Too soon to eat back her words

To recall, it was on September 28 after Typhoon Ondoy left such havoc with her heavy rains that Senator Loren Legarda nonchalantly bade goodbye to politics. Perhaps, many observers could have muttered tersely: “Ka-anugon”.

 As earlier reported, the lady ex-presidentiable who had much earlier evinced her ambition after topping the senatorial race unexpectedly gave up not only her Palace obsession, but also politics per se, as “politics and campaigning get in the way of governance”.

“Kasi ang kampanya anim na buwan yan na-immobilized ka, lahat ng iyong resources ay nasa posters at television ads at pangangamay ng tao. Nakakain ba nila yun? Hindi. Kaya pinag-iisip-isipan ko rin”, Senator Legarda mused wisely then.

She further waxed sagely, thus: “Really it’s dawning upon me because ano ba naman yung power, ano ba naman yung posisyon? Ang gusto mo talaga ay maglingkod e, kung yan talaga ang pakay mo, I don’t need to be famous anymore because I’m already famous. I don’t need to prove anything anymore, I’m thinking about it because really what I want to do is humanitarian help”. What a mouthful of disingenuous profundity in expressing her swan song to “dirty politics”.

But lo and behold… Hardly a fortnight lapsed when the obviously frustrated lady solon has just made a 360 degree reversal with unruffled feathers, and nary a blush. Without much ado, Loren has now aborted her erstwhile commitment to “humanitarian work”. She welcomes the vice-presidentiable offer of Danding Cojuangco’s Nationalist People’s Coalition to play second fiddle to latecomer Senator Francis Escudero for president.

Such atonal refrain may be due to any or combination of these ways: One – Hiding under the aphorism that only fools do not change their minds and, Loren being no fool, did change her mind; Two – It’s a woman’s privilege to be fickle and, Loren being all woman, is just fickle; Three –  Senator Legarda is now a fully certified “trapo” whose word is changeable on what is convenient; and Four – She doesn’t care what people think as long as she gets a chance to get nearer Malacañan – just an errant skip of a heartbeat of the next president.

As all’s fair in love and in war, so it’s all fair in “dirty politics” to engage in seamy semantics, tricky euphemisms, wiles now and then, guiles aplenty, and lots of nonsensical folderol or trumpery, and non sequitor galore.

Anyway, Filipinos have very short memory for past blunders or failed promises, say, like forgetting Erap’s conviction for plunder and his once ho-hum booze-ridden reign, but now emerging as a waddling returning hero. And the most potent factor to deaden past ugly deeds is the refulgence of money, never mind the source, or how minted.

In fairness to once prim and proper Loren, both in private and public service, eating back her words on “dirty politics and campaigning” isn’t a mortal sin, or a nauseating spectacle even to the squeamish. It’s akin to a ruminant, like a carabao, getting back in its mouth to regurgitate the digested food, to chew again or cud. And there’s nothing evil in chewing the cud, only messy.

 It’s just that Senator Loren must have been overly-exasperated for her prior “hele-hele” that got her overtaken by political alignments and realignments, leaving her untapped on the wayside. Even with the NPC, it initially appeared that she had the inside track, but somehow also overtaken by maneuverings, such that, Senator Francis Escudero gets the upper hand.

Who knows that even with the bit delayed NPC tandem of Escudero-Legarda, it may pick up momentum to catch up with the earlier bird combos of Villar-No VP, Aquino-Roxas, and Teodoro-Puno. Lately, there is the Erap-Binay combo; and, perhaps the Noli de Castro with still unknown pair will come around. See, eating back one’s words isn’t that bad as to result in conscience indigestion!

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