“The ruling party today is riddled with political opportunists.”
The opposition, true to tradition, is bound to split. The split will be colorful as in the past. This is intended to give clamor to the political opportunists now disguised as “crusaders” to satisfy the hoot for the President’s daughter to run to keep open the pipeline for financial support. Right now, the Duterte camp is making what we call in the vernacular as “pa etse etse” to raise the ante for her clamor.
On the other hand, the PDP-Laban today stands as a virtual political scarecrow. It has no mass followers or political ideology except for a few hypocritical politicians. Pimentel stands as a figurehead. Senators Koko Pimentel, Manny Pacquaio, a born-again turned sanctimonious Christian, and Abigail Binay, the daughter of the former Makati Mayor, Jojo Binay, who was accused of being corrupt and suspected as behind the giving of fake diploma to one aiming to become president, Pacquiao.
This explains why Pimentel could not convene the party to elect him President or have Pacquiao installed to test his political mettle to replace Duterte as ex-oficio party head.
Historically, Duterte’s loyalty to PDP-Laban is by virtue of his appointment as interim mayor of Davao by then President Corazon Aquino after that pogrom of kicking out elected local officials. That was also masterminded by the father of this self-anointed party kingmaker.
The party today is riddled with political opportunists like Evardone who is willing to ingratiate and eager to bite the largess of what the Duterte administration can offer. President Duterte’s election as President and member of PDP-Laban automatically made him ex oficio head of the party. Even if Pacquiao stands as the party’s vice president, he cannot assume that position without the benefit of holding an election which Pimentel refuses to convene. Neither can senator Pimentel appoint a party president to annul what Cusi did to expel Pacquiao.
The refusal of Pimentel to assume the position of president shows he doubts very much the strength of the party founded by his father. He fears there would be a stampede of resignation from the remaining members. That might even cause Pacquiao to rethink his ambition. But those big guys from Washington now acting as his political handlers would surely not allow him to do that.
While the hypocritical and petty intellectual middle class is quick to denounce China, they are rather mute about the imperialist exploitation of the country. The Yanks do not have the Filipinos on their mind. They just want to keep the country to be led by a tactless puppet as their proxy.
Everybody could guess what’s in the mind of those senators. Their target is to destroy the credibility of the administration’s energy program. This is a multi-billion-dollar bonanza that awaits them. This includes the oil and natural gas beneath the South China Sea of which the Duterte administration signed an agreement, and to ease out China’s control of our transmission grid, which by a silly decision was sold by the previous government to China’s state grid corporation.
As earlier stated, if the main reason these bogus nationalists are questioning the possible seeking of re-election by President Duterte is not for their love of the country. Rather, they too are showing their subservience to foreign power whose interest is to destabilize the country. Sison’s CPP/NPA today is fine-tuned to the dictates of Washington which is to focus on the anti-China campaign.
It is foolhardy for those vacillating petty intellectuals to believe the US would pay lip service to human rights or protect their loquacious mouth in the name of press freedom which the Americans themselves stand as the greatest violators. These shameless hypocrites of bogus intellectualism have been reduced to unwitting mercenaries eager to haul independent-minded political leaders like Duterte to Brussels.
People discernable about the color and substance of US propaganda are aware that many of these self-styled liberation movements today are in fact acting as stool pigeons. The CPP and the NPA, for all their steamy militancy, were not invited to witness the 100th anniversary of China’s communist party, which today is the biggest, most successful and most prosperous communist party. The CPP now wears the same traitorous mask worn by the Liberal Party to deceive our people.
The US has now found their Juan Guaido in the Philippines, and Pacquiao is the ideal man to play that role of a clown. In fact, many of his supporters come not from the PDP-Laban but from the traditional traitors, and Pacquiao could do well to lead, he having the money and the US, being cash strapped, just willing to supplement the difference.
Aside from those willing lackeys, Duterte should examine the flanks of those pretending to be his allies. Right now, the senate made up of those siblings created by Smartmatic is buying their time to collect the necessary number to pounce on him. The Supreme Court is another branch that nurtures the principle of upholding the legality of the US- patterned constitution than in giving value to our independence and sovereignty.
The distribution of utilities intended to reduce the cost of electricity contrary to the avowed promise by the Epira Law instead made the cost unbearable to consumers. Private utility operators continue to engage in cutthroat competition, and NGCP is compelled to increase its rate as a result of the so-many charges and conditionalities imposed by the World Bank. All those are aimed to topple Duterte by sabotaging the country’s energy program similar to what they did in Venezuela, Iran and the Philippines during the administration of former President Marcos.
The Duterte administration, under the leadership of the Secretary of Energy, is even contemplating renationalizing the distribution of utilities and handing them back to the NPC. They noted that NPC was mired in debt as a result of that vengeful decision to mothball the Bataan nuclear power plant. Renationalizing the NPC and allowing BNPP to operate would help ease our debt burden with the World Bank.
This explains why the opposition, particularly those LP senators with doubtful mandate, are racing to prove themselves trustworthy of US support. Branding the Department of Energy as the most corrupt is reminiscent of what the Cory Aquino government did to dismantle the Marcos-created Department of Energy.
The Americans are already worried because Shell has sold out its stakes in Malampaya. They want to be ahead of China in the exploration, development, and full utilization of the oil and gas in the Reed Bank. They would not let the Philippines obtain 60 percent share under the Constitution as against the 10 percent share given us in Malampaya and dividing the 90 percent between Shell and Chevron.
rpkapunan@gmail.com
