Sen. Miriam’s most endearing legacy to Filipinos?
Way back in 2011, Sen. Miriam Santiago gave us hope with her Senate Bill No. 1967 proposing to put the kibosh on the most shameless habit of politicians: taking personal and undeserved credit for projects wholly funded by tax money. This was the “anti-epal” bill, a word play on “mapapel”—meaning role- or scene-stealer, credit-grabber or garapal! But last we checked, nothing has happened—zero, zilch, nada! After all the sound and fury, she seemed to have totally forgotten about it. The people continue to suffer in silence in the face of the unending test to their patience and insult to their intelligence.
Now comes another juggernaut from the same senator: School dropouts have no business being in Congress. (A group of buffoons, by the way, is called a congress!) Some of them are in the Senate, she lamented. For just boondoggling (because they really have no brains for honest-to-goodness legislative work), “do we really want to pay them (P1.4 million a month in salaries)” (“Senators take home P1.4M a month–Miriam,” Front Page, 1/29/14)? Although with half a mind to see it as just another publicity stunt, we cannot help but agree with her again on that one.
We have been remonstrating many times in the past against a perverse constitutional provision that guarantees to anyone, including the half-educated or downright “uneducable” (to borrow one of Santiago’s infelicities), the right to seek public office—even the highest office, the presidency! And while at it, we were also batting for the raising of the bar on the right of suffrage. One cannot go without the other, like horse and carriage. Considering the self-inflicted mediocrity of our voting masses, is it ever any wonder we have somewhat remained the basket case of Asia?
We can only wish that the vociferous senator will someday start making even just a small walk out of her big talk. The people expect her to do something in more concrete terms, aside from merely pandering to the adulation of the media. Given her rhetorical persuasiveness and gung-ho pushiness, her “anti-epal” bill should have already become a law. Indeed, having mastered the art of hectoring her colleagues, she should have had no problem bamboozling everyone in Congress into enacting that law and putting an end, at least, to one of our major miseries. That might have been her most endearing legacy before leaving us to join the International Criminal Court in The Hague. But there is still time and our fingers have remained crossed to this day.
—STEPHEN L. MONSANTO,
Monsanto Law Office,
Loyola Heights, Quezon City,
