For indeed, despite the odds stacked in favor of the incumbent’s candidates, what weighs in favor of the progressives and the anti-GMA candidates is that the regime is so isolated and deeply immersed in the muck of corruption, fraud and anomaly that it tends to commit blunders while desperately staving off criticism and scheming to maintain itself in power, e.g. the debacle in its bid to railroad Charter change. All sides are drawing road maps and war plans to get what they want in the coming electoral circus.

The ruling GMA faction wants to win more seats in congress to remain in power and kill any new attempts to impeach it. The electoral Opposition wants to win enough seats to be able to impeach GMA and eventually take over the reins of government. Progressive party lists and their base of support among the masses and middle class are participating without illusions of becoming dominant and wielding power but to have a broader forum for reaching out to the people, exposing the real situation, and calling for participation in a democratic movement for genuine reforms. Other influential voices are calling for a boycott.

In politics, while material resources and positions of power are important, they are not always the decisive factor in the outcome of particular engagements. The accuracy of the roadmap – that is, the correct reading of the situation in relation to one’s goals, whether one’s plan corresponds to reality or not — will ultimately determine success or failure in achieving those avowed goals.

Mrs. Arroyo and other reactionaries are bound to fail because they overestimate their own strength and underestimate the people’s intelligence, determination and capacity to take destiny in their own hands. BusinessWorld/Posted by Bulatlat (Bulatlat.com)

*Published in Business World
9-10 February 2007

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