Pathetic (Opposition)

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Pathetic
Sunday, 06 01, 2008

That, in a word, sums up the state of the opposition in these otherwise opportune times. In my distant UN postings, reading about the opposition leaders in the on-line versions of Philippine dailies regarding their internecine bickerings – or, worse, reading nothing about their stand on the deceits, the corruption and the abuses of Gloria Arroyo and her administration – makes me wonder what has become of them, they who held so much anger in the aftermath of an election they should have won in 2004 and so much promise in their overwhelming victory at the polls in 2007.

Many have ingratiated themselves into the bosom of Arroyo, instead of embracing the principles and causes they once fought for.

An opposition senator calls for constitutional amendments via a constituent assembly and – horror of horrors! – 13 of his colleagues in the opposition go public regarding their agreement to the proposition. What have we here – Arroyo Trojan horses or simply dumb asses? They have become like the gullible frog that gave the spider a ride while crossing a river, only to be bitten to death once they reached the opposite bank. They are giving Arroyo all the chances to stay in office beyond 2010.

Then there is the senator in the opposition telegraphing his personal conclusion about the ZTE-NBN scandal, in complete disregard of the conclusion of the other members of his committee. Talk about speaking for a committee without a committee decision having been arrived at! Predictably, a senior colleague, who seems to be the only one talking sense during these times, had to chastise him.

These days, one gets the niggling feeling of entering a once-comfortable house and finding the furniture disastrously rearranged, its occupants sitting wherever the mood of the moment pleases them. They cannot even agree on whether or not to give succor to Rodolfo Lozada, how to treat the forthcoming revelations of JdV, how and where to draw the baselines of our archipelago in compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and which side to take in the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement. There are many different positions taken on these issues as there are opposition senators. Who are they trying to protect anyway?

And how did the Cheaper Medicine Bill get through the conference committee stage, with all its imperfections? The Senate contingent to the committee was headed by an opposition senator – at least that what he claims – yet the massive lobby money seems to have worked to make the final version pleasing to the lobbyist. Damn the poor, the sick and the dying; they’ll always be with us, anyway. Let them look for cheaper rice as we go through a food crisis. Who our among senators have raised a howl over the scandalous importation of rice? The Hanjin bribery controversy is still another. Why are they deafeningly silent despite knowing the real story behind it?

Lest we be misunderstood, we are not advocating unanimity. Democracy, after all, is letting the divergent views to gel together for a common purpose. What we expect from our senators in the opposition is for them to use their overwhelming number (compared to the pro-Arroyo senators) to buckle down to work and be the responsible opposition they are expected to be.

Skirmishes among themselves in public betray their lack of an agenda. Every one to himself. No coherence. They were all elected to serve as a counterpoise to the excesses of the arroyo administration. They are not to collaborate by declaring their assent even to the most outrageous and illegal acts of the Arroyo administration, or just simply being silent, like what has become of that senator clad in white whom we have yet to hear from since July 2007. It is as if combating the moves of Arroyo has become an unpleasant chore.

Who is in charge in the opposition anyway? Part of the problem of the opposition is the absence of an acknowledged leader. No one has stepped up to seize the leadership. The Senate President, who declares himself to be in the opposition, is busy balancing himself in a tightwire act in order not to fall from his position. So he’d rather sponsor a billiards tournament to expand his political base in preparation for 2010 rather than press for expanded hearings on the controversies besetting the Arroyo administration. And one day he signs a resolution calling for constitutional amendment, yet the next day he makes a statement repudiating the clear intent of the resolution that he signed. A case of accommodation both ways.

This ambivalence stems for the overweaning ambition of all of them, bar none, to make a go for the presidency in 2010. In a situation like that, each one would try to outdo the others, and to hell with their sworn legislative duties.

Everything said here holds true for the opposition contingent in the House of Representatives. When they are not publicly trying to outshine each other, they are pathetically silent on all threshold issues confronting the nation. For one, what has that anti-corruption lady legislator, whom we helped take her seat, got to say about the culture of corruption engulfing the deepest recesses of our bureaucracy. I scan all the on-line editions of all papers, and have yet to read about a peep of outrage from her.

I bumped to a friend yesterday. A comrade-in-arms during the FPJ-Loren campaign in 2004, he is now safely ensconced in the bosom of Arroyo. He said matter-of-factly: “The opposition legislators have never subordinated their personal ambitions to the cause of the opposition, while many of them are closet supporters of GMA. One of them is even openly courting GMA’s anointment in 2010, after being paid to lose. The opposition will never get to Malacañang that way.” There - it takes a turncoat to unmask his kind.

Pathetic. Kalunos-lunos, as the Tagalogs would say.


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