[ANALYSIS] The Angat Buhay NGO is not enough
True to her word, former vice president Leni Robredo launched the Angat Buhay non-government organization (under the registered name of Angat Pinas Inc.) on July 1, the day after she stepped down from office. And in keeping with her promise of continuity of service, the day before the launch she signed a contract with the Rotary Club of Makati, Southern Luzon State University, and the provincial government of Quezon to construct a dormitory for indigent students.
These twin events had all the Robredo hallmarks: prepared, innovative, calibrated, leveraging personal and institutional goodwill into an initiative that meets an actual need of a disadvantaged sector. And they help explain why the transformation of the massive “people’s campaign” that supported Robredo into what she hopes will be “the largest volunteer center in Philippine history” (as she said during her thanksgiving rally on May 16) is welcome, inspirational, necessary.
But the volunteer-led movement that coalesced around Robredo and her running mate, former senator Kiko Pangilinan, did not only promise the kind of leveraged initiative that improved people’s lives and that defined the work of the Office of the Vice President under Robredo; it also promised the kind of responsible, honest, and effective politics that Robredo and Pangilinan sought to practice.
John Nery supposedly functioned as a consultant to campaign manager Bam Aquino for Leni Robredo’s ill-fated 2022 presidential campaign. This was a campaign that was dead even before it began. All the drama with 1Sambayan and uniting the opposition was just for show as it was Leni Robredo all along who would be the “opposition” standard-bearer.
Now, Nery wants Angat-Buhay to become a coalition of political party’s opposed to Marcos-Duterte. Maybe he’s thinking along the lines of UNIDO under Doy Laurel during the first Marcos administration but how many opposition party’s are there to begin with?
It’s just what is now the moribund (again) Liberal Party and the leftist-militant groups, which are actually the front organizations of the CPP/NPA/NDF. The total vote count of Robredo was 14M. This is less than half of what Marcos obtained. Assuming this is their base, it doesn’t even guarantee a Senate seat. A Robredo political comeback as Senator isn’t likely in the 2025 midterms unless the 14M can be increased to about 25M.
The opposition continues to belittle Marcos’ unity platform. It resonated with the electorate who was tired of the opposition and wanted continuity. This was why it was a landslide. The opposition can’t lay claim to being the silent majority anymore.
Simply put, the opposition is being tone-deaf again. Filipinos will not vote for them in the next election cycle unless they act politically mature; meaning they cooperate with the administration in nation-building. Therein lies the problem, whatever’s left of them still maintain a hardline anti-Marcos-Duterte stance. This isn’t going to win them points with electorate.
It doesn’t help that Rappler is going all-out against Marcos-Duterte and Robredo and her cohorts continue to insist on their brand of “good governance” as their platform. The people didn’t buy it in the last election cycle and they won’t unless Marcos follows in the footsteps of PNoy and bungles during his term.
Senator Risa Hontiveros rightly takes the mantle of opposition leader, being the highest-ranking member of the movement to survive the Marcos-Duterte onslaught. (Now that Leila de Lima no longer holds office, I hope that Hontiveros can dedicate one of her staff members to look after De Lima in detention, full time.) But as both Robredo and Hontiveros know, part of the work of the political opposition must be to continue to organize. In this sense, this third threat is (using the SWOT framework) more in the nature of a weakness, an internal factor. It is a weakness of the opposition to think that, if they are not seen as doing political work, by attending for instance to the anti-poverty or disaster relief campaigns of Angat Buhay, they will not be demonized by the supporters of President Marcos and Vice President Duterte.
Risa Hontiveros as the leader of the opposition is hardly an improvement over Leni Robredo. The two are cut from the same cloth with the same narrative. There is nothing oustanding about Hontiveros’ first term as Senator. It’s not likely that she will standout in her second term for the simple reason that she will be part of a decimated Senate minority.
If the opposition would only listen, they would realize that they can’t win the D and E voters with the promise of ayuda. It also will not happen that they would be gullible enough to buy into the narrative that times were better under the PNoy administration. This has been debunked by the 2022 debacle.
The reality is unless the opposition makes a drastic change in their strategy, they aren’t likely to win back public support for the simple reason that their credibility is shot. Nery’s recommendations are garbage and his reference to the use of the SWOT analysis as the starting point bears no weight.
The “massive” crowds, the glittery “stars” and the focus on Robredo and her daughters did nothing to make them win. The people went to their rallies to see the stars but on election day, they voted for their choices.
What the opposition really needs to do is get rid of the image that they’re a joke. This is how the public sees them.
One big joke.
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