I wrote in this column my negative vote this coming 2013 elections. My basic premise was that it would work against the interest of the country were we to elect as senators two members of certain families. Considering that we have a senate of 24 members, it would be grotesquely disproportionate to put two Enriles, two Ejercitos and two Cayetanos from a population of over 90 million Filipinos. The election of another Angara, although a replacement of some sort of an outgoing senator, would fall in a similar characterization.
Since the later portion of my article dwelt on my perception of the Enriles, I got mixed reactions. One mentioned of the stellar role played by the senate president in the impeachment hearing against then Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, as redeeming himself from whatever unpalatable tag he earned early in his public life as the chief executor of Martial Law. The reactor forgot that by writing his stand, he admitted that some of the horrors of military regime could have been approved by the powerful defense minister. Or worse, he missed the point that a more nationalistic senate leader could have acted chief of the impeachment court better.
The other reaction went on to remind me that in previous senates, we also had two Ejercitos and two Osmeñas but the country did not seem to mind at all. He did not say though that it can be in the best interest of our country that we do not have to have elections anymore and instead identify the scions of political families and anoint them our senators!
Actually, my point is anchored more on the ideal context of republicanism than on a constitutional provision against political dynasty. If we were to spread the composition of the Senate (and the House of Representatives) with men and women who have the academic preparation and social consciousness but who are far removed from the names that have dominated our politics, we can expect legislative outputs that can propel our country forward. These leaders do not probably have vested interests to protect.
Let us take the second family I mentioned in my past column – the Ejercitos. I dare say that Congressman JV won his congressional seat not out of the brilliance of his program of government, for there could be none really, but simply by the clout of his family. Judging from the results of recent published surveys, there is likelihood that he could become the second Ejercito to grace the ranks of senators beside his brother Sen. Jinggoy Ejercito.
Does he have the depth of understanding of the need of Visayans or the people from Mindanao for him to legislate on? If you would listen intently to the commentaries of local broadcasters Leo Lastimosa, Bobby Nalzaro and companero Rufil Banoc, they carry a lot more sense in their statements than what Rep. Ejercito mouthed in some of his interviews I had the chance to hear. Yet, if we place all of them, Cong. JV, Leo, Bobby and Rufil, together as candidates for an government elective position where only one has to be chosen, there is no doubt that our people would only pick the scion of the past president.
We fail to reckon the past. In our failure to learn historic lessons, we also become unable to chart our future. That is our basic problem. We have the tendency to repeat the inglorious side of our history. Because we blurred our memories on the role of Sen. Enrile in the dark hours of Martial Law, we elected him again our senator. In the same vein, we forgot that a President Joseph Ejercito Estrada was found guilty by our competent courts for plunder such that we voted for his wife and his son our senators. If only we remembered that the accusation and eventual conviction was for the highest form of corruption, we should not have elected his family members to such high office as the senate.
I have but one vote to deny Cong JV with. It is not enough to approximate the ideal of allowing other men and women with impeccable credentials and patriotic spirits becoming our legislators. But, if we can form a band to take a first step in this direction, we might have an insurmountable movement for a better tomorrow.