Word is out that former president Estrada might run for the country’s top position in 2010. Lacson has already said of his intention for the same position. This presents some issues with the “opposition” groups, as they want to field a single candidate. The Philippine Daily Inquirer has quoted Senate Minority Leader Pimentel Jr. as saying in a text message “The opposition should unite behind one bet even though it looks hard. Cory (Aquino) became the unified opposition bet to defeat Marcos. Otherwise, Erap would probably sacrifice his new tranquility and plunge anew into a tumultuous political life”. No offense to the senator (who’s probably been in the senate too long already) but if Erap is the oppositions best bet, I think the country is really in deep sh!t.
The former president carries too much baggage of the past administration, and I don’t think the country needs to go back to any of the former administrations. We need change, and it must come from fresh faces and not from any of the Trapo conglomerates that are littered with know-it-alls who just rotate from one position to another. If any of them were that excellent public servants that did good on their promises, our country should be in a far better place. Heck! I think a lot of us regular folks could do as good as a job in the senate floor as some of our senators who could still find the time to make sci-fi movies. So who runs under a “United (sic) Opposition” come 2010?
The problem is all we have in the country is the “Administration”, and the “Opposition” group that can consist of one or more political parties. Sadly, in the Philippines these days, a political party is nothing more than a group of politicians who’ve agreed to not disagree during election. All bets are off once the election is over, and it’s open season again. When one mentions Lakas-NUCD, or PMP, or LDP — can anyone relate those names to any basic principles that they stand on? The answer is a quick and resounding No. You associate those parties to whoever was the top politician running under that banner (Lakas – Ramos, PMP – Erap, etc.). The media, in a right call, I think just got sick of all these random party names and decided to just lump everyone in these two categories: Administration or Opposition.
It is truly disappointing that the old two-party system was changed into the current multi-party system. A system that has witnessed politicians jumping ship at the slightest chance they can with only a whim for a reason. A system that has witnessed politicians creating their own political party, every time they fail to get the nomination. We have seen it happen over and over again. We have seen so-called opposition senators embrace their bitter counterpart overnight; we have seen so-called honorable senators join the same political party they have fiercely fought against even shedding tears in front of a camera. These politicians are the epitome of “kapalmuks” (thick faces) — maybe even worst, people who shamelessly take the multi-party system for granted. People who hide behind fancy political party names yet stand for nothing but getting it elected.
Indeed the venerable political parties of old has gone to the grave, what has replaced them is a shameful circus of political parties with clowns jumping all over the place. They will keep on changing the names of the political parties (K4, ABC, DEDMA, KAPMUKS etc.), trying to keep up with what’s cool at the time, but the faces and names behind them are the same old traditional politicians that suck our country dry, inept and no clue where to take us. Some things never really change, and you can bet that the same set of “Trapos” will always try to get themselves into any government position available, under any political party that will accept them — even if it means going from “Opposition” to “Administration” or vise-versa.
