The big quiet

Erap is pissed off with Koko Pimentel. He can’t get a meeting with him to thresh out his differences with Miguel Zubiri.

“We have extended all efforts to convince him. That’s why I want to talk to him one-on-one to convince him to stay with us. But he doesn’t want to talk to me. I won’t wait for him. I don’t want to be with him if he doesn’t want to.”

If Koko leaves UNA, Erap said, he’ll be on his own. “We will not entertain any guest candidate.” If he does so, however, he won’t get to bring other members of PDP-Laban who have joined UNA with him. They’ll be staying put.

Well, Koko may have lost Erap’s vote because of this, but he has just won mine, quite literally in next year’s elections, because of it.

Erap still doesn’t get it. Even if he gets to meet Koko, he’ll never be able to thresh out Koko’s differences with Zubiri. For a simple reason, which is that there are some things you cannot thresh out, some things you do not thresh out. What is Pimentel’s “difference” with Zubiri? Only that Zubiri profited from massive cheating to become senator in Pimentel’s stead. Only that Zubiri stole four years from his term. Only that Zubiri robbed him of four years of his life.

How do you thresh out a difference like that? By saying let bygones be bygones? By saying let’s move on? By forgiving, if not forgetting, Migs? By forgiving and completely forgetting Gloria?

Maybe Pimentel won’t get to take any of his fellow PDP-Laban members with him when he walks away from UNA. But if so, what in God’s name does that say about PDP-Laban? What in Beelzebub’s name does that say about Jojo Binay’s favorite party? The elder Pimentel, Nene, says Erap’s fondness for Zubiri owes to trading principle for money, an accusation Erap hotly denies. But even if you grant that money hasn’t changed hands, which takes a lot of granting, there’s still the matter of Koko’s “difference” with Zubiri.

What’s this, PDP-Laban, the coalition consisting of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino, founded by Nene Pimentel, and Lakas ng Bayan, founded by Ninoy Aquino, now believes it is all right to turn a blind eye on iniquity just to have a better grip on the polls? What’s this, PDP-Laban, the party Cory ran under in the 1986 snap election to end Marcos’ tyranny, now believes it is OK for someone to cheat another of his term and they should just laugh over it and band together in elections, the better to fight tyranny and injustice? What’s this, the party that Binay now heads, which has always been associated with bigness of heart and bigness of vision, now just wants to be associated only with bigness of size and bigness of ambition?

Which brings us to the other thing that’s wrong with this picture. Jojo Binay is the vice president. Jojo Binay is the standard-bearer. Jojo Binay, unless Mar Roxas does something startling to erase the stigma of losing his vice-presidential bid or someone comes out like a bolt from the blue the way Noynoy Aquino did, could very well be the next president of this country. So why in hell is Erap doing all the talking? Why is Erap calling the shots? Why is Erap making the big decisions in a coalition to which the second highest official of the land belongs?

So far, all we’ve heard from Binay is that he will abide by Koko’s decision. “Whatever is his decision, we will respect it.” He himself hopes to talk to Koko soon. “There’s no reason for us not to.” As to Nene, Binay says they remain on the best of terms, and he has the highest regard for him. “I always tell people that I owe my being mayor of Makati to Nene Pimentel.”

That’s all very fine, but what has that got to do with anything? It reduces to form what ought to be a matter of substance. It reduces to procedure what ought to be a matter of principle. It reduces to friendships what ought to be a matter of right and wrong.

What’s there to talk about? The matter is fairly cut-and-dried. It’s an issue about fundamental justice. It’s a choice between doing what is right and what is convenient. Never mind that if Binay should feel beholden to anybody, he should be so to Nene and not to Erap, he should be so to Cory and not to Erap. Mind only that the matuwid na daan is clear: Drop Zubiri and you’ll have Koko. Drop Zubiri and you’ll have a sense of direction. Drop Zubiri and you’ll have the laban that PDP-Laban distinguished itself for. Which raises the question: Does Binay believe in the matuwid na daan?

The danger is not that all this might bring his ratings down before very long, the reaction of the vocal and articulate middle class to it eventually spilling over to the masa. That is a danger only to him and his presidential bid. The danger is that despite all this, he might for lack of opposition go all the way to Malacañang.

It cannot augur well for that presidency that he cannot, for reasons known only to him, cut his ties with Erap. It cannot augur well for that presidency that he cannot, for reasons known only to him, seem to say no to Erap. It cannot augur well for his presidency that, for reasons that should scare off his sympathizers, he is so subservient to Erap. That is not just a danger to him, that is a danger to the country.

He can’t stand his ground on so fundamental a matter of justice as this now, he won’t be able to stand his ground on so fundamental a matter of justice as this later. He can’t draw the line on so clear a matter of principle as this when he is vice president, he won’t be able to draw the line on so clear a matter of principle as this when he is president. Now is the time for him to speak out. Now is the time for him to reassure the people who voted for him in 2010 they were not wrong to do so.

Because right now, it’s getting pretty alarming, it’s getting pretty deafening:

That big quiet.