The Senate at a Crossroads: A Senior Citizen’s Lament for a Lost Institution

I write this not as a political strategist, nor as a partisan defender of any camp, but as a Filipino in his eighties who has lived long enough to remember a Senate that inspired respect. I have witnessed generations of senators rise to defend principles larger than themselves. I have seen debates marked by intellectual rigor, patriotism, and a profound sense of duty to the Republic.

That is why watching what is happening in the Senate today fills me not only with disappointment, but with grief.

The Philippine Senate once stood in my imagination as the nation’s chamber of statesmen — a place where debate, accountability, and national interest rose above political survival. Today, however, the institution finds itself consumed in one of the most turbulent political moments in recent memory.

At the center of the storm is the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, whose case has exposed not only deep fractures within the country’s political leadership but also growing questions about the integrity and independence of the Senate itself.

Yet the impeachment proceedings are only one layer of a broader political crisis.

In recent days, the Senate has also become the stage of dramatic confrontations involving Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court in connection with the Duterte administration’s anti-drug campaign. His sudden reappearance in the Senate, a tense standoff with authorities, and his eventual disappearance have fueled public outrage and intensified concerns about whether political power is being used to shield allies from accountability.

Adding to the controversy was the abrupt shift in Senate leadership that installed Alan Peter Cayetano as Senate President, a move widely interpreted as strengthening the Duterte bloc’s influence within the chamber. Critics fear that political loyalties, rather than constitutional duty, may shape the outcome of the impeachment proceedings.

But perhaps what pains many of us from older generations most deeply is not merely the political conflict itself. Democracies will always have conflict. What wounds our spirit is the seeming erosion of dignity within institutions that once commanded honor.

I remember a Senate where senators prepared meticulously before speaking because words uttered on the Senate floor carried moral weight. I remember leaders who understood that public office was a sacred trust, not a stage for performance, or personal loyalty. The Senate was never perfect, but there was a prevailing sense that the institution itself mattered more than the ambitions of individuals.

Today, many Filipinos watch the chamber with exhaustion rather than admiration. Instead of statesmanship, they see political theater. Instead of moral courage, they see calculations for survival and alliance-building.

This impeachment trial is larger than one Vice President or one political faction. It is a defining test of whether the Senate can still act as an independent constitutional body capable of placing truth, accountability, and national interest above political convenience.

And at stake is not merely the fate of one official. At stake is the moral authority of the Senate itself and of the Philippine nation.

QUOTATION OF THE WEEK:

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

— Plato

FOR OUR WORD OF LIFE:

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.

— Isaiah 5:20