It’s really hard to fathom the logic of the Yellowidiots. In his latest Inquirer piece “Collecting biases”, Manuel L Quezon III (MLQ3) still claims that they are the “silent majority” based on the simple arithmetic that if you add up the votes of the other candidates of the 2016 Presidential race, you can conclude that President Rodrigo Duterte lost. He also suggests that Duterte’s was more a technical win…
…what happened in 2016 was not that people were convinced to embrace the Great Eagle Father, but that Mr. Duterte’s sponsors identified that there was a minority big enough, if the existing political majority broke apart, to become an electable minority under our weird system where the majority is made to accept a minority president because we lack runoff elections. It was enough to leave all other candidates prepared to fight a campaign which had become obsolete virtually overnight.
Worse, MLQ3 cites the “well-documented balimbing nature of the Filipino” then goes on to use this as bases for discrediting the multiple surveys that have been conducted over the last several years that exhibit the persistent popularity of Duterte. Quezon insists that all this is just an outcome of survey respondents who “claim to have voted for the winner at a greater percentage than they actually did” which creates “the perception of a massive surge in popularity that is as true as it is meaningless.” He then launches into a bit of selective optimism asserting that “it’s only as long-lasting as the next election.”
Whatever, dude. The fact is Duterte obtained the plurality and he won. The late former President Ferdinand Marcos saw how this system wasn’t working which is why he set to change the 1935 Constitution from the republican form of government to the parliamentary, which is what most of our regional neighbors adopted from their colonial masters. It was more practical, cost-efficient and productive. He also abolished the post of Vice-President. The 1987 Constitution is a rehash of the 1935 with the martial law provision emasculated as a result of the Marcos experience. Since then it has proven to be the same as 1935 and the Yellowidiots throw it into the trash can whenever convenient like they did when they ousted former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada in 2001. If Marcos weaponized martial law, the Yellowidiots did the same with impeachment.
MLQ3 likes to style himself as the intellectual political operator. A one-man think-tank of you will. But he is more adept as a curator if you think about it. One cannot deny the Official Gazette was better during his watch. But as far as having his ear to the ground to determine the political pulse of the public, he fails miserably. Social media played a crucial role in Duterte’s victory and continues to do so. It will repeat that role in 2022 what with us being in a pandemic environment. The campaign will be digital.
As for the infighting among the Davao Originals, that cannot be avoided. Just look at the houses of Balay and Samar during the time of Noynoy. MLQ3, former Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda and former Deputy Spokesperson Abi Valte would like to believe they emerged victorious. The truth is both sides lost because both Mar Roxas and Jojo Binay lost as well. 2022 might as well be referred to as the ignominious extinction of the Opposition. While we’re at it, the public is looking for a constructive and effective fiscalizer. After all, this is what the essence of democracy is.
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