Desperate Otso Diretso

THE Liberal Party candidates known by their slogan “Otso Diretso” are in dire need of a crowd for a much needed cathartic ego massage. They have gone around trying to muster an audience which would listen to their peroration but even their colleague Mar Roxas had gotten tired of their campaign refrain and opted to split away from Otso Diretso.

They challenged the senatorial candidates of Hugpong ng Pagbabago to a debate which Mayor Inday Sara accepted. But with some air of arrogance, they directed the HnP Chairman to come up with the rules of the engagement. The feisty Mayor shot back: “Gawin nyo pa akong secretary?” And did I hear Mayor Inday saying “Ano kayo hilo?”

They have tried every trick. Visiting market places and crossing busy streets single file imitating ducks’ formation. Ducks would amuse people but this band of comic characters is another story. They posted pictures on Facebook but instead of gaining support, they earn some unkind sneer. But people cannot be faulted. They abhor shaking hands with market vendors and in some video clips which naughty characters posted on FB, it shows people they tried to reach out to apparently not interested and even avoided them like plague. What a pathetic scene.

So desperate was Gary Alejano for one that of late he has resorted to dirty tricks. He picked Bong Go, the former Special Assistant to President Duterte as his victim. He claimed that the Department of Interior and Local Government is funding the campaign paraphernalia of Bong. He is actually resonating the criticism of detained Sen. Leila De Lima on candidate Bong Go. The frail woman was earlier quoted by her media attack dogs as saying “where Bong Go is getting his funding”. The former SAP responded with a short and stinging remarks: “Definitely not from drugs or drug lords”.

De Lima had quieted since then but Alejano, an incorrigible apostle of his mistah Antonio Trillanes, had taken the cudgels for her. True to form, however, he used fake news to diminish the popularity of Bong Go by claiming that DILG spent for the t-shirts some barangay officials wore in the first national convention of the Liga ng mga Barangay. In the process moreover, Alejano impleaded DILG Sec. Eduardo Año who vehemently denied his allegation. “You are barking at the wrong tree”, an angry Año slammed Alejano.

Woe to Alejano and the rest of Otso Diretso for acting like a raging bull in a China shop, he just created another veritable enemy not only in the head of the local government units but also among the barangay officials who attended the Liga.

So hopeless are the LP candidates they coalesce with the Communist Party of the Philippines legal front: Bayan Muna led by Satur Ocampo. What an odd mixture of different political and ideological persuasions this assembly had become. Any which way you look at it, they have succeeded in coming out with a formula for their political suicide.