Unpopular Opinion: By Expelling Rep. Kiko Barzaga, the House Just Set a Dangerous Precedent

While there is much glee and enthusiasm in certain quarters that a supposed thorn on their side is finally gone and silenced through a vote that expelled ex-Representative Kiko Barzaga from Congress, those who see this pattern play out over and over again can already see the writing on the wall. Yours truly is one of them. What is this pattern that I am talking about? It is none other than the encroachment of the state upon civil liberties.

If the past 25 years is already too long for many, let us recap some of its highlights.

After the deadly 9/11 attacks, the Republicans in the Bush administration lobbied intensively to railroad the USA PATRIOT Act, to bipartisan applause. While ostensibly meant to ‘combat’ terrorism, it became a useful tool for mass surveillance, which, in many ways, did not even eliminate terrorism. Intelligence services still function as intelligence services, using guesswork and thorough investigation to dismantle any cell, with the help of informants on the ground, not monitoring a conversation 24/7 on the clock. As such, the PATRIOT Act, for what it is worth, is nothing but a power grab to prosecute the War on Terror with false pretenses that destroyed the nations of Afghanistan and Iraq, on flimsy premises, execution, and outright humiliation to Washington, which the mainstream media, the same press warning us about fake news, would cheerlead. 

Second is the passage of the Cybercrime Law in the Philippines, with a punitive clause that made cyberlibel a criminal, rather than a civil case. While the establishment of the Aquino Jr. administration noted that this is a means to enforce the power of the Government in the digital realm, what it actually did was to cause a chilling effect across media institutions. If coupled with red tagging, it furnished a potent mix that rendered the elements it is supposed to fight against free rein to simply do whatever they want on a whim. Why would Manila give up the stick?

Third and last is the wave of cancellations and deplatforming in the 2010s. Framed to prevent hate speech, the social media firms did accede to the mostly progressive demands to chase their political adversaries off the Web. And for a while, they celebrated like banshees. Yet when 2025 happened, as Peter Thiel and his pals went hard on the second Trump regime, this same gag is finally brought upon the forces that enabled it, especially if you are trying to have a conversation, thread, or video essay about anything related to Israel and Palestine. Correctly, these progressives are now turning against big tech, yet one has to remind them that their crusade against Elon Musk is too convenient, highlighting their lack of not only a basic understanding of reality but also strategy. 

If one is familiar with the thought experiment of Roko’s Basilisk, in which an artificial intelligence will punish anyone who did not lead to its creation, this is often what happens when free speech is not vigorously defended.

The case against Barzaga, if viewed from this prism, is irrelevant, for regardless of the gentleman from Cavite's perceived repulsiveness or his ability to polarize the electorate, he is still correct and right on target: the House of Representatives cannot escape its reputation as a hotbed of corruption. His antics and subsequent expulsion are the equivalent of slipping on a banana peel, landing on a landmine, and then suing the banana farm for defamation.

Why should free speech be absolute, unconditional, and even unfiltered, save for example, in wartime, and even in wartime, it must still have explicit provisions and guidelines? The answer is simple. Free speech, especially in a liberal democracy, is always an insurance against cynicism and apathy.

The reason why certain authoritarian or totalitarian regimes continue to function despite not being liberal democracies is that they still endow an amount of free speech to their citizens, usually by letting rumors fly, within specific corners of the Internet, and the existence of comedy and pop culture to remain unmolested, is simple. Everyone needs a place to vent, and the state has to always tolerate having its own court jesters, who are the only entities and professions allowed to candidly and frankly speak what they think and feel to the sovereign.

In the Philippine condition, the case of Barzaga illustrates a far more plausible omen. The House did not just shoot the messenger. They mounted his head on a pike in the middle of the session hall, handed out megaphones, and practically begged the public to notice that the messenger was 100 percent correct. It is a staggering display of reptilian paranoia. When a massive corruption scandal is actively detonating, expelling the one guy who says, "Hey, we look like corrupt reptiles," is the ultimate confirmation of guilt.

There is always a correlation between free speech being healthy and the existence of satire, not in hushed tones or in niche groups, but in the mainstream. In the '80s, before the torrent of telenovelas and variety TV, satire was the default entertainment option. With Sic O'Clock News (on IBC) leading the way, the plethora of these media was a sign that timid minds have been awakened. Its loss, whether as a network decision or something else, contributed to our ongoing descent, in some way or another. 

This is a confirmation of a rumination that, for all intents and purposes, we are in a de facto state of civil war. With all institutions cannibalized to serve a faction, be they Green, Red, or Pink, whatever aura of impersonality and gravity that such offices once had evaporates into pure wind. It will not be far off that all will reach the conclusion that they must suspend the Constitution, with different reasons for doing so, whether to prevent the populists from regaining authority, or that the Constitution is a hindrance to fulfilling the mandate of the people, and therefore it is obsolete. The only issue is whether this happens immediately or in the distant horizon. 

Cracking down on speech in the name of ‘morals and ‘conduct’ from an organ of the State that is known to much of the population already as a den of vipers is always a symptom of a fading epoch, civilization, or empire. The functionaries of the state will always hand out the ropes that can be used by the mob to hang them at the highest lamp poles in due time. Both a comedy and a tragedy, a drama and a farce simultaneously, and at the same time.

And since the Senate, especially in recent weeks, has become a modern-day equivalent of a vaudeville show, we can expect to see much more tedium, frustration, tension, and pablum in the coming days.

Unpopular Opinion is Esquire Philippines’ space to provide additional insight and introduce new perspectives to issues that we may think have foregone conclusions. These articles don't always reflect our editorial stance, but we publish them here to continue the discourse.

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