No Filipino politician will marry his political party

By Alex P. Vidal

“Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party.” – Herbert Hoover

SOME of the incumbent politicians—especially senators and representatives – loyal to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. today are expected to start distancing themselves from Malacañang early this year if they feel he will become a sitting duck two years before the next presidential election.

Especially if the anti-Duterte forces in the lower and upper chambers of Congress can’t eliminate Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio in the impeachment case filed in Congress.

Politics is fluid. No politician in his right mind will marry any political party and stay there until kingdom come.

To refresh our memory, when the late Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Sr. fell in 1986 during the EDSA Revolution, many Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) stalwarts jumped ship and were “rescued” by the late former Vice President Salvador “Doy” Laurel’s United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO).

Some opted to stay behind the “defrocked” party, particularly the “Marcos loyalists,” hoping for the strongman’s political resurrection which fizzled out with his death in 1989.

When Mrs. Corazon “Cory” Aquino took over and became estranged from Laurel, many of them abandoned UNIDO and embraced PDP-Laban, Tita Cory’s official party until 2009.

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When the late Fidel V. Ramos or FVR reigned supreme in 1992, these unprincipled minions hastily formed a beeline to the new ruling Lakas-NUCD party.

Then came Joseph “Erap” Estrada, the country’s 13th president in 1998.

From KBL, UNIDO, and PDP-Laban, these political grutnols and druggles “fled” like refugees to Erap’s Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP).

Everyone knew what happened next when Ate Gloria took over as the 14th president in 2001: the balimbings, bereft of principle, were again in a mad scramble to take oath this time as KAMPI members.

When Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III became the 15th president in 2010, the political pendulum abruptly tilted to the Liberal Party’s (LP) favor in a mass exodus that could dwarf the myth of Israel.

Under the Duterte administration, some LP members not only forsook the party that helped enrich many of them through “pork barrel,” they also burned their bridges by swearing allegiance not only to then President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte’s PDP-Laban, but to many of the hard-hitting former mayor of Davao City’s programs that didn’t sit well with their previous political party.

The mass exodus from LP to PDP-Laban appeared to be “only the beginning.”

Duterte’s political party had been expected to make a major sweep of the remnants of LP and other coalition parties especially when his pet program, federalism, took center stage.

What does the changing of political bandwagon from one disintegrating political party to another ruling party indicate?

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It’s neither a sign of renaissance nor headway. It’s pure and simple opportunism.

Philippine politicians fight for survival and can’t afford to stay away from the political party of those in power.

Many of these politicians have pending graft and corruption cases in courts. Some of them were engaged in a protection racket.

Illegal loggers, smugglers, gambling and drug lords financed some of these politicians during the elections. If the sitting president, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., lowers the boom, they will find their way to the doldrums like tottering fools.

If they are “outside the kulambo,” so to speak, when the new administration beckons in 2028, there are strong chances their slumbering cases will be expedited; and they might end up snoring in the calaboose.

We will wait until President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. makes an exit from Malacañang Palace and another president takes over in 2028.

We will surely see the same political merry-go-round similar to what we saw during the Duterte and Marcos Jr. administrations.

That’s the reality of politics — only in the Philippines.

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Let’s not forget these two substances: resveratrol and rapamycin. Scientists have recently discovered that these two compounds are anti-aging drugs. Resveratrol is found in grapes, red wine and peanuts.

According to LabReport, many of the babies born in 2000 might live until 150! Danish scientist Kaare Christensen and his colleagues have circulated a projection that assumes longevity improvements will continue at their current pace. In that model, more than half the children in the developed world will be around for their 100th birthday.

According to LabReport, scientists are split over whether there’s any biological limit to how old a human can live. But cell biologist Steve Austad has bet public-health professor S. Jay Olshansky that the first person who will live to 150 was born by 2000.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)