Word War inside the Senate

I promised my colleagues in the Social Enterprises group chat that I would devote my columns in the following weeks before the Regional Summit to featuring the conveners and partners of the event scheduled for October 25-26 at the Atrium, Central Bicol State University, in Pili, Camarines Sur. Unfortunately, I was distracted - a good intermission number.   

On Tuesday, a brief but noisy word war erupted between two dynastic senators inside the Senate plenary hall over a resolution of territorial representation, as if a Chinese vessel had just rammed through a Philippine boat plying across the sacred Philippine waters of the Panatag Shoal or the Masinloc Bay.

On the clear, big cellphone screen, my husband was visibly enjoying what seemed to be a version of a local daytime Face-to-Face warring neighbors or ka-pamilya. His eyes were glued to the screen, almost teary-eyed from laughing. Parang mga bata, he chuckled, still watching another replay of the big men’s shouting match at the Senate.   

Feeling deprived of the grand show, I grabbed my husband’s phone. I took a peep at Senator Peter Cayetano, fuming and challenging the bulkier Senator Migz Zubiri to a fistfight. I caught a few keywords about Peter Cayetano’s eager proposal for another legislative district for the controversial EMBOS that formerly belonged to Makati City and now, by a Supreme Court decision, is part of neighboring Taguig in the NCR.

He worried that the barangays of 350,000, half of whom are voters, would need a representative to bring their woes and dreams to Congress come election time.  Senator Migz Zubiri of the landowning clan of the Zubiris of Bukidnon went to the Session hall, unaware that Sen Cayetano had a Resolution about to be put to a vote. So last Tuesday, all hell broke loose inside the august halls of the Senate. Why was this resolution not part of the agenda, inserted like a midnight deal, without consulting the other members of the Senate, like him?

It is all about land and votes

The claims of Makati and Taguig over Fort Bonifacio and the surrounding Enlisted Men’s Barrios (Embo) barangays are connected to history, land acquisitions, and legal battles.  The first military settlement of Cembo was in 1949. The 10 EMBOs are barangays Pembo, Comembo, Cembo, South Cembo, West Rembo, East Rembo, Pitogo, Rizal, Northside, and Southside, an acronym for “Enlisted Men’s Barrio,” which refers to a group of barangays established initially to house military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in 1949.

Outside of Zubiri are the Binays versus the Cayetanos. All are political dynasties. Makati is a Binay territory, while Taguig is a Cayetano territory.  All came from lawyer families. But lawyers have social class origins, too.  The Cayetanos graduated from UP and Ateneo are identified with the elite and corporate world. The Binays with the poorer lot.

Here is some history: All of them were unknown before martial law years. Then, through political alliances, they gained power: the elder Cayetano’s practice of law was in the law firm of Juan Ponce Enrile with a monicker, the “Pambansang Compañero.”  Since then, the Cayetanos’ wealth catapulted them to vast economic power. The Cayetano Senior, the daughter Pia, Allan Peter, Lani, the wife, and the son Rennen, graduated from 2001 to 2007 from UP and Ateneo. Their turfs include Taguig, Pateros, and Muntinlupa, with Fort Bonifacio as its crown jewel.

Atty Jojo Binay, on the other hand, was a human rights lawyer known for his legal services to the poor people under the tutelage of Senator Jose W. Diokno. He was a pro-bono lawyer who fought Marcos and martial law, during which he was arrested and detained. He was close to Cory in the fight against Marcos during martial law. After EDSA 1, he joined politics and soon became the patriarch of the Binay clan in Makati.

The warring Cayetano and Zubiri showed us the continuing saga of dynastic clashes - away-bati-away  syndrome. The Philippines is known for being a dynastic democratic country. Powerful clans have long ruled politics for centuries. Inside Congress are brothers and sisters, father or mother and son or daughter, cousins and step-parents, step brothers and step sisters. They are all untouchables; they have no limits, only periods of time shared and enjoyed.  

Two Cayetano siblings are in the Senate: Estrada/Ejercito brothers and a mother and son. Makati has the Binays, Las Pinas has the Villars, and Taguig has the Cayetanos.  Everywhere in the country, we see the same dynastic personalities from the provinces, to the cities and towns, and down to the barangays - of husbands and wives, children, grandchildren, and in-laws all sharing power and wealth as if they are the only ones who are blessed and privileged. Social media was all agog over the traded barbs last Tuesday. The heated debates only showed their “passion for their advocacy,” claimed the Senate President, Chis Escudero.

That passion is missing from Senator Cayetano’s proposed Sampung Libong Pag-Asa Law, which would give P10,000 one-time cash aid to each Filipino family, as he promised during the election campaign. Where is the passion to pursue their promises of “sahod, presyo at trabaho?”