Listen, kids. I’m old enough to have seen political parties and coalitions die a thousand self-inflicted cuts. I’ve been in this game since the ’90s, as a politics junkie and a campaign insider. And I’ve witnessed campaigns armed with the advantages of resources, machinery, and voter sympathy collapse because team members couldn’t stop swinging at each other long enough to land blows at their political opponents.

So this online brawl between the camps of senators Risa Hontiveros and Bam Aquino? It will end badly for both sides. You guys need to stop now.

The online warriors on both sides, always preferring euphemism over clarity, call it “healthy debate” and “holding leaders accountable,” turning animosity into some sort of collegial virtue. Let’s be more accurate, shall we? What we have are partisans of two senators who belong to the same movement treating one another as enemies. 

Senator Bam Aquino’s comment on former president Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest by the International Criminal Court was dismissed by Risa stans as capitulation and betrayal. And the launch of “Risa Na!,” Risa’s presidential bid kickoff? For Bam’s fans, a manufactured coronation. And let’s not get started with all this snarking over the issue of banning violent video games. 

This has been an affliction of the liberal opposition and their allies even before they discarded yellow for pink: an almost religious conviction that their chosen candidate is the only  legitimate one. And anyone favoring a rival, even within the same bloc, is an enemy to be shamed. 

It happened in past elections. It’s happening again, except this time it’s not directed at a Marcos or a Duterte. They’re directing fire at each other.

Here’s the hard truth: virtue signaling is not a strategy. Posting those longish essays extolling the moral and intellectual superiority of your candidate does not move a single undecided voter in Urdaneta, Morong, Malabon, Talisay, or Surigao. 

Undecideds don’t get persuaded by purity. They get persuaded by candidates who embody their hopes, who share their frustrations, who can lead them to a better future. 

Doing Sara Duterte a favor

This mindset of political inbreeding needs to be changed. And this behavior could turn self-destructive when the same people who treat a fellow oppositionist like an enemy treat potential allies with suspicion or worse, contempt. I’m talking about local political dynasties, regional alliances, right-leaning or left-leaning groups that are persuadable but need to be courted rather than lectured. 

A winning national coalition must embrace political diversity. It cannot be composed of groups and personalities who share the same virtues. That is not a political coalition. That is a fan club. Fan clubs don’t win national elections.

Should the pink forces continue on this path, Sara Duterte, already a declared presidential candidate, won’t need to out-campaign them in 2028. She just needs the pinks to spend 2026 and 2027 consuming themselves.

Every day spent litigating whether Bam is soft on accountability or whether Risa’s movement is fake grassroots is a day not spent building the ground game. It’s a day not spent building alliances and reaching out to undecided voters.  By grabbing each other’s throats, the pinks are doing Sara a big favor. 

This is not an appeal for fake unity or to ignore real disagreements. Internal debates are healthy. But debates should be insulated from the nasty back-and-forth online that borders on toxic. Anger issues? Vent them on Sara Duterte and the DDS, not a member of the team. 

A run-up conducted like a civil war produces a candidate too damaged to win 2028 and a movement too exhausted and too divided to campaign. Agree on a process now, pick the candidate, close ranks, then go to the voters. 

Otherwise, spare yourselves the tears in 2028. And prepare to spend another six years typing “bobotante” and “ibinoto nyo yan” on Facebook while  crying over your cold Spanish latte. – Rappler.com

Joey Salgado is a former journalist, and a government and political communications practitioner. He served as spokesperson for former vice president Jejomar Binay.