And what I saw left me with a simple conclusion: The pot was calling the kettle black. Over and over again those of us who followed the drama could only watch in amazement – definitely not in awe – as dirty linen was (partially) exposed to the public, and veiled threats and allegations hurled by the contending forces.

There were moments of elation – I enjoyed listening to Rep. Lani Cayetano explain her vote (and thinking that she is a much better speaker, at least in Filipino, than her husband, Sen. Alan) and moments of irritation. I thought Rep. Erin Tañada was way off the mark when he was telling Korina Sanchez that the leadership fight in the Lower House had no impact or bearing on the rest of us because it was a simple internal issue to the House and no legislation was at issue. But overall, the spectacle left me watching with my mouth open, sometimes causing me to shake my head, but usually feeling let down that these are the types of representatives we have, representatives who are but mirror images of who we are as a people. Tal pueblo tal gobierno!

But before the spectacle of factions of our political elite accusing each other of betraying the people could cause me to descend into some depression as the clock struck close to midnight, a flash of insight made my day. What was transpiring before my very eyes – and before the very eyes of millions of viewers of ANC – was the very best argument against any attempt by anyone to take our current Constitution, re-write it, and rewrite it in a way that all we will have is a unicameral legislature with the very same people who were showing us how deeply unqualified most of them are to be even called "Honorable"!

What a cause for celebration!

In fact, if only I were active in a group that is intent on campaigning against any move to change the charter, I would go to ANC and buy clips of each and every session of the House that reveals how self-centered, how undisciplined, how shallow and how silly many of our representatives are.

I would then piece these clips together into, say, an MTV, add to it a catchy jingle, and go to town with it addressing specially the youth of today who can be so susceptible to the trappings of trapo politics. And I will pose a couple of questions:

Are these the men and women you wish to see comprising the one and only House of the proposed unicameral legislature?

Are these the values – see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil – we wish to see upheld by successive leaders of our legislature – values they uphold at least until their hold on power is threatened?

Are these the men and women who truly deserve the honorific "Honorable"? Or must we turn to Webster and request for a review of the meaning of the word? Or consider the "Honorable" honorific to actually be a pejorative term, at least when used in the Philippine context?

Over and over we heard representative after representative mouth the word "reform," but are they truly the men and women who can and who will bring the reform that is much needed by our society? I posit that an honest "examination of conscience" will leave very few Filipinos answering in the affirmative.

One of those present at the House that night sent me a text, asking me if what was transpiring on national television made me happy. Yes and No, was my response. No because the revelations of the Speaker would forever be tainted by his timing, and Yes because at the very least some of the truth which our political elite try to hide from the rest of us is revealed every time factions among our elite fight.

Or I may have answered as the Germans would answer: Gut, aber gut ist uns nicht gut genug. Good, but good is not just good enough.

Let’s see how far the new leaders of the House go with reform.

Maybe the most valuable result from what transpired the other night at the House is the emergence of a now valid question: if we are to abolish one House, shouldn’t it be the Lower one? And to this question my response is a simple YES, with a simple reason: if there were one or two or three representatives that night whose reasoning you or I could not stomach, you or I could not do anything in return because that representative most probably wasn’t the representative of our District.

But senators represent all of us – and whether we live in the hovels of Makati or the big family clusters of Tondo, you and I could vote for, or vote against, a senator who stands up, takes the microphone, and leaves us either staring in awe or staring in disgust.

Now isn’t that more in keeping with giving real power to the people?

Abolish one House? Now I am ready to answer "Sure".

Let’s go Unicameral: Abolish the Lower House.