Drilon makes for a fine poster boy
It is not too late for Noynoy to save what is left of his floundering campaign against corruption. All he has to do is give a clear go signal to have just one of his many controversial allies -- Senate President Franklin Drilon -- investigated in connection with the alleged overpricing of the P700 million Iloilo Convention Center. He does that and he can have the poster boy he needs to at least sound convincing in his campaign even if most evidences are to the contrary.
It should be no skin off his back to have Drilon investigated. Drilon may be affiliated with his Liberal Party but his allegiances have always been suspect and are remarkable only for the swiftness with which he parlays them to his own advantage. Drilon is not the political heavyweight that his imposing physique suggests. His loss will not be a sink or swim proposition for Noynoy in his remaining time in office.
On the other hand, the gains to be derived from feeding Drilon to the dogs will be enormous. As his poster boy, Noynoy can showcase Drilon to non-believers that his selectiveness in going after corrupt officials is only partially true. And he can allow the rest of his own corrupt clique that he has been trying to protect all along the opportunity to finally heave an immense sigh of relief. Drilon is the crumb he can afford to let fall from the rest of the morsels on his plate.
Letting go of Drilon will relieve the pressure bearing down on his attack dogs in the Senate who are now being bombarded with accusations of being biased, abusive, and ill-motivated because of their unrestrained and undisguised desire to destroy Vice President Jejomar Binay in order to scuttle his presidential ambitions in 2016. The attack dogs need a smokescreen to finish their mission.
Then there is the yellow press that has been left floundering as well for lack of any clear signal from Noynoy on how to handle the case of Drilon. Some cannot decide on such a simple matter as what type of prominence to give the story. One, for simply being cornered, was forced to banner the story and then abruptly drop it and relegate it to insignificance the next day.
The rest of the yellow press have been reduced to amateurish confusion, not knowing which story to give prominence, Binay's or Drilon's, apparently forgetting that both are the first and second in the line of succession to the presidency. As such, their degree of separation is far less than the significance of the fact that after Noynoy, they are the next two highest officials in the land.
Yellow journalists cannot devote kilometer upon kilometer of space to damn Binay and then go completely silent on the case of Drilon. They harp on the fitness of Binay and sweep under the yellow rug the need to also know the fitness of Drilon. Their livers are so jaundiced with bias they do not realize that if Noynoy goes and for some reason Binay cannot assume office, it will be Drilon who will sit as president.
So why the heck is the fitness of Binay the only matter of interest? Is it because they are totally transfixed on 2016? If so, then they are truly motivated by nothing else but politics. Their focus on Binay is anchored on his political designs for that year. They are not truly interested in his real fitness to rule now, on this very day, in the event something happens to Noynoy.
If the yellow horde focuses on the fitness of Binay as next in line for the presidency, then they must focus on Drilon as well because after Binay there is no one else but Drilon. If fitness for office is the real agenda here, it does not serve the purpose to wait until 2016. The fitness of Binay and Drilon, as the first and second in line to Noynoy must be ascertained now.
But as I have always suspected even way back in 2010, this thing about the straight and narrow, this so-called fight against corruption, is just a convenient excuse to acquire power. Just as it was in 1986 when people were so fed up with Marcos that even a housewife will do, so was it in 2010 that people were so repulsed by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that even the son of that housewife will do as well.
But of course not every Filipino would fall for such a simplistic means to address such a complex issue as the leadership of a nation. And so, rather than entrust the reins of power to someone nobody truly gave a damn about before his mother died, more Filipinos actually chose not to vote for Noynoy than those who did. Problem was, they split their majority vote over several candidates, allowing Noynoy to scrape through with a mere plurality than a clear majority.
And because he was just a creation of those whose real agenda was to gain power for themselves, Noynoy just could not measure up to the great expectations that the grand promises made in his name by the campaign instilled in people. For how can Noynoy truly fight corruption when that is just a fleeting notion fed to him by the real manipulators of that campaign. You know who these real manipulators are by the obstinacy and vehemence with which Noynoy defends them.
Unfortunately, the evil that men do have a way of catching up with them. And that is why Binay and Drilon are in the deep shit they are in. And yet it is only Binay that is being fed to the dogs. If Noynoy does not want to get caught up with by his own demons, he better start unloading some extra baggage in his sinking ship. He can start with Drilon who makes for a very nice flotsam. Let the Senate investigate and the yellow press jump up and down, like puppets.
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