Blowbacks

They call each other “honorable” Senator from Metro Manila or from so or so province, or “gentleman” from Bicol or from wherever the home province he or she comes from. They may be formally addressing each other as “honorable” members of the Senate during sessions or in public hearings, but civility is thrown out of the window when they get each other’s goat.

This we saw during the televised public hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee last week in the confrontation between Senators Richard Gordon and Antonio Trillanes IV. In the middle of the fray was Senate majority leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III who prevented the verbal tussle from becoming physical.    

 The heated altercation took place at the resumption last week of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee into shabu smuggling. Chaired by Gordon, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee was conducting its sixth hearing on how the P6.4 billion worth of smuggled shabu shipment from China slipped through the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

In the course of the Senate public hearings, the bungled operation led to the resignation of Customs commissioner Nicanor Faeldon. This after a customs broker-turned whistleblower Mark Taguba implicated an alleged “Davao Group” as behind facilitation of shipments at the BOC.

From intermediaries claiming to represent the “Davao Group,” Taguba repeatedly told the Senate hearings that the names of Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo “Polong” Duterte and Atty.Maneses Carpio were mentioned to him. The Vice Mayor and Carpio happened to be the son and son-in-law, respectively, of President Rodrigo Duterte.

At the Senate hearing that day, Trillanes complained he overheard Sotto’s comment as mere “hearsay” the claims of Taguba who kept mentioning the names of both the Vice Mayor and Carpio based from what were told him by his BOC intermediaries. The most veteran among the senior Senators, Sotto kept his cool despite being accused by Trillanes of “lawyering” and explained he had no such intention but merely wanted to do everything in order.

Trillanes noted with sarcasm how Senators Gordon and Sotto were seemingly trying to block his attempt for the Senate committee to invite or summon Polong and Carpio to shed light on these allegations against them. After Gordon suspended the hearing, Trillanes reopened his microphone to accuse Gordon as having turned the Blue Ribbon into a “committee de absuelto” (clearing house).

Carrying the ball of the Senate investigations into these smuggling and corruption allegations at the BOC, Gordon was obviously driven to the edge of his wits already by the catty remarks of Trillanes. Gordon took digs at Trillanes’ failed Magdalo military adventurism and twitted the latter for staging coup when things were not run the way he wanted it. Reacting to Gordon’s potshots, Trillanes recalled how Gordon “barricaded” himself at Subic Bay Freeport to cling on to his post as SBMA chief.

More hurting words would have been added had Sotto did not turn off the microphone of Trillanes and asked for suspension of the hearing. But inflated egos, coupled by testosterones running high, both Senators resumed their catfight when the public hearing was resumed.

The Senate sergeant-at-arms officers were called in to prevent what could descend into a full brawl. The proverbial cooler heads ended the Senate tele-novela peacefully. But it has reached all the way to Davao City.

Acknowledging the “coercive powers” of the Senate, the two presidential relatives in Davao City announced they are appearing in the resumption of the Senate hearing tomorrow. Their acceptance of the Senate invitation came after President Duterte publicly disclosed having advised them to attend the public hearing but they can invoke their constitutional rights not to answer questions from the Senators. 

Apparently, President Duterte gave the same advice to Faeldon whose resignation he initially did not accept. At the last Senate hearing he attended, Faeldon refused to answer questions asked in particular by Trillanes. The two were once comrades-in-arms during the Magdalo mutiny against former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Even as the issue is settled already by the appearance of the two presidential relatives tomorrow, both Senators are still swapping accusation of un-parliamentary remarks and un-parliamentary behavior.

As he previously announced, Gordon made good his threat to file last Monday a formal complaint against Trillanes before the Senate Ethics Committee. Trillanes fired back against Gordon in his privilege speech yesterday and threatened also “to expose corrupt acts” of the latter as chairman of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC).

In response, Gordon asked the entire Senate to strike out any reference to the PRC by Trillanes, citing their quarrel with each other is a personal one and should therefore not drag a hallowed institution like PRC. When Trillanes was about to take issue against the request of Gordon, Sotto intervened with an assurance the matter would have to be threshed out by the Senate Rules Committee. For the sake of peace at the Senate, Sotto called to suspend the session for the rest of the day.

This is not the first time that Trillanes figured in a public quarrel with fellow Senators. During the first regular sessions of the 17th Congress, Trillanes traded barbs at the floor with Sen.Miguel Zubiri. The apple of discord was over the resolution filed by Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon for the Senate Committee on Civil Service, Government Reorganization and Professional Conduct headed by Trillanes to investigate the alleged P50-million bribery scandal involving officials of the Bureau of Immigration officials.

Zubiri opposed it as he wanted the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights headed by Gordon to probe the alleged bribery. Trillanes told media interviews his concern that Gordon and Zubiri would supposedly “whitewash” the bribery scandal. Zubiri resented his being referred to as a “Duterte defender” in the Senate and recalled Trillanes’ record as a rebel officer.

This is blowback. It is actually a term originating from within the American Intelligence community. It denotes the unintended consequences, unwanted side effects, or suffered repercussions of a covert operation that fall back on those responsible for such operations.

For these Senators, blowback is the unintended adverse result of a political action or situation he or she figured in the past. Brace for more blowbacks, gentlemen.