Sunday, June 26, 2022
manilastandard.net
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
manilastandard.net
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion Columns Lowdown by Jojo Robles

North Korea in the Senate

Jojo RoblesbyJojo Robles
September 6, 2017, 12:01 am
in Lowdown by Jojo Robles
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
72
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Email

President Rodrigo Duterte recently described Senator Antonio Trillanes as a one-man “political ISIS.” I think Senator Richard Gordon would agree with me instead of with Duterte when I say that Trillanes is really like the North Korea of the Senate, because he never follows the rules but never gets punished, either, for some still unknown reason.

The point is simple: If the Senate allows Trillanes to do whatever he wants because he knows he will never be sanctioned by his peers, how different is that supposed august body from all the other institutions that protect its members by looking the other way when they misbehave?

Gordon, Trillanes’ current accuser, has said that he is out to prove that the chamber where the Olongapo senator has served for a long time is not really an old boys’ club. This is why, Gordon said, he wants Trillanes to pay for his unparliamentary behavior, or basically for thumbing his nose at his colleagues for a long time.

“We keep accusing the police, the people at Customs and everywhere else of protecting their kabaro [co-workers],” Gordon said. “It’s about time someone stood up to this fellow here in the Senate.”

Since the restoration of the Senate in 1987, the Senate has only officially censured two of its members after they were accused of misbehaving before the ethics committee. Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Heherson Alvarez got the equivalent of senatorial slaps on the wrist, the former for accusing Paul Aquino (father of current senator Bam) of various unsavory dealings and the latter for interfering with a purely police matter.

ADVERTISEMENT

But no senator has really has had the book thrown at him for misbehavior in recent times. And Trillanes, who has developed a unique style of parliamentary trolling that he first perfected on resource persons, seems hell-bent on proving that the Senate will simply not go after one of its own even if he repeatedly trolls his own colleagues.

I already wrote last week about how Trillanes first tasted “victory” as a Senate bully when he so embarrassed Secretary Angelo Reyes that the latter decided to kill himself. But now he seems to have gone beyond mere trolling of Senate witnesses and graduated to irritating his fellow senators just to see if he can get a rise out of them.

Trillanes, of course, is not really as brave as he pretends to be. After he first clashed with Gordon last year, during the Senate investigation on the so-called Davao Death Squad, Trillanes went to visit Gordon in his office to apologize.

But Trillanes, who staged two failed coup attempts during the Arroyo years, is apparently such a creature of habit that he cannot resist doing what he does when the opportunity presents itself yet again. And since he can no longer apologize to Gordon for trolling the latter in the session hall, he delivered a speech yesterday explaining that he was not guilty of unparliamentary behavior when he called Gordon’s committee a “comite de abswelto.”

I think Trillanes has once against been spooked by the possibility of majority of his colleagues deciding to finally do something about his being a general pain in the Senate behind, which is why he had to explain himself. And over the years, Trillanes knows that he has collected an impressive list of enemies even inside the chamber who would probably enjoy nothing better than to see him get what he deserves.

Trillanes has only himself to blame, of course, if nobody likes him in the Senate—or outside of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if even his own colleagues in the opposition, if they didn’t have to present a united front against the Duterte-friendly majority, would vote to sanction him.

Kim Jong-un doesn’t have a lot of friends, either, outside of North Korea. And it’s not really because of that terrible haircut of his.

* * *

Personally, I don’t believe that the Senate should impose the severest penalty of removing Trillanes from office, which it can do, if it really wants to. I think Trillanes should remain in the Senate but only after he serves a suspension or a similar penalty, not just a slap on the wrist.

The penalty should be severe enough to remind Trillanes that he has to abide by the rules of the chamber he belongs to and not act like he is its resident Kim Jong-un. But it should not be so heavy that the senators will lay themselves open to the charge of suppressing dissent—even if I can think of no other senator who so richly deserves being suppressed.

No, I want Trillanes to remain in office and in the opposition because he typifies the quality of the opposition to the Duterte administration—ill-prepared, unreasonable and arrogant in the extreme. As I said last week, if Trillanes is the best that the opposition can offer, then Duterte will have nothing to fear—even if Trillanes totally loses it and decides to stage another of his futile military uprisings.

Trillanes needs to be taught a lesson, after all, even if he appears to be the kind of politician who is so full of himself that he can no longer be expected to have the humility to learn anything. Even if he doesn’t learn manners and humility, it would still be fun to punish him, just for being the Senate’s own North Korea.

Tags: North Korea in the SenatePresident Rodrigo DuterteSenator Antonio TrillanesSenator Richard Gordon
ADVERTISEMENT
Jojo Robles

Jojo Robles

Related Posts

Out for pizza

February 8, 2018, 12:01 am
0
147
Out for pizza

Vice President Leni Robredo, I fear, is not really interested in speeding up the recount of the votes cast in...

Read more

Not so fast

February 6, 2018, 12:09 am
0
134
Not so fast

First of all, the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital team of experts didn’t state that 14 children died as...

Read more

Duque feels the heat

February 1, 2018, 12:01 am
0
133
Duque feels the heat

If Health Secretary-designate Francisco Duque thinks that he can get confirmed if he just keeps his head down and stays...

Read more

Did Martin invent socmed?

January 31, 2018, 12:07 am
0
132
Did Martin invent socmed?

How quickly we forget. “Weaponizing” the Internet and social media for political purposes, especially by government communications officials using state...

Read more

Noynoy’s barricade

January 30, 2018, 12:01 am
0
137
Noynoy’s barricade

For once, I miss Cory Aquino.  Because Cory really went out of her way not to show in public the...

Read more

The Thomasian Way

January 26, 2018, 12:01 am
0
131
The Thomasian Way

Over at UST, they will virtually lynch you for having the “wrong” politics. But they will turn a blind eye,...

Read more

Stories you may like

  • Ex-Naga dad links Leni’s brother-in-law to illegal drugs

    Ex-Naga dad links Leni’s brother-in-law to illegal drugs

    36721 shares
    Share 14688 Tweet 9180
  • Of course, it was BBM’s project

    30869 shares
    Share 12348 Tweet 7717
  • INC endorses BBM, Sara

    28803 shares
    Share 11521 Tweet 7201
  • Duterte’s seven biggest achievements

    21871 shares
    Share 8748 Tweet 5468
  • Marcos leads SWS survey on presidentiables at 50%

    13582 shares
    Share 5433 Tweet 3396

Print Edition

View More

Recent Posts

  • Sneakers for Makati : AB4.0
  • ICC presses drug war probe
  • China ready to talk with Marcos on oil, gas exploration in WPS
  • DOH ranks 5 NCR areas under ‘moderate risk’
  • US leads 5-nation Pacific alliance
  • ‘NTC can’t just block websites’
  • Diesel prices to go up anew next week, small cut for gas
  • US destroyer sunk in WWII found in deep PH seabed

Advertisement

Latest News

‘NTC can’t just block websites’

byManila Standard
June 26, 2022, 12:35 am
0
152
NTC orders directors to be of assistance during UNDAS

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines on Saturday said the National Telecommunications Commission does not have the authority to block...

Read more

Diesel prices to go up anew next week, small cut for gas

byAFP
June 26, 2022, 12:30 am
0
189
NKTI, PGH emergency rooms overfilled

UMP prices of diesel are expected to go up again next week, while gasoline may go down by a minimal...

Read more

US destroyer sunk in WWII found in deep PH seabed

byAFP
June 26, 2022, 12:25 am
0
204
Vax wastage, infection surge feared in Odette-hit areas

A US Navy destroyer sunk during World War II has been found nearly 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) below sea level...

Read more

MMDA bares traffic reroute for BBM inaugural

byJoel E. Zurbano
June 26, 2022, 12:20 am
0
153
MMDA prepares for road closure

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) announced on Saturday it will impose road closures and traffic rerouting during the inauguration...

Read more

DTI urged to probe ‘unlicensed’ crypto corporation

byMaricel Cruz
June 26, 2022, 12:15 am
0
146
Exporters urged to tap plant-based meat mart

An infrastructure-oriented think-tank has asked the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to inquire on the world’s largest crypto-currency exchange’s...

Read more

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

ABOUT US

Manila Standard

Manila Standard website (manilastandard.net), launched in August 2002, extends the newspaper’s reach beyond its traditional readers and makes its brand of Philippine news and opinion available to a much wider and geographically diverse readership here and overseas.

Digital Edition

In tone and content, the online edition mirrors the editorial thrust of the newspaper. While hewing to the traditional precepts of fairness and objectivity, MS believes the news of the day need not be staid, overly long or dry. Stories are succinct, readable and written in a lively style that has become a hallmark of the newspaper.

Download – Today’s Paper

Search

No Result
View All Result

6th Floor Universal Re Bldg., 106 Paseo De Roxas cor. Perea Street, Legaspi Village, 1226 Makati City Philippines

Trunklines: 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Pop.Life
    • Newsmakers
    • Hangouts
    • A-Pop
    • Post Its
    • Performances
    • Malls & Bazaars
    • Hobbies & Collections
  • Technology
    • Gadgets
    • Computers
    • Business
    • Tech Plus
  • MS ON THE ROAD
    • Sedan
    • SUV
    • Truck
    • Bike
    • Accessories
    • Motoring Plus
    • Commuter’s Corner
  • Home & Design
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Construction
    • Interior
  • Spotlight
  • Gallery
    • Photos
    • Videos
  • Events
    • Seminars
    • Exhibits
    • Community
  • Biyahero
    • Travel Features
    • Travel Reels
    • Travel Logs
  • Pets
  • Advertise with Us

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Install Manila Standard Web App

Install App