Ululating Joe de V
SOUR, INDEED, are the grapes of wrath.
On the eleventh hour, when the inevitable is all but come, Jose de Venecia, clutching at straws to hold on vainly to the Speakership, gasped – not his last – but breathed fire, spewing an acerbic mouthful at Malacanang.
Joe de V could have been a courageous Custer making his last stand, or a heroic Bowie defiantly dignified at the Alamo. Instead, he chose to be a whimpering wimp, straight out of the cartoon channel in the person of Daffy Duck. Yeah, that character defined by his saliva splattering “Despicable” ejaculations.
So, what could be Joe de V’s finest moment – his privilege speech before his impending ouster – morphed into a pathetic ululation of ad hominems, ad misericordiams, and non-sequiturs befouling the air of reason in that inappropriately named august chamber. (And as any student of logic knows, those Latin terms make some of the (ir)rationalizations that comprise the body of Material Fallacies of Reasoning.)
Short of directly calling the President ingratitude herself, Joe de V lamented how he picked her as his vice presidential bet in 1998, nurtured her politically through the Lakas-UMDP, backstopped her through EDSA 2 and the 2004 elections, stood unflinchingly by her through the impeachment and coup attempts.
“I was there” by the side of the President. So Joe de V punched his lamentations. And in return for this dogged loyalty, what did he get? Straight in his gut, GMA’s alleged collusion with the cabal to oust him from power. Truly, the unkindest cut comes from the one you give yourself to most. So implied the “betrayed” Joe de V.
“Corruption, perfidy, and double cross and triple cross,” maledicted Joe at Malacanang opening a Pandora’s box of the broadband deal with China which – echoing his son’s allegations – he claimed was overpriced by $200 million, of siblings Mikey and Dato Arroyo holding the tap of the pork barrel, the road user’s tax and other largesse for the congressmen with Malacanang-provided contractors for the projects.
Noble, heroic, stirring even, was the call of Joe de V for the members of the House to form “a new majority, not beholden as beggars to the sons of the President.”
But who would heed his call? Alack and alas, Joe de V’s celebrated “rainbow coalition” is long gone. The congressmen having found the gold at rainbow’s end, in the hands – not of leprechauns – but of the presidential sons’.
Still slugging at Malacanang, Joe de V warned he would resurrect the spectre of the elections of 2004.
Said he: “I wish I could discuss it at another time. But I know of many attempts to tamper with the results of the 2004 elections.”
Well, Joe de V had all the time during the impeachment hearings. He squandered it all. And now he wants a second time?
Smugly complacent in his high perch at the House, confident of his Torrens Title to it, Joe de V forgot there is a greater power than himself. And he paid a price for this lapse.
No, impassioned arguments and all, Joe de V did not end up fighting. He simply ended pathetic.
On the eleventh hour, when the inevitable is all but come, Jose de Venecia, clutching at straws to hold on vainly to the Speakership, gasped – not his last – but breathed fire, spewing an acerbic mouthful at Malacanang.
Joe de V could have been a courageous Custer making his last stand, or a heroic Bowie defiantly dignified at the Alamo. Instead, he chose to be a whimpering wimp, straight out of the cartoon channel in the person of Daffy Duck. Yeah, that character defined by his saliva splattering “Despicable” ejaculations.
So, what could be Joe de V’s finest moment – his privilege speech before his impending ouster – morphed into a pathetic ululation of ad hominems, ad misericordiams, and non-sequiturs befouling the air of reason in that inappropriately named august chamber. (And as any student of logic knows, those Latin terms make some of the (ir)rationalizations that comprise the body of Material Fallacies of Reasoning.)
Short of directly calling the President ingratitude herself, Joe de V lamented how he picked her as his vice presidential bet in 1998, nurtured her politically through the Lakas-UMDP, backstopped her through EDSA 2 and the 2004 elections, stood unflinchingly by her through the impeachment and coup attempts.
“I was there” by the side of the President. So Joe de V punched his lamentations. And in return for this dogged loyalty, what did he get? Straight in his gut, GMA’s alleged collusion with the cabal to oust him from power. Truly, the unkindest cut comes from the one you give yourself to most. So implied the “betrayed” Joe de V.
“Corruption, perfidy, and double cross and triple cross,” maledicted Joe at Malacanang opening a Pandora’s box of the broadband deal with China which – echoing his son’s allegations – he claimed was overpriced by $200 million, of siblings Mikey and Dato Arroyo holding the tap of the pork barrel, the road user’s tax and other largesse for the congressmen with Malacanang-provided contractors for the projects.
Noble, heroic, stirring even, was the call of Joe de V for the members of the House to form “a new majority, not beholden as beggars to the sons of the President.”
But who would heed his call? Alack and alas, Joe de V’s celebrated “rainbow coalition” is long gone. The congressmen having found the gold at rainbow’s end, in the hands – not of leprechauns – but of the presidential sons’.
Still slugging at Malacanang, Joe de V warned he would resurrect the spectre of the elections of 2004.
Said he: “I wish I could discuss it at another time. But I know of many attempts to tamper with the results of the 2004 elections.”
Well, Joe de V had all the time during the impeachment hearings. He squandered it all. And now he wants a second time?
Smugly complacent in his high perch at the House, confident of his Torrens Title to it, Joe de V forgot there is a greater power than himself. And he paid a price for this lapse.
No, impassioned arguments and all, Joe de V did not end up fighting. He simply ended pathetic.
posted by A.Caesar Z. Lacson at 10:26 AM
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