How to “kill” the mockingbirds

The blitzkrieg ouster of the Liberal Party senators from their committee chairmanships was a political upheaval that has long been waiting to happen. Senator Franklin Drilon has been removed from the office of the President pro tempore and was replaced by another LP member, Senator Ralph Recto. Also removed from their respective Committee chairs were senators Bam Aquino, Kiko Pangilinan, and Risa Hontiveros. The first one to be kicked out (thanks to the killer punch of a scripted motion made by the Pacman) was, of course, Senator Leila de Lima. That is how the cookie crumbles, so to say. The LP did it to the other parties during the PNoy administration. The Lakas-NUCD did it under both Presidents FVR and GMA respectively. Erap and his PMP did it too. And so did President Cory with her Laban partisans after the revolution of 1986.

I remember how President Marcos and his KBL dropped (like hot potatoes) all the prominent politicians in Cebu, Negros Oriental, Siquijor, and Bohol, when FM secretly funded and allegedly supported the Pusyon Bisaya. I also recall how FM dropped his vice president, Fernando Lopez, and took over Meralco, ABS-CBN and other business empires of the Lopez clan. Not to be forgotten also is how President Cory dropped her vice president, Doy Laurel, when the titan from Batangas became uncontrollable. Again, I vividly remember how President GMA dropped her own vice president, Teofisto Guingona Jr. They were the political ''mockingbirds'' who turned out to become threats to their president.

Under President Duterte, we were not surprised that Vice President Leni Robredo was replaced after having been prevented from attending Cabinet meetings. In her own milder styles, she was hinting her dissent against many of the administration's policies, especially the issues of capital punishment, the so-called summary killings and alleged extra-judicial executions, the treatment of women, and most especially on Senator Bongbong's electoral protest which was given due course by the presidential electoral tribunal. The presence of VP Leni in the Cabinet has become untenable. She was another ''mockingbird''.

Senator de Lima was a thorn in the path of the administration. She was removed from the Committee on Justice, courtesy of the ''de kahon'' motion of the ''pambansang kamao'' who was ordered to deliver the killer punch. Drilon too, being the most senior LP member in the Senate, was the brains of many LP maneuverings. He had to be marginalized. He is a mockingbird too. Kiko, to my mind, is the most harmless. He has not done anything earthshaking in the Senate. So why give him that importance? Bam Aquino is ambitious and his ambition has become too great for comfort. And Risa is a best friend forever of de Lima. Trillanes may also have his time to be removed, or not at all. Anyway, he seems to be all bark and no bite. In realpolitik, any mockingbird that vexes, stifles and unsettles the center of power needs to be neutralized. Of course, I don't really mean ''to kill'', but merely to ease them out.