Is it time for the military to intervene?

“What the hell is going on at the Senate?” exclaims one political analyst in exasperation.

- NICK ALVIAR

We have reached the point when two warring factions have declared two Senates; each with its own Senate President; each claiming to be the legitimate Senate. One prior trigger of that absurdity is when — some days before — one fugitive Senator in hiding for almost six months suddenly appeared full of bravado to join allies in ousting an incumbent Senate President only to disappear a few hours later in the dead of night amid gunshots and panic. Drama after drama unfolded in the next days until Senator Sherwin Gatchalian was finally elected as the new Senate President last June 17. With a reconstituted Senate in place, the multi billion-peso flood control corruption inquiry is expected to resume in which at least four sitting Senators are implicated. Several other high officials in the Executive Department, particularly those from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), are accused of connivance with many Local Government Unit officials and private contractors in alleged irregularities in those flood control projects. There are insinuations too that many members of the House of Representatives, the former House Speaker, and even the President himself might be involved in some way in this large-scale scandal.