Making enemies

If the opposition Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino doesn’t watch out, it could end up making enemies of everyone outside the KNP. And at this point, the KNP could use every help it can get.

The latest object of KNP ire is Raul Roco, the first to concede among the five presidential aspirants. His statements are "rubbish" and he was "forced to say things" by Malacañang, according to some guy who is now among the characters being blamed for bungling the campaign of Fernando Poe Jr. The KNP resents Roco not so much for conceding, but for conceding to candidate Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Naturally, the KNP has nothing good to say about the administration, or about that other opposition presidential aspirant, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who has expressed willingness to reconcile with President Arroyo.

Already the text brigades are hard at work, hinting that a presidential aspirant or two will soon be moving into Forbes Park, thanks to a modus vivendi with the administration. If these stories become too nasty, I expect some camps to hit back with tales of their own about KNP members newly relocated to Forbes Park.

I bet evangelist Eddie Villanueva won’t be spared from KNP opprobrium either, if ever he decides to concede to anyone other than FPJ.

Poe can’t seem to be getting along too well these days even with his friend, deposed President Joseph Estrada. His attitude toward Erap seems to be, if I want your advice, I’ll ask for it.

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Poe, who has been a superstar for much of his life, alienated many members of the press during the campaign, and remained true to form post-election, whining that the press was not reporting the truth about the election results. He must have been stewing over reports about the exit poll conducted by the organization headed by his first cousin, which showed the President winning, or over press coverage of the only accredited quick count being conducted by the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel).

Of course there are "envelopmental journalists," especially during elections. But there are also enough journalists who do their job the best they can, who serve as mere messengers and unwitting bearers of bad news. A number of them may be used to encountering people who want to shoot the messenger, but that still does not improve relations between FPJ and the press.

Then there’s Namfrel. Probably remembering that Namfrel volunteers include nuns and other people whose motives for helping in the quick count could be tough to impugn, KNP attacks on the poll watchdog have focused on its leaders, businessman Jose Concepcion Jr. and Guillermo Luz.

It’s no secret that many in the business community are for President Arroyo, so the anti-Namfrel strategy could work – if the KNP could pick an attack dog other than Francisco Tatad. Even critics of the administration will nod in agreement when Malacañang describes Ferdinand Marcos’ former information minister as a "master of the art of disinformation." And when copies of "The Da Vinci Code" continue to fly off the shelves, even Tatad’s membership in Opus Dei has lost any cachet it might have had.

Expectedly, the KNP has nothing good to say either about the Commission on Elections. But who has anything good to say about the Comelec?

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The KNP pique is understandable, considering that Poe launched his presidential bid at the top of the heap, and even Lacson admitted that he lost substantial support in his bid when FPJ joined the race.

But even as KNP members conduct man-to-man guarding of the vote, as they should, some of them may also want to consider what went wrong with their campaign, and how Poe lost so much traction so quickly.

No one can downplay the impact of Poe’s loss of the Iglesia ni Cristo and El Shaddai, especially when the Catholic Church was not known to be enamored with his presidential bid either.

Contributions to his war chest suffered from uncertainties about his citizenship and qualification for the race, and later from his sliding numbers. The Chinese-Filipino community, one of the biggest sources of campaign funds, went for Lacson.

No one was sure who was in charge of the Poe campaign. Different groups saying different things on the same subjects, all of them claiming to speak for Poe, sent press statements to media organizations. Poe could have given the final word on pressing issues, but he was notoriously inaccessible to the press.

This time the KNP is waging a campaign close to every decent Filipino’s heart: a battle against poll fraud. But they are going about it as if it’s the KNP against the world, as if the group has a monopoly on efforts to have credible elections. Everyone else is part of a conspiracy to cheat – specifically, to cheat Fernando Poe Jr.

One day FPJ and his handlers may want to get pointers on winning friends and influencing people, rather than sniping at everyone who gives the KNP a curious look. But by then it may be too late.

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COUNT OUR BLESSINGS: When I sigh, "only in the Philippines…," I often console myself with the thought that I could’ve been born in a more troubled country. When I was younger I thought of Ethiopia. Later I thought of Myanmar, North Korea and Afghanistan.

Election observers from Afghanistan have just validated that thought, and reminded us to count our blessings. Mirwais Wardak, one of 10 poll observers from Afghanistan, told the Agence France Presse that they would be lucky if their elections in September for their president and members of parliament could be anywhere as "good" as the Philippine elections. "If we could have such elections in Afghanistan, it would be tremendous," he told AFP.

Wardak was particularly impressed with the use of teachers for poll duty, the many people who volunteered to guard the vote, and the "professionalism" of members of the uniformed services (okay, I nearly choked on that one, too).

I can see you folks scoffing and saying these foreigners don’t know what they’re talking about. But sometimes it takes a foreigner’s viewpoint to make us have more faith in our country. Be it ever so chaotic, it’s still our home.