Political view

CEBU, Philippines - Red carpet veterans have rocked the 2013 State of the Nation Address (SONA) arrival wing. Understandably, they’re born with it, like the President’s sister TV host Kris Aquino in Cary Santiago, who stood out among Paul Cabral’s beige and yellow ensembles worn by her elder siblings.

Escorting her husband, Rep. Anton Lagdameo, movie actor Dawn Zulueta also allowed Santiago, a Cebuano fashion designer, to interpret her Filipiniana gown.

Heart Evangelista shined in an Ivarluski Aseron white terno dress that matched with her boyfriend’s—Sen. Francis Escudero—crisp Barong Tagalog. Leyte representative Lucy Torres-Gomez was so familiar of the attention, so she donned a silver Randy Ortiz appliquéd floor-length number.

Negros Occidental representative Jules Ledesma’s wife and TV star Assunta de Rossi channeled her fashion seduction in a back-revealing Cheryl Vicente A-line dress. Rajo Laurel draped the bust area of actor Charee Pineda to make the whole design easy and elegant.

While the annual SONA glamour renders colors to one of our country’s most-watched political occasions, Sen. Mirriam Santiago thinks enough is enough: “The highlight of the SONA is the President. It is not the flashy women. Now the flaky men are even getting into the act. They also parade, sometimes with photogenic arm candy, into the session hall and preen like their female counterparts. Enough.”

Amen, you say? (FREEMAN)