Politics of shady characters

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While enough if not too much media attention is given to the blurring line between entertainment and politics, there seems to be less discourse on how Philippine politics has likewise been invaded by those whose adherence to the law are in question.

A former president whose incumbency was hounded by controversy now sits in the supposedly hallowed hall of Congress, the greatest threat against her stint at defying gravity being the Truth Commission formed by the new Aquino administration under former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, who swore her into office.

Confident that she shall remain untouchable despite the expiration of her presidential immunity thanks to the cronies she strategically positioned in government, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo remains in power with probably enough money to make the Marcos ill-gotten wealth look like crumbs from her dinner table.

Some tables away from her sits another woman whose name made it to history books for subjugating the Filipinos under a conjugal dictatorship.

Imelda Romualdez-Marcos, widow of strongman Ferdinand Marcos who ruled beside her husband, took on the post her only son, Bongbong, vacated in his successful bid for a Senate seat.

Known as a self-proclaimed advocate of “the true, the good and the beautiful,” the Marcos matriarch remains good and beautiful by concealing what is true as she continues to evade dogged efforts of repossessing the purportedly vast amount of wealth she and her husband have taken from government coffers.

Also free to walk the archipelago and influence the political arena is former President and convicted plunderer Joseph “Erap” Estrada.

Although he lost by 5 million votes to President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III, he provided tough competition—to the point of making those voting for other candidates vote for Aquino out of fear that he would win by some twist of fate.

But twists of fate must be the least of our worries. The fact that Estrada was the runner-up in the last presidential elections is proof of how this misguided electorate easily forgives and thus, by the old adage, forgets.

Erring politicians are opposed, protested, spat at, cursed and ousted and yet lovingly welcomed with open arms at the slightest indication of remorse—in an exceptionally infuriating case, at one insincere apology.

This government is run by wrongdoers.

And as if to draw attention away from the fact that this administration is powerless over the powerful accused, the spotlight turned to Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who went into exile after he is implicated in the murder of publicist Bubby Dacer and his driver.

Failing to hit the bull’s eye in broad daylight, this government takes on a dartboard in a dark room, giving them an easy excuse: their vision is limited, the target is concealed.

And what happens if Lacson returns to face the charges? Only time will tell, they say. But in a country where forgiveness happens in the blink of an eye, we can foretell: Filipinos will forget.

Until politicians again fear the Filipino public’s wrath, ours shall be a government of shady characters.