RACHEL A.G. REYES
ON the evening of Tuesday, March 14, 2017, 15 senators gathered at the Malacañang golf clubhouse for a secret supper with President Rodrigo Duterte. These senators largely make up what is now known as the “majority bloc”. Conspicuous absentees were the President’s detractors, who weren’t invited anyway, and a few who had probably begged off, like old police veteran Ping Lacson and experienced coup plotter Gringo Honasan. A single, rather titillating snapshot of the event was posted on social media by one of the attendees, J.V. Ejercito, who described the gathering as “intimate,” which is an interesting choice of word that does the trick of underlining the select and exclusive in-ness of the in-crowd.