Gone too soon

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Gone too soon
Sunday, 11 08, 2009

The late Michael Jackson has a song entitled “Gone Too Soon,” which opens with the following lines: “Like a comet blazing across the evening sky, gone too soon.” It was dedicated by the self-proclaimed King of Pop to a very promising young man whose life was cut short by the scourge of AIDS.

The song and the lyrics could very well describe what has happened to young Sen. Chiz Escudero, who once upon a time figured prominently in the presidential race, but has since effectively dropped out of the race, even as he continues to tickle everyone with the possibility of a rebound by fighting a people’s campaign. Chiz has become the latest victim of recklessness that is wasted among... well, the young.

Chiz has gone too soon. The promise was there: He could wage a decent fight against the more moneyed, more experienced and much more senior pretenders to the seat currently occupied by Gloria Arroyo, with the help of his political party, the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC). Alas, the recklessness of this young man put out the fight in him too early in the race, and the legions of his adherents who had put their hopes on him are disappointed.

Everything there was in Chiz was his unabashed and unflinching idealism. That should be no problem. But he forgot all about the realities of politics.

Chiz would have none of the strictures of a political party. He opted out of the NPC. He never realized that one who wages battle against the giants in politics must have a political party behind him — a party that guarantees a machinery and network, the command votes and, most important, the money to oil the army of vote-getters and the voters. Above all, he will need allies in the legislature in order to govern effectively, and be able to deliver on his promises. Because of his idealism, Chiz will never have any of that.

Chiz now prefers the electorate to be his partymates, rather than Danding Cojuangco, Louie Villafuerte, Ompong Plaza, et al. Who will now bring the votes to Chiz? Even if Chiz teams up with Sen. Ping Lacson, who is also without a political party, there is no added value to his crusade for a party-less candidacy. Even if he wins, who will be his allies in the compromise-laden field of governance?

He detested his hand and foot being chained to a party. But that does not make of Chiz, having already bolted the NPC, a free man. He shall continue to be chained hand-and-foot to the people for whom he advocates. The electorate he professes to protect, say, for example, the farmers aching to have their piece of Hacienda Luisita, will press him to deliver (should he get elected), with no results in sight, given the adverse configuration of the legislature with its vested interests. This is not to say that Chiz should be faulted for embracing a lost cause, but it simply does not wash for a young man like Chiz to paint himself into a corner by breaking all possibilities of compromise with the well-entrenched politicians in the Congress of the Philippines, each beholden to their special interests. To the extent that he cannot deliver simply because he has donned the white cape of idealism and righteousness to fight those on the Dark Side, and that he cannot be dictated to, or that he will never compromise, Chiz will be a failure. So, who wants him to be president with that certain possibility?

Chiz wanted independence to act freely, to decide only for the common good, and to be effective at governing without resorting to compromises. If he were the president of Utopia, then that could be possible. But this is the Philippines, where, as president, you can appear to act freely, profess to decide for the common good, but can never govern effectively if one does not resort to compromises.

Chiz acted too precipitately, by not weighing the consequences of his declaration of freedom from a party that nurtured his political path for the past 11 years. He has done the unthinkable: Fighting the machinery that made him a member of the House of Representatives and a top ranking senator. My malaprop-spouting friend Reggie will probably call it as biting the hand that feeds the other dogs. I will not call Chiz an ingrate, but very close to that. I will not even refer to funding problem as the immediate cause of his departure from the NPC, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt that it was all pure idealism that drove him to decide to be gone too soon from the NPC.

He may look good for the moment, even gaining new adherents to his brand of politics, but for how long will that hold? When the reality creeps in that he cannot wage a decent fight in the presidential race, he will be left carrying the banner of his brand of politics with but a few idealists close behind.

Chiz never gave a thought to the possible reaction of the stalwarts in the NPC, they who expected him to carry the fight for the party as its standard bearer. What else will anyone expect from these former partymates? Certainly not their support for his candidacy. And what about Loren Legarda who had given way to Chiz, agreeing to slide down as his vice presidential candidate — they were a formidable tandem for a while — and now standing all alone, being peddled by her partymates in the NPC to team up with either Manny Villar or Gibo Teodoro?

“Gone too soon” closes with these lines: “Here one day, gone one night... gone too soon.” One moment, we thought we had a Chiz-Loren tandem; now, that is gone. One moment, we thought we had a Chiz Escudero who would go the distance in the presidential race; now that is an impossibility, Chiz having gone too soon, his blind idealism simply not cut out for the rough and tumble of Philippine politics. Sayang.

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