Mocha is out, in
The big news yesterday was controversial Margaux “Mocha” Uson’s resignation from her Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) post. Has delicadeza finally gotten into her after all the blunders she committed? I could hear some wise guys blurting out, “You wish!”
Before Mocha’s critics could jump with glee, however, a sobering realization followed. The calendar, after all, says we are smack into October, the month when the Commission on Elections (Comelec) opens its offices to those who want to file their certificates of candidacy for the May 2019 midterm elections. Mocha is among the administration’s bets for a Senate post.
Mocha is not only the one set to quit their posts. Expect Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, Presidential Assistant Christopher “Bong” Go and the top gun of the National Bilibid Prisons, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, among others, to follow Mocha’s lead. These are, after all, exciting times for the politically ambitious (which has made the song “Happy Days Are Here Again” ring in my ears).
I reckon there is now a mad dash by wannabes for inclusion in President Duterte’s senatorial lineup. After all, it is always better to run under the administration banner for two reasons: one, government resources; two, the president’s popularity. Of course, these are not guarantees they would win but these give them some advantage over the opposition bets.
Especially now that the opposition still needs to recover its mojo in the face of the relentless assault by the Duterte administration in the political sphere and by the so-called diehard Duterte supporters (DDS) in cyberspace. I even read somewhere an opposition leader say that they may not be able to field a complete slate in the senatorial race.
For the good of our brand of democracy, the political opposition needs to put its act together. Its leaders must not act like wimps even before the campaign period could start. President Duterte and his strategists are actually playing the intimidation game so the last thing that opposition leaders should do is to look intimidated. They couldn’t win an election that way.
What the opposition leaders should do is to position themselves as the rallying point for those fed up with this administration’s antics and those who are still holding on to the principles and values damaged by years of the Duterte presidency. Without that rallying point, these forces are currently content lurking in the political shadows.
To be fair, the political opposition and other critics of the administration are slowly regaining their stride. This was observable in the recent protest actions they held, notably the one commemorating the anniversary of the declaration of military rule by the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos in September 1972. The mobilizations are bigger now compared to the previous years.
This can partly be traced to the economic crunch that is currently blanketing the country as shown by the continuous rise in the inflation rate. I mean, not everybody is content with the way the government is being run, and that’s not a good sign for the Duterte administration.