Irreconcilable differences?

Oh well, President Marcos supposedly said it: the people’s initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution is “divisive.”

Two weeks after he reportedly made that statement to the leaders of Congress, it looks like the continuing signature campaign for a people’s initiative has not only divided the Senate and the House of Representatives, but has triggered a full-blown war.

The latest Cha-cha push has also deepened the divide between the Marcos-Romualdez and Duterte clans. Former president Rodrigo Duterte has a track record for holding grudges, and his children seem to have inherited it.

Yesterday, as Marcos 2.0 launched “Bagong Pilipinas” – its version of Marcos 1.0’s Bagong Lipunan – in Manila’s Rizal Park, the Dutertes and their supporters held their own mass action in Davao City’s own Rizal Park.

Duterte’s youngest son Sebastian, currently the city mayor, shed his Mr. Nice Guy image and called for the resignation of BBM, reportedly calling the President lazy and sleeping on the job.

His elder sister Vice President Sara Duterte, still namamangka sa dalawang ilog (literally, sailing on two rivers), attended the Bagong Pilipinas event, but expressed support for the prayer rally in Davao against Charter change.

Former Duterte administration officials were spotted at the Davao meeting reportedly attended by over 1,000 political leaders from all over the country. Also spotted were Davao del Norte 1st District Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez, who was ousted as House speaker through Inday Sara’s intervention, and BBM’s first executive secretary Vic Rodriguez.

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Going by the surveys, the Dutertes remain a formidable political force, with influence in the military and police. But the Marcos-Romualdez camp seems prepared for full-scale warfare. Instead of conciliatory moves, Marcos 2.0 has been tightening the screws on the former president’s family.

There’s special focus on VP Sara, at this point the biggest threat to the continuity in power of the Marcos-Romualdez clan.

Marcos 2.0 still has one more potent tool for neutralizing the Dutertes: the International Criminal Court, which is investigating not only the former president but also the VP, who was Davao City mayor when her father was vice mayor and alleged death squads in the city were suspected of executing drug suspects.

Last year, BBM said the country’s return to the ICC was “under study.” There has been no word so far on any decision arising from that study.

Even if the country stays out of the ICC, the government has softened enough on its previous unqualified opposition to an ICC probe. Officials have effectively said the government can’t stop civilians, witnesses and complainants in the drug war from cooperating with the ICC in an informal setting.

It’s intriguing that the ICC, asked by Filipino journalists last week if its probers had been to the Philippines late last year, sidestepped the question and instead vowed to give justice to victims of extrajudicial killings in the war on drugs.

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In the congressional battle, BBM has tried in vain to patch up differences. He may have to choose sides in what is starting to look like irreconcilable differences. His choice may determine whether he can continue governing in a stable environment after the midterm elections next year.

Last Friday, Senate President Migz Zubiri warned that a constitutional crisis was “slowly happening” and senators accused congressmen of “double talk” on the people’s initiative.

Speaker Martin Romualdez, meanwhile, came out swinging on the same day. He advised the senators to “focus on your work” like the congressmen, observe parliamentary courtesy and leave the people’s initiative to the people.

Romualdez asked his arch nemesis, VP Sara, what he had said that might have riled her. In fact he hasn’t said anything, but actions of the chamber that he heads cut deeper than words.

Senators have complained about the tyranny of the majority in the House-envisioned joint voting for amending the Constitution. Romualdez countered this by saying the House would not be held hostage by just 24 senators. That says a lot about what the Speaker thinks of the role of the Senate under a bicameral system, and yes, about the tyranny of numbers.

It was a rare public display of ire for Romualdez, who had maintained impressive composure even when derided last year as a tambaloslos. Maybe he got wind from the “Marites” grapevine of certain quarters whispering to BBM that he is becoming a political albatross that the President must jettison. 

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Romualdez did try to reach out to the senators, writing a letter to Zubiri on Friday, which the apparently confused Senate President disseminated to his colleagues in the chamber.

It was the Speaker’s cousin, with her wicked sense of humor, who summed up the sentiment of the Senate, whose members could not understand why Romualdez kept raising the people’s initiative, a.k.a. PI, as an alternative for pushing Charter change.

“Ang labo nung sulat, hindi namin maintindihan. Hindi siya bicameral, bipolar siya. Very confusing,” Senator Imee told “Storycon” on Cignal TV’s One News. “Sabi OK daw yung Resolution 6, pero magtatakda raw ng alternative PI… Ano ba naman yan? … Talaga naman, napakahirap kausap. Nagiging bipolar ako kakabasa ng mga ganito.”

Romualdez responded by telling his least favorite cousin, a staunch supporter of his least favorite administration official the VP, to stop listening to rumor mongers or Marites in the Senate.

Senator Imee is set to conduct a formal probe this Tuesday into reports of “signature buying” in the PI campaign. House members may attend, she said, although no formal invitation has been sent to them.

Over the weekend, the senator said she was praying for protection for her only brother from the “demons” around him.

A congressman, touting the people’s initiative for Cha-cha, claimed “everybody” was on board. It seems the House considers senators, the Duterte camp and other PI opponents as nobodies.

The infighting has fueled speculation about how much of the PI for Cha-cha is really BBM’s idea. Romualdez, with a local constituency, has little to lose. BBM should be prepared to bear the brunt of any erosion of support.