In sitting with the Senate majority today, Sens. Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan will try to convince themselves that their future victories in education and agriculture will justify driving a wedge between themselves and the progressive opposition.
Their negotiations with Sen. Chiz Escudero had apparently started as early as May, according to Rappler. The allure of chairing the Senate agriculture and education committees was perhaps too intoxicating for them to ignore. But in supporting Escudero’s bid to once again lead the Senate, they have not only fractured an opposition that is in desperate need of reinforcement; they have also put a time limit on any material victory they may deliver in the majority.
In a clear recognition of the bait and switch they pulled on voters, the two senators started defending their decision weeks before today. “Pero hindi ibig sabihin kapag sumali kami sa majority, halimbawa, ay magiging sunod-sunuran na sa majority,” Pangilinan said in a forum with Nueva Ecija supporters on July 9.
Perhaps they have forgotten lessons from the 17th Congress, the last time they were a part of the Senate majority. After the arrest of former Sen. Leila de Lima in 2017, Aquino and Pangilinan were stripped of their positions as chairs of the education and agriculture committees, respectively. In then Senate President Koko Pimintel’s words, the Senate’s work had been “hampered by the blurring of the lines,” since the supposed supermajority at the time was composed of senators from vastly different alliances and parties.
Those lines are especially important now as the Senate’s elephant in the room—the impeachment trial—looms. It is especially relevant as the Senate may defy the Supreme Court’s ruling that the articles of impeachment complaint are unconstitutional. Even as Escudero tries to consolidate and create order, the Senate is now at its most volatile.
Aquino and Pangilinan’s decision to sit with the majority means tying themselves to this fragile position, barely held together by adversarial senators who happen to have converging interests. The two senators will have to sit alongside Sens. Alan Cayetano, Raffy Tulfo, and Erwin Tulfo—who have lukewarm support for the trial—and the vocally anti-impeachment Duterte bloc. This is despite Pangilinan and Aquino already declaring support for the trial’s continuation.
Escudero’s majority is living on borrowed time. Just as in 2017, it will likely implode after an event of drama and intrigue—after an arrest of a senator or, say, after an impeachment trial. This time limit means that any victory that Aquino and Pangilinan deliver in the majority will most likely be lost after an inevitable leadership challenge from Sen. Tito Sotto.
If they cannot hold these positions for long, the worth of chairing these committees becomes questionable. Being committee chair, after all, is not a requirement to pass meaningful laws. In fact, Aquino’s key legislation, the Free Tuition Law, was passed five months after he lost his majority role. Most of his and Pangilinan's authored or sponsored laws in the 17th Congress were passed after they were stripped of their position.
And yet for a position so marginal in its benefit, Aquino and Pangilinan are willing to draw lines between the scant possible opposition voices in the Senate. The decision weakens the banner of accountability that Sen. Risa Hontiveros has built for the opposition so far. It weakens their legitimacy in the eyes of the people, something sorely needed for future electoral battles.
Accountability and material victories are not mutually exclusive in the first place. The issue of impeachment does not have to be sidelined for our education and agriculture sectors. Mismanagement and corruption also run deep in the issues of these sectors—lest we forget, the vice president is also under trial for her misuse of confidential funds during her stint as education secretary.
It will be easier to advance the progressive agenda that would deliver sorely needed reforms to education and agriculture if the opposition becomes a stronger political force. This task is especially pressing as we enter the latter half of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s term.
Without that opposition strength, the Dutertes will most likely reclaim Malacañang and further sink the already sorry state of education and agriculture. Asking for such strength is not opportunism or the shouts of a vocal minority; it is a clear call for representation from those who claim to be the only genuine opposition in the Senate.
No amount of rhetoric can drown those calls. If Aquino and Pangilinan have forgotten their history, or have lost sight of the future, then it will be up to the people to remind them. ●
