OPINION PAGE
This new call for “People Power” will not succeed
By: Aldrin Cardona
Strange– no, funny!– that Rodrigo Duterte’s maligned and derided “people power” is now being used by his followers to push a two-pronged campaign to oust Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. from Malacanang.
The other one’s called a coup by government talking heads that Duterte had seditiously aired before some colonels and mid-ranked Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) officials.
The call came after a tumultuous weekend that saw his daughter, Sara Duterte– the vice president– suffer a meltdown as she was cornered by the House of Representatives’ “QuadCom” on her unexplained use of supposed intelligence fund when she was the concurrent Secretary of Education.
That’s the main issue: the use of millions of pesos the younger Duterte is not willing to defend under the scrutiny of the congressmen who holds the power of the purse. These lawmakers have punished Sara by slashing the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) budget for next year, rendering her politically immobile.
The lawmakers have tuned the hearings into a grand youtube spectacle. And from where Digong and Sara were strongest when they had the money to pay for more vloggers and trolls, they now reel in the pain of being exposed and demonized, and exposed again.
In the eyes of the public, Sara is guilty of fund misuse. It was her fault not defending– no, not explaining her use of the fund in question.
Sara had lost even more prior.
In July, the Philippine National Police stripped her of security to the minimum. This left Sara, supposedly loved by the masses, feeling vulnerable and naked.
Duterte’s mouthpiece, the SMNI media network, had also been denied of franchise in the manner the elder Duterte clipped the old ABS-CBN.
SMNI boss, the doomsday cult leader Apollo Quiboloy, was also detained for a number of serious crimes including alleged human rights violations. He is also wanted by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation for various crimes, including sex and human trafficking, marriage fraud, coercion, money laundering, cash smuggling, and other charges.
With Quiboloy constrained, the Dutertes were denied of an ally who could call and order his cult members to beef up the numbers in Edsa even if they consider the Archdiocesan Shrine of Mary, Queen of Peace a “place of evil”. Anything that is not Quiboloy’s is evil for Quiboloy.
There are also lessons I’ve learned in my past interactions with mass-based movements and the Magdalo before and after their failed attempt to oust Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Among the many is: the masses cannot be mobilized politically during the Christmas season. They’re after their vacation and 13th month pay. Disrupting the economy is a no-no, it’s not healthy for their small wealth.
Also, no people power will start without the organized Left. It was evident in the first two revolts. Only the members of the Left groups could organize into a fighting fold at any time when needed.
Not even the government could rally its workers into joining political actions. It cannot. Never.
The Dutertes could no longer bring back into their fold the groups whose members have died, were killed, were “red-tagged”, isolated, suppressed, jailed, and shamed.
The elder Duterte, without power already, is now a nobody to the AFP.
Also, only the Catholic Church can convince its flock to take a strong political stand. Other minor religious groups have time, but their followers are timid and not experienced enough to go to war.
Lastly, the faces and figures tasked to rally the minute crowd at Edsa now lack credibility.
They have tried last weekend. It flopped.
They’re trying again. They’ll fail again.
An FB user called it right when he said the Dutertes lack two elements to succeed via People Power.
They lack People.
They lack Power.
