Bago pa man nahalal si Win Gatchalian bilang bagong Senate President ngayong Hunyo 17, may isang tanong na ilang linggong bumagabag sa buong Senado—at sa buong bansa. It was, of all things, a question of counting.
Bago nag-concede si Senator Cayetano, at bago tumawid si Senador Joel Villanueva para ibigay ang ikalabintatlong boto, lahat ng ito ay umiikot sa iisang numero na walang makapag-areglo. And to understand how we got here, we have to go back to the very beginning—sa pinakasimpleng matematika.
Mayroong matematika na tinuturo sa Grade 1: Bilangin mo, isa hanggang dalawampu’t apat. And then there is the kind of math that seems to require a doctoral degree, defended by lawyers, argued before the highest court. Ilan nga ba ang majority sa Senado? Labindalawa o labintatlo? Astonishingly, a question we thought was settled in elementary school can be this hard.
On paper, the arithmetic is simple. Twenty-four senators. Divide by two, you get twelve. Add one for a clear majority, and you get thirteen. Tapos na sana.
Pero noong Hunyo 3, isang dosenang senador lang ang nagtipon, nagdeklara ng quorum, at nagbago ng liderato ng Senado. Twelve. Not thirteen. And suddenly, counting became harder than algebra.
Saan nanggaling ang labindalawang ito?
From a 1949 case, Avelino v. Cuenco. Ganito ang nangyari noon: humawak ng gavel si Senate President Jose Avelino, biglang umalis sa session hall, sinundan ng siyam pang senador.
There was a walkout—Naiwan ang labindalawa, nagpatuloy ang sesyon, at iniluklok si Mariano Cuenco.
The Supreme Court was asked if this was legal. The Court ruled that because one senator was in the United States and could not be compelled to attend, the effective membership was twenty-three, not twenty-four. And a majority of twenty-three, said the Court, is twelve. You cannot count a person you cannot compel to appear.
History, it seems, likes to repeat itself.
In the present Senate, there was also a walkout. And after that, ang dating mayorya ay hindi na dumalo sa mga sesyon. Boycott, kung tawagin ng iba.
So the same question from 1949 came roaring back. Diumano, dalawang senador ang hindi mabibilang sa quorum. According to reports, hindi alam ang kinaroroonan ni Senador Ronald dela Rosa simula pa noong Mayo. Si Senador Jinggoy Estrada naman ay nasa detensiyon kaugnay ng mga kaso sa flood control.
Subtract the two from twenty-four, you get twenty-two, and the majority of that is twelve.
Ayan ang aritmetika na tinututulan ni Senador Alan Peter Cayetano, who insisted that it should still be thirteen. The Integrated Bar of the Philippines and several legal experts, however, sided with twelve.
So why does the majority matter?
Dahil ang majority ang pumipili ng Senate President. The majority decides which bills move and which ones die in committee. Ang majority ang may hawak ng martilyo. Whoever has the numbers has the power.
Hindi ito basta numero. It is about who controls an entire branch of government.
And here is the part we should not miss.
While they argue over twelve or thirteen, sino ang nagbabayad? Tayo. The ordinary Filipino, whose taxes fund every session, every lawyer, every day spent quarreling over who deserves to sit.
There was even a high school teacher, John Barry Tayam, who went all the way to the Supreme Court to ask that the twelve-member quorum be declared valid. The Court dismissed his petition for lack of legal standing. Wala raw siyang locus standi, no personal and direct injury. The Court did not even rule on the merits.
Pero maging patas tayo sa Korte.
Hindi po macu-cure ng pagiging mamamayan o taxpayer ang kawalan ng legal standing. Kailangan ang personal at substantial na stake sa kalalabasan ng kontrobersiya.
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This is settled doctrine. In Lozano v. Nograles, the Court was clear that the lack of locus standi cannot be cured simply by invoking one’s status as a taxpayer or a concerned citizen. Hindi tatanggapin ng Korte ang isang kaso kung ang nagpetisyon ay walang matayuan, walang place to stand on.
Ngunit may butas sa pader na iyon.
In IBP v. Zamora, the Supreme Court itself recognized that it may take a liberal attitude toward standing where the petitioner is able to craft an issue of transcendental importance to the people. When the issues raised are of paramount importance to the public, sabi mismo ng Korte, it may brush aside the technicalities of procedure.
So the real question was never whether Tayam is a teacher, a voter, or a taxpayer.
Ang tanong ay ito: naipakita ba niya na ang quorum ng Senado ay isang usaping may transcendental significance sa taumbayan?
According to reports, iginiit niya ang konstitusyonal na bigat ng isyu, but the Court did not find it enough to set aside the technicality. The door was there. The Court chose not to open it.
Isipin mo iyon.
A teacher cared enough to ask. And the answer he received was that he did not have enough standing to even deserve an answer. Tila ang isang tanong na sagot na sana sa Grade 1 ay naging isang gastusing pambansa na walang karapatang itanong ng ordinaryong Pilipino.
At nitong huling araw ng away na ito, dinala ng Cayetano bloc ang laban diretso sa Korte Suprema.
Naghain sila ng Petition for Certiorari and Prohibition under Rule 65, with a prayer for the issuance of a Status Quo Ante Order, to challenge the legality of that June 3 session of twelve (G.R. No. E-06939). Kasama sa mga petisyoner si Senador Alan Peter Cayetano at siyam pang kasamahan, maliban kina Senador Joel Villanueva at Senador Mark Villar.
Umaasa raw sila sa positibong resolusyon ng Korte, dahil nakasalalay dito, ayon kay Cayetano, ang hinaharap ng bansa.
And here the irony lands with full weight.
The teacher who asked the very same question was told he had no standing to deserve an answer. Ngayon, ang mga senador mismo, na walang makapagtatanong sa kanilang locus standi, ang siyang kumakatok sa parehong pinto.
Baka sa wakas ay masagot na kung labindalawa o labintatlo. Hindi dahil nagtanong ang isang ordinaryong mamamayan, kundi dahil nagtanong ang mga makapangyarihan.
The arithmetic is easy.
Madali ang matematika sa iba, pero aaminin ko, mahirap ito para sa akin, kaya nga siguro nag-Journalism ako.
But the hard part was never the math. Ang mahirap ay ang dahilan kung bakit kailangan pa itong pag-awayan.
At sa huli, nasagot din ang tanong—hindi sa loob ng Korte Suprema, kundi sa mismong session hall.
Noong Hunyo 17, isang oras bago magbukas ang special session, umamin si Senador Alan Peter Cayetano na wala na sa kanyang panig ang numero. Hindi raw siya hahadlang sa botohan.
Tumawid si Senador Joel Villanueva; kumpleto ang quorum, at sa wakas ay kumpleto rin ang isang bilang na ilang linggong pinag-awayan: labintatlo.
With all thirteen senators present voting in his favor, si Senador Win Gatchalian ang nahalal at nanumpa bilang bagong Senate President.
And here the arithmetic turns cruel.
Labintatlo. Thirteen.
Iyon mismo ang numerong ipinaglaban ni Cayetano, ang bilang na dinala niya hanggang sa Korte Suprema, ang tanging mayoryang itinuring niyang totoo.
Sa huli, hindi labindalawa ang nag-alis sa kanya sa puwesto. Labintatlo.
When an institution must invent new math to explain its own decisions, the problem is never really the number. The problem, perhaps, is an institution afraid of a count, to protect someone or something that a final, accurate tally might expose.
And that is the bald truth here.
At ang magandang balita: hindi na natin kailangang bumalik sa Grade 1 para bilangin ang totoong bilang ng mayorya sa Senado. Trese talaga!
