With the scrappy players and the weak management that remain, it is almost certain that the LP is on auto-pilot to insignificance by 2022.

The Liberal Party (LP) seemingly injected itself with renewed energy and vigor with the revitalized Vice President Leni Robredo taking on a role with teeming relevance and substance to bring to this administration. But with nearly three years out of the game, her rustiness is showing with her eagerness to fall into the political game set into motion by President Rodrigo Duterte. He instantly stepped on the brakes on her hot streak in his recent interview, where he warned that Robredo will be fired instantly should she reveal state secrets to the public.

This was as if Duterte, the driving instructor of Robredo, stepped on the emergency brake pedal for her own and the public’s safety, slapping her back into the reality that she is a mere amateur driver in this game, clearly out of her league. This vehicle, with the rest of the Yellow lampoons holed up in the back, each acting as useless nosy backseat drivers, has been picking up speed to viciously crash into a crowd of people. Better hold on to that student’s license, Madam Vice President.

In this interview, the President commented on Robredo’s spree of meeting with US and United Nations officials that she is prohibited from sharing state secrets: “There’s a limit to that. I know that she’s a lawyer and she has other advisers… There are certain matters that should be kept with the government, that classified matters cannot be shared. Once (she does) that, she’s out, I would fire her.” Of course, the President was being diplomatic by giving credence to the reputability of Robredo’s advisers, but the fact is they’re nothing but clowns acting on their own agendas (i.e., the story of the Aquino administration).

In this brand of politics, the LP has fared next to a deaf-mute, guaranteeing its spiral fall into nothingness, perhaps even before the ushering in of the next administration come 2022. Take for example what remains of LP in Congress. In the House of Representatives, LP allied themselves with the majority, which is a wise move given the uncertainty on the speakership next year, with Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano vying for an extension to the detriment of Speaker in-waiting, Rep. Lord Allan Velasco.

The story is vastly different in the Senate with the three remaining LP senators each doing their own thing. Sen. Frank Drilon has been on a blitzkrieg with his daring criticism of the administration’s gem, the “Build, Build, Build” program, as a “dismal failure,” and in not giving Sen. Bong Go and Bases Conversion and Development Authority president, now Presidential Adviser for Flagship Projects, Secretary Vince Dizon, any respect during the budget hearing of the Philippine Sports Commission.

Sen. Kiko Pangilinan is usually silent, but he did commit geopolitical suicide in his statement supporting Hong Kong in its protests against China, our friend and ally. He better not make the mistake of travelling to China soon, else he’ll suffer the same fate as former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and former Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario. As for dear detained Sen. Leila de Lima, she launched a website that will fact-check the administration, similar to what Rappler and Vera Files are doing, both contracted fact-checkers of Facebook Asia-Pacific (of course since one of FB’s heads in the Philippine office is a known dilawan supporter).

The yellow media has been incessant as well in their effort to destabilize the administration. One particular newspaper has been publishing stories to show that the international community supports Robredo to become president, and awarding Sen. Drilon a headline to remind us of his existence. These hints are picked up well by the educated public and it is better to tread carefully.

Case in point: One of the huge media outfit’s franchise is still in peril and may lead them to nothingness pretty soon.

Imagine the LP to be a basketball club that performed satisfactorily well in the previous season. Its star player, former President Noynoy Aquino, now sickly and unwell, is now hiding from the public. Their supposed franchise player this season, Mar Roxas, bombed out of the recent elections and is nowhere to be found. Its pool of young players in Congress have joined the opposing teams. Its public relations office has resorted to releasing fake news on its team’s actual situation, causing them to lose trust and credibility with the public. And with the scrappy players and the weak management that remain, it is almost certain that the LP is on auto-pilot to insignificance by 2022.