Davao del Norte 1st district Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez (Facebook)

"I deserved to be punished." 

It was with these words that former House Speaker, Davao del Norte 1st district Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez bookended his ethics case, which resulted to him getting a reprimand. 

During plenary session Wednesday night, May 22, a total of 186 of Alvarez’s congressmen-colleagues voted "yes" to him getting the penalty. Only five noted "no", while another seven solons abstained. 

In a chance interview with House reporters afterward, the usually outspoken solon said of his punishment: "OK lang yun (That's OK). I think I deserved to be punished." 

There were no violent reactions on the surface, as Alvarez even said he was happy to see progress with his pet bills, like the one for the legalization of marijuana, in the current 19th Congress. 

To his credit, Alvarez personally witnessed the drama of his ethics case unfold in plenary, from the beginning when Committee on Ethics Chairman COOP NATCCO Party-list Rep. Felimon Espares pitched a heftier penalty of a 60-day suspension, to the downgrading of the penalty to a "censure", to the nominal voting. 

Camiguin lone district Rep. Jesus Jurdin Romualdo, the solon who moved to lessen the severity of Alvarez’s penalty, defined censure as "a formal reprimand, a public statement of the House of Representatives of its disapproval of the conduct" of a solon. 

Wednesday also saw the sine die adjournment of the second regular session of the 19th Congress. 

Last April, Alvarez grabbed headlines for calling on the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to withdraw its support from President Marcos during a political rally in Tagum. 

Alvarez is known to be a close ally of former president Rodrigo Duterte, a Marcos administration critic.