May the Force be with you

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

May the Force be with you
Sunday, 01 14, 2007

The Administration ticket for both houses of Congress (read that as: Gloria’s anointees) and the opposition ticket being constituted by detained President Joseph Estrada are now both girding themselves for what that sly spin doctor Mike Defensor has termed as the third round in the never ending-fight between Arroyo and Estrada: The May 2007 elections.

To the administration ticket, it is a matter of getting enough numbers to thwart an impeachment of Arroyo in the Fourteenth Congress. In the same vein, to the opposition ticket it is a renewed push of getting enough of its candidates elected so that impeachment proceedings against Arroyo could be instituted well before 2010.

So, sad as it seems, this is what we fear that the May 2007 elections campaign will be reduced to: A slugging match between the designated fighters of Arroyo on one corner, and the challengers fielded by Estrada on the other. When this happens, the nation will become the loser, well before the elections decide who between the two shall prevail. The people will not be given a choice; regardless of which side wins the elections, it will still be more of the same bunch of politicians who are stand-ins of either Arroyo or Estrada.

The session hall of Congress, especially that of the Senate, will become an arena where a line is drawn, as it were, separating those whose loyalties lie either with Arroyo or Estrada. And we predict a lot of enticing, inveigling, cajoling, beguiling and sweet-talking would be applied by either camp on members of the other to cross that line.

The removal of a president — or perpetuation of a president in power — hardly defines a platform of governance. Neither does hatred — for from where we stand, this is the passion that now seems to inflame both camps in this all too personal fight between Arroyo and Estrada. These advocacies merely state the obvious bent toward personal gain, and damn the people who want their government to govern well for them.

There is none from either the administration or the opposition advocating how the government should be managed, how the people are to benefit from their government, how Philippine society is going to be put aright. In short, neither side is espousing a platform of government worthy of the people’s wise decision to choose.

We have said before — and say it again — that the removal of a sitting President, without being prepared with a platform of government, does no good to the public. When unenlightened politicians take over and wield power, the nation will still suffer under the surly, unresponsive ways of that displaced dispensation.

Which brings us to take a second look at this strange political beast that is slouching toward the political arena to be born: The so-called Third Force. This Third Force is not puny by any reckoning. It has the numbers, coming from those identified with the administration — but who nonetheless disagree with the way Arroyo has been governing — and those in the opposition who are not at all sold to the idea of hating and fighting Arroyo all the time, on all issues. These are the principled men and women who voice out the longings of people for good government.

Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. is a case in point. He is with the administration, but disagrees a lot with the way Arroyo runs the government. On that score, he is not welcome in the administration ticket. On other hand, his role in the elevation to the Senate of the impeachment complaint against Estrada in 2000, shuts him out in the Opposition slate. Senators Joker Arroyo and Ralph Recto, both erstwhile “boys” of Arroyo and bete noire of Estrada, are in the same league as Villar. So are the pols in the Drilon Wing of the Liberal Party, who not so long ago were staunch supporters of Arroyo but have since experienced an epiphany and are now espousing good and transparent governance for a platform.

Not to forget in the list is Sen. Edgardo Angara, whose exclusion from the Estrada line-up has mystified a lot of people. Angara and his political party, the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), have always espoused good government, an advocacy carried over to the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) in the May 2004 elections, as an alternative to the administration. Angara has spurned efforts of the administration to co-opt him, and with the likes of Villar, Arroyo, Drilon, et al., quietly pursued his advocacies in the legislature. By doing so, Angara has incurred the displeasure of many in the opposition who have been blinded with rage to oust Arroyo at all costs, forgetting in the process their primary duty to legislate.

These names are half of what comes to mind. But surely there is not a shortage of a few more good men and women to lend strength, integrity and credibility to this force. For example, Oscar Orbos, or the widow of a man who would have made a good president had not fate intervened, or the woman who should by now be our vice president.

A Third Force is not exactly farfetched. Simply put, it is an amalgam of those who find themselves nowhere on a matter of principle: They belong either to the administration or the opposition but they are not exactly comfortable where they are at the moment or, for that matter, do not agree with the means to achieve the ends of the group they belong to. Between perpetuating the status quo and opting for an alternative, might not the Third Force be a sane choice?

The voters in May 2007 may yet get their wish for a Third Force. And that will be good for the nation, to balance off the strident hate in the voices of the opposition and the evil governance of the administration.

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