IT’S NOT hard to accept — accept doesn’t meant approval — why Speaker Allan Peter Cayetano, one of the few leaders of the country fond of quoting the Bible, is acting the way he does.
One of his colleagues, PBA Party List Rep. Jericho Nograles, has a word for it: absurd.
Bull’s eye: In the theatre of the absurd, it should be par for the course.
Let’s breakdown Nograles’ context for saying so.
First off, Cayetano is assumed to be an honorable man. A man’s word is supposed to be his honor. The Spanish term for it is palabra de honor, not palabra de lengua. Second off, there was this gentlemen’s agreement forged sometime ago between him and another Alan, the Lord, for term-sharing as speaker. He the Peter, first, and he, the Lord, after him.
Long before politics became a civilized man’s invention, it’s been conventional wisdom that no two dogs have been seen to break a bone.
Alas and alack, the two top dogs in the House of Representatives have proven the old saw. The agreement didn’t seem enforceable, like the award given by the Permanent Arbitration Court to the Philippines over its territories in the South China Sea.
For all intents and purposes, Alan, the Peter, appears to walk back on the pact, which was less historic but had more histrionics than the blood compact between Miguel Lopez de Legaspi and Datu Sikatuna. The former is obviously “bloodier”.
Alan, the Peter, has a few bones to pick with his namesake: 1) Alan, the Lord, doesn’t have the numbers in the House; he does. 2) the budget risks not being passed on time if the Lord takes over: 3) he loves Duterte, his country and he’s proud of what he’s done for the House as opposed to the Lord’s nil, nada and zilch.
Nograles’s take on the strange behavior of Alan, the Peter, explains but not enlightens. Wasn’t there a deal, not too long ago, for term sharing, signed and sealed by both? Now is the time to deliver but one refuses and engages in squid tactic, instead.
Two oft-quoted caveats can help make sense of Alan’s, the Peter, new trick. Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac, according to Henry Kissinger. Power corrupts, said Lord Acton, and absolute power corrupts, absurdly to add Nograles’s wisdom.
Alan, the Peter, has from out of the blue yonder, offered to resign and asked members of the House to accept or reject it. Of course, the voting was a foregone conclusion even before the ayes and nays went through the motion.
It’s amazing that no cock crowed or was heard crowing thrice when he made the privilege speech. Maybe it’s the din.
If power can addle one’s brain, this is it. Alan, the Peter, isn’t ready to give up power — the heck with decency and integrity. Or, maybe he has a bigger plan than just being speaker.
I’m reminded of the story about the scorpion and the turtle. The story goes that the scorpion wanted to ride on the turtle’s back to reach the other side of a river bank. The turtle hesitated because he was aware of the scorpion’s reputation: he stings everyone. But the scorpion convinced the turtle that it wouldn’t do it this time. In the end, he swam off with the scorpion on its back. In the end, he was still stung by the scorpion once it landed across the river. The scorpion couldn’t resist it; it’s the way it’s wired.
Some people, politicians or not, learn their lessons the hard way, notwithstanding the heads up along the way to perdition.
Not too long ago, Alan, the Peter, vowed that ABS-CBN wouldn’t shut down. It did, after the House too much hemming and hawing under Alan’s, the Peter, watch in the House that looked more like covering the tracks of who’s really behind the network’s predicted closure. One political pastor has muddled the game to this day and wants to make people believe he’s responsible for it.
To complete ACT 1, Alan, the Peter, was seen with President Duterte in Malacanang the morning after the infamous offer, ostensibly to join a prayer meeting scheduled for Duterte by Congressman and Bishop Eddie Villanueva.
No one is perfect, and a prayer meeting like that is a perfect setting, or stunt, for reassuring all and sundry that it will never happen again. The bishop understands repentance. Alan, the Lord, isn’t impressed by theatrics, let it be known.
ACT II will be interesting
