23/05/2026
๐๐๐๐ง๐ข๐ฅ๐๐๐ | ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฃ๐ผ๐น๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐ ๐ช๐ฒ ๐๐ป๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ถ๐
The Senate is once again showing the youth that accountability is negotiable, depending on who holds power, and somehow we are supposed to be fine with that.
In the span of just a few days, the Senate has once again become the country's favorite stage for political theater: the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte moving forward after the House impeached her on May 11 over the alleged misuse of confidential funds; a Senate presidency change on May 13 that installed Senator Alan Peter Cayetano amid shifting alliances; and the continuing political relevance of Senator Ronald โBatoโ dela Rosa as the International Criminal Court pursues its investigation into alleged crimes tied to the Duterte administrationโs war on drugs from 2016 to 2019. Nothing about this is quiet or stable. And nothing about it suggests a system fully focused on public service.
The impeachment case is not gossip, no matter how easily it is treated as political entertainment. It arose from Commission on Audit findings that flagged deficiencies in the liquidation of confidential funds in both the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education. These are public funds now tied to a constitutional trial requiring a two-thirds Senate vote for conviction. Yet instead of focusing on the allegations themselves, much of the conversation has shifted toward political numbers: who remains loyal, who is beginning to drift, and who is likely to be protected. Accountability, once again, risks becoming dependent on alliances rather than principle.
Then there is the Senate itself, changing leadership at the very moment it prepares for one of the countryโs most consequential political trials in recent years. The May 13 leadership shift was not simply an administrative routine. It reflected the constant recalibration of political power inside the chamber. In a healthier political environment, a Senate preparing for impeachment proceedings would project stability and institutional confidence. Instead, the transition only deepened public suspicion that political positioning now matters as much as the process itself.
Meanwhile, Senator Ronald โBatoโ dela Rosa remains an influential political figure even as the International Criminal Court continues investigating killings linked to the Duterte administrationโs anti-drug campaign. The Philippinesโ withdrawal from the Rome Statute in 2019 did not erase international scrutiny or the thousands of deaths recorded during anti-drug operations from 2016 to 2019. The issue persists because the questions surrounding accountability were never fully resolved. And yet, discussions on justice often seem to fade whenever they become politically inconvenient.
And while all of this unfolds, the country does what it always does: it continues functioning around dysfunction.
Flood control projects flagged by the Commission on Audit for billions of pesos in questionable implementation remain a recurring feature of audit reports, even as flooding continues to displace communities year after year. Inflation continues to squeeze households through rising food and transportation costs, as reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority. Public schools remain overcrowded, under-resourced, and repeatedly โprioritizedโ in speeches that rarely survive budget ex*****on. These are not new problems. They are simply the ones that refuse to be buried beneath the noise of political survival games.
And yet, the noise always wins airtime.
It is almost impressive how efficiently national attention can be redirected. A Senate leadership change here, an alliance shift there, an impeachment trial framed as a numbers game rather than a test of accountability. It becomes routine, even entertaining in a deeply unfortunate way, as if governance were a spectator sport rather than the structure holding up everyoneโs daily life.
Young Filipinos, especially first-time voters, are growing up within this cycle. According to the Commission on Elections, millennials and Gen Z voters made up over 60 percent of registered voters in 2025. That is not a โfuture electorateโ politicians can afford to ignore. That is the present deciding force. And what they are being shown, repeatedly, is that politics rewards endurance, alliance-building, and strategic silence more than clarity, principle, or consistency.
So yes, it is tempting to call this โjust politics.โ That phrase has become the countryโs most convenient excuse for everything it no longer wants to fix. But there comes a point when repetition stops being an explanation and becomes an indictment. Because when accountability cases become political negotiations, when Senate leadership shifts mid-crisis, and when allegations involving public funds or mass violence are absorbed into familiar cycles of debate without resolution, something more than politics is happening. It is normalization.
And that is where the anger should come in. Not loud, not chaotic, but clear.
Because what the youth are inheriting is not just a political system, but a political culture steadily teaching them to expect less from those who hold power: less accountability, less principle, less shame.
The Senate is not only making decisions right now. It is passing down standards. And if those standards continue to shrink, if alliances continue to matter more than responsibility and spectacle more than governance, then what the next generation inherits will no longer be a democracy shaped by public service, but politics shaped by survival.
And this is precisely the kind of politics Filipino youth should never have to inherit.
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Editorial by Inayah Bangasan
Cartoon by Marianne Corpuz
