Three young men

After many brickbats over its lack of a platform, the Genuine Opposition (GO) finally felt compelled to come up with one last week. But it failed to excite.

It turns out that GO’s 10-point agenda is nothing but a hazy version of what the Arroyo administration has already put in place over the last six years, bringing to the fore GO’s inherent weakness: Its purported platform has become irrelevant as an alternative for public service. Which makes you wonder where, exactly, it is heading for.

It saddens me to say this because, in advancing progress, especially in this country, the pivotal role has historically been assumed by the opposition. But sadly, not the opposition represented by GO. This probably explains why Sen. Kiko Pangilinan has captured the imagination of the public, as manifested in his leap to No. 1 in a recent survey.

One look at John Osmena’s TV ad depicting a most populist stance about the expanded value-added tax (EVAT) is enough to ascertain GO’s ultimate goal: not to institutionalize political stability nor to sustain the appreciable economic gains that the country has achieved, but to power grab at all costs.

But here’s something that is all the more regrettable. For all their rabble rousing, did you know that Reps. Alan Peter Cayetano and Francis Escudero did not initiate a single law in all the nine years they spent as representatives of Taguig-Pateros and Sorsogon, respectively? All they did, sources in the House say, was ride on the legislative agenda of their fellow representatives by simply affixing their names as co-authors of bills that their colleagues initiated, while they kept the media busy projecting them as the next generation of leaders in the country.

I was so disappointed about this discovery, for, I too, had started to believe that these young gentlemen offered some hope for the country. But, as it turns out, their political foray has nothing to do with public service, but everything about ambition.

With their political pedigree, as it were, their careers are all about keeping the clout for their respective families. And what they’re dishing out are empty words. Such are the troubling facts in the case of Cayetano, Escudero and before I forget, the son of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, lawyer Koko Pimentel, another GO bet, who has no experience of public service to speak of, just his political pedigree.

Koko Pimentel rabble rouses about him being the voice of Mindanaoans and the youth. Where could he be coming from? His only other political bid was a few years back when he ran as mayor of Cagayan de Oro. He was routed. So what, pray tell, Mindanaoan and youth representation does he carry?

These circumstances remind me of a witty quip from Team Unity bet Chavit Singson, who is the governor of Ilocos Sur and estranged friend of ousted Pres. Joseph Estrada. During the Pampanga proclamation rally, he observed that the opposition-dominated Senate of the 13th Congress failed as an institution because majority of its members transformed it into a political persecution chamber with their penchant for endless debates and investigations.

All they were concerned about, said Chavit, was their ambition to occupy Malacañang. He brought the point home.

For all his tough talk and misadventures, Chavit to me comes across as a gentleman. Thus, Chavit says of his former friend’s plight: "The President can immediately pardon Estrada but only after the court case has been decided. What is important is that the case should be allowed to take its course because we have to show the public that there is justice in this country."

Further, Chavit the man declares: "I could have run and won in 2001 even without campaigning. Who is Joker Arroyo? He won because of the Erap impeachment. Who is Manny Villar? He won because of the Erap impeachment. It’s more difficult now but that’s the challenge of life. I’m running now because the governors want me to and I feel I can contribute something to this country. I’m confident I can win as long as they [governors] don’t abandon me."

Many may argue about Chavit’s point of view, but certainly there is depth there. It’s the sort of depth lacking in the younger generation of leaders like Cayetano, Escudero and Pimentel.

But, for that matter, not on Migz Zubiri, another political scion and Team Unity bet. Zubiri immersed himself in his job as congressman. In fact, he earned the monicker Mr. Biofuels from Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo herself, as a tribute for his principal authorship of the Biofuels Act, a landmark legislation that buttresses the Clean Air Act of 1999 by promoting the use of cleaner fuels, which at the same time, revives the country’s age-old coconut industry.

The big difference between the likes of Cayetano, Escudero and Pimentel, on the one hand, and Zubiri, on the other, is that the latter immersed himself in public service to feed his ambition, whereas the former just focused on their ambition.