Consistency as a political virtue

BY ANTONIO P. CONTRERAS NOVEMBER 03, 2018

THE political opposition has subsisted on double standards from the time it elevated Sen. Leila de Lima into an icon for women, and painted her as a victim of President Duterte’s misogynistic harassment. She even became the face that launched the hashtag campaign #EveryWoman. Yet, the feminist opposition voices are muted relative to the legal wife of Ronnie Dayan with whom de Lima has admitted to have had an illicit affair. It seemed that the contradiction did not cross their minds, that they forgot to think that de Lima was party to what caused another woman’s private pain.

Actually, it is not only in de Lima that the opposition has shown inconsistency. The #BabaeAko campaign waged by critics of the President zeroed in on a line-up of women whom it imaged as targets of pro-Duterte male-ordered power, but was utterly silent on the gendered attacks on Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, former assistant secretary Mocha Uson, Mayor Sara Duterte and former Chief Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro.

The political opposition demonizes the Marcoses, and attributes every malaise in our society to their excesses and sins, and has now imaged President Duterte as the heir apparent to what they brand as the greatest evil that ruled our country. Yet, its members seem to gloss over the equal culpability of the Aquinos and the Cojuangcos in the entire mess. They love to demonize martial law and label as historical revisionism any attempt to extract from the one-sided narrative espoused by anti-martial law academics a fairer representation of a complicated period in our history. Yet, they are utterly silent on the actual role of Ninoy Aquino in the bombing of Plaza Miranda, and refuse to even talk about his dealings with the communists. They make it their pastime to take down piece by piece the image of the Marcoses, even as they resist critically engaging the Aquino narrative.

The political opposition condemned the assault on judicial independence and the rule of law when Maria Lourdes Sereno was impeached, and consequently removed as de facto Chief Justice through a quo warranto proceeding. Yet, they lustily cheered, if not participated, in the taking down of former Chief Justice Renato Corona upon the direct orders of then President Noynoy Aquino.

Recently, we saw a meme posted by pro-opposition personalities attacking the political dynasties of the Dutertes, Binays, Marcoses and Estradas. But nowhere in their social imaginations did it ever occur to them that half of their senatorial slate are scions of so-called political dynasties. Bam is an Aquino; Mar is a Roxas; Erin is a Tañada; and Chel is a Diokno. These are dynastic families that, except for the Aquinos, may have taken a sabbatical from politics, but whose surnames remain etched in our political history as some of the more prominent political clans.

Not to be outdone, Vice President Leni Robredo blamed President Duterte for the ballooning of the country’s debt, conveniently forgetting that he inherited much of the current debt from his predecessor Noynoy Aquino. Although one is tempted to think that for Robredo it is not a case of malicious inconsistency, but simply of mathematical incompetence, if not numerical illiteracy.

Thus, it seems that the political opposition thrives on maliciously partisan inconsistency, seen in its readiness to inflict on us a standard when it suits them, and be conveniently silent when it doesn’t.

However, it is also apparent that even pro-Duterte supporters are now beginning to exhibit symptoms of the same kind of malaise. This is nowhere more dramatically presented than in the current brouhaha at the Bureau of Customs (BoC), in the spat between former commissioner Isidro Lapeña and customs official lawyer Lourdes Mangaoang.

Instead of welcoming Mangaoang as a potentially rich source of information about the corruption inside the BoC, as a whistle blower who would know a lot, she is now being pilloried as a tainted source whose only motivation is her personal vendetta against Lapeña for putting her on floating status. Instead of encouraging her to sing like a canary and spill everything she knows, she is now being painted as an incredible, unbelievable witness who is involved in the corruption and who could never tell the truth. After all, as some Duterte supporters allege, she has worked in the BoC for over 30 years and it would be unlikely that she is clean. They question her sincerity for coming out only now.

Yet, in equally explosive congressional hearings, the pro-Duterte crowd cheered unproblematically and almost treated like heroes those who testified against Leila de Lima. Unlike Mangaoang who is merely being suspected of corruption, these witnesses against de Lima have already been proven guilty in court and were convicted for drug-related crimes, and are in fact already serving their sentences behind bars.

Here lies the contradiction and the failure to be consistent, a blight that pro-Duterte supporters heap on the political opposition, but they themselves are now committing. It is a kind of double standard that has no other explanation except raw partisanship.

Mangaoang is demonized because she is a voice that assaults Lapeña, who happens to be an ally of President Duterte. It doesn’t matter that Mangaoang is herself a Duterte supporter. The witnesses against de Lima are appreciated, and their being convicts are not used against them, simply because they speak against a political enemy of the President.

It can even be psychological. The rage against Mangaoang is somewhat a reaction that follows the denial stage. Lapeña’s guilt, if proven, is going to also hit the President badly. It is going to be evidence that the President made the wrong choice. Hence, the denial that Lapeña is corrupt, and the blanket character testimony of many that he is as straight as an arrow, and that he will not earn the trust of the President if he is corrupt.

But denial is not enough. Mangaoang has to be taken down to discredit her, and it was here that the pro-Duterte crowd shifted to the anger stage. Hell hath no fury than a partisan crowd protecting their idolized principal.

In the end, the only venue that can decide who is telling the truth are the courts, not Lapeña and Mangaoang, not character witnesses and attackers, not partisan defenders and trolls, not even Congress and the President.

If there should be an action that should distinctly elevate the Duterte brand of politics, one that promised change, above and beyond that of the political opposition, it must be consistency and a real respect for due process and the rule of law. Otherwise, that promised change will never come. And whatever comes after President Duterte will be infected exactly by the same political malaise.

https://www.manilatimes.net/consistency-as-a-political-virtue/461446/