Sociologist’s analysis bares ‘elitist idiocy’

This refers to sociologist Joseph Jadway Marasigan’s commentary titled “Eyesores in the Philippine Senate” (Opinion, 11/5/14). I am myself a sociologist. I can’t help but wonder why he only mentioned three senators.

He said Nancy Binay does not deserve her Senate seat because she does not comport as an official of a top government institution. This kind of logic offends the likes of the late Jessie Robredo who wore slippers even during special occasions and Rep. Manuel Zamora of Compostela Valley, who rode a bicycle to the House of Representatives.

Based on the kind of leaders Filipino voters elect, he said Philippine society has gone wrong. Just because the people’s choices do not jibe with a “judge’s” preferences—which, by the way, in Marasigan’s case, are elitist in nature—does not mean that society has “gone wrong.”

Marasigan doubts Bong Revilla’s capacity as a legislator, the latter being from the show-biz industry. Why then didn’t he include Tito

Sotto or Lito Lapid for that matter?

Marasigan pointed out that Revilla’s profile in the Senate website does not include his curriculum vitae (CV). If he had really looked into all the senators’ profiles, not just those of the three he meant to disparage, he would have found out that not one of them carries a CV and all are in narrative form.

And if Marasigan had looked deeper and not just at Revilla’s “Panday” photos, he would have seen that the senator’s credentials qualify him to be a legislator. Revilla started his career in public service in 1995 as Cavite’s vice governor, during which he successfully implemented

antidrug programs as chair of the Cavite Multi-Agency Anti-Drug Council (whose head and members were deemed to be in “mortal danger” because Cavite was the “drugs capital” then), despite being a newbie in politics. When he became governor in 1998, he transformed the province from being the country’s murder capital to one of the most peaceful provinces of the Philippines.

In 2002, he was appointed chair of the Videogram Regulatory Board (now Optical Media Board), one of the most crucial government institutions at that time because of the proliferation of piracy across the country. For his performance in running fearlessly after notorious syndicates and individuals in the illegal trade, the Motion Picture Association in Hollywood gave him recognition.

Since being elected senator in 2004, with the most number of votes in Philippine electoral history, Revilla has filed a total of 746 bills and resolutions. Of the bills, 214 have been signed into law, which makes him one of the legislators with the most number of bills enacted into law.

The same goes with Sen. Jinggoy Estrada who has accumulated a long list of accomplishments since he began his political career.

Marasigan, as a sociologist, should know that poverty and desperation are not caused by senators or the people who elected them. To blame the country’s destitution on the choices that the masses make is purely elitist idiocy.—ANA LIM, [email protected]