Templates for choosing excellent senators

Let this coming election be a landmark in our history, when the good guy shall finally beat the nincompoops.

If up to this time you cannot decide whether to choose folk singer Freddie Aguilar over experienced statesman and technocrat Raffy Alunan for senator, then you need some guidelines for selection. And if you have already chosen Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla over Serge Osmeña and Florin Hilbay, then I would strongly recommend that you consider the following templates for decision-making. If you have forgotten that the Senate used to be the august forum of such great legislators as Diokno, Tañada, Recto, Laurel, and Salonga, then you might want to be guided by a set of criteria and guiding factors for choosing the best, the brightest, and the most honest and hardworking.

First criterion is competence. Since to be a senator is to become a lawmaker, make sure then that the bets you choose are well-versed in law, lawmaking, and the process of preparing bills for submission. They should know how to discuss bills at the committee hearings and plenary deliberations, debates, and interpellation. They should know parliamentary procedures. Do you think that actors, comedians, and folk singers can do all these? Do you know who among the candidates have the knowledge, skills, proper attitude, and habits to be excellent legislators?

Second criterion is character. Would you elect candidates with pending plunder charges whereby the Ombudsman already found not just prima facie evidence, but strong documentary evidence that such candidates plundered the national coffers of many millions? Would you still vote for candidates who, even if acquitted based on reasonable doubt, was ordered to return the millions to the national treasury? Would you vote for politicians who have been senators before but have not passed laws to improve the social, economic, and political situation in the country today? Would you vote for philanderers, corrupt, inept, and lazy legislators?

Third criterion is conscientiousness, focus, perseverance, and courage. Would you vote for non-performing “second-rate, trying-hard copy cats” who are only in politics to protect their family businesses and property holdings? Would you elect candidates who have no performance in their early terms, whose only claim is to be the son or daughter of notorious fathers and infamous mothers? Would you opt for candidates who only follow party politics and vote on legislation purely on the basis of partisan consideration, without regard to principles and scruples?

I strongly suggest that you take the elections seriously. The choice is a very important decision that has long-range implications and consequences. If you fail to exercise due diligence and commit an error in your choice, then you and the whole nation will regret again. And such vicious cycles go on and on. We should put a stop to this folly once and for all.