by Diego Morra
By this time, Alan Peter Cayetano and Pia Cayetano should stop pretending that their theory of a Senate “under attack” on May 13, 2026 is sustainable. The video of their sergeant at arms flubbing his shots and then having the rifle fixed before firing a volley of shots into a dark and empty room killed their ploy. The “arrest” of a single National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) “attacker” in another floor of the Senate building shattered the script and showed the brother-sister act to be lying through their teeth.
Worse, their conduct during the “siege” and the text messages from the minority destroyed the pathetic, tear-jerking Pia Cayetano episode seeking “concern” from the minority senators she and her ilk suspected of perpetrating the “attack.” Acting is not Pia’s best suit and neither is it one of Alan’s few talents. They never heeded the counsel of Tom Clancy: “The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense.” Pia’s melodrama should therefore cease. The majority met, dined and celebrated on the night of May 13 as their “defender,” the controversial ex-major general Mao Aplasca, raked a glass panel at the Senate building with bullets to create a grand show of nonsense.
A Punch and Judy Show would have had better production values, owing to its long tradition of patronage by the British since 1662 after sailing from Italy and finding the English market ripe for humor after the Puritanical Cromwell brothers left the perch. Laughter would have had an interminable supply with that show rather than the false empathy of Loren Legarda, who swallowed the guff that, indeed, a solitary attacker had surrounded the Senate building and fired at the “beleaguered” platoons of defenders led by Aplasca. Of course, Alan’s brother, director Lino Cayetano, could not have been involved in the pathetic drama. Had he been, it could have sounded, looked and felt more credible. There was no redeeming political and social value in the operetang sampay-bakod sa Senado.
Since the May 13 drama was supposed to deodorize the betrayal and double-dealing that characterized the May 11 unseating of former Senate President Tito Sotto, as well as the patently illegal coddling of fugitive Sen. Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa under the mythical “protective custody” of Alan, the Cayetanos could have summoned the millions of fanatical Duterte zealots to protect them. Only the Cayetanos knew that something was afoot, and it concerned de la Rosa, who had already spilled the beans on Alan as the one who cajoled him into attending the session precisely to kick out Soto. His work was accomplished and the problem for the majority was how to safely make de la Rosa disappear. So, Aplasca came to make the scenario as believable as airport security eating currency to hide the body of their crime. The ploy only had 37 bullets as props.
With some kind of criminal enthusiasm, the majority threw caution to the wind and howled that the minority behind the “attack,” a claim so ludicrous that millions did not believe it. This kind of knee-jerk reaction could only from a criminal mind. Cayetano has just overthrown his nemesis and it became his duty to secure the Senate building. Sotto left early and his vehicle was attacked by Cayetano supporters and Senate security was nowhere. Cayetano’s colleagues in UP campus politics saw through Alan’s gimmick and 152 of them promptly signed a statement denouncing Alan, with a trenchant critic claiming Alan has deteriorated so much that the left side of his brain has nothing right while the right side has nothing left.
Rather than a support a “besieged” classmate, 14 members of his batch at the Ateneo de Manila University College of Law told him in a statement to man up, stand for the truth and follow the rule of law, not the rule of loo. The De la Salle University, and the Christian Brothers administering its nationwide school network, wondered why truth suddenly became a rare commodity at the Senate under Cayetano’s leadership. This is akin to the admonition of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Batch 1986 to their Mistah Bato: We are not chained to blind loyalty but are forever bound to fight for what is right, just and honorable. Bato is not exempt from respecting the law and its processes.
Similarly, the alumnae of Assumption College also took out Legarda’s portrait on its wall of empowered women for her role in empowering the Senate “rebels” led by Cayetano and hoping to win the Senate presidency in the process. Legarda lost in the intramurals and she got a mouthful as well from the University of the Philippines Broadcasting Association and TOWNS, both of which scored her abandonment of values they hold dear. Ang kasabihan nga naman: Naghanap ng kagitna, isang salop and nawala.
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Over at San Mateo, Rizal, Mayor Omie Rivera says the local government unit’s partnership with Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity and Sorority and its alumni association in San Mateo is bearing fruit. On Sunday, May 24, 2026, Sister Sallie Licauco, alumna of UP Diliman, celebrates a milestone and to do a good turn on that day, she will be delivering food packs to the people of Barangay Ampid 1 at the Ampid 1 covered court starting at 9 a.m. Barangay residents recently suffered two successive fires. On June 5, members of the APO San Mateo Rizal Alumni Association will spearhead a service project for Brigada Eskwela at the Malanday Elementary School.