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Top GO Senator already plays footsie with GMA
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo
The Philippine Star 2007-06-05
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No nation is spared from having its fair share of quislings. But somehow, if there is something that we Filipinos seem to have in abundance, it is in having far too many quislings.
The term quisling was derived from the name of Norwegian Fascist Vidkun Quisling who collaborated with the Nazi occupiers of his country during World War II. Now, quisling means traitor, collaborator, and one who sleeps with the enemy.
Throughout our history, Filipinos have been victimized by quislings. Our foreign invaders Spain, the US and Japan were never in short supply of quislings to serve them. The Malolos Convention was stolen from the revolutionaries by the quislings whose descendants form a good part of our oligarchy today.
Just to illustrate the quislings in our midst — a Genuine Opposition (GO) Senate candidate, who made it among the top three winners, is now dealing with the Arroyo regime even before any formal proclamation of winners has been made.
My undisputable source who is privy to the goings on in the stinking innards of Malacañang Palace told me that this GO Senate candidate has been hooked up by a “financial facilitator” of the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) regime. This go-between has attained prominence and controversy during the Marcos regime and is now known to work for an even more controversial gentleman.
My use of the term “financial facilitator” gives you a hint of how sensitive the topic of discussion is. One does not get to meet with financial facilitators unless the basic agreements have been hammered out by the point men and negotiators. Financial facilitators normally enter the picture when the trade offs have been ironed out.
Not your usual financial facilitator, this one is well known in banking circles here and abroad for handling very “sensitive” and huge transactions.
Several days after I was told about this transaction, Team Unity Deputy Spokesman Tonypet Albano was quoted in media as saying that the administration has its own people already among the GO Senate winners. Albano was gloating over making a point that eight winning senators for GO does not eight Opposition senators make.
On the surface, it appeared that Albano was simply trying to downplay the administration’s loss in the national elections. But given the information freshly churned out from the very bowels of Malacañang, Albano’s comments did provide a chillingly credible revelation. This one time, Albano’s usually inane utterance came across to me as unfiltered truth.
Why will a top winning senator from the Opposition want to immediately play footsie with so unpopular a regime? Wasn’t it public resentment against this regime that paved the road to victory for the Opposition? Why will this GO senator risk losing the trust of the many who voted to express rejection of the regime? Doesn’t that act of betrayal constitute political seppuku?
Logic tells us that one engages big risks if one is offered even bigger rewards. Even a rational person might consider plunging an arm inside a deep hole that’s a known shelter of a hundred venomous king cobras if the reward for that risk is the acquisition of the world’s biggest perfect diamond.
For the GO quisling, the promise of reward goes beyond financial gratification. In this case, the real attraction in the horizon is achieving a vehicle for the 2010 Presidential Elections. Those who land in the top three slots of a senate race are deemed to be presidential material. And this GO quisling has manifested in very clear terms in the past a burning desire for the top executive post in the land.
I’ve quoted Rep. Teddyboy Locsin in my May 8 column (Joker and Teddyboy react and Gloria panics) as saying that the administration does not have a winnable presidential candidate in 2010. Indeed, the winnable presidential candidates are all with the Opposition.
The other side of this reality is that the Opposition has one presidential candidate too many. For one with an insatiable lust to be president, the GO quisling’s objective of capturing Malacanang Palace is greatly enhanced by the combined machinery of the administration’s Lakas-Kampi-NPC coalition.
This practice of crossing to the other political party is a traditional feature of Philippine politics. Ramon Magsaysay and Ferdinand Marcos made it to Malacañang Palace by transferring to the other political party. Unheard of and frowned upon in countries like the US and UK, political turncoatism is an ordinary, regular occurrence in Philippine politics.
Practice makes perfect for this GO quisling whose track record of political pole-vaulting is well-established. The GO quisling is banking on remaining a “sleeper administration ally” until the last moment, before making the formal jump.
The GO quisling is banking on the Filipino’s short memory. The GO quisling figures that by 2010 the memory of this deed of betrayal, done in advance of a formal proclamation of winners, will be overwhelmed by many other issues and concerns.
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