The seven cardinal “sins” of Alan Peter Cayetano

In Luke 12:13-21, Jesus tells the parable of two brothers. One of them approached the Master saying: Please tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance. Lord Alan Velasco went to the Palace and pleaded with King Digong to tell Alan Peter Cayetano to give him his share of the Treaty of 1521. The seven cardinal sins of Alan Peter emanated from his reneging from the treaty.

In Ephesians 2:1-10, St. Paul told the Ephesians they were dead because of crimes and sins. That’s why Cayetano is politically dead (for the time being, but he can be resurrected) because of his seven sins. His first sin, he entered into an agreement. He was given the first crack and thus the shorter end, 15 months. But it was auspicious because during those crucial times, he was ordered to kill ABS-CBN and he delivered. He responded to the volcanic eruption of Taal with swiftness. He also passed the Bayanihan 1 and 2. But evil spirits tempted him and he succumbed.

His second sin therefore, and this is just a surmise, based on his manifest behavior and words, was greed for power. To my mind, he entertained the lofty thoughts of becoming chief god himself come 2022. Thus, he must have planned to stay as master of the House. It isn’t a sin to have an ambition. What’s sinful is to turn one's back on an agreement because of lust for power. He created a script sating he can discard any agreement because the pandemic has changed the rules of the game. That he’s needed because there’s value to stability and continuity and we shouldn’t change horses midstream while the nation is in the midst of COVID-19.

Third, he used the budget as a shield to prevent a peaceful transition of power. He held the budget hostage by suddenly suspending the session on October 6, when the period of sponsorships and debates weren’t over. Even the Senate was angry because it violated the Constitution to adjourn without the Senate's concurrence. And Cayetano admitted it was wrong, for which reason he asked the pardon of Senate President Tito Sen. Fourth, and this, to me, is below the belt, he allegedly called Velasco lazy, absentee, unassertive, incompetent, unprepared to be speaker. Velasco is just too cool and confident, calm and collected, so as not to go down to Cayetano's propensity for theatrics and verbosity.

Fifth, the suspension of the session on October 6 was staged drama, and the opposition wasn’t entertained for when there was an objection. It was allegedly rammed into the House in a blitzkrieg fashion and those who attended via digital platform were reportedly muted. If true, they were virtual captives whose presence were needed for quorum but who were not even allowed to object. Sixth, the supposed resignation on that day was clearly a sham. It was akin to what lawyers call the principle of negative pregnant in legal procedures. It was offered but it was designed to be rejected, another teledrama that only fools would believe. Seventh, he promised King Rodrigo to exit peacefully and turn over by October 14. Instead of doing that, he adjourned. Thus, no turnover could be executed.

To me, the most damaging sin was that he brought down with him the political careers of his loyal minions, underlings, and subalterns. Characters like Defensor, Alvarado Sy, Villafuerte, and Gonzales of Mandaluyong. Well, they are old enough and they made a choice to go down in the footnotes of history with Cayetano, who committed a political hara kiri. Good for them, and better for us.