NOT even the most powerful army will want to engage its enemy in two simultaneous fronts, yet this is what President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. seems to be doing on the issue of Charter change. He is now embattled on two fronts. First, he has allowed former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte to engage him in a wide range of constitutional and leadership issues that have put their previously allied political interests at odds. Second, he has allowed the debate between the House of Representatives and the Senate on the issue of amending the Constitution to deteriorate into a constitutional crisis.

He alone can end this crisis, but he has shown no inclination of ending it right now.