EDITORIAL – An executive must have funds. Legislators need not.

The Senate has traditionally been the training ground for future presidents. It ceased to be so during martial law when Ferdinand Marcos cracked down on the senators, any of whom could be a potential contender.

After jailing most of the senators, Marcos began a systematic transformation of the Senate, filling it with supporters whose only claim to legislative prowess was their ability to do his every bidding.

The Senate, reconditioned to perform according to the new system hatched by Marcos, slowly became a sick joke. And the Filipinos, always impressionable, slowly but surely began to take this as the new order of things.

Of course there are exceptions. But the sector of the voting population that is not given to gimmickry is slowly vanishing. The vast majority of the people, steeped in showbiz even in their news, cannot make the distinction between entertainment and legislation.

And so, with qualifications reduced to the ability to sing, or the good fortune of marrying a star, the Senate has totally, yes totally, given up the distinction of being the breeding ground for great and true national leaders.

Those who do not believe this to be true can only look at the kind of politics the senators are playing. Even in their own game they lack both the substance and the finesse to be good politicians. Their arguments totally lack logic.

Take the issue of the pork barrel, which has always been the bone of contention between lawmakers and taxpayers. According to the senators, they are willing to give up their pork barrel if the president also gives up her discretionary fund.

In case the senators have forgotten, the president, as an executive and an administrator, is supposed to have funds. Senators, being legislators, are supposed to legislate. They are not supposed to handle any money but their own salaries.