He’s no hypocrite, Sen. Ronald“Bato” dela Rosa, who could be the last man standing when the going gets really rough for his principals– not the “ we the people” preambled in the Philippine Constitution– but the father and daughter tag team of the fighting, feisty Duterte clan.
Ergo, he will not attend the forthcoming 4th state-of-the-nation- address (SONA) of , who else, but the number one nemesis or spoiler, if you will, of his now-and-forever benefactors, the one standing between now and 2028. He probably knows the message, been there, heard that. So what else would be new, except that , according to the British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, the latest news will be like the last or old one.
He wouldn’t show up at the SONA and force a tongue-in-cheek grin with the VIP invites while it’s all sour mood from the inside. Neither does he think it prim and proper at an honorable state affair for him to look like a grumpier grandpa. No way. He wants his grandchildren to remember him well, which is why talks about his impending warrant of arrest from the International Criminal Court get on his nerves.
Besides, he has a good example to follow and it’s even legal: the Vice President of the Philippines, Sara Duterte, in case you forget. The first time, she didn’t show up at the last SONA because she thought she deserved to be a designated survivor if something happened to the Palace super lucky teammate.
Ironically, it’s another head-up that has caused, partly the current impeachment hullabaloo against the second highest official in the land. The VPs earlier verbal statement that she had hired a killer to do in the President, the First Lady and the Speaker of the House is a prima facie virtual Mt. Everest for her battery of 16 top notch lawyers.
The late Pampanga governor Bren Z. Guiao used to drill it on his allies and contractors cabesa, including the latest father of political dynasty in Pampanga, whose apotheosis far exceeded that of his mentor and benefactor, that loyalty is a two- way traffic. (By the way,the father of the new dynasty has unraveled the secret that you need a dynasty to fight a dynasty).
When the late governor lost to an action star, he deeply bewailed that many of his allies became scarce or invisible . He would recall that, in his golden days when everybody desired gold, many would call him day or night to ask for favor: a post or a contract. The woman president at that time, for whom he showed what real loyalty meant, was only a phone call away. In fact, he didn’t have to; dropping the magic name, would suffice, which he did some of the time.
The late business tycoon Levy Laus recall vividly that when the governor-friend died, he was alone in following the ambulance carrying the politician’s body on the way to the governor’s hometown. “Now, only the two of us are left,” the business tycoon reverently spoke under his breath to his dead friend.
In the governor’s time, the business tycoon led a group of concerned citizens ,mostly traders, in demanding that the governor put his money where his mouth was. A volcano had erupted, dislocating thousands, burying some places under lahar and a slogan reverberated through out the Pinatubo—landia: don’t mourn, Pampanga will bounce back.
To his credit, his networking with a former woman president and her successor who defied political convention and a well-known sabungero to be her successor, paid off with a multi-million dike that ended the existential worries at the time.
“He was a tool of the boss, without brain or backbone”, Franz Kafka described his character Gregor Samsa in “Metamorphosis”. Obviously, Bato has enough backbone in accusing the present administration of kidnapping a former ex=president to surrender him to the ICC custody at the Hague. He also repeatedly proposed that the impeachment trial against the vice president be dismissed for legal infirmities. Whatever mental capacity the senator may need to comprehend the Constitution, which many says has been flagrantly violated by those who knew better, he has more than made up to meet Guiao’s paradigm of a two-way traffic.
“Loyalty is the virtue of faithfulness “, American author Edwin Louis Cole said. There is no iota of doubt that the hulk of a senator perfectly fits the adage to a T. He will always insist that the vice president is innocent of the charges against her, after more than four months that the trial has been maddeningly delayed. In his book, or so it seems, law and evidence are secondary to loyalty. There goes the definition of an impartial senator-judge.
In response to Bato’s straightforward, even in your face political dunk, Malacanang is cool but ready with a fair warning, also a heads-up, a tit-for-tat. If the ICC will issue a warrant of arrest for the brave, loyal senator and the Interpol will ask for help to implement it, there will be no special treatment. He will go the way of his boss: straight to a jet plane that will bring him to the Hague.
It may be the exact same aircraft that brought the former president to face the case of crime against humanity. The loyal man may also likely face the same charge. It takes two tango, the saying goes, and in the infamous Philippine drug war that costs the lives of from 6,000 to30,000 Filipinos, the partner in crime is a shout and a hiss.in the din.
In the meantime, the aging, definitely not dying, principal is in the lurch as his expensive foreign lawyers are nonplussed about his internal release. For whom the heads- up tolls, the heads-up tolls for thee.
