Where politicians have brought us

These are the times that try Filipinos’ souls. Everywhere one goes these days, scorched-earth politics invariably crops up in argument. Even in usually neutral grounds like baptismal parties or prayer meetings or science e-groups, kith and kin end up in angry exchange. To take sides is the call of the moment. But when one does, he leaves more distraught than ever. For, it becomes apparent: not only the nation is deeply divided, but families and friends as well.

There is temptation to take the path of least resistance; that is, for status quo. But how can one do so with a clear conscience? We have here the President’s unmistakable voice caught on tape, instructing her Comelec nominee to ensure a million-vote lead over her closest election rival. The tape may be a product of illegal wiretap, hence inadmissible as evidence in any legal proceeding. But its contents ring loud not only of possible ballot rigging, but also of kidnapping to silence the uncooperative. It does not wash either to dismiss the bugged chats as venial impropriety committed by most other poll candidates. The person caught on tape is the highest official of the land, whose acts are thus measured by the highest standards of conduct.

With that backdrop, one is thus compelled to seek the President’s resignation. But she will not do so; she has said so. Expectedly she will use the powers of the Presidency to stay on. Already the Comelec nominee Virgilio Garcillano has fled abroad, presumably abetted by presidential appointees. He was free to travel, to be sure, for no court charges had been filed to hold his departure. Still, he was the most wanted man of the hour, to explain his indiscretions to Congress and to the people. Had the President wanted the truth about "Hello Garci" out, she would have employed her powers to make him talk.

Yet she did not. On the contrary, she mobilized her party numbers to quash an impeachment for precisely those taped conversations. As though to appease the public, however, she has promised to step down in case Constitutional changes cut short her term. Yet that too is iffy, for her preferred changes would come from the same numbers in Congress that saved her neck.

The future looks glum. A President desperately clinging to power can only be expected to compromise. Her decisions will be to serve that goal alone. Already her new tax chief has eased up on the campaign against evaders. Revenues will fall; deficit spending will rise. All her moves – from declarations of holidays to leadership-by-example in fuel conservation – will be suspected of political gimmickry.

Her allies, meanwhile, not only will be fighting over but twisting her arm as well for the spoils. They tried to pull a fast one on pork barrels from the road users tax. One senator has put in a gofer after easing out the Subic top manager. There will be more to come.

The only alternative is the Opposition. But its moves have shown only incompetence to replace the President.

Its first instinct in the wake of Gloria-gate was to take to the streets for a people-power revolt. But the people never came. For, they could not make heads or tails of militarists ranting for junta, traditional politicos raving for snap election, and red flags waving revolutionary council. All this, while an Opposition senator recalled how Garcillano cheated him in 1995 but forgetting how he worked for the culprit’s promotion in 1999. All this too, while another Opposition senator lined up jueteng whistleblowers to cover up his own drug dealings.

Only much later did Opposition politicians decide to follow the rule of law. And only on hindsight did they declare adherence to succession by the Vice President. By then it was too late. One of their publicity-seeking lawyers had beaten them to the impeachment draw. They derided and disowned him, but amended his complaint to be their own, a move deemed to have violated the Constitutional limit of one impeachment case per year.

Foiled by numbers in Congress, they will now take the amended complaint back to the streets. In doing so, they might only display their own desperation. Those amendments apparently were made to entice the bickering factions of the Opposition to come together, not to indict a President for election fraud. The inclusion of the Piatco deal, signed by an earlier President and amended by another one, was for the benefit of financiers of one losing presidential candidate. The jueteng payola aims to strengthen the defense of a jailed former President. The Northrail contract is for the Liberal Party leader who rails against it. The human rights violation is for the militants who were hurt in a strike in a hacienda owned by a former President and her congressman-son who also want this present President out. The rest are of cases long settled in court or Congress, but thrown in just the same to unite factions in flypaper.

The Opposition walkout this week only showed what kind of leaders they will be upon taking over. First there was malicious imputation that Pagcor money was being used to silence the press and the bishops. Then, the younger pols among them defied history and the counsel of elders to painstakingly convince colleagues to sign up for impeachment. "We don’t need to talk to them," a neophyte sneered, "if they have conscience, they will come to us." It was an arrogant echo of another neophyte, a female who, before the filing of the amended complaint, had said, "Anyone who has read it, like me, will have no reason not to sign." And yet the amendments at that time, according to their spokesman, were not yet ready for reading or signing.

Who, then, is our recourse in these trying times, when one cannot choose between Administration and Opposition?

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