Just desserts

Depending on which side of the divide you stand, the thing might be called a party coup or an uprising by the rank-and-file against a tyrannical leadership.

I will tend to describe what happened to the Drilon faction of the Liberal Party as just desserts.

Last week, seven hundred members of the Liberal Party from all over the country – quite notably, elected officials from party bailiwicks such as Batanes, Batangas and Panay island – convened in Manila for a conference on decentralization and local autonomy. The gathering included 23 LP congressmen, several governors and scores of local executives. In a word, the party rank-and-file.

Towards the end of the meeting, the agenda shifted to party matters. At that point, the simmering discontent at the grassroots with the leadership of party president Franklin Drilon boiled up and flowed over. By the end of the day, the Drilon faction was ousted and the party regrouped around Manila mayor Lito Atienza.

Atienza represented the party old-timers, having been with the LP since his youth. He also resembled the party rank-and-file, which is composed in the main by local executives.

From the account of LP members I have talked to, Drilon loyalist Chito Gascon tried to filibuster in a vain attempt to eat up time and prevent the discussion from proceeding further. After hogging the floor for 30 minutes, irate party members booed Gascon, eventually forcing him to walk out of the proceedings.

The filibuster further galvanized the brewing rebellion from the party grassroots. Soon, a party backbencher moved to declare all leadership seats vacant and install a new leadership more accountable to the membership. Drilon was quickly booted out.

According to the same account, disenchantment with the Drilon leadership worsened dramatically since July 8 last year. We recall that on that day, very shortly after the Senate President professed Iloilo’s undying support for the Arroyo leadership, he abruptly turned around and demanded President Arroyo’s resignation. He made that demand on behalf of the Liberal Party even as no party consultations were held to mandate that radical turnabout.

Since that day, the positions of the LP rank-and-file and those of the Drilon faction became more distant by the day.

The majority of LP members, including most of its contingent at the House of Representatives, supported the Arroyo presidency. The Drilon bloc maintained its demand that the President resign her post.

The majority of LP members, including most of its contingent at the House of Representatives, support charter change. The Drilon bloc opposes charter change.

The majority of LP members, including most of its contingent at the House of Representatives, rushed to the defense of the constitutional order in the face of a coup attempt last month. The Drilon bloc maintained an eerie silence about the threat to the very framework of our liberal democracy.

The majority of LP members, including most of its contingent at the House of Representatives, supported Proclamation 1017 which sought to nip the coup conspiracy in the bud and avert bloodshed. Senator Drilon made an appearance at Ayala Avenue last February 24 – an event that, according to the captured "Final Talk" transcript was integral to the coup scenario set for that day.

The Drilon camp not only held diametrically opposed positions to the party rank-and-file. The Drilon camp has consistently failed to convene the LP national executive committee or, much less, call a party convention to arrive at a consensus on party’s disposition in the face of dramatically emerging political concerns.

Party members increasingly felt that the Drilon faction, composed almost exclusively of politicians elected to the legislative branch, held a deep disdain for the major portion of the party elected to local government posts. That perception was only reinforced when Drilon himself, in the rush to discredit the assembly that caused his ouster described that assembly as a gathering of "barangay captains."

That disdain doomed Drilon. In the new scheme of things, given devolution and decentralization of government, local governments deserve – and demand – a larger voice in national affairs. The Drilon bloc stifled that voice within the party they imagined to lead.

By alienating themselves from the party grassroots, brashly taking political positions without consulting the party base, by effectively arrogating the party as the instrument of their factional ambitions, the Drilon bloc wove the rope by which they were eventually hanged.

The twains shall never meet: the Drilon group calls this a "Palace-inspired coup" while the party rank-and-file prefers to view it as a corrective rebellion against a tyrant who cleverly insinuated himself into an old and venerable political grouping.

In the aftermath of that event, the Drilon faction has been roaming the television talk shows calling their rivals names, describing them as mere "barangay captains" and as "intruders". They have threatened to invoke technicalities, bring the matter before the Comelec or even the Supreme Court.

These are sure signs of political defeat.

If this faction feels genuinely aggrieved, if they truly feel they are in the right and enjoy the support of the mass of party members, they should now be calling for a party national convention to get a final sense of how things stand.

That would, however, mean calling in the mere "barangay captains" and all the provincial elective officials to render a formal judgment on this party matter. These are, however, the very same people who, just last week, angrily called for declaring all party positions vacant and expelling Drilon from the leadership post he exercised without accountability to the grassroots.

When Lito Atienza recruited Drilon to the LP and swore him in as party president, the senator gave an interesting speech. Given his history of turncoatism, having crossed every party line there was, Drilon promised that the LP was the last party he would join.

Given the state of his political stock, that might be the only promise Drilon abides by.