IT SEEMS Quixotic. But the plan is unmistakable: cut and cut clearly the Duterte administration’s influence and insanity via next year’s elections.
“If the grasshopper tries to fight the lawnmower,” author Robert Heinlen once wrote, you can admire it for its courage but you can question its judgment.”
The story of Cory Aquino and other members of the opposition in its plan early on in 1986 to wrest away political power from an oppressive regime is analogous. No way, the dictator and its allies thought. Marcos even laughed off any such plan with his famous braggadocio: Their feet are just on the stir-up while I am already on the saddle”. Hi ho Silver away, the Arrogance-in-Chief rode his way.
But Marcos and the his ilk were blown away by the winds of political upheaval, and the rest is history. Only, 35 years after the EDSA Revolution, many of those who were prominent players in that historic event lament that the dictatorship legacy is still very much, perhaps in a worse way, haunting the country. Else, how can you explain a dictator buried in the sacred ground of heroes? Even Marcos would have had the delicadeza to have himself buried with the saint. He would have had aburial place all his own. There’s only a communion of the saints.
Thus, a sense of déjà vu is unavoidable. The undercurrent, and unspoken theme, is substantively the same: tama na. Stop the insanity.
The insanity? Unbridled assault on human rights, the government’s incompetence issue in fighting the pandemic, the kowtowing and cowed posture, if not virtual sell-out, to China, rampant corruption in government. Ad infinitum, ad nauseam.
So here comes Antonio Carpio, former Supreme Court justice and Enemy Numero Uno of China over the South China Sea dispute, bringing together all members of the opposition under one roof to wrest away political power from an authoritarian. Lessons learned, hearkening to Santayana’s warning against repeating history.
The not-so-bright boy along Pasig River and his minions may be laughing off at the plan like one laughs at a grasshopper fighting a lawnmower. After all, survey after survey says he is as popular as one with a Teflon-like popularity.
Perception is reality. And it is deceiving.
Carpio and his group, a motley crew of men and women with integrity and courage, may just be the answer to this attitude of invincibility. The possibility is there because history says so. Marcos was dethroned. And so many of the garden variety types of political weeds in other places and in other times had met the same dismal fate.
Carpio and his crew must be liking their chances. And it’s not just about the odds. It may be a rag tag army now. It could turn out to be the Dream Team. One man may be smarter than one man but can’t be smarter than many men and women, the whole nation, in fact. That’s the idea and it’s about time it worked again for the good of all.
The group’s individual resume is not something to sneeze at. Former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio. Vice President LeniRobredo, Former Justice and Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, former Senator Antonio Trillanes and Former Ambassador to the United States Alberto del Rosario.
In his book ‘You Can’t Be Neutral’, Howard Zinn took note of special people. Carpio et al might as well be them. They speak out in such a way, Zinn described them, as to shake up not only the self-assurance of their enemies but the complacency of their friends. They are precious catalyst for change.
A catalyst starts the ball rolling and, in the process, shapes it by its sheer force and demolish anything on the way by its size, velocity and overwhelming strength. Once a snowball gets its momentum, it’s almost unstoppable.
Literally, numerically, Duterte’s days as president of the Republic are numbered based on the Constitution. He will make his final routine Swan Song a few months from now. In fact, his lame duck period may have already begun.
Carpio’s group may go beyond the literal. And their appearing in the horizon is comparable, if not better, news than the proclaimed coming of more vaccines into the country in the unwieldy battle against the pandemic. The battle plan by the Carpio team is no less existential in essence.
And the grounds under the corridors of power may already be shaking now. There’s no reported yet peeing in panic of those holding the rein to keep everyone in line. But a gathering of a storm is afoot. Time to batten down the roof of the citadel.
Another presidential joke may try to dismiss it. Or the joke could be on the source. No one from the inner circle is telling, or is brave enough to do so, that the emperor has been naked for a long time.
Perception, or the surveys — Circe’s song — can be deceiving.
