Our congressmen’s performance

The term Fourth Estate or fourth power, coined in the mid 1800s, refers, according to the Internet, “to the press and news media both in explicit capacity of advocacy and implicit ability to frame political issues.” Accordingly, this term arose from traditional European concept with the first estate being the clergy, the second estate the nobility, and the third estate the commoners and bourgeois. As it has evolved, the Fourth Estate plays a crucial role in providing citizens with access to information about what is happening in government and holding elected officials.

Here in Cebu City, there is one gentleman member of the Fourth Estate who holds the singular distinction and honor of having been the Editor-in-Chief of Cebu’s two leading newspapers. His name is Atty. Pacheco Seares, “Sir Cheking” to many. After he finished law school from the University of the Visayas with Latin Honors, Atty. Seares was taken by Jose R. Gullas (now in heaven) to be the editor of this paper, The Freeman and nurtured it from its fledgling to its present dominant state. Then, Sir Cheking was tasked lead the Sun Star, as its Editor-in-Chief, from its first issue to its now robust condition.

The other day, Atty. Seares made an observation that nobody else in the fourth estate hereabouts could seemingly discern. In an FB post he said: “Cutie del Mar and Edu Rama of Cebu City have filed loads of bills in the House (of Representatives). Yet, since June 30, 2022, both legislators have passed not one local bill. (Bold and italics, mine). The few national bills each helped pass were co-authored with scores of more than a hundred other legislators.”

Sir Cheking’s view, indeed, fulfills the fourth estate’s crucial role in so factually hard and incisive manner that I, without previously asking his permission, took the liberty of sharing it with some friends and other media personalities in our midst. My apologies, Atty. Seares.

All of those who took time to react to Sir Cheking’s observation completely agreed with him. No one dissented. I have chosen two such concurrences. Here is the first. Mr. Brady Lucero, a former dyRC broadcaster friend of mine and for years, the political man-Friday of the late Senator John H. Osmeña, reacted sharply. Brady remarked, in mixed Cebuano-English that “ug kanang proposals were just crafted by staff and the cong had zero understanding”

Mr. Arthur Tariman, also formerly with The Freeman and now a publicist for an anti-communist group found time to react to the Seares FB post. I’m quoting here his rather sweeping generalization in Visayan, thus: Sobra katunga sa mga sitting Congressmen ilabi na tong gikan sa mga political dynasties and warlord clans way sud ang ulo. Ang kadaghanan members sa silent majority ug ang uban sa noisy minority (morag latang piso ray sud sa kasaba).”

Briefly now on the Seares CB. It is sad to admit that our Cebu City congressmen have not worked for the approval of just one law (bisag usa lang unta) that would benefit Cebu City. In so far as city constituents are concerned, del Mar and Rama have zero performance. Without the brilliance, legislative skill and intellectual depth of such great Cebuano lawmakers as Filemon Sotto, Paulino Gullas, Manuel Briones, Marcelo Fernan, to name a few now with the Lord and Filemon Fernandez and Hilario Davide who still walk with us, del Mar and Rama have nothing worthy to contribute to the legislative process if congressional records were to be based. Yes, as Atty. Seares noted, the signatures of both these Cebu City legislators appeared as co-authors of many pieces of national enactments, but there is none in the journals that would indicate their active participation in floor debates. In short, both del Mar and Rama have not done something equal to the huge salaries and other perks they have this far received. Makauuwaw!