IT’s incontrovertibly an indication of its desperation that the opposition, led by its fake vice president, Leni Robredo, has fielded 11 senatorial candidates whose commonality is that most have been accused by, or are the accuser of, each other of some crime or misconduct.

Just by joining this band, the candidates are announcing to the world that they will drop their principles in a heartbeat for the sake of their egos, which a Senate post inflates. How could former vice president Jojo Binay be with a band that includes Antonio Trillanes 4th, who accused him of plunder and continuously announced he would be thrown to jail before the Aquino 3rd administration ends? In the first place, how the heck did he get the idea that Filipinos want two Binays in the Senate?

Not just unprincipled but, well, stupid. What value would Robredo and her running mate Kiko Pangilinan give to their candidacies? Why, they can’t even give their band a name to tell voters what they stand for or why they are banding together. The Finks? “Labing-isa, kanya-kanya?”

Do they think that the “Le-Ki” tandem would have any funds to throw at them? If they’ll have anything left over, they’ll set it aside for their retirement funds, which, given the odds of their winning, is really their motive for running.

And it is so obvious even at this early stage of the election cycle that the usual big-business contributors aren’t wont to fund losers. The Lopezes, the only oligarch that would move heaven and earth to prevent a Duterte 2 administration, have been practically bankrupted by the closure of their ABS-CBN network and their efforts to keep it alive via cyberspace.

By shutting its door to the Reds’ Neri Colmenares, the New People’s Army would make campaigning in certain provinces very expensive for the Finks. Why Le-Ki didn’t include a Red candidate is quite obvious: the US that is behind it will not tolerate a Red coming into their umbrella. But the US is in such a deep quagmire of several sorts of crises that it cannot really undertake a well-funded, well-organized campaign to put their candidate in power as it did with ease in 1986.

Thinking Pinoy

The very well-respected netizen RJ Nieto of Thinking Pinoy saved me from research work by listing (and providing sources) the bitter quarrels between and among Le-Ki’s band in his viral post and I quote him at length:

“Most members of Robredo and Pangilinan”s senatorial slate have accused the other of, and sometimes even sued each other (including the Liberal Party itself) for corruption-related issues, unparliamentary conduct, etc., some of which resulted in convictions, asset freezes and more.

“Here are some of the details:

“1. We all know that the Liberal Party, where Robredo currently sits as chairperson and Pangilinan as president, spearheaded the demolition of former vice president Jojo Binay’s presidential ambitions via the protracted Senate hearings on Binay’s alleged corruption.

“2. Sen. Antonio Trillanes accused Binay of receiving P200 million in bribes. The Binays retaliated by suing Trillanes for libel, for which the latter was convicted by a Makati court in 2021.

“3. Then justice secretary Leila de Lima supported AMLC’s 2015 freeze on Jojo Binay’s and son Junjun’s bank accounts, and also said the vice president had no immunity from suit.

“4. Binay’s son Junjun in 2015 filed contempt cases against de Lima and others for forcing his removal as Makati mayor.

“5. De Lima also filed graft charges against Villanueva, leading to Villanueva’s conviction by the Office the Ombudsman in 2016.

Gordon

“6. Gordon in a 2016 hearing publicly accused de Lima of concealing vital information about Senate witness Matobato, leading to de Lima’s ouster from the chairmanship of the Senate justice committee because ‘the Senate felt that objectivity was being lost.’

“7. Gordon in 2019 also accused de Lima of receiving bribe money in exchange for prematurely releasing Bilibid inmates via abuse of the Good Conduct Time Allowance Law.

“8. De Lima accused Gordon in 2020 of doing damage control for the Duterte administration, to which Gordon replied by calling de Lima ‘bitter.’

“9. Gordon filed a 2017 Senate ethics case against Trillanes, arguing that ‘censure is not enough’ for Trillanes’ ‘continuing, schematic and incorrigible abrasive conduct.’

“10. Gordon in 2015 accused the Liberal Party of coaxing him to file a disqualification case against then presidential candidate Grace Poe.

“11. Trillanes fired back at Gordon by filing another ethics case, accusing Gordon of ‘unparliamentary acts, language, and/or conduct.’

“12. Zubiri and Trillanes were in a 2017 word war over a Senate probe on the Bureau of Immigration, a word war that almost turned into a fist fight.

“13. De Lima was Koko Pimentel’s election lawyer when the latter sued Zubiri for alleged electoral fraud, which eventually led to Zubiri’s resignation from the Senate in 2011.

“14. Baguilat accused Gordon of unfairness to the Aquino administration after Gordon’s 2016 Senate Dengvaxia Report.

“15. Pangilinan in 2017 accused Gordon of bypassing seven senators, including Pangilinan, in the signing of Senate Resolution 516 on the Drug War.”

Diokno

RJ, however, failed to mention Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno, whom I consider the worst candidate.

Why? Because in 2019 Diokno, with some co-conspirators at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, claimed to represent the “Kalayaan Palawan Farmers and Fisherfolk Association.”

This association purportedly filed a case at the Supreme Court asking it to order the Duterte government to enforce Philippine laws and prevent Chinese ships “from damaging coral reefs and endangering species in Scarborough Shoal and two other areas” in the Spratlys.

However, Solicitor General Jose Calida in a week’s time presented the sworn affidavits of the alleged fishermen that Diokno and his group claimed to represent, in which they complained that they didn’t know anything about the suit and had merely asked the IBP chapter in the area for assistance against poachers. Diokno and the IBP representatives didn’t bother to respond to Calida’s claim and withdrew the case. He didn’t even bother to apologize.

Diokno plotted to force Duterte to confront China on the basis of a fake accusation. This would have given the Chinese the excuse to pulverize our Navy and Coast Guard with their superior weapons, which in turn could have led the US to intervene, which could have led to nuclear war.

The gall of this jerk who calls himself a human rights lawyer to run for senator. He should be in prison for lying to the Supreme Court and attempting to push us and the world into war.

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