The truth is that while the police are an integral part of decongesting traffic flow in the metropolis, managing the task rightly belongs to the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) by law. Hence, it can only be the MMDA that can undertake such a project. In case the police leadership in Camp Crame has never heard about it, the MMDA had such a traffic monitoring project but the incumbent "genius leader" of the agency, Bayani Fernando, deemed it fit to shelve the entire effort. The irony is that the project was inherited by alleged NBN broker and resigned poll chief Benjamin Abalos Sr. when he came in as MMDA chairman. Apparently, the project contractor felt he was close enough to Abalos to actually screw the implementation. As if to prove the point, he even had the audacity to have one traffic camera installed so that half the screen used by the MMDA to watch the traffic flow in the area was actually blocked by an electric post. The project was subsequently accepted and paid for by the Abalos MMDA.

This is the kind of deception that the opposition will have to contend with as it seeks to unseat Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. It is the same kind of deception that the minions of the Palace undertake when they argue that the Filipino people are tired of "people power" based on the attendees of the denunciation rallies. They want us to ignore the principle of the thing and the fact that their economic policies have made most of us so poor and tied up with making a living that attending anti-administration rallies is a luxury.

When the way the administration holds on to power shames the intestinal fortitude of a pinworm, the opposition should muster the broadest coalition of forces behind it to "exterminate the greed" that reigns in our country. What is needed is an opposition leadership that can galvanize such a coalition. Not just from the progressive and cause-oriented groups but also the moderates, big business groups, the Church, anti-administration traditional politicians and even the guilt-ridden segments of the administration. As former Vice-President Teofisto Guingona Jr. put it, what the country needs are new and fresh faces to lead the struggle against the oppressive and deceptive policies of the current administration.

Last Friday's anti-administration rally in Makati was an excellent example of building and mobilizing an effective coalition against the current administration. The political and economic spectrum was well-represented and nobody tried to grab center stage. Commendable as well were the efforts of Makati Mayor and United Opposition head Jejomar Binay in bringing together the various groups and in negotiating with police authorities to keep the whole thing peaceful. It was also a worthy learning experience on coalition-building, achieving justice and fighting graft and corruption.

As much as they are meant to express the collective outrage of Filipinos not just against the NBN deal, the planned protest actions in the coming weeks will be a weeding out process within the opposition to find such a leadership. And, there will be no shortage of issues to protest. That is virtually guaranteed at the rate things are going. It will be a leadership that transcends the narrow confines of organizational designations and become real political centers towards which the anti-administration forces can gravitate. Given that any impeachment moves later in the year will be most likely unsuccessful - there are simply too many pro-administration congressmen for that - the emerging anti-administration coalition leadership will be the most logical opposition standard bearers in 2010.