Days of infamy

Text jokes yesterday were mostly about our "honorable" senators losing sleep and getting sore butts from sitting it out in a battle of nerves at the Senate. Yesterday one senator said they had finally resolved their row, and that they had crafted a four-paragraph resolution after two hours of negotiations and 12 pieces of balut.

Now people are hoping that the lack of sleep and the high cholesterol in the duck embryo will do their job — meaning wreak havoc on the blood pressure of all the senators and put all of them out of their misery.

Fortunately, most children aren’t interested in prime-time news. Otherwise they might also resort to sit-ins when they can’t get what they want. Our militant groups, on the other hand, need no additional inspiration from senators. Teachers, students, workers walk out of their classes and their jobs at the drop of a hat. No wonder the quality of education is going down the drain and we can’t get any work done.

Yesterday some of the senators were spotted sleeping at the session hall. Of course they also needed to sleep, but it led to inevitable quips that they were sleeping on the job. Not that it mattered. After a year and a half the public has become used to disappointment after disappointment from the members of the Senate. No wonder new Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople reportedly heaved a big sigh of relief after bidding the Senate farewell.

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So what finally ended the latest Senate theatrics? Administration senators agreed to recognize three of four bills passed during the controversial session called by the opposition in June. All three bills are innocuous. The fourth one — the only major piece of legislation — is the bill on absentee voting, which will still be reviewed by the administration bloc. For their part, opposition senators agreed to maintain committee memberships before their controversial session.

Yesterday there was no session, to allow the senators to catch up on their beauty sleep and take a bath.

Both blocs promised to start working next week on a common legislative agenda. Yes, folks, senators actually have to work for their paycheck.

You wish someone could give these lawmakers a good spanking. How did we end up with such a sorry bunch of legislators? Filipinos used to look up to the select few who got elected to the Senate. With a national constituency, every senator was supposed to have national interest paramount in his heart at all times. Every senator was supposed to represent the best of the Filipino, to deserve having the word "honorable" appended to his title.

Not anymore. There has been a progressive dumbing down of representation at the Senate.

As voters, we all share part of the blame. We deserve the government we get. If you pick a dorky, has-been actor as city mayor, you can’t expect anything except mediocre, dorky performance.

At least in my city, voters know better and roundly rejected a has-been actor who sought public office last year. Our garbage gets collected, our streets are clean and well lighted, the pavement does not disintegrate in the rain, and there are a lot of traffic aides (most of them clueless about traffic management, but hey, we can’t have everything).

Unless I migrate, however, there’s no way I can avoid the consequences of having all those clowns at the Senate.

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We all know a number of our senators are planning to seek the presidency in 2004. If they keep up with their antics, 2004 will be a breeze for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Or for someone from left field, such as Fernando Poe Jr.

FPJ is the bogey floated by the opposition each time it feels desperation creeping in as it contemplates 2004. But someone from show biz circles who knows FPJ well and who wants to be his campaign manager, if ever, says FPJ would have considered running if his bosom buddy Joseph Estrada had done well as president.

It is said that FPJ’s favorite reply, each time he is urged to seek the presidency, is: "Okay, but what if I win?" Or words to that effect. As his buddy Erap once famously lamented, "Mahirap palang maging presidente (It’s hard to be president)!"

In any case, do you really think the opposition stalwarts in the Senate would give way to FPJ? Why are we being treated to all these histrionics these past weeks? Because the race is on to become the opposition’s standard bearer in 2004 — assuming there is going to be a unified opposition candidate.

Businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., with his very deep pocket, used to have a major say in the selection of opposition candidates. But Cojuangco and his Nationalist People’s Coalition now have a working alliance with the administration.

If the opposition fields several candidates for president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is sure to have six more years (unless her party breaks up and fields other candidates). But at the rate the Senate is going, if the opposition’s standard bearer will come from that chamber, President Arroyo could win six years handily.

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Only a couple of months and the nation will be consumed with election fever. How much work can senators still accomplish? They have to work on the national budget, continue deliberations on the money laundering accusations against Sen. Panfilo Lacson, craft an energy bill that will guarantee a stable electricity supply for the long term without making power costs soar.

They will also be preoccupied with debates on amending the Constitution, where one of the proposals is to abolish their chamber and change the form of government.

Can they concentrate on the tasks ahead? Many people don’t think so, and many people have stopped caring. The Senate, with its childish, churlish members, has become the poster child for our dysfunctional democracy.

Senators need not worry about carving a place for themselves in history. Every day at the Senate is turning into a day of infamy.