Koko defends self peanut-butter style

The Genuine Opposition spokesman tried to downplay the lead of independent Kiko Pangilinan in the senatorial race. It’s all because, when the SWS was surveying voters on Feb. 24-27, he sneered, the party was still openly mulling to junk Kiko as guest candidate. Sour grapes can’t mask the obvious, though. Kiko emerged on top, with 56 percent saying they’ll vote for him, because of his decision to go neither opposition nor administration. It reflects public disgust with having to choose between candidates loyal to the sitting President and those loyal to a deposed one. The same survey in fact had two in three Filipinos saying not one party promotes their welfare.

With the survey’s ±3 margin of error, though, Kiko statistically shares top slot with Loren Legarda, 54 percent, and Manny Villar, 52. Yet that only reinforces Kiko’s standalone campaign. People view Loren as unfettered as Kiko, from her years of TV hosting, her senator’s line of questioning in Joseph Estrada’s impeachment trial, and her adroit distancing from Estrada loyalists during the 2004 election. As for Manny, he too is a mere guest of GO. So if Kiko landed No. 1 due to association with GO, one thing the spokesman must explain is why known opposition figures are 12 points behind in the survey.

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Castigated for blatant dynasty building, two GO bets take different lines of defense. Alan Peter Cayetano, who will sit with sister Pia if he wins the senatorial race, prefers no talk-no mistake. Perhaps it’s best, for yakking might only provoke new censure of also putting up his wife for the congressional seat he is vacating. Aquilino Pimentel III, who will sit with dad Aquilino Jr., uses the peanut-butter tack of spreading the guilt around hopefully to lessen his own. He cries that a worse dynast is a President with a son and brother-in-law as congressmen, and another son also running for Congress, so he will file a law against it as soon as he wins.

Filipinos often witness lawyers bend and obfuscate the law, but bar top-placer Koko takes the cake. He would make us think his running is fine because there’s no law against it — yet. More than that, he reads distinction, not all-inclusion, in what the Constitution says: "The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service, and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law." He would fool voters into believing that it applies more to a President than to a senator.

Koko insults the fundamental law, and by his silence fellow-lawyer Alan Peter does so too. For that, erstwhile opposition ally Francisco Tatad warns in print ads that they are unfit to write laws. True, what legislation can we expect from those who say the Constitutional ban is insufficient because of no enabling law?

Catholic fundamentalist Tatad also quotes St. Peter’s Letter to the Romans (2:14-15): "When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness..." Perhaps the Jesuit-trained Koko and reborn-Christian Alan Peter would take heed. It is not too late. GO still has time to substitute them and continue the campaign. In the end, as the surveys foretell, the party-distrusting electorate might still vote for GO, but at what expense to the conscience of bright young leaders?

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Reacting to my series on bad services, a public school parent shares this sad experience but requests anonymity:

"Public school kids witness corruption early. Last semester we had to pay more than P2,400 just to get two children’s report cards. We also had to buy a book — Teacher said it was for the school — so that one of the children could get a ‘better grade’. Apparently, if a family has a bright student but is poor, that child will always be in the lower half of his grade, while a ‘dumb’ child of a rich family will always be in the top half. The youngsters begin to understand that if they have money they will get good grades. By the time they reach high school, it would have become a way of life — accepted as normal and something not to be disturbed about."

The reader is right. One of the worst things that can happen is expose our youth to evil as if it’s okay. More so if it’s done by parents or teachers. Unless they’re straightened out early, we are training them to be thieves and grafters. Some parents, including a general, even use their children as accessories to crime.

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