The Opportunist
Written by Lance Bersamina and Chiara Tolentino
Opportunist: (n.) a person who exploits circumstances to gain immediate advantage rather than being guided by consistent principles or plans.
Strike while the iron is hot.
There is an opportunist within all of us. Nothing is necessarily wrong with taking the opportunities presented in front of you and strategically using them in order to succeed, but there is a very fine line between utilization and exploitation, and in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic, we cannot allow the line to be blurred because of manipulation.
Philippine politics has always been messy, causing division amongst Filipinos rooted from mismatched political views. However, since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016, there has been much larger disputes among Filipino political views, dividing the nation in half — those for the administration, and the “left.”
In the current Duterte administration, there is a key figure that has been making the rounds in social media — Former Special Assistant to the President and Head of the Presidential Management Staff and now elected senator in 2019, Bong Go. Bong Go has been making the rounds in social media for his “heroic” actions and statements with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic and the other issues underlying, more specifically, the ones caused by the incompetencies of the administration.
However, this scheme has slowly become less convincing when the word got out that Go was to run for President in the 2022 Elections to somehow continue the ideals of current President Rodrigo Duterte. It’s as if there is a cycle: (1) the Philippine government makes a mess, (2) the people react negatively, and (3) our beloved “hero” Bong Go comes out with a public statement to save the day. Notice a pattern here?
Let’s break it down.
Let’s use one of the current issues at hand: the ABS-CBN shutdown. #1: Media giant ABS-CBN was issued a Cease and Desist order last May 4 and shut down its franchise the same day in compliance with the order. Though the franchise has no clear and proven violation (as allegations have already been proven false), the network is known to have multiple constituents who are critical of the current administration. With the shutdown of the franchise, millions of Filipinos are to lose their primary source of news and information and 11,000 Filipinos are to lose their jobs in the middle of a pandemic, while non-taxpaying Chinese workers are not exactly being minded as a new TV show “Wow China” premieres on a government-owned radio station. #2: The people did not take this well. Many companies and organizations have recolored their logos and branding to that of ABS-CBN’s to show their solidarity with the network. #3: Only hours later, Bong Go has already made a statement on the issue as if he already had it previously scripted and planned out. But hey, Bong Go to save the day again, right?
This is not even the only case of opportunism as portrayed by the senator.
Though unverified, Bong Go’s actions have previously circulated around social media when a hospital in Ilocos posted on Facebook thanking the senator for his PPE donations, with his name in big bold letters and a company’s name in smaller text. Previously, many hospitals have been taking to social media to ask for donations as there has been a lack of personal protective equipment to be used by healthcare workers treating COVID-19. An unknown source has claimed that Go had men confiscate these donations from a major hospital in Metro Manila and redistribute these to a provincial hospital under his name. These may only be allegations, but let’s always remind ourselves to be more aware of what the true motives of our leaders are and to not be afraid to speak up if it is not what our countrymen deserve.
Whether or not the PPE scandal is true, we Filipinos need to be cautious about the people whom we put in these positions. This is our government; we put them in their positions, and if they don’t act according to our needs and choose to prioritize their own political agenda, we have the right to criticize them and take them out. Senator Bong Go has been seated as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health since he took office in 2018, yet has failed to act with urgency with the current issue; acting like a hero for problems he himself helped create in the first place.
We do not discourage the administration to help the Filipino people in the means of providing PPEs or fighting for press freedom or whatsoever, of course, but we ask for these officials to act not for their own personal gain, but for the Filipino people. Using this health crisis as an opportunity to leverage your name, status, and chances of winning the next elections as millions of Filipinos are suffering every day is NOT what being a servant-leader is about.
Any government official who has the audacity to capitalize on a pandemic and use it as an opportunity for personal political gain and agenda is exactly the type of OPPORTUNIST you shouldn’t be. The Filipino people deserve more than just to be seen as an opportunity by someone else. The Filipino people deserve more than this incompetent, credit-grabbing, egocentric government.
Open your eyes.
This zero-to-hero is a cheap schtick, and you shouldn’t buy it.
of the people’s [Word] Of The Moment series is a biweekly mini-publication relating a new word or concept to a current and relevant issue today. This week, Lance Bersamina and Chiara Tolentino relates the concept of opportunism to Bong Go’s recent actions during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly during the shutdown of the ABS-CBN franchise.
If you’d like to submit to the series a word, a concept, a topic or a piece of writing, you can email us at weareofthepeople@gmail.com with your name, age and city. We would love to hear from you and have you be part of this growing community.
