For Some Consideration

April 18, 2022 Opinion

No matter how hard they try to justify their abandonment of their presidential candidate in order to join the camp of another one some of the key officials of Ikaw Muna Pilipinas (IMPilipinas) were really just showing their true colors of being traitors to the cause, in this case leaving Isko Moreno Domagoso to the wind and joining the camp of his political opponent Vice President Leni Robredo.

This cannot be termed as political turncoatism which is the act by a candidate of changing his party affiliation to suit his interest and whim, a derisive term for those who have no real loyalty to their political party.

What happened in the case of presidential candidate Isko Moreno is that an aggrupation of volunteer groups under the coalition IMPilipinas has opted, at least for some of their key officials, to suddenly leave the camp of Isko and throw their support for presidential candidate Robredo.

Among those who publicly announced that they have switched sides include Thomas Orbos who is the Naisko Overall Coordinator, Elmer Argaño, Secretary General of Isang Pilipinas, Rommel Abesamis (Naisko), Dr. Rey Sarmiento (IM Nueva Ecija), Atty. George Habacon (Rizal for Isko), and Ed Cojuanco (Warays for Isko.

Thomas Orbos who is a former Transportation Undersecretary issued a statement to the media to the effect that they will just give their support to someone who has a chance to win and while apologizing to Isko for their act justified their leaving by saying that it is not bad to give their support to someone who has the chance of winning. (https:// news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/12/22/ some-im-pilipinas officialsabandon-isko-in-favor-of-leni)

It was also bared that prior to the defection by Orbos and his group the Visayas and Mindanao chapters of IMPilipinas have already left the camp of Isko and joined that of the camp of Robredo.

To add some perspective to the situation it was acknowledged that IMPilipinas is one of the main support groups of Domagoso who urged him to run for president and boasts of several thousand volunteers from all regions of the country.

In the latest news resulting from this brouhaha Phillip Piccio, spokesman and new secretary general of IMPilipinas, claimed that nearly all volunteers of the coalition are still backing the candidacy of Dogamoso for the presidency and they are angry and hurt for what some of their leaders had done in abandoning Isko.

What is more telling in this case however, is the ease by which supposedly avid supporters of a particular presidential candidate will suddenly switch sides and defect to an opponents camp with the flimsiest of reasons such as, “that it would be better to support someone who has a chance to win”.

Here we can certainly see how politics really work and operate in that there are no loyalties to speak of, trust is an illusion and only considerations or the promise of some future benefit to satisfy vested interests is real.

The act of some leaders of IMPilipinas in defecting also validates that saying that in politics there are no real enemies or real friends. In fact it is rare to find honesty and integrity in bed with politics since the only consideration in this kind of circus is the ambition to win at all
costs and to see to it that you are on the side of the winner.

Of course those who possess discernment would easily see that what most likely happened is that due to previous entreaties by the camp of Presidential candidate Robredo to have a united front against presidential frontrunner Bong-Bong Marcos, ostensibly to defeat him, this particular group of IMPilipinas led by Orbos was enticed to switch sides for as yet some unknown consideration.

The condition for the defection is most likely quid pro quo, something for something, and in all likelihood involved some kind of financial consideration. This is obvious because if the IMPilipinas group of Orbos really wanted to join and support a candidate who will likely win then they would have gone to the presidential frontrunner Bong-Bong.

Unfortunately for them the camp of Bong-Bong Marcos does not need to convince other opposition camps to join him and has need been going around trying his best to do just that. Unlike that of course the camp of Robredo who had previously and publicly been in talks with the other presidential candidates to try and convince them to join her group so that they will have more supporters and presumably more voters on their  side than Bong-Bong.

Knowing that the camp of Robredo is now in dire straits and desperate to catch up with the presidential frontrunner it was really very easy for Orbos and his group to offer themselves as force multipliers and hopefully add to the number of voters who will choose Leni come election time.

It is quite unfortunate that this mercenary arrangement entered into by Orbos and his IMPilipinas group with Robredo came about a little too late given that there are only about 29 days left before the voters troop to the polls. But obviously if aside from promises made some hard cash was also included in the deal then Orbos and his group would have need to exert some overt effort to help and support the candidacy of Robredo.

As to Isko Moreno Domagoso this is an eyeopener for him on what he considers more valuable as a politician, those who trust him and are loyal to him or those who only mouth their support but are easily swayed by some consideration dangled in front of them and have no qualms leaving his side.