Fatalism is one of the less admirable Filipino mindsets. It is represented by the term ‘bahala na’. When we say bahala na we refer to our attitude to accept whatever happens as having been bound or decreed to happen. Fortunately, even if we believe the happenstance of something as inescapable, we possess the ability to find humor, in words or in deeds, when such inevitable eventuality takes place. We cushion the impact of bahala na incidents with ‘weder-weder lang ‘yan’. And so with such light spiritedness, we roll with the punches, so to speak.
Let me cite Alejandro Ilagan Atienza, more popularly known as Kim Atienza. Sometime ago, he was a resident weather anchor in the primetime news program of ABS-CBN called TV Patrol. To end each of his segments of weather reports, broadcaster Kim would always say ‘sa bawat pagsubok ng panahon, laging tatandaan na ang buhay ay weather-weather lang.’ With that proverbial line, including the prostituted localization of weather into ‘weder’, the television meteorologist drew the analogy of the unpredictability of life to the unforeseen changes of weather conditions. Kuya Kim, in his reportage was perceived to concede to the belief that most of the time we do not have control of the circumstances that happen to our lives. It may, indeed, be true that according to this fatalistic mindset almost all of the things that have had happened to us are way out of our control.
The case of former president Joseph Ejercito Estrada was a classic exemplification of ‘weder-weder lang’. Estrada brilliantly rose to power in amazing political weather. Even if his opponent, then Speaker of the House of Representatives Jose de Venecia was fully backed up by inexhaustible Malacañang resources, Erap clobbered JDV in unprecedented numbers. But the weder-weder lang being a phrase referring to just inevitable cycle of ups and downs, his fortune changed. His exit from the presidency was the worst inglorious political weather of his life. Estrada was under extreme duress when he left Malacañang.
Enter the scene of another Philippine president. Rodrigo Roa Duterte, enjoying his best political weder, had the service of a Jose Calida. If I were to imagine a Duterte marching order to Calida, the former told the latter ‘Bahala ka na, Calida, kay Sereno.’ Permit me to opine that to kick Maria Lourdes “Meilou” Aranal Sereno out as chief justice of the Philippine Supreme Court, Calida performed a legal exhibition in using quo warranto rather than the more common constitutionally enshrined process called impeachment. Believe me, Serena’s ouster happened because it had to happen in Duterte’s best political weather condition.
All bulletins seem to point to the change of weather. Public pulse indicates that the political wheel has spun. Like the lyrics of a song, Tatay Digong and his breed once spiraled high, they have plummeted down. What I discern is that the assumption of Jesus Crispin “Boying” Catibayan Remulla as the Ombudsman is completing the weather cycle of the Dutertes. They are no longer up. They are down. With former president Digong incarcerated in faraway Netherlands, a legal exhibition against Vice President Sara Duterte Carpio, under the leadership of a Calido lookalike in Remulta, is likely to roll forward. If Calida did not use the impeachment route against the chief justice, Remulla, according to his initial meeting with the press, is also poised to keep off the impeachment channel. It is not impossible to imagine that the president might have told the ombudsman ‘bahala ka na kay vice president.’