The most overused “dissent” template of the Philippine Opposition is that the “(insert issue name here) issue” is the fault of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Because this has been used over and over again and applied to just about every problem besetting the Philippines, it has become less and less effective. If the Opposition hadn’t noticed yet, their campaign to make the ABS-CBN franchise denial out to be of Duterte’s doing did not fly. Some time ago Chief Opposition “Economist” and Rapplerette JC Punongbayan even tried to pin the blame for a rise in inflation on Duterte. Punongbayan’s boss Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, for her part, made a name for herself in Western liberal circles selling the notion that her legal troubles were engineered by the Duterte “regime”.
In recent months, the world’s biggest problem, the COVID-19 pandemic, has been the Philippine Opposition’s current flavour of the month. Their position on the matter of that pandemic is, guess what, that its runaway spread across the Philippines (now suffering the highest number of reported cases in southeast Asia) is Duterte’s fault too. Let’s see how that one flies over the long stretch. Given the Opposition’s track record of failure playing the “it’s the incumbent’s fault” card, it is unlikely that this position will be winning them any elections anytime soon either.
So desperate is the Opposition for emotional hooks to throw at the Filipino public that their blame-Duterte rhetoric has started to plumb embarrassing lows. Activists have even started to blame Duterte for a spate of runaway animals spotted in various Philippine cities!
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To be fair, governments and presidencies go on to be defined by the problems and crises they oversee (or fail to oversee). The trouble with the Opposition is that they fail to exhibit a pitch to Filipino voters that goes beyond exploiting that — something that will eventuate anyway. Rather than build a platform of alternatives and solutions on the back of those problems and crises, today’s Opposition remain stuck in a mind-numbing blame platform that had long ago worn thin. In short, to the question of what it is exactly the Opposition expect Filipinos to look to them for, one can only shrug. The Opposition offer no pathway forward. They offer nothing because they lack any semblance of a compelling vision for the Philippines to begin with. All they and their foremost “thought leaders” do is blame.
The Opposition, to its credit, are learning some lessons albeit rather slowly. The “activist” Mong Palatino on Bulatlat writes, “It is not enough to boost social media influence and make it in the trending topics of the day; our actions must be powerful enough that it becomes a traumatic experience for despotic authorities. They must feel it in realtime and force them to reconsider their remaining time in office.” Impressive work learning that lesson, genius. The trouble with that epiphany is that it is an incomplete one. The most important lesson of all still eludes guys like Palatino — Winning National Elections 101.
It is either the Opposition are (1) too stupid to learn that lesson or (2) have no plans of seizing power legally to begin with. On the basis of the latter, there may be reason to excuse Palatino specifically seeing that he is a communist writing for a communist journal. Communists after all don’t aspire to acquire political power legally. Then again, a bit to the communists’ right on the political spectrum sit the Yellowtards, that bloc of rabid partisans loyal to the Aquino-Cojuangco feudal clan. They too are addicted to extra-constitutional means to seizing power what with their “people power” narrative being at the core of their ideology.
All of those are not working, folks. It’s time you people evolve or reinvent yourselves. Filipinos will decide in 2022. Or maybe they will decide while staring down the business end of an AK-47 if Palatino’s and Bulatlat‘s principals’ “revolution” succeeds and their vision of a “dictatorship of the proletariat” is realised. Oh wait… turns out they actually do have a vision for the Philippines after all.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
The Oppositions’ dishonesty is too obvious that only them seem to have not noticed that nobody believes them anymore. Too bad for them, the “Big Lie” propaganda they copied from Hitler’s 1925 book “Mein Kampf” doesn’t work in this high-speed information age! BS Aquino’s mind conditioning “Tuwid na Daan” failed miserably to convince the thinking masses that they were indeed clean.
#BadWillJam
The opposition which consists of the : Aquino Cojuangco political axis; the Liberal Party; the commies; the oligarchs; the commie frontliners; the Roman Catholic Church liberation theology clergy; and all kinds of misfits; still have the 1986 EDSA mentality…
They are now using the “Blame Game” to encourage another “people power” or coup d’ etat, that will remove the duly elected , Duterte and , put the fake VP Lugaw Robredo, as President…”Lumang tugtugin na yan tactics ninyo”…
They should look at their failures, when they were in power…from the Mamapasano massacre; to the Luneta Chinese tourist massacre; to the DAP, PDAF, and Pork Barrel Bribery; to the Typhoon Yolanda Funds thievery; to the selling of government companies to their cahoots; to the PhiHealth Mafiosi scams; to the 2016 COMELEC Hocus Pcos and Smarswitik fraud VP election, that elected the fake VP Lugaw Robredo…
Who would believe these people, have better alternative platforms ?
They had 30 years of power, and had shown what they can do…they were : idiotic mismanagement; money hungry oligarchs; HOCUS PCOS and SMARTSWITIK elections called :”Cory’s Magic”; and just plain scams and thievery…
The opposition still cannot learn; the Filipino people has awakened already by the Information Technology !
Shutting down ABS-CBN has directly affected the spike in COVID cases.
This is what happens when you have a short sighted Govt.
More like the rallies, though.
I’ll give you 2/10 for your post since it’s illogically stupid.
They sound like a nagging wife with the way they criticize this government. Nothing gets done that way. It seems they’re compensating for their own lack of solutions with so much noise.
missing the point – its not the opposition now who are calling out dutertes incompetencies in dealing with the covid 19 pandemic- yun mismong bumoto sa kanya at dutertards ang nagrereklamo na.
jeepney drivers
ofws
noli de castro
ted failon
ping lacson
ikaw
its not about ousting duterte or winning elections its about telling to his face na hindi nya alam ginagawa nya at sinabihan na sya ng mga options na puedeng gawin isa na ay ang total support sa health system hindi pagappoint sa mga militar na walang alam how to deal with a health crisis.
keep duterte in office to show the world gaano sya katanga!
You know what’s really needed right now? SYSTEM CHANGE. That’s why as you pointed out that both Duterte and Noynoy hardly had a difference. In a parliamentary system, there will be weekly LIVE meetings that will kick people out if the parliament loses their confidence in certain people.
Looking for someone who can fix the Philippine’s runaway pandemic is like finding a leader who can solve poverty across the nation. No one has ever eradicated squatters in Metro Manila. The Philippine case is just too complicated. Does any other country have to deal with thousands of OFWs flowing back into the system to complicate the situation? Changing the incumbent will not guarantee things will get better. Imagine replacing Duterte with Leni at this stage – you might just end up wishing you had a time machine.
The best we can hope for is that those on top will use Google Search and find key articles such as below:
7 secrets of Thai Covid-19 success
What’s the secret to Southeast Asia’s Covid success stories?
Emerging COVID-19 success story: Vietnam’s commitment to containment
Look who’s talking. All you ever wanted is the status quo to remain because no matter how you want to replace an incumbent with another, it will be just the same thing all over.
That’s why I’m pushing for a SYSTEM CHANGE. Because the SYSTEM is the core problem, not necessarily the people in it. But you’re just an idiot since you treat your FEELINGS as ‘facts’.