Hontiveros, Aquino, Pangilinan — Mismatched Branches: Did Anybody Actually Think It Would Work?

By Vincent R. Pozon

Politics is politics, cause is cause — and perhaps the twain ought not to meet.

Immediately after the elections, the much-touted fusion of Risa Hontiveros, Kiko Pangilinan, and Bam Aquino disassembled. The gentlemen reached accommodations with the Senate majority before the new Congress had even convened, leaving Hontiveros alone in a bloc now reduced to a party of one.

The fusion made for a compelling story during the campaign, especially in wooing the young. But did we really expect men drenched in politics through several terms to simply towel off the influence and culture of politics?

From where I stand, as a progressive — and I can’t pretend to speak for all who share my politics — this arrangement struck me as more hopeful than feasible. Or rather, more advertising than authentic. Watching seasoned politicians clasp hands with a lifelong activist may have offered the comforting illusion of fusion. To imagine that such disparate stocks could be grafted into a single, thriving trunk was a notion perhaps only the politically naïve could indulge — and that is writ without malice.

Horticulturists will tell you: grafting is far more likely to succeed between closely related species.

A citrus branch to a citrus rootstock, never mango to acacia.

There are things that simply cannot be fused together

The men know a different world, and their hearts remain there. Pangilinan knows the comforts and mechanisms of family enterprises and politics; Aquino carries the legacy of a great political clan whose history is intertwined with the state. On the other side of the moon is Hontiveros, who rallied and railed against governments all her life, hauled into police cars for causes long before it was fashionable to don pink or yellow.

Hands can shake, they can even use the same words — but when you slice open the stem, the fibers tell different stories.

The parts born and bred of politics, and the part that was progressive even while young — did we really expect a good grafting?

The lady’s intention was to grow a coalition of the like-minded and the like-hearted; the gentlemen’s, to return to office, to the lives they were born into — and there, no doubt, to devote themselves to the work as they understand it, pursuing what they believe to be right.

Now these worlds do intersect, but tactically

When Bayan Muna stood beside Manny Villar on the campaign stage, Akbayan beside Noynoy Aquino, Makabayan with Duterte, they understood the “bolting in” to be transactional — something that could work until agendas diverged. They were presented to the public as simply members of a slate.

The packaging of Aquino, Pangilinan, and Hontiveros in the last election was sold to the young as something more profound: yellow and pink and progressive, joined at the hip by ideology.

Now the selling is done — and successful. The grafting failed. The plant refused to take.

Should we be surprised?

I question why they thought it even possible.

In the end, it was not the grafting that failed, but the gardener’s judgment. And if there is someone who ought to feel betrayed, it is the voter — especially the young voters who thrilled at the vision they were promised, now left nursing a lesson harsher than disillusionment.

Vincent R. Pozon

After a year of college, Koyang entered advertising, and there he stayed for half a century, in various agencies, multinational and local. He is known for aberrant strategic successes (e.g., Clusivol’s ‘Bawal Magkasakit’, Promil’s ‘The Gifted Child’, RiteMED’s ‘May RiteMED ba nito?', VP Binay's 'Ganito Kami sa Makati', JV Ejercito's 'The Good One', Akbayan's 'Pag Mahal Mo, Akbayan Mo')). He is chairman of Estima, an ad agency dedicated to helping local industrialists, causes and candidates. He is co-founder and counselor for advertising, public relations, and crisis management of Caucus, Inc., a multi-discipline consultancy firm. He can be reached through vpozon@me.com.