Tamano: How to tell if one's an Opposition senator

From his tribune column:

With the elections over and the apparent realignments in the Senate on who constitutes the majority (Manny, Alan and Chiz) and the minority (Loren, Ping, Noynoy and Sonny Trillanes IV), the public has become confused as to who are the “genuine” — meaning real and authentic —oppositionists and those who are mere opportunists. To help the voting public, which gave the GO an overwhelming mandate, overcome this confusion, some benchmarks must be given to determine who are truly with the opposition and who are not.

First, the following three broad issues will determine one’s true political leanings: (1) Corruption; (2) Charter change (Cha-cha); and (3) Human Rights or extra-judicial killings. Obviously, a senator who claims to be with the opposition but refuses to push a Senate investigation on Joc-Joc Bolante, “Hello Garci” and Jose Pidal, the top three corruption scandals according to our surveys during the elections, is not an authentic oppositionist. Similarly, a GO senator who supports Cha-cha prior to 2010, against the obvious sentiments of the Filipino majority, will be shown to be a phony. In the same vein, a GO senator who refuses to take the administration to task over its lousy human rights record should rightly be viewed as an administration hack.

It is your actions that determine your opposition status, not your press releases or comments to media. That said, the choice of Senate president, alone, cannot determine one’s status as opposition or administration.

Tama si Adel. I'll add to his list. If a self-proclaimed opposition senator refuses to support an investigation on Bedol/Maguindanao election mess, then he's not really opposition but a pro-administration mole.