THE speakership race is going the direction of the NBA Golden State Warriors. Apologies to Warriors’ fans for this analogy. But this is what I can explain of what is happening in the House.
The administration coalition can be likened to that super-team that may have secured the crown, but is hard put to keep everyone happy.
Right now, five Congressmen in the coalition want to be the top dog, or top guy in the House. That’s Representatives Alan Peter Cayetano, Martin Romualdez, Lord Allan Velasco, Paolo Duterte and Isidro Ungab.
Now, you can’t play basketball when all five on the court want the ball to shoot. Someone has to give, pass, or screen. But last we heard, not everyone wants to share. The team is still trying to figure out how to make this work.
Perhaps, this scenario is more like a Lakers’ scenario. Sorry this time to Lakers’ fans. Here is a team with great stars, great hype of continuing a dynasty. While they look strong on paper, they don’t have the solid pieces, and not everyone is jumping on board.
Politics here is like playing basketball, or to be specific, a super-team basketball. The way Congressmen and Senators jump to the strongest team, lured by promises of pet projects, pet bills, and deep pockets, they believe in that familiar motto: Strength in numbers, if we’re talking about the same idea of strength.
But this concept of super-team misses the point of basketball, and politics, that this is all about sharing the ball, spotting the open teammate for opportunities, playing for a common goal, and doing it with shared joy.
The super-team lost in the championship last June when its top pieces fell down. Super as they are, they lost to a better team called the Raptors who played selfless solid basketball, who only had one exceptional superstar who acts not like a star, but like a workhorse doing his talking on court.
That’s the team, and the star we should root for, and if we like underdogs, there’s the Makabayan coalition. Leftist as they are, they do their talking on the court.
Even as they endorsed their own, Bayan Muna Rep. Atty. Carlos Zarate, for the Speakership post, they still conducted their business in the House last July 1, filing around 50 bills concerning increase in salaries for teachers, government workers, repealing the tax schemes under TRAIN Law, protecting the environment, giving more services for education and health.
That’s how politics should be. Like basketball, there’s no “I”, just “we” and making plays that matter.
tyvelez@gmail.com.