WHETHER President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. instigated it or merely supported it when it was under way, the coup against Sen. Juan Miguel 'Migz' Zubiri as Senate president by Sen. Francis 'Chiz' Escudero is bad news for the country and for the President.

Escudero's arrogance that it wasn't hard to remove Zubiri, the swiftness in which the coup plot unfolded (five days, the new Senate president revealed), the plotters' complete silence on the reasons why Zubiri was yanked from the top post, all of these will result in a divided Senate, with bitterness on the part of the six senators who remained loyal to the former Senate president. They will, in effect, expand the opposition from two (Senators Koko Pimentel and Risa Hontiveros) to eight.