Sink or swim

By Reyshimar Arguelles

You can’t get enough of politicians who have the gall to say the most outrageous things and still get approval. They’re like caged gorillas who incite amazement when they defecate. This is symptomatic of the kind of political system that we have, which is strictly a system of convenience.

Time and again, I have made it a point that there is an absence of genuine discourse on policy-making since Congress has effectively become the best place for brain cells to die. But if this is a necessary stage in the continuous evolution of political life in this country, then we can just watch gleefully as our institutions collapse on themselves at the weight of their stupidity.

This is why it’s totally okay for politicians to say and do things that contradict their constitutional mandate: to serve the people. Because when they betray the very principles that got them elected in the first place, these yahoos are giving us compelling reasons to throw them out.

If we say that the national interest trumps everything else like it always does, then it wouldn’t be right to come out saying our loyalty belongs to the President?

This is what is lost in Senator Bato dela Rosa’s statement when he told reporters he would sink and swim with the President regardless of what happens. It’s understandable of course since Bato and Duterte have always been the best of friends when the latter was still mayor of Davao City, which owes much of its development to its stringent climate of peace and order.

Indeed, Bato would rather be with the President and submit to the wisdom of the leadership than to express any wisdom himself. It shouldn’t surprise anyone, but it is telling of the mindset that most of our leaders have towards their functions as public officials.

But history is rife with examples of right-hand men who would unapologetically defend their bosses even if it means putting their own lives on the line. There is Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s chief propagandist who orchestrated the Third Reich’s massive disinformation campaign about the Nazi Party’s supposed invincibility.

In the end, as the Soviets laid siege to Berlin, Goebbels and his wife killed themselves shortly after Hitler put a bullet in his own head. Now, that is a perfect example of the kind of relationship goals that people who blindly follow their bosses to perdition would love to promote.

But then, there are also those who are on another level of despicable, those who wouldn’t mind throwing others under the wheel to save their own sorry butts.

Recently, the Philippines celebrated the 96th birthday of one of its most important national treasures, former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile. The guy has seen it all, from the Marcos regime’s tyrannical predilections to the EDSA Revolution he helped instigate that toppled the same tyrannical government he had propped up.

For sure, Enrile isn’t the type of person who would sink and swim with anyone. During the post-EDSA years led by the first Aquino government, he was investigated as one of the main conspirators. Later on, after the Duterte-led Supreme Court ordered his release from jail in light of the plunder charges booked against him for his part in the P11-billion Pork Barrel Scam, Enrile would go on to contradict his testimonies against the Marcos administration.

Nothing good ever comes out of making statements supporting a single personality. Public office is a public trust after all. You can only bend over for the people and not for bosses who wouldn’t care less if the world burns due to their own ineptitude.

Whether this government will sink or swim in the coming years, we should know by now where the loyalists stand.

They are certainly not standing for the people.