Cebuanos in Lakas senatorial lineup

In our opening column for 2009, we already pointed out that this will be the campaign year for the 2010 elections and true enough, toward the end of January, the national newspapers headlined stories emanating from Malacañang that there was to be a merger between the pro-administration parties Lakas-CMD and Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi). Of course, this hasn’t materialized yet as these two parties are like oil and water… they just don’t mix very well.

Meanwhile, a couple of weeks ago, The Freeman headlined this piece of news, “Ace, Cerge, Gwen in Lakas-CMD List” which came from a report from the executive meeting of the pro-administration party and revealed by former President Fidel V. Ramos (FVR), chairman emeritus of the Lakas-CMD party. Of course, the names are familiar to most of you; they’re Tourism Secretary Ace Durano, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde, and Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia.

Call it a pleasant surprise that none of the names that appeared in that senatorial list are old traditional politicians of national caliber. Sure, Ace Durano comes from the Durano clan of Cebu and Gov. Gwen belong to the Garcia family that today has a strong political grip on the province of Cebu, but they are relatively new to Cebu politics, while Cerge Remonde has no political background at all as he comes from the Cebu media. None of these Cebuanos had any national exposure in their past and previous lives.

A week ago, I met with Gov. Gwen Garcia and asked her about this and she merely repeated what she already declared in a previous statement that she wasn’t interested in national politics (she even refused an offer to be a vice presidential candidate), as there was still so much to be done in the province of Cebu, more so that we’re in the midst of this global financial crisis. So this leaves us with only two Cebuanos, Ace and Cerge, at least for the administration senatorial line-up.

For those of you with short memories, the last two Cebuanos in the Philippine Senate were Sen. John Henry Osmeña (whose term ended in the 12th Congress) and Sen. Sergio Osmeña III (whose term ended in the 13th Congress). Past Cebuano senators were Senate President Marcelo Fernan during the 11th Congress and Ernesto Herrera who became senator during the 8th Congress and ended his term in the 10th Congress.

These were the senators from Cebu in the post-EDSA Revolt Philippine Senate. Prior to the declaration of Martial Law, the last senators from Cebu were Sen. Sergio “Serging” Osmeña Jr. and Sen. John Henry Osmeña during the 7th Congress. In case you didn’t know, there is not a single Cebuano in the 14th Congress today. This is why Cebuanos are excited that the names of Ace and Cerge are on the initial senatorial list of Lakas-CMD. Of course, we’ll never know if former Sen. Sonny or Sen. Serge Osmeña might also be included in the opposition senatorial slate.

While we’re talking here about the Philippine Senate, one of the reasons why I’ve always batted for that shift to a federal system of government is due to the reality today that many regions in this country are not represented in the Philippine Senate. Yet there are two senators who even belong to one family, namely Sen. Alan Peter and Sen. Pia Cayetano. Call this a serious imbalance that needs to be address right away. Of course, this can be corrected when there is a call for a constitutional convention (con-con).

But this imbalance can be corrected if and when our senators would be elected on a regional or if we turn to a federal system, on a federal basis, just like what they have in the United States of America. A case in point is the election of Illinois Senator Barrack Obama into the US presidency. So now his Senate post was declared vacant and eventually filled up. 

If the Philippine Senate agreed to enact a law to have our senators voted via regions, then it would mean huge savings for people interested to run for a Senate seat, as they would only focus their campaign in their respective regions. An example would be our own Region VII or Central Visayas, comprising the Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor provinces.

Well-known political names from Central Visayas can battle it out on the senatorial front and whoever wins, will represent the region in the Senate. Hopefully, there will be two senators per region who need to be elected.

No doubt Secretary Ace Durano and Cerge Remonde have a huge and distinct advantage over the other senatorial hopefuls in the sense that they are very well known nationwide as compared to many other candidates. But more importantly, their names haven’t been tainted by any scandals in the past.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, “Straight from the Sky,” every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.