My negative vote
There was a time, which many people call as the “First Quarter Storm”, when young college students marched down the streets in somewhat violent degrees and made eloquent and fiery speeches in front of government institutions. Their patriotic courage suppressed their human fears. Prodded by their love of country, they formed massed actions within the perimeter of Malacañan Palace, staged rallies near the Philippine Congress, demonstrated at the grounds facing police and military headquarters and shouted slogans not far from the US embassy. Young professionals often joined their ranks while some chauffeured businessmen could only pray for their good health. Idealism and nationalism intertwined in an indestructible union not entirely unlike a man and a woman getting married for better or for worse.
If these people were to band again to form a solid group organized to campaign for certain candidates in the 2013 polls, they will undoubtedly mark the dawning of a new era of patriotism and who am I, in my insignificance, who will not join them. To that movement, cause, if you may, I will contribute the last few pesos that I have been saving all these years as I will give it every ounce of strength I can muster. It can be the least act I can offer to my country.
But, I am stating an ideal. As it is, it lacks in realism. So, since I am not sure if such a merging of the forces of the idealist and the nationalist is ever to be launched, I will be content with sharing with you, in this column, a plausible embodiment of that ideal. Starting in this article today, I will express my personal political aspiration by telling you who among those who have so far filed their certificates of candidacy for senator, I am not voting for.
Generally speaking, I wish the senate to become an assembly of the less privileged and those whose names can be found only in the list of ordinary citizens of the land. The incoming roster of senators, in my mind, has got to carry names that perhaps are, initially at least, unfamiliar to most electors. This wish is anchored on the supposition that the senators coming from the ranks of the real common tao will make it their only sworn duty to advance the common weal and nothing else. They have no vested interests to protect and no private domain to corral with their permeating influence. Negatively said, I do not want to see again a senate being a clique of the few families who have dominated national politics since time immemorial.
Having said that, I will deny the Enriles, the Ejercitos, the Angaras, and the Cayetanos my vote. I will not vote for Congressman Jack, Congressman JV, Congressman Sonny and even Senator Peter Alan, as senators, in May 2013. To me, their presence in the senate is misrepresentation of the most grotesque and disproportionate sense. Why should there be two members each from these households (excepting hopefully, the Cayetanos) to sit among 24 senators of the land members ostensibly representing more than 90 million Filipinos? Sila ra jud! I cannot believe that there is no other intelligent and dedicated public servant among the rest of the Filipinos.
I will explain my rejection of these candidates starting in this column today with the Enriles. During the launching of the book of Hon. Juan Ponce Enrile, and in the television interviews that followed, I perceived that the senate president tried to give another version to the much reported event called “his ambush”. To recall, one of the basis for the proclamation of Martial Law in 1972, was a daring attempt on the life of the then secretary of national defense. We were led to believe that the communists had descended unto the streets in the city. That was the first version.
But, soon after the assumption to power of the late Pres. Corazon C. Aquino, the senator, profuse in his apology to the nation, revealed that the reported “ambush” was a fake. It did not happen. I called that revelation as the second version. Yet, recently, he said that the “ambush” was after all true. I will reply to this third version with “Oh really?”
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