Saturday, January 20, 2007 Libre: Let us not fail again By Mel Libre Seriously Now
LONG before the Commission on Elections started accepting certificates of candidacy for the May polls, many of the possible candidates have campaigned for the elective positions up for grabs. While this is true among local politicians, this is more obvious among those vying for seats in Senate.
Those who are with the Arroyo government used the machinery of their respective offices to promote themselves outright. The self-respecting ones did it through genuine service to the people.
The strategy of members of the opposition, on the other hand, was to relentlessly criticize President Arroyo for mismanaging the government, graft and corruption, human rights abuses, her puppetry to the United States and for initiating Charter change.
While the President fairly succeeded in many fronts, especially in revitalizing the economy, neutralizing coup plotters, communist insurgents and Muslim separatists, and in foreign diplomatic relations, she has lost in the overt, as well as, covert war of the opposition.
Under the invisible hands of former president Joseph Estrada, the opposition’s agenda since day one was to depose the President by whatever means: from the failed People Power 3 to the failed Oakwood mutiny and from the failed Garci scandal probes to the failed Arroyo Impeachment 2.
There are two factors, though, that favors the continued stay of President Arroyo in power. One, the critical mass still believe that she is a better option than those in the opposition and, two, the US government considers her a dependable ally.
The United Opposition, feeding on its deep loathing for President Arroyo and buoyed by her plummeting survey ratings, has become attractive among opportunistic politicians who believe that the coalition is the perfect vehicle to the Senate. Without an ideology to stand on, these personalities have nothing much to offer but three more years of “hell” for Arroyo and a stage for their presidential ambitions.
A safe choice for voters would be the administration line-up that may have youthful and hopefully more idealistic hopefuls including Michael Defensor, Tarlac Rep. Gilbert Teodoro, Bukidnon Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri and Optical Media Board Chairman Edu Manzano.
Another alternative is a political party consisting of candidates from left-leaning groups. In the first national/local elections after the 1986 People Power Revolution the leftist Partido ng Masa campaigned for the Senate.
Uninitiated in traditional politics, the party was walloped in the polls. It did not resurrect until the party list system was adopted.
Had the National Democratic Front and the Communist Party of the Philippines brought their proletarian war to the democratic electoral process, they could have established themselves as the genuine alternative to the traditional politics of both the administration and opposition parties 21 years after Edsa 1.
The sad reality is that we, as a people, have failed in the past 20 years, and if we don’t make the right choices this May, we will have failed ourselves, our nation and our future, again.
