Just get on with the charade

During his visit to Cebu last Friday, President Aquino told reporters he will be talking to Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes in an apparent bid to persuade him not to resign as he had threatened.

Don't worry, Mr. President. Nobody ever resigns in this country. Surely you don't think Brillantes is about to make an exception of himself, do you? If Brillantes had meant to resign as he had threatened, don't you think he would have done so by now?

Brillantes threatened to resign last week after the Supreme Court stopped the Comelec from implementing the limits on radio and television airtime it wanted to impose on the campaign advertisements of candidates in the May 13 polls.

The ruling was the fourth in a row against the Comelec. The first was when the high court stopped it from removing the controversial “Team Patay/Team Buhay” tarpaulins from the facade of the Bacolod Cathedral.

Next the Supreme Court stopped Comelec from purging the party-list system, asking it to review the cases of 52 party-list groups it earlier disqualified. Then the high court reversed itself by reinstating Imus, Cavite mayor Emmanuel Maliksi after earlier unseating him.

To a child, a fourth unfavorable action may be a little too much to take, and it would be understandable for that rejected child to mope and cry. But as Brillantes himself admitted, he is no longer young. In fact he is 73, hardly the age to be a crybaby. Or is it?

Before Aquino appointed him to the top Comelec post in 2011. the silver-haired Brillantes already made a name for himself as one of the country's top lawyers. The least anyone expects from a person with such credentials is to mope over legal defeats.

But maybe Aquino and Brillantes are of the same mould and, therefore, deserve each other. Both appear to be persons who want things their own way. They cannot accept defeat and failure gracefully. They cannot move on. If they do not mope, they exact revenge.

Vengeance, however, may not be in the character of Brillantes to exercise, unlike Aquino who often does, and in a manner so open and brazen it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. As far as Brillantes is concerned, moping is fine.

And so he did. But as the days passed and Brillantes, despite his avowed readiness to do so, had still not resigned, reporters began pressing him on the matter, asking daily updates on when we would eventually call it quits as he had threatened.

Backed into a corner, Brillantes finally admitted the obvious -- he was not resigning after all. In fairness to him, he did not say it that way. He used the time-tested delaying tactic about needing to first talk to, who else but, Aquino.

Aha! There is the catch! Brillantes cannot resign until he talks to Aquino first, which is as good as saying he is not resigning at all. Everybody knows Aquino is not about to let him go, at least not this close to the election.

Aquino, after all, has some serious quandary of his own -- how to effect a 12-0 shutout victory for his senatorial slate as he had promised, something that isn't likely to happen unless some form of magic happens.

And so, as if on cue, Aquino said he will be talking to Brillantes and try to ask him to stay on. Again, you don't have to try, Mr. President. That will only prove how out of touch with reality you really are. Just get on with the charade. We have gotten used to it.