The Philippines’ lame duck Opposition

This is why the Philippine Opposition, led by the old bloc of partisans loyal to the Aquino-Cojuangco feudal clan (a.k.a. the Yellowtards) lose. Rather than pause for a bit of introspection in light of the recent Pulse Asia survey that revealed the record 91 percent approval rating Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte enjoys and the dismal 57 percent rating “vice president” Leni Robredo suffers, Opposition partisans remain adamant about their blessedness.

It is evident that they are not doing anything right. Under the leadership of the Liberal Party, they suffered a catastrophic loss in the 2019 congressional elections with all eight members of their main coalition failing to win a seat in the Philippine Senate. Throughout Duterte’s term since winning the presidency in 2016, the Yellowtards’ top “thought leaders” assured one another that public confidence in Duterte’s leadership will wane. They embraced the COVID-19 pandemic as their saving grace, counting on this disaster to crush Filipinos’ spirits enough to turn them away from their president and pave the way for another illegal “people power” revolution.

Despite all that, despite the incessantly lame political stunts and media circuses mounted by Robredo, their presumptive “leader”, Duterte’s popularity bulged rather than dented.

The Opposition in its current form don’t measure up as the political counter-force to the incumbent that Filipinos deserve. As such, they are a disservice to the public and Philippine democracy. After all, a healthy democracy is one where healthy tension between incumbent and opposition parties result in an intelligent national debate where the best arguments emerge victorious. We see none of that because the top Yellowtard “thought leaders” merely react to the latest “trending” flypaper issue while their communist sidekicks chant their obsolete Cold War era “anti imperialist” slogans. Not a very inspiring lot.

If we were to point out the one thing that would best symbolise the state of the Philippine Opposition, all fingers will likely be directed to “vice president” Leni Robredo. Unintelligent, uncharismatic, inarticulate, and, worst of all, inauthentic, Robredo is the curse that keeps the Philippine Opposition inutile. If the Opposition were a truly professional organisation focused on results, they would have by now put Robredo’s head on the chopping block. Political leaders in a democracy, after all, are expected to convert voters — by being persuasive in their firey speeches, by being the role models that people will find honour in following, and by being true to who they really are and not a pathetic chameleon that frantically tests different colours in a futile on-going effort to please everyone.

It is ironic that the words “Laban” (fight) and “Hold the line!” came to be associated with the Yellowtards. They are anything but the force of fighting men and women who do those words justice. All they will ever be if they continue to subject themselves to lame leaders like Robredo and two-bit aging campus “activists” is the quaint curiosity that they are today. No amount of flashing Hunger Games salutes, waving red flags emblazoned with hammers and sickles, and scare mongering over the prospect of a “return to tyranny” will pump substance back into the deflated political capital of the Yellowtard-led Opposition. The only way the Opposition could save themselves and put up a worthy challenge to the incumbent is to stop acting like Yellowtards. The first step is easy. Ditch “vice president” Leni Robredo as their leader and find someone who could actually lead. The hard part is, of course, coming up with an intelligent platform to match that leadership. For that you also need an intelligent leader. The solutions are obvious. The Opposition only need to get real.

benign0

benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.