What is the Opposition up to?

The essence of the opposition, in any free and sovereign nation, is to check and balance the excesses of the powers-that-be. Not in this country, it seems. What we simply have, from the looks of it, is a noisy opposition that espouses so much rants against the administration. Yes, the opposition is quick to expose (with the aid of the media) the scams and anomalies under this administration, but it was never quite effective.

Have the wrongdoings of the present administration stop whenever they are exposed? I think we have only the benefit of a short lull, then, the next time we are confronted in the face with new scams, anomalies or the likes. Some of them are still waiting to explode like the North and South railway projects amid the deafening explosion created by the NBN-ZTE mis-deal and the fertilizer scams.

One may argue that the oppoosition is effective only when the ruling administration is sensitive to what people say. Right. Bu this seems to be correct on the surface only. A deeper insight would really bring us to the other side of this notion. Those who take advantage of their bestowed POWER and AUTHORITY for some personal aggrandizement are not ready to listen to what people say - which is ideally represented by the opposition. When the opposition does not effectively represent the voice of the people, those who ride high on the excesses of their POWERS and AUTHORITY do not hear them.

The system of checks and balances is apparently inoperative under the present dispensation. While it remains in power, any effort to resurrect this system and pressure the institutions that make it work will prove futile especially in a political environment where a system of cover-up is so orchestrated as in even some of those who weild power and authority from the military, PNP and the legal system are willing to cooperate as evidenced by the Supreme Court's unpopular decision on the Neri case.

Such is the situation that it is no longer a question of hope, principle or public rage. This is a case of weak fiscalization on the part of the opposition that is apparently good only at investigating the anomalies in aid of legislation. First and foremost, the opposition must be able to put to a stop these anomalies as a first-aid treatment. Then, it can proceed to enact laws that will serve to deter the commission of these anomalies in the future. When this is done, then, I would say we have a credible and effective opposition.

At this point, let me be the first to criticize the opposition. Where are you when the country needs you most? The nation will not support a squabbling rabble in the opposition that is afflicted with much of the same shortcomings that the present dispensation has. No People Power will materialize without a coherent and credible opposition. The person in Malacanang may be the darkest force to inhabit it, but it will continue to sow dismay and fervor when no counter-force equal to it or more is applied.

We are still fortunate that we have the media that is not yet cowed down by the excesses of the powers-that-be. We only lack the other ingredient coming from the opposition to make this administration succumb to the might of public opinion and reaction. The good people of the Philippines may know as much as our “very free press”, but without a credible opposition to lead it into action, the exposes that explode every now and then may only create more fear than hope!

The opposition should better reconsolidate and solidify and show some magnanimity if it is to muster a critical mass of people who can make this administration tremble down to its knees whenever it commits some wrongdoings. We no longer have Sen. Jose Diokno, Sen. Ninoy Aquino, Chino Roces and Cardinal Sin with us. What we have are some opposition personalities who talk more for publicity’s sake rather than for actions. And what more! They compete for popularity rather than act in unison to support each other. The best man (and woman), it seems, among the opposition is the one who has the freshest material to expose and explode in the Senate or the media. Unless there surfaces among them a real selfless one with credible words and action and with the magnanimity to say “I am not afraid to die for this cause”, I am not inclined to place so much hope in the opposition that we have now.

The Philippines, I believe, is not yet a hopeless case. We just lack some of the important elements of politics and society that make a country great. One of them is a credible and effective opposition.