Throw the Senate bums out in May

In a lame effort at controlling the damage wrought by their scandalous squabbling over pocket-money matters, the rambunctious senators have agreed on a truce. After trading tirades the past few weeks, they probably began realizing they were already washing “dirty money” in public.

For the first time, their own misuse of the people’s money has been exposed. It shocked many of us to learn that while our cash-strapped government was panhandling for donations to help the disaster- and hunger-stricken, our honorable senators were helping themselves to millions of funds in the Senate coffers (savings?) without a moment’s pause—as “Christmas gifts” to themselves!

At the forefront of the “courageous few” who ratted on their greedy and insatiable colleagues is Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago. Kudos to her? Not so fast. The question persists: Would she have done so if she had the same share of the loot? (She and her “naughty” cohorts received only P250,000 each, while the others who were “nice” to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile got P1.6 million each.) Our guess is, absolutely not!

It has been revealed (only now) that this was a “Senate tradition” begun since time immemorial. The incumbents just adopted and followed it through the years. No one ever raised a ruckus before, much less found the moral compulsion to denounce it as legalized thievery. Not even Senator Santiago who has been a Senate fixture since anyone can remember.  Indeed, everyone seemed satisfied as their accounts were fattened equally at each year’s end. And so, the plunder continued.

To be sure, these are the same senators who are now wooing us to vote them back to office.

Let’s all say, enough!  Tama  na,  palitan  na! There are more than 30 candidates aspiring for the  12 Senate seats this year. Let us eliminate all the reelectionists or their clones to drive home the point we want no more of the shenanigans. Give the others a chance to show that public office is truly a public trust—not a staging ground for another round of self-aggrandizement.

What’s the worst that can happen? A do-nothing Senate cannot be worse than one that has been robbing us blind! Still, the neophytes just might prove themselves more worthy of our trust. The bottom line is, we would rather have a bum for a houseguest than a thief!

—STEPHEN L. MONSANTO,

Monsanto Law Office,

Loyola Heights, Quezon City,

[email protected]