Pyrrhic victory for Cayetano

By Herbert Vego

TWO events tethered us to our TV sets last Monday: the live coverage of the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte at the House of Representatives and the coup that saw Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano take over from Vicente “Tito” Sotto as Senate president.

Strange as it seems, both exercises of suffrage are interlinked but moving in opposite directions.

Thirteen senators voted for Cayetano, nine for Sotto, and two abstained.

The House voted to impeach VP Sara with 257 affirmative votes, 25 negative votes, and nine abstentions, thus approving the Articles of Impeachment. That number surpassed the required one-third vote needed for its transmission to the Senate for trial.

The ouster of Sotto transpired eight months after he assumed office through a similar coup that dislodged Sen. Chiz Escudero.

Was that shake-up aimed at delaying or aborting the impeachment trial of Inday Sara through subtle legal manipulation?

That is easier said than done because the impeachment trial is a mandate provided for by the Constitution. Hence, the Senate is barred from derailing the process.

Section 3(4), Article XI of the 1987 Constitution states: “In case the verified complaint or resolution of impeachment is filed by at least one-third of all the Members of the House, the same shall constitute the Articles of Impeachment, and trial by the Senate shall forthwith proceed.”

Anyway, Cayetano projects himself as a rabid “apostle” of former President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter, VP Sara.

His 12 enablers — Sens. Pia Cayetano, Ronald Dela Rosa, Francis Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Go, Rodante Marcoleta, Imee Marcos, Robin Padilla, Joel Villanueva, Loren Legarda, Camille Villar, and Mark Villar — are Duterte friends, too.

Four of them — Legarda, Cayetano, and siblings Camille Villar and Mark Villar — used to be Sotto allies.

The eight senators who voted for Sotto were Bam Aquino, Sherwin Gatchalian, Risa Hontiveros, Panfilo Lacson, Lito Lapid, Francis Pangilinan, Erwin Tulfo, and Raffy Tulfo.

Sens. JV Ejercito and Migz Zubiri abstained from the vote.

As I see it, Cayetano’s election to the Senate presidency is a Pyrrhic victory, defined as “a success that comes at such a devastating cost to the victor that it is tantamount to defeat.”

It led to the “entrapment” of Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa by operatives from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). Accompanying them was former Sen. Antonio Trillanes III.

Absent in the Senate since November 2025, Bato suddenly showed up to vote for Cayetano, only to be shown a copy of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity. He ran up to the session hall and refused to be arrested on the pretext that a senator could not be arrested within the Senate building.

Trillanes urged the NBI not to allow Sen. Bato Dela Rosa to evade arrest because the ICC warrant is authentic.

As belatedly shown and aired on TV and radio, ICC spokesperson Oriane Maillet had said that the warrant was issued confidentially in November 2025, the same month Bato went into hiding.

If and when the senator flies to The Hague to join his former boss, Digong, there could be another changing of the guard in the Senate.

-oOo-

MORE POWER TO ILECO 1

I can no longer remember the number of times that I asked our friends from the Iloilo I Electric Cooperative (ILECO I) for a reaction to the franchise bill of Rep. Janette Garin (House Bill 7647), which would allow MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) to energize her constituency, the 1st District of Iloilo, thus competing with the cooperative.

The bill has been approved by the House of Representatives and is awaiting similar action by the Senate.

Since the Garins have always been close to the management and board of directors of ILECO I, why is that so? Alas, none of them would comment on the imminent competition.

Anyway, it took a retired manager of ILECO I, Engr. Wilfred Billena, to post a reaction on Facebook, which seems to suggest acceptability on the part of the congresswoman’s constituents:

“Consumers welcome this competition to exercise their power of choice. We hope that this competition shall be constructive and not destructive. May it be focused on self-improvement and maximization of their potential, rather than merely focusing on the downfall of the other. In essence, competition drives personal improvement, innovation, and performance excellence while simultaneously acting as a catalyst for growth and efficiency in business. Good luck to both of them!”

Unfortunately, competition would diminish the patronage of the old distribution utility. There has to be a face-saving alternative.

To quote my friend Leopoldo “Doods” Moragas, a retired senior assistant vice president of the Philippine National Bank (PNB), “ILECO I shall be left with no option but to enter into a joint venture agreement with MORE Power.”