting its role as the higher legislative body. Not a single senator remembers Cicero, who famously said that he defended the republic as a young man and “he would not abandon it as an old man.”
Zubiri, miffed by the fact that 17 senators signed a piece of paper to kick his butt, said he was resigning on May 20, 2024 because “I failed to follow instructions.” This betrays a sordid political reality: The Senate is led by the nose by Malacanang. Zubiri did not even bother to fight back and tell the entire nation that the Palace wanted his scalp. It is not the job of the Senate to follow instructions from Malacanang or from the House of Representatives, or from other political personalities, whether they are from the corridors of power, or from the side streets of gutter politics.
What Zubiri did is succumb to a coup mounted by forces actually extraneous to the Senate, and the 15 wise women and men of the chamber colluded with these forces to oust their own leader. By his own admission, Zubiri did not follow instructions as ordered, and his statement speaks volumes of the deterioration at the Upper Chamber, with its members unable to discharge their duties in statutory construction and in seeing that their investigations would result in the filing of cases and the prosecution of erring parties. There are, indeed, many jokers at the Senate mansion. But wait, didn’t Zubiri refuse to conduct hearings on the gentleman’s agreement cut by ex-president Rodrigo Duterte with China’s Xi Jinping on the conduct of the two parties in Scarborough Shoal and other maritime features in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) claimed by China? By controlling such an inquiry, Zubiri could have prevented it from being a political circus but he did not.
The question is why Zubiri failed to argue before the public that he is being ousted not because he was futzing around, or failed to acknowledge that putting a tail between a dog’s legs doesn’t give it five legs, or that he was being studious so as not to commit the same error that led to enacting the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL), which gave an administrative body peopled by ex-soldiers and former cops judicial powers to designate, proscribe and steal the money of supposed terrorists and their organizations.
Only his senator-allies “wept” when Zubiri acquiesced to those who “instructed” him, not his national constituency, not even those who cover the boring goings-on at the Senate. The people-at-large were not astonished, they were not disappointed and certainly couldn’t grok the sad fate of the ex-Senate president. This is a terrible development inasmuch as senators failed to link up with their mass base, the voters, particularly those concerned about lawmakers screwing the people’s interest but are not concerned about studs canoodling with their legislative colleagues. The ancient maxim of the Senate’s being inhabited by intelligent, independent minds has gone widdershins down the sewers.
Certainly, the Filipino people deserve real senators and it behooves Zubiri to explain why he abandoned his post “for not following instructions,” as lame as the lamest excuse in the archives of the Senate. Zubiri must state clearly that the Palace wanted him out because he opposed the People’s Initiative, which had no legal leg to stand on anyway, but he also failed to defend the 1987 Constitution as already an ideal charter for foreign investors since various laws have been enacted to allow 100% foreign capital in practically all sectors of the economy but the Philippines lagged behind in attracting foreign capital. The Constitution is not the culprit for the failure of foreign capitalists to operate day care centers, advertising companies (local ad agencies have tie-ups with multinational giants) and public utilities. The government is. Rust can never be diamond.
After Senate President Francis Escudero is now glued to Zubiri’s former position and the Mindanao lawmaker has vowed that he would be independent rather than an oppositionist, will Escudero allow himself to be “instructed” by Malacanang on what to do as the head of the Senate? Or will there be some lady-in-waiting ready to whip out the knives to score another bloody coup, or perhaps an empress dowager that controls political affairs? Wasn’t there such a character in the Senate years ago?
