The Yellow Three: ‘Mahiya naman kayo!’

HISTORY has a dark sense of irony. For decades, the so-called Yellow forces — heirs of the 1986 People Power revolt, guardians of “democracy” and perennial critics of the Marcos dynasty — styled themselves as the conscience of the Senate. They waved the flag of moral superiority, claimed to be the vanguard against dictatorship and built their reputations on opposing authoritarian rule, as well as Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

And yet, on Sept. 8, 2025, three Yellow senators didn’t hesitate to join the bloc of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the upper chamber to install Tito Sotto as Senate president and abandon Chiz Escudero. In one stroke, the Yellow brand, already faded, collapsed into outright betrayal. The return of the Marcoses is complete: Sotto has always been a pillar of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, founded and run until his death in 2020 by Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr., the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s top crony.

Mahiya naman kayo (Have some shame), Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan and especially Bam Aquino, whose Tito Ninoy and Tita Cory Aquino, I’m sure, turned in their graves. Do you think Filipinos voted you as senators because of your charms or your track record? Certainly not. They voted for you because people hate Marcos Jr. and his wife, and identified you as anti-Marcos voices of conscience. On another level, the Villars, Sherwin Gatchalian and Migz Zubiri — though never claiming to be believers in the Yellow cause — proved how even billionaire clans can be afraid of Marcos.

These turncoats didn’t even bother to explain to the nation why they suddenly bent their knees to the son of a dictator they once fought against, whose regime had killed many of their friends and relatives. Had the three Yellow senators stood firm on principle, they could have easily recruited three more — especially among the opportunists — to retain Escudero and maintain the Senate as a bastion of independence, in sharp contrast to the House of Corruption that Marcos’ cousin, Speaker Martin Romualdez, holds under his thumb.

Remember the rhetoric of the Yellows: they spent years denouncing Marcos as the son of a dictator, unfit to lead, a revisionist of history. Their campaigns were drenched in the cry of “Never Again” — never again to martial law, never again to corruption, never again to dynastic greed.

Graveyard

But politics is the graveyard of principles. Offered the chance to cling to committee chairmanships — and maybe even secure budget insertions — and to avoid Malacañang’s smear machine, the Yellow senators capitulated. They raised their hands, stood with Marcos’ allies, and voted against Escudero, whom they elected in May last year.

The hypocrisy could not be starker. They did not merely compromise; they made common cause with the very dynasty they once swore to resist.

Marcos panicked when whistleblowers like Curlee and Sarah Discaya surfaced, armed with ledgers that detailed when and how much bribe money was paid — the same kind of evidence the Federal Bureau of Investigation used against Mafia bosses in the 1930s. Their testimony was credible and explosive: not only Terrence Calatrava, a former undersecretary in the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas, but also 21 House members, including his cousin Martin, were protectors of the contractors behind the ghost flood projects. He must thought: “After Martin, then he?”

Senators Rodante Marcoleta and Jinggoy Estrada grilled Department of Public Works and Highways officials linked to these scams, exposing how at least P500 million in public funds were siphoned off. The revelations rattled Malacañang. In panic, Marcos the very next day made Sotto Senate president, who then made Panfilo Lacson the Blue Ribbon Committee chairman. Yet Lacson, more investigator than lawyer, is unlikely to push accountability to its limits.

Yellow

On Sept. 8, the Yellow bloc ceased to be opposition. They buried six feet underground the spirit of Ninoy Aquino. They became Marcos’ enablers, lending him a sheen of bipartisan legitimacy at the very hour when his family’s name was again tied to plunder — this time through ghost dikes and vanishing billions in flood control projects.

Every Senate realignment involves opportunism; this is Philippine politics, after all. But the betrayal of the Yellow senators cuts deeper because moral posturing had always been their only currency. Their speeches draped themselves in the martyrdom of Ninoy, the symbolism of Cory’s yellow dress and the sacrifices of 1986. Now, those symbols lie in tatters.

For ordinary Filipinos, the message is clear: the Yellows were never truly opposed to Marcos. They were opposed only to being left out of power. Given the right carrots, they crawled back into the Palace they once denounced.

Predictably, their apologists claim this is “for stability,” or that they are “working from within.” Some point to Escudero’s taint after he accepted a P30-million donation from a contractor. But stability for whom? Working from within for what? By joining Marcos, they silenced their own voices on the very scandals crying out for accountability.

Condemnation

From condemnation to collaboration. From “Never Again” to “Yes, Sir” and probably “Yes, Ma’am.”

The Yellow bloc may think their maneuver secures their careers. History suggests otherwise. They have alienated their base — voters who once trusted them as bulwarks against authoritarian relapse. They may hold committee chairs today, but in the next elections they will find themselves without credibility, without grassroots, without the moral narrative that once sustained them.

Filipinos have long memories for betrayal. And nothing stinks more than the sight of yellow ribbons tied around Malacañang’s walls.

For Marcos, the alliance is a tactical triumph. He has converted his fiercest critics into docile allies, splitting the opposition and ensuring that any Senate “investigation” into the flood control scam will be watered down. Does anyone really think Lacson will dare investigate the lawmakers implicated in the scam, especially Romualdez? Will Escudero and Alan Peter Cayetano still ask for an explanation why the cost of the new Senate building, which was Lacson’s project, balloon from P5 billion to P30 billion and remains unfinished?

Tragedy

The tragedy of Philippine politics is that “Never Again” so often becomes “Again and Again.” The Yellow senators, who built their careers on resisting Marcos, have now become props in his stage play. They may think they have secured power, but in truth they have consigned themselves to history’s footnote: the generation that squandered the moral capital of 1986 in exchange for temporary committee assignments.

Lacson already has a ready response to Marcos, which he wrote in reply to a government post reporting that Marcos “shed a tear” over the shamelessness of the ghost flood control projects: “We feel you, Mr. President. We have your back, Sir.” Is a senator of the Republic now a bodyguard — a political one, of course — of the President? Have we junked the constitutional principle of separation and equality of powers of the three branches of government?

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The Yellow Three: ‘Mahiya naman kayo!’
Source: Breaking News PH