EDITORIAL - Silence of the lambs (with apologies to the movie)

In case you have not noticed, almost nobody who is running for a seat in the Senate has come out with a clear position on the Sabah issue, particularly the bloody incident last Friday in which more than a dozen Filipinos and at least two Malaysians were killed in a clash.

The deafening silence is strange considering that the issue provides a great opportunity for the candidates to open themselves up for scrutiny by the electorate, unless of course they would rather get elected for its own sake and never mind if they do nothing as senators.

The Sabah issue ought to be of great interest to the Senate, not only because it is a deliberative body whose functions include the approval of treaties and therefore a participant in the formulation of foreign policy.

But the silence is deafening. Each and every candidate apparently views the issue as highly volatile. They would rather stick to their campaign and keep what chances they have of winning than speak out and give the electorate a choice that could put their chances at risk.

By this silence, therefore, each and every candidate has shown the electorate their unworthiness to rise to occasions of great importance to the national interest. The only interest that is of importance to them is their own.

Providing the electorate with an informed choice is clearly not in the vocabulary and agenda of the senatorial candidates. They know that if they speak now, the substance of their persons will be exposed and the chaff will be separated from the grain.

By their silence is reinforced the growing suspicion that this senatorial election, more than any past election for the Senate, is the worst in terms of choices. Not only are party lines and advocacies fuzzy at best, there is no clear difference between one or the other.

One candidate is just the same as the rest. They are interchangeable pieces of the same puzzle -- the puzzle of why people are even electing them in the first place. This is the worst batch of senatoriables. No wonder they have nothing at all to say.