Education entrepreneur and former senatorial candidate Carl E. Balita has added his voice to a growing chorus of Filipinos expressing outrage over the chaos that has engulfed the Philippine Senate.
In a widely shared Facebook post, Balita compared the upper chamber to a soap opera, listing the scenes that have come to define one of the most turbulent weeks in the Senate’s recent history: shouting matches, a shooting incident, a dramatic escape, and the spectacle of military personnel deployed inside what is supposed to be a seat of democratic deliberation.
“Ang problema, hindi iyon ang trabaho nila,” Balita wrote, pointedly reminding his followers that senators were elected to legislate — not to star in what he called a teleserye. “Tayo ang pumili at ang boss nila. Pilipinas, ano na?”
The post comes in the wake of the May 13 Senate lockdown, during which gunfire was heard inside the Senate building as Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa evaded an International Criminal Court arrest warrant — an incident that coincided with the transmission of the articles of impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte to the Senate. No one was hurt, officials said, but President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. asked the public to stay calm in televised remarks.
Dela Rosa, who served as the national police chief who enforced former President Rodrigo Duterte’s sweeping crackdown on illegal drugs, had urged supporters to mobilize and block his arrest before slipping out of the Senate compound. In the early hours of the following morning, he left the premises with Senator Robin Padilla.
The incident has drawn widespread condemnation, with the shooting described as “embarrassing” and a “national disgrace” — an unprecedented act of violence at a democratic institution, compounding criticism over the Senate’s role in shielding a fugitive from international law.
Balita, a registered nurse, midwife, broadcaster, and founder of the Carl E. Balita Review Center, ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2022. His post resonated with many Filipinos frustrated by an institution that, in the span of a single week, became the backdrop for a leadership coup, a fugitive standoff, and a live gunfire incident — all while the country’s impeachment proceedings against its Vice President hung in the balance.
