The Senate once again finds itself in upheaval, with fresh rumors of a counter-coup circulating in the political grapevine and even given credence by mainstream media in its reporting. Just days after Senate President Tito Sotto III dethroned Chiz Escudero, there are backroom murmurs of another coup that would elevate Alan Peter Cayetano to the chamber’s presidency.
While Sotto has dismissed these rumors as a “psywar” tactic, even hardnosed pundits recognize the likelihood of defections given a heavily fractured Senate. According to them, central to this potential takeover is the shift of the Villar siblings—Camille and Mark Villar—to the current minority. Mark Villar, in particular, stands as an easy pick for the Duterte camp. As the former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) secretary under the Duterte administration, his tenure oversaw the flood control projects that are now at the center of these scandals. Should the minority succeed with Cayetano as Senate president, expect his sister, Pia Cayetano, to join the Duterte bandwagon.
Cayetano is a true-blue Duterte stalwart, having served as the former president’s foreign secretary and House Speaker during his term, and he is expected to carry the Duterte agenda focused on the 2028 presidential elections. If he becomes Senate president again, it is likely that these biases would amplify and turn the chamber into a bulwark for Duterte’s resurgence while sidelining independent voices like Ping Lacson and Risa Hontiveros, among others.
During Rodante Marcoleta’s short-lived chairmanship of the Blue Ribbon Committee, he directed witnesses like the Discaya couple to confine themselves to contracts solely under the current administration, conveniently sidestepping Duterte-era anomalies. Marcoleta’s selective probing saw the weaponization of the otherwise revered Senate Blue Ribbon. If a counter-coup succeeds and Marcoleta regains the chairmanship of this committee, it could once again be a platform for partisanship rather than oversight. Expect the Senate, through his committee, to muffle the exposé on the participation of Joel Villanueva and Jinggoy Estrada in anomalous flood control projects that emerged during the House probe.
Yet even with the likelihood of the Duterte bloc seizing control of the Senate, its victory may prove pyrrhic. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has greenlit an independent panel to probe corruption in infrastructure projects spanning even the Aquino and Duterte eras. This move promises to lay bare the web of irregularities that plague public works contracting. It could implicate many Duterte-identified senators, exposing the very networks the current minority seeks to preserve.
The rumored change in Senate leadership is poised to prop up Duterte’s shadow agenda and fortify his camp against the public clamor for accountability. But with an independent probe looming, the real power play may unfold outside the Senate’s halls, with an investigative body going up even against Duterte allies.
