The United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) should stop hedging and declare unequivocally whether it is opposition or pro-administration. It can’t forever be neither fish nor fowl.

Fielding a ticket against that of the Liberal Party-led coalition doesn’t make UNA an opposition bloc. UNA leaders know this but they aren’t concerned at all. In fact, they don’t even want to call themselves “opposition,” as if “opposition” is a dirty word. Well, political realists as they are, how can they possibly picture themselves as opposing a leader as popular as President Benigno Aquino 3rd? It’s better for UNA candidates to partake of the support generated by the administration rather than alienate themselves

If UNA is supportive of the Aquino administration, then there is no basic difference between its candidates and those of the administration. Sure, some UNA leaders have been singling out some leaders of the Aquino administration for bashing like Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas but the President? Ah, he us untouchable. I still have to hear Vice President Jojo Binay, former President Erap Estrada and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, the Big 3 of UNA, lash at the President.

Have you noticed that Zambales Rep. Mila Magsaysay, a senatorial candidate of UNA, has stopped her tirades against the President? I was told that she had been ordered by Erap to stop criticizing the President. Is this true? Well, what’s true was that even Erap had been defending the President, as if the apologists from Malacañang were not doing their job correctly.

Of course, it’s very possible that once UNA declares itself as out-and-out opposition, it will lose reelectionist Senators Loren Legarda and Chiz Escudero, who are sure winners, and Grace Poe to the administration ticket. The three are common candidates of the two blocs but I believe they are closer to the administration than to UNA. Why, they attended the proclamation by the LP at Club Filipino but not the proclamation by UNA! Need any more proof? But the greater effect would be the firing of Vice President Jojo Binay from the Cabinet. He can’t be opposed to the administration and still be a Cabinet member. But, so what? An appointive Cabinet post can never equal the mandate given by the people. What’s more, the Vice President is even more popular than the President!

Those who want to maintain the republican concept of checks and balances can write off the House of Representatives. I wrote in a previous column that majority of the winners in the congressional election are expected to join the Liberal Party or the LP-led coalition. I expect this even of UNA’s winning candidates for congressman. This leaves the senatorial candidates the only dependable ones to preserve this concept of checks and balances.

“Only dependable ones,” did I say? I take that back. With UNA hesitant of being called opposition, how can its candidates provide checks and balances to executive excesses and misrule? I say, UNA should go back to the drawing board, identify the things about the administration that they oppose, and present alternatives. It should not be cowed by claims that it’s being too partisan in presenting itself as opposition. If you ask me, the problem with our political system is not too much partisanship but rather, too little of it. It’s about time that a true opposition party emerge out of the darkness.

As I said, the administration is certain to control the House no matter what the results of the May 2013 midterm election. Some are saying that UNA congressmen will stay put because of hopes that Vice President Jojo Binay would be in Malacanang by 2016. I don’t share that belief. Congressmen will always be with the administration party. They’ll wait until 2016 before deciding to change party affiliation or not. Remember that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was already unpopular in 2007 but congressmen stood by her. They deserted her only after President Aquino took over Malacanang.

To keep the administration from having too much control over the government, it’s necessary to elect more opposition members to the Senate. But as things stand, the voters are at a loss in determining who among the senatorial candidates are with the opposition. Perhaps, with the way the administration has been suspending local officials not in its graces (official line: not following the “straight path”), it may just be a little more time before UNA makes a definitive stand on its relations with the administration.

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