Duterte, his men, and his children have circled the wagons, and we should all know better than just to watch it happen. At the very least, we learn from it. Because this is the first time that the process is on the surface — we are being shown the action, and we are allowed to infer the unfolding, and we have seen how the crisis was resolved, so they can all move towards the conclusion — that of Charter Change, which is at the heart of this (now resolved) fight for the House Speakership.

The show was interesting enough of course, even as it was a dead-end for nation. The battle was always only among Duterte’s men, with all three, Alan Peter Cayetano, Lord Allan Velasco, and Martin Romualdez pledging loyalty to the President. Of course Romualdez is more of a Gloria Arroyo (and Marcos) ally; Velasco seems to have come out of nowhere but is supported by Duterte propagandists; and Cayetano, well, is only loyal to himself — but all of that doesn’t matter when they’re united for the common Duterte cause.

Unity has been such a part of the plot that Duterte and his men put together, and the audience almost doesn’t matter: we aren’t supposed to care. After all, we all know that Duterte controls Congress, and will give him everything on a silver platter. But this battle for the house speakership was taking too long to get resolved, and in the meantime, we were being given too much information about how corrupt, how greedy, how power-hungry the men who surround Duterte are — his children included.

So what did this battle for House Speakership reveal?

One: that millions in pesos were changing hands, because these speaker-wannabes were buying the support of other Congress Reps. That gem was given us by former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez (unseated by Sara Duterte — who is NOT part of Congress), and later on confirmed by Cayetano. How is this any different from allegations of vote buying? How is this not a whiff of corruption?

Two: that there is in fact a Partylist Coalition Foundation Inc. A registered coalition is bad enough, but a coalition that is an incorporated foundation? What the hell is this entity? Why has partylist representation in Congress become “incorporated”? How is this even allowed? The partylist system was supposed to be for the marginalized, silenced, disenfrachised sectors; it was supposed to bring those from these sectors into Congress, so they can take part in making the laws that their sectors need.

But to have Mikee Romero as partylist rep, he being the richest man in Congress, makes his mere existence there an affront to this law, as it is an affront to all of us. That he is President of this questionable incorporated coalition of partylist groups, is bad enough. That this coalition which reeks of irregularity and the blatant abuse of the partylist system supports Duterte? This yet again proves that when the whiff of corruption comes from his own men, Duterte can’t smell a thing.

Three: Duterte’s children will throw their weight around every chance they get, being the political animals that their father insisted they cannot, will not, should not be. But who cares what their father thinks? Certainly not Sara and Paolo Duterte. After all, they’re just as powerful — if not MORE powerful — than he is. After all, we’ve seen how Paolo’s decision to run for House Speaker has meant Duterte finally deciding on term-sharing between Velasco and Cayetano. Everybody happy (Sara herself was campaigning for Velasco)! Who cares that Duterte looks like a lame duck, being controlled by his own men, his own children.

And yet Duterte’s children are taking pages from his book, presuming that their father’s rhetoric, his inability to keep his word, his public persona, will apply to them. And maybe that’s a good thing for us: after all this brings us to number four: Sara revealed that there exists “a coalition” that’s moving towards 2022, one that Cayetano had warned her would get destroyed if she supported Velasco for the House Speakership. 

Duterte’s big mouth has revealed much to us the past three years, if we even cared to listen. Now his daughter’s big mouth is doing the same. We should be thankful. The stench of arrogance is strong on this one, and it’s telling us that if they’re thinking 2022, we all should be, too.

But of course this also reminds all of us that we should be thinking more about who we vote into Congress. It’s a reminder that we should be deciding more consciously about this vote, because as you can see, what we have is a House of Representatives that can even dare speak of a Diehard Duterte Super Majority (DDSM) — and yes the violence inherent in that reference to BDSM should not be lost on any of us.

We should be keeping an eye on the House of Representatives. This is where charter change will be revived, where it will be pushed, where it will pass. Duterte himself said it: his decision is all about who will be able to lead Congress in delivering charter change. We need to realize that from where Duterte, his men, and his children stand, this is the primary need right now: it will get China off their backs because it will mean the easing of foreign restrictions on ownership of businesses and resources; it will mean more money in the hands of Duterte cronies who are wanting to do partnerships with foreign investors; it will mean more power for the already powerful, more money for the already wealthy, and the continued plunder of our resources in the name of self-interest and profit.

Our only chance at beating ChaCha at this point is if we can get our act together and unite on that common cause. Because if there’s anything this show that was the battle for the House Speakership revealed, it’s that we have again been beaten (black and blue) by the fact of unity. NOT OURS. But theirs, on that side of Duterte, chacha, China, and state violence.

The stench of Charter Change is strong. We all should know better by now than to be dictated by the things that divide us. ***