EDITORIAL - Persona non grata

A manifesto signed last Friday by most of Cebu's political leaders branded Rep. Clavel Martinez of the 4th district as a "persona non grata" for claiming that there was massive cheating in Cebu in the May 2004 elections and that she had an audio CD to prove it.

That claim, plus the knowledge of what may have precipitated it, naturally did not sit well with Cebuanos. And for that they can call Clavel many things. But persona non grata? The term, which means ungrateful person, does not apply to Clavel in this case.

Technically at least, Rep. Antonio Cuenco is right. The term is reserved for foreigners who, for one reason or another, abuse the hospitality extended to them by a host country and thus serves to qualify their deportation.

Applied to this case, however, the term, well, does not apply. We are talking politics here, for which everybody is agreed there is no such thing as gratitude. It is a dog-eat-dog world in which there are no permanent friends, or enemies for that matter.

In a world of constant flux, in which the only permanent thing is a temporary marriage of convenience, the term gratitude is unheard of. So why did Cebuano political leaders call Clavel a persona non grata when no gratitude was expected of her, or she them, for that matter.

Look, Clavel felt bad because her husband lost. But in a game where nobody accepts defeat, did anybody really expect her to claim otherwise but that her husband was cheated? Have we forgotten that that was the cry of Clavel from the start, that they were cheated?

Now, whether anybody believes Clavel or not is another thing. But knowing Clavel, she is not about to give up a fight. Call her a poor loser, but she will fight back. Then came the much bigger allegation of cheating by President Arroyo.

Any politician worth his or her salt cannot miss the opportunity that just presented itself. By golly, here was the juggernaut of a vehicle that all the belly-aching and sour-graping in the world can be latched on to, with great effect.

No fool, Clavel got on board. This latest uproar about cheating was not her own doing. She just added her own two cents worth to it. And she has nothing to lose for her two cents. Her husband, whether she believes it or not, lost. But she can still win the p.r. war, she thought.

There is only one problem that we can see out of this whole Clavel thingy. And it is that Clavel pushed her agenda of vengeance not at the expense of her political enemies, who do not give a damn because they are the ones sitting, but of the Cebuanos as a whole.

All Cebuanos know, with the exception of Clavel and company, that there was no cheating in Cebu of the kind that is being charged. Cebuanos voted overwhelmingly for Arroyo not because they love her, but because they had no choice. They simply thought an actor was worse.

As for Clavel, she just proved her incapability to put the interests of the Cebuanos above her own. When she proposed to carve her district into a separate province, Cebuanos didn't like it but nevertheless gave her the benefit of the doubt. Now, she has just erased all that.