After writing multiple pieces about the impunity currently rotting inside the Senate, I finally have time to post this on my own wall:
I am disgusted, but I am not surprised.
In my experience, after 12 years of writing about politics, what is happening in the Senate is not an accident. It is the product of our collective behavior as a nation: impunity protected by performance, a rigged electoral system disguised as choice, patronage dressed as public service, clientelism mistaken for loyalty, and corruption repeatedly forgiven because the surname is familiar, the machinery is strong, or the voter has been cornered into choosing the least unbearable option among the same ruling families.
What we are watching goes beyond Senate drama. It is the logical outcome of a political system where the public is trapped into choosing among nepo babies, spoiled dynastic brats, recycled surnames, families who have treated public office like inherited property, and politicians who, kung hindi man dynasty mismo, behave like loyal attack dogs for powerful families already positioning themselves for 2028.
Tapos kapag batas na ang kumakatok, biglang sila ang api.
When the minority walked out, they were challenging what they believed was a railroaded rules change that could damage the institution by blurring presence, quorum, and voting integrity. Their argument was simple: if you are changing the rules of the Senate, follow the rules of the Senate. If the rules affect how senators are counted, how they participate, how they vote, and how the public can verify the legitimacy of legislative action, then those rules should not be rushed like a private arrangement among insiders.
But when the majority did a no-show, the effect was different. The Senate itself stopped working. Public business was stalled. The chamber paid for by taxpayers became hostage to an internal power struggle, and the public was once again forced to watch powerful people convert institutional responsibility into factional survival.
And this is exactly how impunity behaves when it has learned to speak in expensive words.
It does not always scream; sometimes it quotes the rules with a straight face. It does not always hide; sometimes it holds a press conference and calls itself principled. It does not always run from accountability; sometimes it calls accountability “politics” and hopes the public is too tired, too confused, or too captured by patronage to ask the next question.
But let us be adults here: everything in politics is political. Arrests can have political context. Investigations can have political timing. Prosecutions can have political consequences. Fine. Alam na natin iyan.
But the real question is not whether something is political.
The question is: did you break the law?
Did you steal public money? Did you abuse power? Did you obstruct accountability? Did you use an institution to protect yourself, your allies, or your faction?
Because “political” is not a magic word that disinfects corruption. Hindi porke may pulitika, wala nang kaso. Hindi porke may kalaban ka, inosente ka na. Hindi porke makapangyarihan ka, puwede nang gawing emotional support animal ang Senado.
This is what happens when dynasties grow up inside privilege and mistake consequence for persecution. This is what happens when political families are allowed to build name recall for decades, convert government service into family branding, survive every scandal through machinery, and return to office because the system rewards memory more than merit, loyalty more than accountability, and access more than integrity.
Kapag ordinaryong Pilipino ang hinahabol ng batas, “sumunod ka sa proseso.” Kapag makapangyarihan ang hinahabol ng batas, “political persecution.”
Kapag mahirap ang absent sa trabaho, tanggal. Kapag senador ang absent sa trabaho, parliamentary strategy.
Ang kapal.
The Senate is not a family corporation. It is not a shelter for endangered allies. It is not a panic room for officials suddenly discovering that laws also apply to people with surnames, convoys, and loyalists.
A public office is not a birthright. It is a duty. And if the people in that chamber cannot distinguish between defending the institution and using the institution as a shield, then maybe the problem is bigger than one arrest, one walkout, or one no-show.
The problem is a ruling class that has been overprotected for too long, and a political culture that has tolerated too much for too long. The problem is an electoral market where money, machinery, dynasty, patronage, clientelism, and political hostage-taking keep narrowing public choice until democracy starts to look like a forced menu prepared by the same families who benefited from the old hunger.
They want power without consequence. They want rules when the rules protect them. They want procedure when procedure delays accountability. They want public sympathy when the law finally knocks.
Nakakasuka.
And yes, presumption of innocence matters. Due process matters. Courts matter. No one should be convicted by noise, anger, or social media. But presumption of innocence is not a license to paralyze the Senate. Due process is not a privilege pass for the powerful. The right to defend yourself is not the right to drag the entire institution into your personal survival strategy.
So please, spare us the lecture about politics.
Everything in politics is political.
The real question is whether you broke the law.
And the bigger question is why the Senate now looks less like a chamber of public servants and more like a clubhouse of dynastic children throwing tantrums because accountability finally entered the room.
Nakakapagod na.
Pero mas nakakapagod bayaran ang sweldo ng mga taong ayaw humarap sa trabaho kapag hindi pabor sa kanila ang eksena. Mas nakakapagod panoorin ang bayan na paulit-ulit na ginagawang audience sa away ng mga pamilyang matagal nang sanay na ang kapangyarihan ay namamana, pinoprotektahan, at hindi pinapanagutan.
The public deserves a Senate that works, a democracy with real choices, and a political system where accountability does not collapse the moment it touches someone powerful. We deserve a Senate that does not hide, does not sulk, does not bend rules for allies, and does not weaponize absence against the people.
Enough with the spoiled dynastic brats.
Enough with the institutional hostage-taking.
Enough with impunity in formal wear.
Magtrabaho kayo. Humarap kayo. Panagutan ninyo ang bayan.
At sa totoo lang, nakakaburat na kayong panoorin: ang lalakas umarte na tagapagligtas ng bayan, pero kapag batas na ang kumakatok, nagtatago na parang hindi kayo sinuswelduhan ng taumbayan.
