Senate’s facelift; Time prints fake issue

Another reader Fernando Candaza, commenting on the same column, offered an interesting suggestion: he said the seven cited senators who took DAP bribes and are questioning the Supreme Court quo warranto ruling should henceforth be called “the maleficent seven.”

He is concerned that the seven might do a fast one and pass themselves off as “the magnificent seven.”

The senators ( with their DAP loot) are: Francis Pangilinan ( P30 million); Antonio Trillanes ( P50 million); Aquilino Pimentel 3rd ( P45 million); Franklin Drilon ( P100 million); Ralph Recto ( P50 million); Loren Legarda ( P50 million); and Francis Escudero ( P99 million).

Maleficent is fitting, and appropriately cautionary.

Maleficent means harmful or evil in effect, malicious, baleful and malign. It is the antonym of beneficent, which means doing or producing good.

Expect no benefits for our people from having these characters in the Senate.

Senate change only a facelift

The recent upheaval at the Senate was more of a facelift than a realignment of members or a serious change of tone and direction.

Fourteen senators set out to issue a confrontational query of the Supreme Court because of its quo warranto ruling. But before the sun could set, however, another set of 15 or 16 senators ( featuring some similar characters) decided to press instead for a change in the Senate leadership. They elected as the new Senate president Sen. Vicente Sotto 3rd, the erstwhile Senate majority leader. Former Senate chief Aquilino Pimentel 3rd was consoled with a few flattering words, and two committee chairmanships. His colleagues could not wait for his imminent remarriage to take place, before effecting the change.

This is only a cosmetic change. Sotto is not a senator of a different mold than Pimentel and other Senate leaders. He has more in common with the maleficent 7 than differences. Sotto is also prominently cited by the Supreme Court DAP ruling.

Recto, one of the seven, will remain as the Senate president pro tempore.

Meanwhile, the maleficent 7 will remain ensconced within the chamber.

Senator Drilon will remain the Senate minority leader. Sen. Francis Pangilinan has already forgotten about his resolution to challenge the Supreme Court. Perhaps this is what he means by resistance.

In a way, Sotto’s election as Senate president was fated to happen. More than anyone he cobbled together the numbers to constitute the so- called Senate supermajority, which is really only a makeshift coalition of legislators from different parties. More make- believe than real. Few senators belong to the PDPLaban, the nominal administration party of `President Duterte.

This is hardly the formula for injecting new purpose and direction into the chamber.

Senate president vs House speaker

Filipino political culture has an exaggerated view of the importance of the Senate presidency. This is principally` because the Senate president is second in the line of succession to the presidency of the republic.

In most countries of the world today, the office of Senate president does nor even exist, because most countries have parliamentary systems of government.

In America, which invented the presidential system of government, the US ` Senate is not even allowed to have a Senate president. The ceremonial leader of the Senate is the Vice President of the United States. The top leader among the senators is the Senate majority leader.

In the United States also, the House speaker is generally regarded as the leader of the legislative branch of government, and not the Senate majority leader. The combination of party strength and formal powers makes the speaker the most powerful member of the US Congress.

The standing rules of the House and Senate, as ‘ well as the written rules of the` political parties, grant party leaders procedural advantages over other members. The Speaker by far is most advantaged by standing rules and precedents.

Speaker Alvarez must have read this somewhere and taken it to heart. Hence, he tends to throw his weight around.

If I heard him correctly, Senate President Sotto will not allow Alvarez to posture as the leader of the legislature. He will not permit any more disparaging remarks about the Senate from Alvarez.

Sotto should note this: the Senate president ranks high in some jurisdictions’ succession for its top executive office. In Nigeria, the Senate president is second in the line for succession to the presidency, after only the Vice President of the Federal Republic. In France, which has no vice president, the Senate president - dential powers and duties.

prints fake strongman issue

Also, for the record, I feel obligated to report that Time magazine quietly printed and circulated on May 14, 2018 its much- ballyhooed strongman issue featuring Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban and Recep Tayyip Erdogan on its alleged cover.

I branded the issue as “the definition of fakery” because there was in fact no issue, only a purported cover floating around on the web. Time and the cover story author Ian Bremmer started hawking the issue on May 3, before the issue could see print. No one had an issue to show the curious, only the facsimile of its purported cover.

Some Time defenders said that the cover story was posted on Time’s digital website. But this does not make an issue. The magazine confessed the lie by featuring in the website the purported cover of the issue.

This is really weird for a magazine to do. Going through all the motions or creating a cover of an issue, and then failing to print it.

But now, Time has moved to correct the lie. It has printed and circulated the strongman issue in some capitals. I can testify to this, because I bought a copy of the issue, just in case it becomes a collector’s item.