POLITICAL parties in the Philippines are generally visionless, since one can hardly call a vision the protection and promotion of vested interests. Sen. Chiz Escudero is, therefore, right to bolt the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) if he thinks he has a vision. For indeed how can you pursue your vision for the country if the party insisted you junk this vision and toe a narrow and self-ser-ving party line?

I doubt, however, as many pe-ople do, if Chiz does have a vision for the country because if so, it should include changing his party’s patronage politics with infusions from his vision. Now, his resignation from the party begs the question of how he can rally Filipinos around his vision if he cannot get his own party behind him on it.

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His situation is the anti-thesis of that of Noynoy Aquino whose Liberal Party supports him in pursuing the vision supplied him by people who believe in what his parents fought for when they were alive.

But if he does have a vision and has given up on his party, Senator Escudero’s alternatives are clear. He either forms his own or joins another party that can relate to at least some parts of his vision. Joining the party of the administration is totally out of the question unless he wants to be shown up as a first class pretender, hypocrite if you like, talking about a vision when all he wants is pursue, in any which way he can, a lusty ambition for the presidency.

He burned his bridges when he claimed he could not fight corruption in government since, to paraphrase him, his party mates are themselves corrupt. He was, moreover, right to say only a united citizenry can fight corruption. He was very wrong, however, to imply that he has better chances going solo for the presidency.

The truth of the matter is when he bolted his party his political ship stopped dead in the water. He knew his presidential dream was slipping away but presumptuous and cocky to the end, he uttered a lot of incoherent nonsense instead of just humbly admitting defeat and surviving to fight another day. He has no vision, after all, just a lot of ambition that must now be put on hold.

He is neither visionary nor hypocrite (but he will be if he teamed up with Gibo) but a young man with ambitions way too big for him to handle at this time. Anyway, the day he bolted from his party and made those unbelievable statements was a good day in Philippine politics. That day a dangerously pedigreed ambition died.

Things are often not what they seem and we probably haven’t heard the last from Sen. Chiz Escudero. His ship is dead in the water. Yet he has talents the country can use. Hopefully, should he restart the engine, he would not be so presumptuous and would have learned his lessons in humility.