Is a falling out between First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos and Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez even possible?

Not a few people dismissed the alleged feud as just another political intrigue. The administration was desperate for a distraction after former President Rodrigo Duterte’s spectacular appearance before the Senate, and a Liza-Martin tiff was worth a try.

As it turned out, the cure is worse than the disease. While the nation had moved on from the monstrous hit that reaffirmed PRRD’s stature as a political rockstar, political pundits continue to take a long, hard look at the script.

Occasional disagreements are normal, especially among people in high places, so one involving two of the most talked about power brokers of the present dispensation should be no big deal.

And yet, on second thought, is it a mere bump on a smooth road or a tip of the iceberg?

If walls have ears, they will tell you that the First Lady is not exactly a fan of the Speaker—and vice versa. While talks are rife about how the two have helped themselves to generous shares of the pie, it is easy to see that the same pie has shrunk in the past two years.

No matter how rosy the Palace-commissioned surveys project the present tenants and their performance, there is no mistaking the majority’s rapidly increasing disenchantment and distrust in Pres. Ferdinand Marcos. To arrest the free fall, something very, very drastic must be done.

One thing that falls in that category is deposing the extremely unpopular Romualdez. His numbers haven’t moved even after the scandalous pay-outs in different parts of the country. In fact, they accomplished the opposite, which is not surprising. The ostentatious display of unexplained wealth by the Speaker’s favored lieutenants has aroused the collective anger of Filipinos reeling from a spate of natural disasters compounded by sheer incompetence in responding to them.

Romualdez’ well-publicized spat with Vice-President Sara Duterte and the impeachment threats against the most popular official of the Marcos administration have earned him the reputation as public enemy no. 1 of the Duterte nation.

This makes Romualdez a candidate to be offered as a sacrifice to cool off the smoldering resentment sweeping the country. As any average chess player understands too well, it is better to sacrifice a valuable piece if it will reverse an inferior position.

Of course, that has dire consequences. The Speaker’s allies definitely would not take that sitting down because they knew it would not stop with him. Many of them have learned to love the perks that come with the territory, so bidding goodbye to that is not an option.

To them, this may seem like a bad dream that will vanish in the morning. And yet, we know it’s not. The problems are piling up each day, and the pressure continues to mount. It will only be a matter of time before reality bites, and those pushing the pieces know they have to make the sacrifice soon, or else the situation will become irreversible.

Is the Liza-Martin feud a mere trick or treat? It looks like Halloween’s not behind us after all.