Still useful even for the fun of it

Who says that the Senate hearings are wasteful of public funds and useless excuses in aid of legislation? And not far behind like a typhoon procreating another, will the Lower House follow suit with the legislative syndrome?

But unlike the children's song of planting rice is never fun, one thing good, if at all, is that congressional investigations in aid of legislation are always fun.

Take the on-going Senate probe as precursor to the 2010 presidential ambitions, also known as, the ZTE/NBN telecom fiasco that is now replete with the lighter side inputs… Foremost was that of firebrand Senator Miriam Santiago's "patented" outburst cutting down the Senate hearing witnesses as "just fighting over your kickbacks". Such "Miriamesque" mercurial mystique had China as collateral damage for having "invented corruption". As in previous gaffes though, the feisty lady also apologized for her unscripted tirade. What makes Lady Miriam special is that her show isn't a monotony, or ennui, or such humdrum inanity.

Then came Senator Jamby Madrigal eliciting some fun at the expense of beleaguered and obviously tired Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos. Jamby's twitting Abalos as "dead turnip" for his hardly audible answers, though funny in a sadistic sense, sounded unladylike; thus, strewing salt into Miriam's dig at Abalos as needing "some Chinese medicine".

Likewise, an irked Senator Dick Gordon over Senator Alan Cayetano's bashing him for quibbling, had a sharp repartee. He fired back at Cayetano for over-acting as Blue Ribbon chair since he had never been a chairman in the Lower House.

Blighting his otherwise in-depth grasp on economics as his forte, Senator "Mr. Palengke" Roxas, also made a gaffe by citing the ZTE/NBN scam to have further degraded our rank by 10 points among corrupt countries. What's amusing is that the ZTE/NBN thing has just recently erupted, whereas, the most corrupt nations survey was based in 2006 yet.

There was also that legislative quirk when Senator Roxas posed the question in absentia via text message of incarcerated Senator Trillanes. This got the hackles of grizzled Senator Juan Ponce Enrile. The veteran solon argued that as Senator, he had been twice in the shoes of Sen. Trillanes in the past, but unable to participate in Senate sessions/hearings in absentia. Well, that's quite novel for the Senate internal rules to accommodate the young solon.

Further enlivening the Senate scenario was their quibbling on the invocation of CHED chairman Romulo Neri of the "executive privilege", on Sen. Pimentel's query about Pres. Gloria Arroyo's reaction when Neri told her of the Abalos bribe offer. Senators Francis Pangilinan, Nene Pimentel, and Juan Ponce Enrile, et al. took turns for "pogi points" in arguing the Supreme Court ruling on the scope of the "executive privilege".

T'was a pity for Usec Formoso injecting his own joke "Sayang, eh" when asked if he too had been offered a bribe inre the ZTE/NBN deal. Senator Jinggoy Estrada angrily scolded him for his rude "Sayang" comment. Left unsaid by Jinggoy was that Senators can make fun of the resource witnesses, but never should the latter indulge in such banter.

Perhaps, potential funnier sidelights could have surfaced had the unusually "silent" showbiz solons actively taken part in that Senate hearing. In fairness to them, however, who knows they could have put in some sobriety. It's from the perceived naïve that nuggets of true wisdom may often emerge in simple-minded simplicity, that is, without the pretensions of verbal niceties!

Finally, the funniest highlight in all these legislative probes in aid of legislation is that very seldom, if ever, that any important legislation is crafted at all.

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