Fresh thinking

Is our political opposition, as in the remnants of the Liberal Party, capable of fresh thinking?

It is a survival necessity for them, but they seem content with knee jerk responses to political developments. Take their outright rejection of charter change. They have failed to recognize that the environment has changed enough to make consideration of ChaCha timely unless they are satisfied with being irrelevant.

Any observer of the American and our political scenes can’t help noticing similarities. The political polarization is intense to the point of hatred of the other side. But something interesting is happening in our local situation: with the opposition pretty much dead, the Duterte and Marcos factions seem to be at each other’s throats as we approach the midterm election next year.

Our traditional opposition, the Liberals, seem to think they can get back into power under current rules and the Constitution. Fat chance! Many of us on the sidelines who are hoping for some change to happen are bracing for more disappointments.

The Ocho Derecho crowd has consistently failed to get an accurate reading of the nation’s pulse. They must accept the bitter truth that Mamasapano, and how PNoy and Mar Roxas mishandled the aftermath, sealed the dark future of the Liberals. It is so sad it erased the good governance accomplishments of PNoy in the minds of common people. Note that Mar even tried to dissociate himself from the Liberals in his last Senate run, but dismally failed. People saw through it and made his political comeback impossible.

VP Leni was the Liberals’ last hope, but her pure and pristine image, actually even purer than Cory’s, was not enough to overcome the hatred for the “yellows” that now represent not just the opposition politicians, but the fat cats in our ruling economic elite.

The more the Liberals harp about graft and corruption, as they should, the masa reaction is to see them as self-righteous holy people who are not like the rest of us who are tainted with sins.

Unfortunately, most of our people seem to have accepted corruption as a way of life. They may not like it but they no longer believe anyone who says they can stop it.

Then came Duterte with his dirty mouth and an inclination to kill. More than enough people saw themselves in him. They saw him as the one who will give the dirty finger to the Makati business social elite represented by self-righteous Liberals. They did not mind the killings because, as someone told my niece when she was writing her bestselling book, some people need killing.

Not even the billions of pesos in Pharmally corruption dented Duterte’s credibility with his supporters. Duterte is our Trump. And when his daughter started getting public scrutiny of how she spent billions of pesos in confidential funds as mayor and vice president, the Duterte trolls started defending her at the risk of breaking the so-called Unity Team.

The only issue where people may diverge from Duterte is his love for China. No Filipino wants to see the Philippines as a province of China as Duterte once declared.

A recent Washington Post article about the Trump phenomenon in the US reveals a similar development here. Their and our politics are very polarized, fueled by contempt for the other side… in our case, the yellows vs the Duterte diehards.

The WaPo article reported that based on research by political scientists, “Our politics tend to be more emotional now. Policy preferences are increasingly likely to be entangled with a visceral dislike of the opposition.

“Some voters find the polarization confusing, because they don’t see how anyone could possibly support a candidate on the other side.”

Those of us who monitor social media feeds and comments are seeing the exact same things happening here, a year before the midterm election. You can get a feel of voter sentiment for the mid-term next year in the preponderance of Duterte allied personalities in the lead for the Senate. It shouldn’t surprise us if the Duterte camp triggers a formal break-up of the Unity coalition, confident that in an electoral shoot-out, they have the advantage over the President and Martin Romualdez. Their aim is to make the President a lame duck halfway in his term.

This presents a problem and an opportunity for the traditional opposition. But it is unlikely the Liberals are crafty enough to exploit such an opening. The Liberals have lost their ability to think and be creative, which is why they just say the usual stuff that did not convince anyone in the past.

The Liberals also need new personalities because the Ocho Derecho bunch has lost twice and that labels them as talunan in our culture, and no one wants to be associated with losers. Too bad for Bam Aquino because the Aquino brand has been damaged quite badly.

I don’t think Leni will run again. She has suggested as much. She didn’t want to run for president. Pinagbigyan na niya yung mga nagpatakbo sa kanya. She would rather do her quiet grassroots work. Besides, the senatorial survey didn’t even assure her she would win if she decided to run.

Risa Hontiveros may become the only long shot hope for the opposition as of now. But she has to become more and more feisty like Miriam Defensor Santiago and at the same time, malalapitan. She will have to become more of a politician than she already is now.

What the opposition needs is fresh thinking and a fresh someone who can capture the public imagination away from Duterte. No one among them now fits the bill. Under the presidential system, they don’t have even a glimmer of a chance to get back into power. Under parliamentary, mahirap pero baka sakali.

But wait… Sara just said she is running next year, a local election year. Unthinkable for her to run for mayor or senator when she is already vice president. She is likely playing a game to flex her political muscles and take the headlines away from the International Criminal Court. She knows the ICC is the only card the President can play if the Dutertes play hardball.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X or Twitter @boochanco.