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Tuesday, July 23, 2002
MALILONG: Turning tables
By Frank Malilong, Jr.
The administration party will benefit from Sen. Robert Jaworski’s decision to cross over from the opposition but there is absolutely no doubt as to who the biggest winner is. He is none other Jaworski himself.
Jaworski, if you will recall, tried to desert the Erap ship, when it became imminent that it was sinking, and sneak in at the party in Edsa II. But while other turncoats had more success, he was foiled by the people who had been at Edsa much earlier and for more selfless reasons.
Unconfirmed reports said a mob nearly lynched him. He beat a hasty retreat.
Now, Jaworski is where he wanted to be but was driven away. And the sweetest thing is that he can now invoke, as he did, country and family for being there. The standoff in the Senate has given the former basketball star the perfect screen to score, and boy, have you ever seen him drill in that three-pointer with more aplomb! Jawors-ki!
Ja-wors-ki!
Tell me, what is the difference between the cheering Senate President Franklin Drilon and other GMA allies, and the shrieking gays and faggots who stood at the vanguard of various Jaworski fans clubs during his basketball days? My answer: the fans saw talent, Drilon and company, expediency.
Unfortunately for the people (civil society?) who rejected Jaworski at Edsa, their votes do not count in settling the leadership dispute in the Senate.
President Arroyo obviously wants her party to control the Senate and she needs warm bodies to do that. Jaworski is not only available but willing.
Those who disapprove of the deal will have to wait for 2004.
Speaking of winners, Mayor Tomas Osmeña has every reason to grin from ear to ear even if he was not a candidate in the last barangay elections.
Facing a recall resolution from dissatisfied barangay officials days into the elections, Osmeña turned the tables on his accusers. Quite fittingly, he provided the best description of the sentiment expressed by the Cebu city electorate through their ballots: na-recall ang nang-recall.
Indeed, if the intention of the recall petition was to slow down Osmeña in his campaign for BO-PK candidates, the strategy blew in the authors’ faces. The planners failed to reckon with the fact that the mayor just returned from sick leave when they sought to oust him through a recall.
You don’t strike a man when he’s down. In the eyes of many people, Osmeña was the underdog. This, plus the fact that people think of the recall as a distraction, really ruined the chances of many of the move’s principal sponsors.
An outstanding exception, of course, is Punta Princesa Barangay Captain Jose Navarro. Joe is number one in Tommy O‘s hate (okay, scorn) list and nothing would have satisfied the latter more than seeing Navarro beaten. But Joe has proven to be the mayor’s match, at least in Punta Princesa, and, for the next many years, will remain the bone in Tommy’s throat.
But that was only round one. The next round is the election of officers of the city’s Association of Barangay Councils. Here, Osmeña has Navarro’s number. I won’t be surprised if Joe gives up the ABC presidency without a fight. Considering the odds, I don’t think he would be that eager to give the mayor the satisfaction of humiliating him before his peers.
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