Shortsightedness of the Liberal Party

From Rod Kapunan:

The political shortsightedness of the Liberal Party (LP), Franklin Drilon and Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II wing, in aligning itself with those seeking to oust Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. is obvious. The brewing fight to wrest the Speakership mounted by the Arroyo clan has nothing to do with the reforms about which LP Quezon Rep. Erin Tanada is taking. It is a pure and simple fight between two erstwhile collaborating powerbrokers sparked by that accusation made by Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, implicating the husband of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Jose Miguel Arroyo, to the scandal that shrouded the failed $329-million National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China’s ZTE Corp.

It is a fight involving pride and ego, not to say the continuing quest by the Arroyo clan to consolidate power, this time fronting a proxy in the person of Davao City Rep. Prospero Nograles. There is no issue in this much-ballyhooed fight to necessitate the LP to come out against De Venecia. A change of leadership in Congress is a routine thing that can happen to a politically-laden and bankrupt state such as ours. Neither can it be said the Speaker is being ousted because he is stonewalling the passage of vital reform measures of which the LP Drilon-Roxas wing is hallucinating. For that matter, there is no clear-cut delineation between the two politicians, except that one is on top while the other wants to grab the saddle in the most pathetic fashion of acting as gladiator for the two sons of Mrs. Arroyo, Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo and Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo, and their uncle, Negros Occidental Rep. Jose Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo.

Previously, Villar, along with a few NP senators and Erapists, sought the help of Administration SEnators to get help him elected as SEnate president.

Now Mar Roxas and the Liberal Party, knowing that Erap's probably not gonna endorse Mar, and not wanting to be the party that has little or no influence, allied themselves with the administration to bump LAKAS out of GMA's ruling coalition and punish Jose De Venecia for not putting the kibosh on his son JDV III. (For the LP, this also means magiging mas influential na ang LP kaysa sa LAKAS sa GMA coalition, even with Nograles as Speaker.)

By lending a helping hand, they are doing more damage to their party as it means that even before the 2010 presidential elections, they already contracted much of their influence for unnecessarily aligning themselves with a political party abhorred by the people. For that matter, either way the fight for the Speakership will turn out, the voters will punish the Drilon-Roxas LP wing for joining the fray that has its underpinning on the right of Malacañang to place its pivot man in Congress. Pursuant to that, the deciding factor will not be on whom the people will vote, but on the candidate who bravely fought against the undeclared dynastic-dictatorship of Mrs. Arroyo. Even important issues will be sidelined because political emotions will run high with the people dichotomized to voting for or against this regime. This is dangerous for in murky situations where they have been obfuscated with hatred, often it is the most articulate demagogue that emerges winner, and not the one with a sober and sensible platform of government.

Exactly. Nobody's buying their excuse bullshit na they can't get any reform bills passed raw because of Speaker de Venecia. Trapo JDV has many faults, and I'm no fan of Yoda de Venecia myself, but the timing of his removal is all wrong. The (real) reason for his removal is all wrong.

Why is the Liberal Party so eager to be the hatchet men for the Arroyo coalition? You can't tell me Mar Roxas doesn't know what going on with his party. He's their leader for chrissakes. Say it aint so, Mar!

Tell me I'm incorrect in my analysis here. I'm interested to hear what Peter Lavina and Kevin Chua has to say about this.

UPDATE: Read the highlighted parts of Ruffy Biazon's blog at MLQ3.

UPDATE: here's kevin's response:

Should there be a fuss if the Liberal Party (LP) of Senator Mar Roxas voted against the former House Speaker Jose de Venecia? I think it's just an over reaction. After all, the LP was deprived from having a representative in the Commission on Appointments, House committee chairmanships and its priority bills were not given a chance thus further isolating the party.

Such is life when one belongs to the minority party........ Unless really LP considers itself part of the Arroyo Majority but feels that it has been treated unfairly, like an unwanted stepchild compared to KAMPI, LAKAS and NPC.

But if that is the reason, then fine. The LP has put party interest ahead over doing what is right. There are many things i don't like about JDV, but does anybody really believe that JDV would have been replaced anyway if his son did not tell the truth about the Arroyos?

Why play the role of the Useful Idiot for the Arroyos?

Removing JDV because they offended the arroyos is like impeaching erap for having extra-marital sex.