Same old, same old

The prospect of an alliance between Vice President Jejomar Binay and former President Joseph Estrada against the ruling coalition of President Aquino in the 2013 senatorial elections could be a match between “David and Goliath,” said Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. The Binay-Estrada ticket would be David to Mr. Aquino’s Goliath, because the latter supposedly has the clout and resources of government to assure victory for his candidates. But, added Enrile, “David just might win, who knows?”

Overblown rhetoric is par for the course for politicians, but as metaphors go, the David-vs-Goliath peg for this unfolding political duel is laughable, if not downright silly. Consider the gallery of boldface names under the newly registered United Nationalist Alliance that Enrile is portraying as underdogs and second bananas to the purported powerhouse lineup of Mr. Aquino’s Liberal Party: Senators Loren Legarda and Francis Escudero, consistent topnotchers in most surveys, are reportedly in, along with former Las Pinas Rep. Cynthia Villar, incidentally the richest member of the House of Representatives. Another reported invitee, former senator Jamby Madrigal, belongs to one of the wealthiest clans in the country, and wasn’t shy about proving it by outspending many of her colleagues and opponents in her past senatorial runs.

The other names being mentioned this early for the UNA ticket include reelectionist Senators Gregorio Honasan and Alan Peter Cayetano, San Juan Rep. Jose Victor Ejercito, Cagayan Rep. Juan Ponce “Jack” Enrile Jr., former Sen. Ernesto Maceda, and defeated senatorial candidate Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, currently the secretary general of Binay’s PDP-Laban party. Also said to be in the running are resigned Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri and Zambales Rep. Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay, a vocal ally of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. And there’s a new entrant—Ma. Lourdes Nancy Binay, the Vice President’s eldest daughter, whose candidacy would surely resurrect the formidable war chest and nationwide machinery that got her father his spectacular come-from-behind victory over Mar Roxas in the 2010 vice-presidential election.

Some Davids they are.

The pertinent question at this point is not whether these usual suspects are, in fact, “winnable” against an imagined colossal foe; to buy into the spin that the Binay-Estrada combine is somehow feeble and disadvantaged in this match-up is an invitation to gullibility. The better question to ask is: Why them—again? Why is the nation stuck with the same old warmed-over choices for its political leaders? Or, in the case of new aspirants, with people who think the power of their family names alone is enough to make them—that awful term— “senatoriable”?

We have not heard of anything remarkable that Jack Enrile has done in Congress so far, but if he’s in the lineup, that can only be because his father’s reputation has enjoyed a rebound because of the Corona impeachment trial. That’s politics, one may say—but how base and cynical can that arrangement be?

Binay has said UNA won’t ally with the GMA bloc, but Estrada is willing to take in Arroyo’s confreres, as long as they have “no connection to whatever anomalies” during her time. “If they were involved in any anomaly, I would be the one to the block their entry,” he said—quite a rich statement coming from the only Philippine head of state so far to be convicted by a court of law. But that means Magsaysay has a shot—the same lawmaker who has vociferously and unstintingly defended Arroyo against any and all charges in the teeth of damning evidence, which calls into question, at the very least, her notion of right and wrong, as well as her ability to distinguish loyalty to her patron from the requirements of probity and accountability demanded for the greater public good.

The only thing that animates this grandly touted alliance is naked political expediency. No honest principle or policy belief appears to bind these politicians to one another except the need to further game an already corrupted system by banking on strengths derived from nepotism, family name and wherewithal, flexible convictions, and that dubious talent to hog the headlines for their good 15 minutes of notoriety (Madrigal? De Venecia?).

The nation deserves better and more inspiring choices than the lineup of virtual expendables that UNA is threatening to saddle it with. Or it has every right to fling back at Binay and Estrada that classic line: “What do you take us for—granted?”