Micro-minority

First there was talk of “supermajorities” in the two chambers of Congress. Now we need to talk about the “micro-minorities” that come as a consequence.

Both are euphemisms for the tenuousness of our political party system.

The dynamic underpinning the chronic party switching is an open secret. Politicians switch parties to gain committees.

In our congressional system, there are ample rewards for chairing committees. Chairmen and vicechairs receive honoraria even if they do no work. They are able to get their staff members (and ghost employees) appointed for committee work. There are enough allowances to go around to help offset the loss of the pork barrel.

Recall how open warfare broke out in the Senate a few years ago when the dispossessed senators complained about how unevenly the bonuses were distributed. That was bloodier than any complaint about “disparity” in the distribution of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) subsequently declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

The other week, Rep. Toby Tiangco proposed that deductions be made in the pay of legislators as penalty for absences. Nobody really took that seriously. Absenteeism is the disease of our legislature. The proposal will perturb the status quo.

In the bad old days of the “pork barrel,” our legislators spent much of their energy hustling for “projects.” The game simply went out of control, as the Napoles cases illustrate. A hundred percent of project cost was actually filtered away, without even having to pretend to procure anything.

Right now, our honorable legislators are cracking their brains over the best way to still get to the money. Trust them to find a way, public vigilance notwithstanding.

In a pork barrel state, party loyalty does not rank very high in the scheme of things. Brazen party switching is the name of the game.

President Duterte now forbids the use of “Your Excellency” and “Honorable” to refer to himself. It is likely intended to humor the legislators who so rampantly loot the public fund.

Spectacle

This week, trouble brewed at the House over the designation of the Minority Floor Leader.

The LP bloc, or whatever remains of it, toyed with the idea of becoming both a majority partner and an active minority. In the end, they abandoned the outlandish notion, fearing this could precipitate even more defections than the once powerful ruling party already absorbed.

With the LP’s withdrawal, the “minority” promptly split into two camps.

In a straw poll on the first day of session, the much diminished of True Yellow loyalists actually won leadership over the “minority” by a single vote. The rest of the “minority” was distributed to two other contenders.

That was promptly corrected subsequently. Two of the “minority” factions regrouped and formally elected Rep. Danilo Suarez of UNA. Suarez garnered 22 votes.

Last month, Suarez travelled to Davao to formally solicit the post from then President-elect Duterte. Not everyone, including those from his party is happy with the results. Tiangco, for one, resigned from the UNA.

The yellows, for their part, boycotted the “minority” meeting. They have eight votes. Subsequently, this faction brought the matter to the Supreme Court for adjudication. They accuse the Suarez-led faction of “borrowing” some votes from the “super-majority.”

Only in the Philippines does this happen where a section of the “minority” runs to the Supreme Court to settle a leadership question. Should the Court actually decide to rule on the matter, the embarrassment can only be greater.

The tiny ruckus between the factions of a tiny minority does illustrate the depths to which the Mar Roxas loyalists have sunk. From the dominant position they enjoyed only months ago, the group has shrunk into an aimless minority with no power even to name the “minority” leader.

Calmer

The process was calmer on the part of the Senate. In that chamber, Sen. Ralph Recto was elected minority leader. This is not even half the story, however. Everyone knows Sen. Alan Cayetano wanted direly to be Senate President. But he assumed too much, thinking being in close proximity to the popular Digong Duterte was all he needed to nail the deal. For the reason he stayed in Davao while alliances were being negotiated by his colleagues.

Cayetano underestimated the degree of resistance to the idea of his becoming Senate President.

Two powerful factions of senators – the one led by Sen. Drilon and the other by Sen. Sotto – conspired to install Sen. Koko Pimentel. Drilon took the Senate President Pro Tempore while Sotto took the post of Majority Floor Leader.

Before all these, Pimentel was the only bona fide member of the PDP-Laban party.

The results apparently pleased everybody – except Cayetano. The senator from Taguig sulked for weeks. On the first day of the session, when the officers of the chamber were elected, he was absent. Now he finds himself politically isolated, allied with Antonio Trillanes, a rival for the vice presidency.

It could not be determined, actually, if Cayetano is with the majority or the minority. He was last heard saying he will observe over the next few days if the Senate majority will truly advance the political agenda of Duterte. He could be using Duterte’s name in vain. While he sulked, Cayetano was given no chairmanship. Too, the campaign period has ended. Duterte won and he lost miserably. That is the end of it.

There should really be no basis for his behaving like an interloper or a privileged interpreter of the political behavior of his peers.