May 11, 2026 marked the premier telecast of the worst series in Philippine politics.

I’ve always thought that many of our local telenovelas were badly written. Hence, my dislike for Filipino soap operas. Talk about horrible scriptwriting!

So there was a shuffle in the senate. The surprise? A senator who had disappeared from the public eye for over 6 months, suddenly makes a grand appearance on the show! The spectacle was to make the numbers stick – change the sitting senate president.

Of course, everyone was surprised with his appearance because with all that drama and bad acting (tears, jeers, anger and all), there was a shift in the senate leadership. Well orchestrated I may say as the senate prepares themselves for the transmission of impeachment complaints against the sitting Vice-President. After all, the senate needs the numbers to quell the complaint as they sit en banc, forthwith, as judge and jury after the complaint is transmitted to them.

And what better person to make as senate president than the very person that coddled the former president of the Philippines – Allan Peter Cayetano? I mean, seriously, this guy has a glib tongue with could you look straight in the eye and defend a lie as he saw fit. Even if you were in the side of right, he would most likely twist the story to favor his side. I’ve seen many of his interviews during the past administration and it’s something he cannot deny. Worst? He uses the name of God and any form of religion in vain.

But if you look at the cast of characters who are not in the so-called majority in the senate, their reputation (or lack thereof) precedes them. Familial interest, lack of moral values and accountability to the Filipino people, blind following to personal interest – in short, shameless, were their predominant feature.

They knew that the lower house was going to convict the sitting VP, guilty as charged, and should be impeached on so many grounds. In the meantime, the VP is in the Netherlands, streaming on how sad and pathetic the country has become under the leadership of PBBM. Most likely playing the savior and victim in all this charade.

Pretty cool if you think of how the first half of the first episode was written.

Then comes the climactic second half, where former Senator Antonio Trillanes, together with the NBI, were waiting for Sen. de la Rosa to appear in the senate. Whoever gave the intel to the NBI must be an insider as well because the NBI came in droves to make sure that they would serve the warrant of arrest of the ICC to Sen. de la Rosa. With so much chasing caught on CCTV, it became comedic at some point with all that cat and mouse game.

The premier episode ended with the NBI in a standoff and standing down as the new Senate President refused to give up Bato because to APC (Allan Peter Cayetano), there was no legal basis for serving a warrant of arrest from the ICC. The majority concurred.

APC placed Bato under “protective custody”. (A move that would reverberate back to him in the next episode of this so inconsistent ongoing saga.) The poor guy spent the night in the senate under the watchful eyes of the OSSA (Office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms) Ret. Police Major General Mao Aplasca. Aplasca leads the chamber’s primary law enforcement and security operations, overseeing protective details for the senators and maintaining order within the Senate premises. In the next episode, we will see how his role in this series will eventually pan out.

The irony of this episode went with some twists. Two senators – Sen. JV Ejercito (stepbrother of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada) and Sen. Migz Zubiri vote to abstain because according to them, they wanted to remain “independent”. To me, that’s some laughing matter as independence also means playing it safe, not playing it right. Another comedy.

Then there was the surprise shift in allegiance of Sen. Loren Legarda. Her shifting gears was not surprising as she has been known to have moved from political alliance depending of course on what benefitted her or her family. As her son, Congressman Leandro Leviste is now embroiled in a war with the Department of Energy (of course the son was able to bag the multibillion pesos solar project of the government during the time of Duterte) who has slapped a multibillion pesos fine against Solar Boy, this wasn’t a difficult choice to make.

For all that oomph and bravado that de la Rosa had uttered and dared in the past to have the ICC arrest him and that he’d be willing to accompany FPRRD in The Hague, he’s not that courageous now is he?

At the end of the day, we knew that blood was thicker than water. And that saving one’s skin was more important than anything else.

In Philippine politics, political survival IS more important because it is after all, a family affair.

That in a nutshell was the tragedy of the first episode of this series.

Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.

[All photos are CTTO]