Like it or not, Kris Aquino is the face — and voice — of the Philippines’ Liberal Party which is widely-regarded as the “leader” of the broader Opposition to the popular government of incumbent Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. More importantly, and, like it or not as well, the Philippines is a democracy; which means what is popular is what determines who and what wields power.
Thus, like it or not, the real battle between Kris Aquino and her former business manager Nicko Falcis is being fought on the airwaves, on social media, and in blogs. There is, of course, that inconvenient detail of the legal aspect of all this. As the latest factoid surrounding this circus — recordings of a woman making death threats against Falcis which Aquino had recently owned up to — explodes and as Aquino, perhaps advised rightly so by her lawyers, points out, much of the information on the matter that is going “viral” is largely “inadmissible” in court.
Interesting enough, the lesson in all this is lost in the Yellowtard community that the Aquinos lead. The very same strategic initiative to mobilise the media to bear down on the late former Chief Justice Renato Corona and crush the puny voices within the legal debate surrounding his case won them the day back in 2012. Indeed, considering that the epicentre of that circus was an actual “court” hosted by the Senate makes that win on the back of engineered public opinion all the more remarkable. In the case of today’s Aquinio-versus-Falcis brouhaha, there is no court drama that precedes nor underlies this “case”. Even more unfortunate for the Yellowtard-led Opposition is the fact that they are in the midst of the campaign homestretch leading to the mid-2019 congressional elections.
This drama is nothing short of catastrophic for the Opposition bid to dominate Congress and put up a significant challenge to the direction the Duterte government is taking the Philippines. Threats of violence and libel lawsuits issued by a mega-celebrity leader of Yellowtardom severely waters down the already tired “extra-judicial killing” and “assault on press freedom” rhetoric of the Opposition. Indeed, having invested what could likely be millions of dollars on a PR campaign to elevate to martyrdom postergirls like Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and Pinoy Ako Blog wordsmith Jover Laurio, the Opposition find themselves exposed to enormous loss of political capital as a result of this fiasco.
It cannot be emphasised enough that an unheeded call long long ago to ditch the Yellowtards is at the root of the disaster the Philippine Opposition face today.
That, plus an over-reliance on a single mediocre blogger, a discredited CEO of a “news” organisation of dubious qualification, and a Big Corporate Media industry focused on profits over and above doing the right thing is what is doing the Opposition in. The aura of hypocrisy, OA “activism”, a lack of ideological coherence, virtual-zero consistency, and the utter intellectual bankruptcy that fatally afflict the core of today’s Opposition are, with the benefit of hindsight which hopefully their “thought leaders” would learn someday, the outcomes of the gross strategic failure that is this two-year long effort tooppose the Duterte administration.
Is there time to rescue the Philippine Opposition from the Yellowtard cancer that is hollowing it out from the inside? The only options left are an emergency amputation and a brain transplant. And it needs to be done now. Not tomorrow. NOW NA!
No comments:
Post a Comment