“The people should not be fed negative thoughts.”
The proper approach to constructive politics is for the opposition to talk of its achievements. They should stop ranting about the failures of the past administration. Otherwise, it would reveal they have done nothing during their time.
The people should not be fed negative thoughts; in the end, it means the promotion of anarchy. We have to prepare our people for what is in store for them. The opposition should not act as prophets of Casandra for that would expose just how illogical they are.
Right now, everything that comes out from their mouth is their negative indictment of the government. They remain the worst patrons of Philippine politics. Their ideological fealty to the US is emblematic of their subservience.
Take for instance the Liberal Party. It was this party then headed by Manuel Roxas that was entrusted to govern after the grant of political independence in 1946. The Liberal Party has a benign reason why it continues to lambast those in power. It has become their sort of political preoccupation.
Manuel Roxas was the president when our independence was inaugurated. As head, he practically signed everything like the grant of unlimited hectarage and number of US bases with a retention cap of up to 99 years, accepted the measly amount of war damage compensation, and failed to make strong representation to include the Philippines in the economic rehabilitation of the US.
The Nacionalista Party and other political parties organized by maverick political leaders worked doubly hard to put meaning and substance to our independence. Founded by Sergio Osmeña who succeeded Quezon after his death in New York. Osmeña promised to work for the interest of the Filipino people but his term was cut short by his defeat to Roxas whom many suspect to have collaborated with the Japanese puppet government.
Elpidio Quirino, another Liberal, succeeded Roxas. His administration was characterized as corrupt and the Americans were upset because of the rising communist insurgency. An American operative made sure that Quirino is replaced by Ramon Magsaysay to continue the colonial relationship of the two countries. Magsaysay was neither pro-Liberal nor pro-Nacionalista Party. He simply earned his merit as an anti-communist crusader. His image was built by a CIA agent named Edward Lansdale.
It is not clear whether Magsaysay joined the Liberal Party. Historians like the late Alejandro Lichauco believed he was more sympathetic to the Nacionalista Party for the fact that he chose Carlos Garcia as his running mate in the 1953 election. Some suspect there was foul play in the plane crash that killed him.
After succeeding Magsaysay in 1957, Garcia exhibited an obtuse policy towards the US. He was the first Nacionalista Party member to be elected president. He introduced nationalistic economic reforms like the fixing of the currency at 2:1 to the US dollar, adopted the “Filipino First Policy” and introduced the import substitution to lessen our dependence on imported goods.
The clappers of US imperialism denounced Garcia by accusing his administration of being brazenly corrupt. The opposition never raised the issue of martial law during the Quirino administration because that could tarnish their image as consummate US lackeys.
Graft and corruption have consistently been an issue in Philippine politics, yet nobody talked about it during the Aquino administration. The corruption allegedly committed during the Marcos and Duterte administrations were often highlighted to arouse unreasonable hatred against the government they want to control. Of the thousand charges they filed against the Marcoses, not a single case has prospered. They did not even bother to present a comparison, for that would expose they achieved nothing.
Lacson and Robredo are typical politicians using the anti-China line of the US. As usual, they want to ingratiate themselves at a time when US-China relations is at its lowest level. They focus their attacks on discrediting the Duterte administration, zeroing in on his government’s wasteful expenditures. The opposition ignores the truth that the accomplishment of the Marcos and Duterte administrations would dwarf the two Aquino administrations but somehow avoid talking about them, for obviously that could expose their deceit.
Maybe it would be taxing to our people to ask what the Liberal Party has accomplished. Some estimate the Noynoy Aquino administration spent a total of P9 trillion or an average of P1.4 trillion a year. The total acquisition of those second-hand US military equipment indicates that we in fact subsidized the budget of that bankrupt empire. The rest went to the giving of dole called “conditional cash transfer” for the “poor” but encouraged instead mendicancy among our people, made a huge payment for the Smartmatic to make our electoral system a farce, and the bulk went to paying the salaries and allowances of cronies appointed to juicy positions by the corrupt administration. We even paid to the tune of P370 million to American lawyers only to hand us a worthless decision to satisfy the ego of Del Rosario and Carpio.
The privatization of the country’s energy industry was consummate. That included the disposition of the country’s dams and irrigation system. Yet, not one Liberal Party explained that the privatization by a Spaniard is the reason why our farmers chose to import instead of plant rice. Since the National Power Corp. (NPC) was already mired in debt due to the closure of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, the past administration opted to cut to pieces the industry, beginning in the disposition of the transmission grid to create the NGCP. The law creating the NGCP promised to reduce the cost of electricity, and make it more efficient to the consumers. Alas, nothing happened, and the Yellows are still blaming the Duterte government for deflecting what they had committed.
The Catholic Church likewise ignores it was instrumental in converting the country to a theocratic and feudalistic state. Nobody dared open his mouth that it was their yellow minions that extended to the Church tax exemption on their real estate property, exemption on their operated schools and universities, exemption on donations, inheritance and transfer tax, and exemption on their operated foundations. The Church is silent because they benefited much in the conversion of our educational system to an elitist school for the rich. This explains why the clerics are fighting tooth and nail to defend the theocratic Cory Constitution.
Many could sense Duterte has changed the tone of his demand for the US bases to vacate. The threat of being hauled to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for alleged extrajudicial killings and human rights violations now looms as America’s blackmail to force him to toe the line. Some believe Duterte is having a hard time scouting a running mate. The US cannot directly intervene, it not being a member of the ICC, but surely can pressure its allies to nail him. The LPs are salivating to see him handed over to the ICC.
