By: Edcel C. Lagman
Party discipline, political stability and personal self-respect of the reelected and newly elected members of the House of Representatives in the 17th Congress will be tested once again in the furnace of frenzied recruitment by the political lieutenants of presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte.
The raid, which has begun, is expected and inevitable. The courage to resist by the targeted victims is ideal, but the eventuality of capture is traditional.
Many do not wait to be recruited. They voluntarily apply for inclusion with alacrity in the administration party. It appears that the magnet of a new administration is inordinately insuperable and irresistible.
Will the fear of political marginalization supplant the will of the electorate who voted for representatives presumably following party lines and party platforms? Will the enticement of committee chairmanships rescind the elected representatives’ covenant with the people who voted for them as members of particular political parties? Will self-interest dominate self-respect as shifting partisan loyalties rule the day?
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