Punchline
Time to walk the talk
By Ermin F. Garcia Jr.
So much has been written about former Speaker Joe de V’s unceremonious exit from the House of Sinners. I can’t agree more with most everyone’s impression and perception of how and why the massacre happened the way it did.
In sum, Mrs. Gina de V correctly pointed out that the act of treachery was prompted not by national interest but by political vendetta by the Arroyo family. However, what was largely left unsaid during and after the deathly vote count, was the fact that it was the monster that Joe de V created that was used by his allies and detractors to seal his fate, namely the pork barrel!
We all knew that it was the pork barrel that sustained his Rainbow Coalition for the past decade. The congressmen, whose primary mandate is to legislate laws, were taught that there is a good life that awaits a member of the Rainbow Coalition. The caveat was, if you are not part of it, then you can’t have your share of the pork barrel. That was how the coalition grew and that was largely how our Joe de V went on to serve as Speaker for 5 terms. That he was a true coalition builder and a statesman was given but these alone would not have made him Speaker for 15 years. Joe de V knew it, his coalition leaders knew it. Alas, the Arroyos knew it too.
As I listened to his once vaunted columns of loyal and steadfast supporters explain why they chose to vote against him, it was clear that they all feared one thing – the loss of their pork barrel. As the double-headed pork barrel monster intended, not even long friendship and “inaanak” relations would weigh when made to choose between their pork barrel and Joe de V.
To the credit of the crafty Arroyos who have learned the malevolent application of the pork barrel, the wily congressmen met their match. They who initially swore unflinching and unswerving loyalty to Joe de V were easily bought with promises of larger pork barrel on one hand, and threatened with complete deprivation on the other. So when Joe de V conceded before the voting that he had lost control over the releasing of pork barrel, I knew then that his was a lost cause.
Hence, all that talk and clamor about need for reforms and transparency in the House was pure B.S. (To Rep. Rachel Arenas’ credit who poured her heart out to local media, she quite frankly admitted it was about the pork barrel and what it could do for her district. Majority of her colleagues tried to disguise their votes but everyone could see through them).
No, they weren’t the least concerned about Joe de V’s political demise in the House for as long as someone could assure them of bigger chunks of pork.
And the cunning Arroyos did just that.
***
Until Jun Lozada appeared before the senate for the continuation of the NBN-ZTE contract, most everyone waited with bated breath what our Joe de V would likely do after he was humiliated and unceremoniously booted out by his allies.
Many had expected Joe de V to come out with guns-a-blazing the following day, Tuesday, only to hear him speak him feebly about being a “constructive critic”, to warn President Arroyo of unabated corruption in her government and how she can still turn the country around. That disappointed a whole lot – I know I was – when he didn’t begin to rattle off details of the sins of Malacañang like he said he would.
His subsequent photo op with his unfaithful protégé and successor, Speaker Boy Nograles, with him anxiously holding the arm of the latter as they walked, told me that Joe de V has assumed his old conciliatory “win-win” self. He was no longer the same articulate Speaker Joe de V who angrily lashed out at an ingrate Mrs. Gloria Arroyo 24 hours prior.
Not even his subsequent photo with Erap Estrada and some opposition leaders convinced many that he had fully shed his lackey stance with the Arroyos.
So, in many people’s mind, a new Jekyll and Hyde persona of Joe de V has surfaced. One can sense that he is playing a new game, a game that can turn truly ugly for his allies-turned detractors, the Palace occupants, and yes, for himself.
While Joe de V may feel vindicated by Lozada’s revelations at the senate, his tentativeness will erode his own standing as a patriot, and his call for moral revolution will just be another of his ho-hum lip service to national governance.
If he feels vindicated, then he, too, must be prepared to take the risk for the country like Lozada, a nobody but a crucial witness in whose hands lie the momentum for a true moral revolution that Joe de V speaks of.
Manong Joe, enough lip service to the moral revolution, ‘Tis time to walk the talk!
***
COLLEGE TRIVIA. Here’s a small trivia about personalities amid the lying and the shocking mega corruption in the Arroyo administration.
What do GMA, Mike Arroyo, Ronnie Puno, Toting Bunye, Boy Nograles, Romy Neri and many other functionaries in this administration have in common?
They once paraded around proudly wearing the blue and white colors of Ateneo de Manila University. Seeing them perjure themselves, falling all over themselves in vain attempts to cover-up for their own survival, I am truly ashamed that I, too, swore by Ateneo’s credo – To be a man for others – at about the same time they did. I am pained seeing them in government scrambling in an “every man for himself” mode instead. See how they pilloried the truth and Lozada shamelessly.
Looking back, I know now that La Salle and UP did a better job of shaping today’s leaders. See how the La Sallites and UP grads rallied behind Lozada and truth.
(Readers may reach columnist at punch.sunday@gmail.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/punchline/
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