Erich M.

Romano 8 - Panganiban
What is wrong with the Philippine Opposition?
Source: benigno (username) (2022, October 13). What is wrong with the Philippine Opposition? Get Real Post.
https://www.getrealphilippines.com/2022/10/what-is-wrong-with-the-philippine-opposition/

Indeed, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. The old adage evidently describes what is likely to be behind the interesting behavior of the Philippine
Opposition nowadays. After a crushingly humiliating rout in this year’s national elections, the Opposition has never been quite the same. It is no longer the
revered “force of good” — a brand it once commanded in a conjugal theocracy with the Roman Catholic Church. The once powerful narrative that was forged
in a “popular uprising” in 1986 that served as its philosophical underpinning is now an inert relic that lives only in quaint museums erected in desperation
within tony private universities and exclusive enclaves by “thought leaders” funded by sponsors with vested interests in the old status quo.

A feeling of entitlement to political power was given a stark reality check by the Filipino people this year and a spurned Opposition has yet to come to terms
with that. Unfortunately, they choose to deal with this rejection by coming up with a bevy of demons that, they insist, worked against their crusade — “trolls”,
“disinformation”, “enablers”, etc. Their attempts to lead Filipinos to believe that behind all these demons is a single leader — current President Ferdinand
“Bongbong” Marcos Jr — is backed by such fury. To the Opposition, Marcos is the equivalent Great Satan that religious nuts invoke to incite inquisitions,
jihads, and terrorist attacks. The fury of the scorned Opposition is indeed upon us. It is fueled by a lack of personal accountability — personal accountability
for the part their political ineptitude played in their own demise.

Unfortunately for the Philippine Opposition, neither fire nor brimstone is raining upon the “evils” of Opposition leaders’ fantasies. At best, their calls to action
are heeded only by a minority albeit a noisy one — noisy because they have at their beck and call the Philippines’ mainstream media institutions. The
Philippine Opposition need a new strategy that is more effective at reaching and converting Filipinos. More importantly, it needs to step up to the role of
providing a good balance to the administration — not just in terms of being contrarian or dissenting for the sake of these, but more as a source of
complementing ideas and points of view.

The key challenge for the Opposition camp today is to get over the monumental butthurt of losing an important election that they are evidently wallowing in.
Sure, it stings to lose, it hurts to be rejected, and it is hard to get back into the meat market and compete for attention and relevance after suffering a crushing
rebuke. Thing is, the latter is what it means to contribute productively to politics (which is a lot different to merely adding noise which is essentially what the
Opposition is doing today). You learn from your mistakes instead of defining yourself by those mistakes ad infinitum.

First thing’s first, the Opposition need to get themselves a new and better leader. As long as they continue to latch on to their traditional ones — Leni Robredo
who turned their lot into a laughingstock, Leila De Lima who is in prison and is not very telegenic nor tiktok-genic, Joma Sison who is hiding on the other
side of the planet, and all the rest who are stained with LOSER forever — the Opposition will never regain their place as mature players in Philippine
democracy. Second, they need a new narrative and a new set of friends. The Yellowtard narrative is dead (literally, in fact — as all their “heroes” either lie six
feet under or are headed there). Communism is a mere sad relic of the Cold War and is irrevocably associated with terrorism no matter what the suits say. And
the ol’ “helping the poor” rhetoric? Filipinos are over that as well or, more to the point, they never really did care about the poor (Filipinos walk by scenes of
poverty everyday and hardly raise a fake eyebrow to express even token “concern”). “Concern” for the “poor” is a mere fashion statement that only students
of chi chi private Catholic schools could afford to harbour. The assumption that poverty is a key election “issue” had long been debunked as well.

Filipinos deserve a better Opposition and not the one they had put up with over the last three decades and continue to put with today. Is there a group or camp
up to the task of building a new proposition for the Filipino people? One that is more forward-looking and less of retrospective fear-mongering one that they
are subject to today? Only time will tell and only a wherewithal to aspire to true greatness will see that happen.

Identifying bias in the article:

1. A feeling of entitlement to political power was given a stark reality check by the Filipino people this year and a spurned Opposition has yet to come
to terms with that. Unfortunately, they choose to deal with this rejection by coming up with a bevy of demons that, they insist, worked against their
crusade — “trolls”, “disinformation”, “enablers”, etc.
- These sentences are clearly bias because it is very opinionated and is written in a way that the opposition will look bad. It is also one-sided
and the author of the article didn’t provide a background on why the oppositions have come up with the words he listed. Also, using “bevy of
demons” in an article just shows that the author is really biased and there is ill intent in writing it.
2. To the Opposition, Marcos is the equivalent Great Satan that religious nuts invoke to incite inquisitions, jihads, and terrorist attacks.
- The author did not cite any source that supports this sentence to make it factual. He just made his own narrative about how the oppositions
might see Marcos as which is clearly a bias.
3. The key challenge for the Opposition camp today is to get over the monumental butthurt of losing an important election that they are evidently
wallowing in.
- This is also bias since the author merely dismissed the real reason why the opposition are complaining and raising concerns over the turnout of
elections. The author did not provide any background again and called it “monumental butthurt”.
4. As long as they continue to latch on to their traditional ones — Leni Robredo who turned their lot into a laughingstock, Leila De Lima who is in
prison and is not very telegenic nor tiktok-genic, Joma Sison who is hiding on the other side of the planet, and all the rest who are stained with
LOSER forever — the Opposition will never regain their place as mature players in Philippine democracy.
- The nicknames are very childish and the author is suggesting in a very unprofessional manner which is biased.
5. The Yellowtard narrative is dead.
- Using a very informal term and a term that is usually used by people who are just against the opposition is very bias and personally, it is
unnecessary especially when it comes to writing articles.

In conclusion, the whole article is very opinionated and it is full of biased statements. The author keeps on writing claims even though he does not
have any background about it and can’t even cite a trustful article that can support his claims. Most statements are very childish and one-sided. It
seems like the author is against the opposition hence the content of the article but biased articles should not be condemned and this is not worthy to
share to the public.