EDITORIAL - Ang Galing

If the Ladlad controversy failed to amply prove what some people have correctly been insisting all along — that the partylist system is actually one big joke — then maybe the auspicious debut of Ang Galing finally will.

Ang Galing is a new partylist group that is not hobbled by the fact that it has no known advocacy whatsoever. But what it lacks in advocacy, it more than makes up in personality. Its number one nominee is an Arroyo by the name of Mikey.

If there is one thing truly believable about Ang Galing, it is the meaning of its name. Ang Galing suggests shrewdness and cunning, as in “Ang Galing mo talaga, Mikey.” In the land of the dense, the shrewd and the cunning are truly marginalized.

The beauty of it all is that, stripped of all bias and pretense, Mikey is just charging as much as the traffic would bear. Mikey did not invent the system. In fact the system was there before Mikey entered politics. So why should it be so wrong now that he is getting his ride?

For the sake of our own self-worth as a people let us make a clean breast out of it. If we sincerely think the partylist system is good, then let us stop bristling at every Tom, Dick and Harry who comes in seeking a piece of the pie. Buhay-buhay lang, as they say in the streets.

On the other hand, if we find the Mikey development so repugnant and revolting, then what has been done can always be undone. Let us all learn a neat lesson from the cat — if the head fits in, the entire body can. Maybe we can also fall feet first and have nine lives.

The choice is entirely ours. If we want to put a stop to this travesty, we can always decide to scrap the system. It may be a great challenge to do so, considering how beneficial it has become to those who were able to get a free ride on it. But it can be done.

On the other hand, if we are not up to the challenge, or if we find the partylist system not repugnant and revolting enough, then we can also decide to keep it. But if that is what we decide, then let us forever keep our peace and not utter a word each time it comes to haunt us.