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Until two weeks ago, my resolve was to vote straight
opposition in the senatorial race. Lock, stock and barrel. The whole
caboodle, including the dimwits, who, I privately regard as a
disgrace to the human race.
One gripped by pro-opposition
passion can have such a blind choice and be forgiven for it, I said
to myself. That the administration ticket has its share of jerks
somehow toughened my resolve to go for the jugular—and just copy
from a single sample ballot, the opposition’s.
That was two weeks ago. Today, I
am a wavering sort. I am not too sure on whether, for the
country’s sake, voting straight opposition is still the right
choice. I am now forced to look at the CV’s and public record of
all candidates now, including the one with the mispronounced name of
a green, leafy vegetable.
The change of heart came after
two developments.
First, was the ASO jingle, which
accused Senator Angara and former Senators Sotto and Oreta of
betraying former President Estrada for a few pounds of silver. An
attack dog named Rez Cortez, leads the group which has been
circulating those ASO CDs Cortez, who often acts out bad man roles
in the movies, is doing the same thing in real life, perhaps unaware
that real life and politics have morals that are totally different
from his bad movies.
Political junkies who can peel
the half-truths from the real thing know that the TAO team (Tito,
Angara, Oreta or Tessie Aquino-Oreta) was cast out of the opposition
team, jettisoned off the opposition ship at mid-sea, with no valid
reason except for that trumped-up charge that they were not loyal
enough. Loyal to who and loyal to what have been largely undefined.
Basta, they were not too loyal (meaning they were not the slobbering
type).
So they were excluded from the
opposition ticket under very Kafkaesque circumstances. And while
they were still dazed and down, they were accused of betrayal.
The betrayal angle is most
ridiculous in the case of the three. Aquino-Oreta is the
granddaughter of Serviliano Aquino, the Tarlac revolutionary and the
sister of Ninoy Aquino, who, to me, is the greatest Filipino who
ever lived after Andres Bonifacio. The Angaras of Baler were the
first to revolt against Spain, manning the ramparts of the Katipunan.
Sotto’s grandfather, Vicente, was a feisty and fiery nationalist,
a senator undaunted by the colonizers.
I do not know what the
grandfathers, fathers and brothers of those behind the CDs did for
their country. But if they have ever done something at all, it is
not surely in the league of what the TAO forefathers did.
Second, was the preoccupation of
the opposition with the Pangilinan issue. Is he in, or do we out
him? For days, the world of the opposition stood still, deliberating
on this question, as if it were the issue that will surely change
the country and shake the world. Instead of a deciding en banc on
what to do with Pangilinan, promptly and without dramatics, the
opposition opted for a lingering media play. It showed a reckless
disregard toward the freedom of choice.
While Wall Street is getting
jittery and Google is changing lives as never before, the political
opposition remains stuck on who is in and who is out, who is loyal
and who is not. God, what is the mindset of these people who I
intend to vote for wholesale?
Trivial pursuits and orthodoxy,
the two main curses of any political group today, remain the
preoccupation of the political opposition.
That great battlefield of
political warfare should not be won, even if this were possible, by
producing gutter-level CDs and by invoking the mantra of sham
loyalty. Fresh, creative and innovative ideas are king. The world is
being flattened by technology. Those who get stuck in a time warp
and are mired in hopeless orthodoxy are deemed out of the race among
true members of the human race. From the senators, we need inspired
and well-studied legislation.
At this moment, I no longer have
moist eyes and I am taking my time looking at CVs.
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