Ruination of the Sun

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Larrazabal, Mayari | 3 Quartyr 1584

The Yulo Twin Towers were aging structures right smack in the middle of one of the capital's main thoroughfares. It was one of the first commercial skyscrapers raised some years after Mayari's independence, and for a time, it held the distinction of being one of the only such structures in an open field of land. When Larrazabal was just waking up from being a sleepy backwater, as the heart of a new country.

Owned by its namesake the Yulo family, the twin structures were past a hundred years in their existence and had gone through almost a similar number of renovation and maintenance efforts. It stood as a silent guardian facing the strait and the city, even as more skyscrapers propped up all around and essentially dwarfed her in Larrazabal's skyline. Despite it all, it watched the unraveling of much of Mayari's contemporary history, and even today was the beacon of influential men and women throughout.

Originally meant to be a symbol of the wealth of the Mayar-Teiguoese Yulo clan - another of the notable landowning families which transitioned to more lucrative business dealings - in a time where there were very few people capable of contributing to nation building, the two towers went on to serve at various points in time as pricey condominiums, as headquarters for businesses and organizations, and even as an academic institution. All within a span of a hundred years.

Although the family had moved on to greener pastures and more premium land, it retained its significance not merely as an icon of corporate wealth but as the home of Mayari's ruling party. Or at least the first tower did.

The sun was setting upon an expansive sky that possessed a tint of violet this particular day. The blend of colors seemed to cast an omen over the 11th floor, where the office of Kalayaan's top leadership lay in peace and quiet at these hours. That would have been apt usually, but today seemed to be the exception.

There, seated around a glass table, were several prominent names running the show. At its head was a lady with a grey head of hair, albeit not the eldest persona. Assemblywoman Frances Tanchingco, who also held the burden of being Kalayaan's Secretary General since some years before Hidalgo's ascension, stood hunched over the rest of her partymates. A copy of a bill that had passed the National Assembly and a daily tabloid were both in front of the woman.

She spoke, unmoving as her eyes scanned the tabloid, her tone laced with a gravity of seriousness. "What do you plan on doing about this, Vic?"

The man who was addressed sighed. His expression seemed to assert he was at a lost for words, although he found them a few moments after. "It will fail, Frances. And you know exactly why. You and your people."

The Secretary General looked up, catching the man's accusatory glance. Vicente Yang, President of the Senate and party head for the upper house, withdrew almost immediately.

"Mr. Senate President, you seem troubled that I and the rest of my 'minority within the majority', as you said yourself of us, will reject the repeal of Senate Bill number 27."

"Yes, I am indeed troubled Senator Sagaysay, of this indolence and dereliction."

Yang snapped back at the next person to speak, which was Mayari's president from 1574-1580 and now a senator, Jacqueline Sagaysay. A maverick among her own party, Sagaysay was the de facto head of a small but nonetheless significant bloc within Kalayaan itself. There were four senators and at least thirty assemblymen among Kalayaan's share of eighteen senators and two hundred seventy assemblymen in Congress that belonged to that  bloc. And their cooperation with the larger majority in advancing the administration's agenda did not always manifest - at times they even stood against it, like now. Something Hidalgo and his allies in both houses found to be the, arguably, largest stumbling block to their agenda, even more than the opposition in the Socialist Action Party.

"Our facade of unity did not go with a pledge to support the President's legislative plans if I remember well, Senator Yang. Our support for your bid to head the Senate and our abstention from accepting the government's disappointing budget with all its cuts and reallocations are the threshold of our cooperation. Nothing more and nothing less."

Jacqueline gave a thin-lipped smile to the Senate President. The General Elections of 1580 and the years before it had been the turning point of Kalayaan's internal order. Jacqueline Sagaysay, a protege of the first influential Third Way statesman within their party and Mayari's 14th President Raul Giray, had sought to challenge the ruling "big business" faction which had come to dominate Kalayaan by the 1550s. They were the neoliberals who favored fiscal conservatism and globalization, comprised of former or then current men in enterprises and backed by those who were disinterested in directly entering politics.

Lucas Montejo, who became President in 1550-1556 and again in 1562-1568, was the forefather of the grouping and was the one who ushered in Mayari's "era of progress" and Kalayaan's hegemonic rule in the local and national scene. Per capita income doubled, double digit GDP growth became possible for a few years, foreign investment skyrocketed, and a stable and free financial system were established under the man's rule, boosting Kalayaan's popularity and Montejo's faction's power within Kalayaan.

But as the wealth of its leaders grew, so did the tendency for corruption. Montejo's second term was wracked by allegations of betraying the public trust, accepting and giving bribes from major corporations, funding death squads to remove political opponents, and rising violence from the resurgent CPM. For about 12 years this bloc remained outside the reins of power, until 1580 with Hidalgo.

Even then, Hidalgo's election and legitimacy had always been in question - anomalies on the voting process were raised, but were silenced a year after. It was for the irredeemable allegations of the past and present that Sagaysay and her friends had managed to get themselves on the roster of their party's electoral lineup for Congress, even as she was not granted the chance to seek out a second term for herself - something she claims was because of certain forces pulling strings behind the scenes. Today, she was merely repaying the favor the corporate puppet Hidalgo had played on her first.

"I have proposed to Senator Cabral of the Social Welfare and Development Committee to review the repeal and come up with a water-downed version, an amendment of the bill the Assembly passed. I have likewise forwarded a proposal to have Senator Swansen here replace Senator Kalaw in the committee so you can scrutinize the bill on a more...forward basis."

A rotund gentleman with olive skin spoke to Sagaysay, confirming he had been offered a seat in that committee for the first reading of the repeal in the Senate.

"Good of you to have the initiative, Senator Yang. But we have no real reason to hear out, let alone propose to change, this repeal. We will reject it."

"You are a fool, Senator Sagaysay." said Yang, frustration thick on his vice. He remained stiff in his seat, hands clasped still, although he arched his neck to completely look at the woman proving to be a hindrance to the continuation of his president's campaign promises - something Sagaysay knew but perhaps didn't take seriously.

"If your group decides not to vote with the rest of us on the passage of the repeal, then the crows might as well flock to our dead carcasses. Neither me nor you or any of us in this room will see reelection. Kalayaan will disintegrate if you push the fault lines further, and the communists and media will have a field day."

The Senate President paused, taking a breather. The approval rating of Hidalgo's administration had plummeted to a staggering 20%, compared to about 57% during the first few years of his term. This was due to the administration's relentless pursuit of destroying social security, aside from its ineptness in staving off continued allegations of malfeasance. The President's morally dubious habits alongside the men he surrounded himself with proved to be a barrel of endless criticism from the opposition in public and from his detractors within his own party in private.

Senator Sagaysay held her superior's glance steadily, her expression remaining nonchalant as she told him "Kalayaan will be ousted from the Presidential Palace and will lose her majority in Congress the day all of you decided to make that corporate toady stand for the presidency, Senator Yang."

"That was not our choice to make Jacqueline." piped up the voice of the Secretary General once more. Frances Tanchingco had stopped reading her papers, rejoining her colleagues in the discussion. She was still standing, intent on ensuring her authority was clear in any decision to be made.

Tanchingco was one of the assemblymen who were part of Sagaysay's more moderate bloc, and her appointment as Kalayaan's Secretary General was actually the trade off for Sagaysay not being chosen to stand for a second term - a negotiation the senator was deliberately left outside of, much to her chagrin. It was for this reason the senator distrusted Tanchingco even though they shared the same political stance. She sought power as an end instead of a means to an end.

Sagaysay and Yang as well as the other lawmakers sat in silence as their party boss continued.

"The fact of the matter is we indeed stand to lose. We have only two years left. Any hope of salvaging this administration is arguably lost. Rafael, does Bert still visit his whore houses?"

The Vice President of Mayari, seated on the other end of the table across Tanchingco, fixed his circular spectacles as he met the questioning look of the woman. Unlike the President, Rafael Cardenas was a man of humble habits and timid beliefs. Although a businessman by profession, his distaste for hawkish neoliberal policies might have well qualified him as a supporter of Sagaysay.

"Yes. He frequents them often."

"So it seems. Punyeta."

The despair of the party leadership was justified. The conservative National Party had withdrawn support from the administration several months ago, and the majority of their lawmakers in Congress now voted in tandem with the Socialist Action Party to halt the President's demolition job of a system the NP help crafted a couple of decades ago. Negotiation had failed to stem the agitation by the MPDM, which continued to blast the "anti-people's" administration of Alberto Hidalgo, and the President and his allies were unwilling to go down the path of appeasing them. Violence was also not an option, as that would destroy Kalayaan's credibility and would repeat the tragedy of Montejo's downfall during his second term.

Dusk had settled across Larrazabal, five minutes before the seventh hour of the Prime Meridian. A flood of lights lit up Tanchingco's office to bolster the first ones switched on half an hour ago. The next person to speak was the Vice President again, and all attention went to him for his words.

"There is only one other option. We must impeach the President."

Senator Sagaysay's eyes lit up as she heard the word, and seemed ready to jumped in on the idea. She kept herself mum for the mean time, with the Senate President taking the chance to continue.

"What would be the point of that? Aside from achieving nothing, it would be a waste of the valuable time of Congress, Vice President Cardenas, or are you not aware of this?"

"No, it wouldn't be a waste Vic." said Tanchingco, turning to Sagaysay. "Kalayaan moderates in the assembly would make sure the case passes. And Jacqueline, Swanson, Olbert, and Torres will make sure the trial ends in Bert's impeachment."

At this statement the Senate President glared at Sagaysay. He knew enough that the Secretary General would vote in favor herself in this affair, but he directed his fury at the rogue senator. "You would have your President removed from office, and seek the presidency for yourself and undo everything we've done."

"Your phrasing is amusing, Senator Yang. We would be in the affirmative once we succeed in reaching the trial stage, that goes without saying. But allow me to say here and now that I have no need of your endorsement by 1586." the female senator responded.

"The point here is to salvage our political capital, ladies and gentlemen. If we could remove Hidalgo from the Presidential Palace before the second half of this year, then we would have two years to undo everything his administration has done. Of course, restoring previous programs is not an option but at least we can look towards new legislation to quiet the storm before the next electoral season." said the Vice President.

Fears of a power grab by Cardenas were difficult to summon, because he had never been the type to seek higher office for his own gain. Among Kalayaan, he was one of the cleaner and more reliable officials, and an independent one at that. He held the trust of both the party's President and Secretary General for good reason.

"It could be done" voiced the Secretary General solemnly. "On what grounds will he be impeached?"

"Betrayal of the public trust, madame" answered the Vice President.

There was only a nod from Tanchingco and a few hushed whispers from the senators present that were aligned with the president. There were only a few of them present in today's meeting, and they were invited because like Yang they were not necessarily part of Hidalgo's inner faction who enjoyed women and booze at inappropriate times. They supported his agenda however, and were unlikely to back his ousting.

"We're done here. I will see to it that the President is informed of this." stated the Senate President as he gathered his belongings and stood up, his face and voice both stern.

Tanchingco waved her hand dismissively against Yang and the rest of them. "No. I will."

Yang nodded and muttered, spending another second before marching out of the room. There was only the Secretary General, the Vice President, and the Kalayaan moderates in the Senate present. Jacqueline Sagaysay would be the one to have the last word before the meeting adjourned.

"I will get in contact with my nationalist colleagues. They will initiate the proceedings."