Party lines

PAMPANGA IS “99.5 percent” the bailiwick of the newly merged Lakas-CMD-Kampi Party.
So enthused 2nd District Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo as 311 elected officials at all levels took their oath of office as members of the adm admtration party last Monday before a beaming President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“Higanteng partido (giant party),” Mikey’s enthusiasm could not be contained, notwithstanding the conspicuous absence from the oath-taking rites of notable Pampanga political leaders Senator Lito Lapid, his son former Gov. Mark Lapid, Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao, governor-in-waiting Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda, and 4th District Rep. Anna York Bondoc-Sagum.
Their very absence may well tell a story totally different from Mikey’s.
For now though, let us indulge Mikey’s fancy
So what’s with the “99.5 percent”?
Said Mikey: “That 0 .5 percent, we can do without that person. But he’s free to join us.” You’re a dummy if you did not know whom Mikey referred to there.
“This is a party of politicians and sectors,” Mikey said. A potent combination in winning elections there, he did not have to say.
And to the President, the devotion of the son and the obeisance of a vassal:
“We believe you…We love you. These are the generals of your army that will ensure the votes for your presidential anointee.”
Even as he admitted to some “squabbles “ within the ranks, Mikey affirmed that local officials have “united for GMA.”
In union there is strength, hence there’s Union cement. Popped the corn there.
In union there is strength, hence that GMA-sealed unity among elected officials shall seal administration victory in 2010. Maybe, even some premiership for a member of parliament from Pampanga’s 2nd District thereafter.
But that is going ahead of the story.
Watching Monday’s oath-taking event and reading accounts of it pricked my sense of déjà vu: some trip down memory lane with all feeling of dread and none of nostalgia.
It’s the Marcos era there all over again.
“Higanteng partido” was the Kilusan Bagong Lipunan (KBL), the lone monolith built upon the remains of the Liberal Party (LP) and the Nacionalista Party (NP). Yes, Viring, we once had a two-party system here, just like in the States. Patterned after the States’, as a matter of fact: the LP, a poor clone of the Democratic Party; the NP a third-rate trying hard Grand Old Party copycat, to paraphrase Sharon there. Cuneta, the megastar that is, not the Israeli hawk Ariel.
Not only 99.5 percent but all of 100 percent was the whole Philippines a KBL bailiwick, all semblance of opposition – no matter how rag-tag – losing either the elections or life itself. A case in point: the 1978 Batasan elections in Metro Manila where Ninoy Aquino was soundly beaten by one unknown septuagenarian named Floro.
More than “we believe you…we love you,” it was “we adore you…we glorify you” then, total obeisance to the Great Ferdinand and the Beautiful Imelda being the order of the day.
Yet, for all the power, the kingdom and the glory of Marcos’ KBL, it took but a widow in yellow to end its reign, it took but a simple housewife to sweep it to history’s dustbin.
Déjà vu, nay, some karmic cycle ominous here?
For all the power and the glory of the Lakas-CMD-Kampi, it will take but a simple suspended priest to demolish its invincibility.
God forbid! I abhor to even think about it.