Decompress

For a change, the past week saw less political attacks between the warring factions, no midnight rants and no threatening words.

- ALEX MAGNO

One might almost describe our politics as peaceful. Maybe even uneventful.

The respite is certainly welcome. It allows us to reflect on what is important and what is not.

Until the major combatants decided further factional warfare would only harm the nation, we did seem well into an episode of political turbulence. Earlier last week, President Marcos himself delivered what was probably his angriest speech to date, threatening to meet fire with fire.

But that was the last he spoke about the rapidly escalating tensions involving his own irrepressible Vice President. In a matter of a few days, he surprised his most loyal partisans by sending legislators a text message urging them not to proceed with moves to impeach Sara Duterte.

The more cynical observers immediately concluded this was a Pontius Pilate move: washing his hands of any responsibility while his allies bungled onwards to politically crucify the second highest elected official of the land. The President would later on publicly admit he sent out such a message.

The more seasoned observers saw the President's signal to his congressional allies as a most astute move. It allowed the situation to decompress and everyone to recalibrate.

After Sara Duterte's midnight rant the weekend before, it did seem the situation could only become explosive. Things could quickly move towards the brink. Beyond that there was only an imponderable abyss.