Not in my name

I actually thought twice before deciding to respond to Rolly Pelinggon Jr.’s response to my column, “Crimes of the mind.” Pelinggon’s response comes in the form of a paid ad in the Inquirer (7/11/12) that covers nearly the entire page. I thought twice about responding to it not just because the writing is pedantic, the style of politicians and lawyers who imagine (alas, wrongly) that the more convoluted they are the more profound they sound, but because the reasoning is self-defeating. It’s a good example of how to refute yourself.

But I thought the issue, if not Pelinggon himself or what he has written, was important enough to bear emphasizing. Some things you cannot sufficiently belabor.

In my column, I applauded Koko Pimentel’s decision to spurn Erap’s overtures for him to patch up his “differences” with Migz Zubiri. Some “differences,” I said, cannot be patched up. Having four years of your term stolen by another candidate is one of them.

Pelinggon says I malign the good name of Zubiri. I assume he is guilty, a false premise from which I build my mental sand castle. (I am putting this more colorfully and intelligibly than he does.) “The column skipped the hard facts that there never was an iota of evidence that Migz directly participated in that electoral fraud … that at the surfacing of a mere testimony later that cast doubts on his victory, Migz quickly, voluntarily and magnanimously turned over his post to Koko.”

Pelinggon then goes on to talk lavishly (slavishly?) about Migz’s many virtues compared to Koko’s many vices. “(Koko) is totally antithetical to that well-mannered nature of Migz Zubiri who meekly prevails through his own excellent performance in Congress.” Which has resulted in Migz becoming the toast of Mindanao and Koko its pariah. Proof of the latter being that “now, even his own wife gave up on him.”

Pelinggon ends by being conciliatory. “How about we say that Migz and Koko are simply victims of our country’s prevailing dirty politics?” And get them to come together for the good of Mindanao.

First off, after saying I’ve indulged in “well-woven fallacies intended to hype Koko Pimentel’s entry into national politics,” Pelinggon does exactly what he accuses me of. He hypes Migz Zubiri’s entry into national politics. His whole piece is a PR number. Why on earth would I want to hype Pimentel’s entry into national politics? He entered it long ago when he ran for senator in 2007 and won. Zubiri did not when he ran for senator in 2007 and lost—except that he grabbed Pimentel’s seat anyway.

The usurpation is a fallacy? The guilt is a wrong premise? Let’s see.

While trying to flatter, Pelinggon in fact makes Zubiri out to be the world’s greatest idiot, if not masochist.

Who in his right mind would want to quickly, voluntarily and magnanimously surrender his elective post to a rival on the strength of a mere testimony that casts doubts on his victory? What does that say about how he values votes and voters? What voter in his right mind would want to vote for someone like that? And who but a resolute masochist would, while believing himself to have won fair and square, and while knowing it would invite more suspicion he did steal the vote, willingly give up two more years of his seat in the Senate to someone merely complaining he did?

There’s a simpler, more inescapable, and, yes, more logical explanation for it. He’s guilty as hell.

Whether Zubiri is meek or not, or whether Koko, his “antithesis,” is arrogant or not, is neither here nor there. The question is who won the elections. That is Koko. We know that from the fact that Zubiri eventually, if horrendously belatedly, (con)ceded the position to him. We know that from the fact that Benjamin Abalos and Andal Ampatuan are being prosecuted for the crime but not its beneficiary. The question is legitimacy, and it boggles my mind that people like Erap, Zubiri, and their lackeys should think the defilement of the vote is a minor oversight that can be threshed out with a shrug, a handshake, and a toast to a better Mindanao.

As to Koko’s marital woes being an indicator of his political isolation, that’s the part where you really have to think twice before answering something like this. The quality of mind that can produce this kind of observation is beneath notice, never mind contempt. It makes the fly-ridden mountain in Payatas smell like roses.

Migz and Koko are just victims of our dirty politics? That reminds me of the tack Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took in the wake of the furor that erupted over “Hello Garci”—truly kindred spirits think alike—that we were all victims of our deeply flawed political system. Well, some people are victimized more than others. Some people victimize more than others. People like FPJ and Koko are victimized more than others. People like Gloria and Migz victimize more than others. You want victimized and victimizer to lie together for the good of the country, never mind Mindanao?

But if you do have to mind Mindanao, you do have to mind Mindanaoans. Because the travesty is being done in their name. Which is really what forces you to deal with a kabalbalan like Pelinggon’s paid ad, however your first instinct is to ignore it. That is Zubiri’s argument, that is Pelinggon’s argument, if indeed the second is not a mere extension of the first: Koko should forgive and forget for the greater good of Mindanao, for the greater glory of Mindanaoans. What does that say of Mindanaoans? That they are such idiots they have no sense of right and wrong? That they are such masochists they want to be exploited by people they did not vote for? That they are such sheep they will always be prey to the wolves?

Time to say “Not in my name!” Preferably, and poetically, through the vote.