It would have been awesome had Bam Aquino and Francis Pangilinan led 10 other oppositionist and alternative candidates to what could have been a smashing 12-0 victory in the Senate race.

Had that happened, and with Risa Hontiveros already waiting, there would have been a new Senate majority. One of them would surely be Senate president, and they would share among themselves the committee chairmanships.

As for the other senators, there’s no stopping any of them from joining them in such a Senate majority. The more, the merrier.

We could tell this fairy tale to ourselves until 2028 and beyond, but that’s not what’s needed right now.

In about two weeks, lawmakers of the 20th Congress would be convened by the Senate secretary and the House secretary-general to perform their first constitutional duty: to elect a Senate President and a House Speaker.

Some might harbor illusions or delusions that they carry the burden of the best and most righteous brand of politics, but that wouldn’t matter at this time. Each lawmaker must cast a vote for preferred Senate President or House Speaker, and that vote would formally determine their position in either House.

Joining the majority or, in other words, voting for the winning Senate President or House Speaker, has a lot of perks. There are the committee chairmanships, of course, which play a key role in moving bills and resolutions, and in conducting hearings and investigations. There’s also the membership in the powerful Commission on Appointments.

In the 19th Congress, Koko Pimentel was Senate minority leader, and Risa was a minority member. But by some political magic and perhaps agreement and accommodation, the majority reelected minority member Risa as chair of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality.

Risa would not have been able to lead Senate hearings and do the many other magnificent things she had been able to do without such a chairmanship.

The reorganization of the House and the Senate depends a lot, if not entirely, on the majority in each House and on who they elect as Senate President and House Speaker. Thus, it is not just a question for Risa, Bam and Kiko on who to align with and who to vote for. They are not special. Each lawmaker, regardless of how we perceive their politics, has to make a choice and to cast a vote.

It is not impossible that aspirants for the top posts in Congress are now in a flurry of meetings with fellow lawmakers and blocs are formed to amplify not just politics but clout.

Some of our friends’ sense of frustration is understandable because political dynasties and traditional politics still dominate both House. There may be a lot of political parties by name, but they are nothing more than temporary labels which could be easily switched or discarded. Even the partylist system has been overrun by those not from or not representing the underrepresented and marginalized.

Realizations such as these, which occur post-elections and in the governing part of the so-called democratic process, should sharpen our collective political education and raise our political vision of what needed to be done.

For instance, we cannot just campaign for only two senatorial candidates because we actually need a majority. We also cannot ignore the House races, whether district representatives or partylist representatives, because there’s a majority to be built. We should press political leaders and parties to field as many candidates in as many positions at stake. Better yet, we ourselves could form new political parties and create prospective lawmakers for the future.

By the way, there are also the local legislatures that are often ignored but perhaps play more important roles in our daily lives: The barangay councils, municipal and city councils, the provincial boards, and the Bangsamoro Parliament as well. They also demand our attention, and we have to find out how the local legislators align themselves, the committee chairmanships and the priorities they make. They are lawmakers too.

Such “bigness” and complexity of lawmaking in the Philippines could boggle the mind, but that’s the democratic representation we prefer in principle, and which are available for our involvement and benefit as citizens. The moment we ignore them and fall into apathy or cynicism, is the precise moment we turn over the entire thing to others.