Strange bedfellows

After dragging ex-Senator Gringo Honasan from Ingrid’s townhouse around 2 a.m. a few days ago, the rebel with a stitched foot is now part of the “unity ticket” of the administration. Or so, the president’s chief of staff says.

Secretary Michael Defensor was quoted in today’s papers saying that “exploratory talks” had been initiatied with at least six current and former senators perceived to be critical of PGMA. He named them as former senators Honasan, Tessie Aquino-Oreta, and John Osmena, and re-electionist senators Francis Pangalinan, Ralph Recto and Edgardo Angara (or his son Aurora Rep. Juan Eduardo Angara).

Defensor also confirmed to Inquirer’s Gil Cabacungan that the administration plans to ride on Filipino boxing champ Manny Pacquiao’s popularity to boost the chances of its candidates in 2007. “Even without the President asking, Manny will surely support the administration as he did in previous elections,” Defensor said.

Blogger’s Note: We all know that politics is addition. But Defensor’s trial balloon of a “unity ticket” is an algorithm of desperation. What the president’s COS/senatorial candidate really wants to say is this: “If we can’t beat them, let’s adopt them. Never mind if we accused one of them of plotting against the President. Never mind if they will be funded by the Man in Tanay. Let’s unite with them now, parang awa niyo na, so that a few of us can have better chances to win!”

Question: Why even put up a slate to run for an institution that they recently campaigned so hard to abolish? The decent thing for the administration to do is not to put up a senatorial slate at all. It spent millions of taxpayers’ money to advocate for the abolition of the Senate. Certainly, they cannot claim even an iota of moral ascendancy in wanting to be a part of the Upper Chamber. If the administration is sincere in forming a senatorial ticket, they should sign a pact with the electorate that after the 2007 elections is over, the Damocles sword hanging above the Senate shall be no more. Unless they are willing to put that in writing, I suggest that the people not waste their votes on those who speak with a forked tongue.