A bad year for the opposition
DECEMBER is upon us and looking back at an eventful year will fill many Christmas party conversations. The opposition that desires to be a hot topic of these exchanges are however, in them for less flattering reasons.
In the last few weeks the opposition has crumbled in the wake of the Dengvaxia scandal. The whole lot of them- politicians and apologists alike. Even their vaunted social media machine is in panic. Why? As mainstream media keeps digging deeper it unearths many ugly things that seem to have gone down in the DOH over the last 6 years, many among the opposition’s partisans resorted to an ad hominem attack binge to deflect attention away from their involvement in this issue.
Yet it seems that all their efforts arrive at the same sad outcome for them when surveys show an inability to increase their influence, as the President remains popular despite their noise, even among their preferred ABC crowd.
Sadly, however, they have begun to bite themselves. Early in the cycle of this issue we were treated to an effort to downplay the initial protest against the Dengvaxia blunder as trivial rants of intellectually challenged government supporters. When this tactic failed to catch on, many just kept quiet.
In its wake, the constant shifting of their lines betray an ineffective effort that relegates itself to preaching to the dwindling choir of converts with the worn melodies only they enjoy listening to. Their corner just keeps getting smaller.
As the Dengvaxia hearings wore on, facts begun revealing themselves and with it, the credibilty of wore so thin that when former President Aquino gave his testimony, nothing he said strengthened it. It only got thinner.
What he said hardly comforts many parents who claim to not being asked prior consent to make their children part of a 3.5 billion peso effort to receive an unproven drug.
That this unfunded program happened on an election year, using realigned funds, to buy from a foreign company with which unethical meetings were made prior to the purchase is by itself questionable.
That the company itself warned of risks from using the vaccine, and that it was ordered removed from the market is frightening.
A lot of the ugly is not because the deeds allegedly committed by past governments may be illegal or deserve harsh punishment for possible perpetrators, but because they built themselves up as clean and incorruptible, beyond such questions.
Thus, any stain barely seen is worth a second look. Tripping over such revelations lands them a hard fall.
Dengvaxia exposed not only stains, but unsavory smells that expose a hypocrisy so deep it obtains meaning through the former president’s lame reasons. His testimony betrayed a self centeredness in the face of a clear need for leadership to get us and those affected through the storm.
Former President Aquino’s testimony should rightfully be criticized for being an exercise in trying to convince people that lame reasons are acceptable. It is another Mamasapano debacle, not only because of what he failed to do back them, but because of their efforts to show us later why failing deserves a free pass or even a pat on the back.
Worse, many of his apologists kept spinning the blunder as the image of their noble, ideal president, prompting people to dig deeper and find that in the substance of what he said.
Thus, more questions were asked: Did he admit to spending our money without the benefit of knowing all he should have known? Was the doctrine of complete staff work lost in his administration? Is this the kind of moral leadership being peddled?
In Mindanao, we cringe at this facetious lack of leadership. In both Mamaspano and Dengvaxia, we have seen beyond the image being spun and sold to us. With Aquino’s testimony, they fell deeper in their self-dug hole, losing whatever credibility remains, winning our collective disgust.
With the Christmas holidays upon us and the guns fall silent to celebrate love, their opportunity to rebound from this is lost to merrymaking. 2017’s exit sees them sinking deeper in their political mire.
As the jockeying for the 2019 elections begin, expect many of them to suddenly change their colors in the first days of the next year- a fresh start many will try to exploit to save themselves and their careers. It seems being among them is not a good thing. For reactions: facebook.com/johntriapage