The inability of the best minds of the Philippine Opposition to unite various partisan camps that would like to see the end of the Duterte dynasty’s reign over national politics will be the subject of debate among historians in the years to come. At present, the Opposition is hopelessly fragmented into feuding chieftains, each with their own personal agendas backed by business interests at stake. Presuming to hover above this morass of competing personalities is “vice president” Leni Robredo who continues to push the fantasy of a “United front” against the camp of incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte.
The trouble with Robredo and her ilk is that they continue to use divisive language in their ironic efforts to “unify” their dishonest lot. Here are the key messaging no-no’s that these morons continue to do-do…
“Good” versus “evil”
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The Opposition take for granted their self-appointment to the “good” side of the political narrative. This has morphed from being an earned perception in the aftermath of their EDSA “revolution” in 1986 to the perverse entitlement that they regard it to be today. They spend an inordinate amount of resources rabidly protecting what has now become an artificial perception.
No less than the Roman Catholic Church itself has lost ascendancy to the claim of authority over deeming anything “good” or “evil”. So who do the Yellowtards think they are presuming to appoint themselves as the “good” in today’s politics?
Arresting “economic decline”
This story implies that the Duterte administration is the singular cause of the Philippines’ poor economic performance over the last couple of years. They then assert that ending the Duterte era — presumably paving the way for a return of the Yellowtard era — will be the cause of a promising economic outlook over the following years.
(Source: Twitter)
This is no different to the assertions they made back in the 1980s that aimed to mislead Filipinos into thinking that then President Ferdinand Marcos and his “Martial Law Regime” was the singular cause of all Filipinos’ and their nation’s troubles. It was Filipinos’ collective realisation over the last 30 years that nothing about their society had fundamentally changed under the Yellowtard watch that eventually flipped their sentiments over to the “evil” side.
A national economy is a complex system. Establishing sound cause-and-effect relationships between its input and output factors requires a huge amount of science and computing power. Even the world’s most renowned “economists” get it wrong most of the time. For a party of bird-brained partisans and “activists” to be attributing causal relationships between presidents and the movements of an entire national economy is an exercise in intellectual dishonesty to say the least.
“Never again”
An event or situation that happened or emerged in the past did so under circumstances unique to that period in time. To attribute the possibility of the same thing or situation happening or emerging because of a cherry-picked instigator is a logical fallacy. To actively propagate a political narrative that is underpinned by that fallacious argument is downright crooked.
“Son of dictator” fights for real democracy.
To cite a specific case, the Opposition like to single out former Senator Bongbong Marcos as the bogeyman in their shrill narrative of “another Marcos” coming to power and heralding another “dark age” of authoritarianism. It’s an emotionally attractive scare tactic but is utter nonsense. The “Martial Law Regime” was a conflation of many events and actors unique to the 1970s. “Another Marcos” in Malacanang alone cannot account for the possibility that all that could happen again. Thus, the idea that preventing “another Marcos” ascending power will ensure that all that will “never again” happen is plain idiotic.
Indeed, it does not take “another Marcos” to implement another “Martial Law Regime” because all the legal avenues to do that are still available under the 1987 Yellowtard Constitution.
* * *
The Opposition lost an entire nation and continue to lose in general because they are purposely insulting the intelligence of the Filipino people. Perhaps not everyone can overcome their instinctive responses to the emotional appeals of their dishonest “thought leaders” who infest schools, the Church, and the country’s mainstream media industry. However there already seems to be a critical mass of voters who can see right through the ineffective messaging that Opposition politicians are addicted to and continue to use in their campaigns.
It is easy to see that the Yellowtards are not planning beyond the 2022 elections. If they were truly honest about their spiel that they are in this for the good of the people, what is their plan over the six years that follow after the 2022 elections? Ask them that question and all you’ll get are crickets.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Historically, the opposition has always been fragmented and that’s because we have a lot of political parties with their respective leaders vying for public office. The only instance, if I remember right, that an opposition became united was when Cory Aquino ran against Marcos. Her group was able to convinced Salvador Laurel to run with her as vice president which was not an easy matter. The deal was Cory has to run under UNIDO (Laurel’s party) for Doy to slid down to VP.
Given that fact, I don’t see Robredo doing anything to divide a country that is already divided in the first place. Political parties are divided and fragmented then and still do now. No amount of repackaging will change change that.
With regard to ‘ending the Duterte era’ I think it’s about time to admit the truth that there is no such thing as Duterte era. After six years, Duterte is done. He’s out, kaput. What the opposition fears, if I may surmise, is the ascension of a Duterte puppet. A Digong clone might squeeze himself to Malacanang given the insatiable appetite of the latter for power.
On Bongbong Marcos, I think the opposition or the Filipinos in general do not necessarily see Bongbong as another Marcos exactly in terms of martial law and its excesses. What they actually afraid of is the possible return of greed, corruption and abuses his family has been known for. Rightly or wrongly it’s in the national psyche. It happened and people remembers. My heart goes out for Bongbong because he doesn’t deserve the unfair judgement. But he is a Marcos and that’s the problem. Fair or not, it’s a scarlet letter on every Marcos heir.
Do we think a Hitler or Saddam Hussein son can expect to get a fair and balance treatment from the people their fathers served or abused? Again, it’s unfair to Bongbong but that’s how it is when your history becomes a baggage that you have to drag wherever you go.
How can an entire body of “intelligent” UP students get brainwashed en masse to buy all this ML fear tactic dung?
Good vs. Evil?
Even a kid knows being good means following the rules. So let’s put the Yellowtard doctrine to the test:
1. Marcos’ Martial Law – completely legal constitutional provision/prerogative for a sitting President
2. Cory’s coup d’etat – totally illegal power grab; anti-democaratic (warm bodies that flooded EDSA didn’t constitute the Filipino majority)
Besides Bongbong hardly passes as “dictator” material – just from watching how he responds so humbly in his interviews. These whining Yellow-snot toddlers should just cut the crap and give a better solution to the problem that is the Philippines – then people might consider voting for you.
Until then… wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to obscurity, and many enter through it.
I agree that communication has to be more precise to avoid confusion (intended or not). There lies resolution and therefore unity. For example, when we say that foreign gov’t interference cause the destruction of nations, let’s make it clear that actors in such gov’t may be acting on their own terms, not necessarily for the nation they “represent”.
The opposition is intellectually bankrupt…they are playing the , “Cory Aquino” trick again…demonizing the Marcoses, and painting themselves as saintly people…
It may had worked during that time…the Aquinos are all gone…and all they did was bankrupt this country…
The problem in saying the opposition is intellectually bankrupt is it’s assuming that the administration is intelligent which is really far from the truth. Having seen several acts of ineptness that negatively impacted on the country in the last couple of years the administration, I would say, are equally intellectually bankrupt if not more.
With regard to ‘Cory Aquino trick’ I say, it is there because there is a ‘Marcos trick’. Really both sides are committing the same nefarious acts. As we say in Pilipino, ‘wag na tayong mag-malinis’. The only thing I agree with the statement is the acknowledgement of the Aquinos being ‘gone’. And that one defeats the effort of making them the boogeyman. Did they really bankrupted the country? I don’t know. All I know is Digong never took it as an issue during the campaign nor on his watch.
There is absolutely no problem in saying the opposition is intellectually bankrupt. It does not assume the opposite at all. It merely states a fact. That statement can more than stand on its own. Saying the current administration is inept, however, is also a true statement, something I agree with.
Wala namang nagmamalinis dito. Almost all politicians resort to their own tricks. That said, the Yellows are the motherlode of tricks. Yellows are a network far bigger than just the Cojuangcos and the Aquinos. They are Liberal Party politicians, big businessmen (Lopezes, Pangilinan) media corporations like Rappler, ABS-CBN, Inquirer, showbiz celebrities, university faculty members and a whole lot more. Why, even the Catholic church is Yellow.
In the past 30 years that this cabal lorded it over, what Marcos trick is there to cite? None. Bongbong and Imee Marcos won their Congress and Senate seats without employing any tricks. They won because the Solid North is not a myth. Compared to the Yellow narrative and the myth of Ninoy heroism and Cory sainthood, the Marcos trick, if there had been any recently, is about as insignificant as a fart in a windstorm.
The Cory trick and the Marcos trick I’m referring to, is my way of saying both sides’ existence largely defends on the other side. Both sides of the same coin.
You are right Bongbong and Imee won in their bailiwicks, proving that the Marcos muscle is still alive and well. However, the not so impressive showing of their numbers in the winners rank, nationwide they may be, begs the question as to how on earth they would translate that on a national level. What I mean by that is, them having to land outside of the top five is not an encouraging scenario to gun for a higher office like the presidency.