Traditional political pundits lecturing us on how not to be political

FilipinoVoices.com (FV) is back. And my favourite blogger Abe Margallo, heeding the call of its esteemed owner Nick to start blogging, starts the ball rolling in classic Margallo form weighing in on where the Administration is at after 100 days in power...

President Aquino has been forewarned about it even before his election – that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the former president and now a congresswoman from the province of Pampanga, could in fact be retiring in the Supreme Court. The fear, one may recall, was heightened during the midnight appointment controversy involving the current chief justice himself.

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[What follows is from a comment I posted which, unfortunately as of this writing, is "under moderation" true to the usual form of FV]

Funny you'd mention all that, Mr Abe Margallo. All this coming after ProPinoy writer "The Cusp" made the following observation:

I know. I know. We are all so used to Arroyo bashing by now that any attempt by her to exercise prerogative in her current capacity will be brandished as a form of political opportunism and partisanship. Not so, I believe in this case (put down those clubs and pitchforks for a moment, please!). Although as Habito points out, there are reasons to downplay Mrs Arroyo’s concerns, she does raise valid policy questions as to the timing and appropriateness of the massive build-up of the program.

This is what a responsible opposition ought to do.

Despite what her critics say about her intentions for seeking a seat in the lower house, Mrs Arroyo who has been silent so far regarding so many issues during PNoy’s first 100 days that other grandstanding politicians have readily exploited, and despite the antagonism she has faced with the formation of a Truth Commission to look into allegations of corruption by her, has demonstrated restraint and a respect for the office she formerly held for nearly a decade.

To which I remarked in my usual brilliant form to highlight the point:

Funny how things turn out. For me no one “Opposition” of whatever administration in the last couple of decades has never differentiated itself from its predecessor. The only thing that characterised them was their year-in-year-out sameness, the same kind of sameness that is usually reserved for deriding incumbent administrations and regimes.

At the core of this sameness is a focus on personality rather than policies and issues. Perhaps we might be seeing a different “Opposition” during Noynoy’s term — one that is focused on the right things and the relevant points.

Perhaps, Mr Margallo, it is you and people like you who are propagating this rather unpleasant habit of Pinoys around politicising everything and anything about the National "Debate".

Of course you may, for examble, be...

[...] referring to the power of impeachment that by the plain text of the Constitution is exclusively assigned to Congress. I perceive the same ominous symptoms when the Supreme Court attempts to hamstring the efficient functioning of the new government of President Aquino by reinstating the midnight appointments of Arroyo. I consider these acts of the Supreme Court as political acts rather than principled judicial decisions.

But then a person of similar partisan inclinations, Ellen Tordesillas, for her part invokes the letter of the law also for the purpose of furthering her own political agendas surrounding the bozos she seems to find a calling to defend:

I ask Navera: Is there anything illegal in the President’s issuance of Proclamation 50.

If he can’t cite anything illegal about it, he better shut up. If he can’t shut up, he better resign. That would be one less unenlightened personnel at the Department of Justice.

At the risk of lumping you along with the rest of the disorganised rabble that presumes to hold up the Son of Cory as the messiah of Da Land of da Payatas, I'd say that you've collectively got invoking of principles and invoking of The Law all mixed into one convoluted and incoherent position on the matter of what Noynoy and his Yellowy presence in Malacanang actually stands for.

And perhaps, if the Opposition of the day remains grounded on clear principles and ideas rather than on the infantile focus on personalities, speculation, and intrigue that have for the last 100 days characterised this government's behaviour, maybe we will see the light of reform that, in all ironies, your "hero" promised during his campaign.

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Epilogue

Abe Margallo in his characteristic of verbose pomposity lectures the Supreme Court on how "not to be political". In the process he ends up politicising the whole lecture.

Welcome back, FilipinoVoices.com. Fasten your seatbelts.