“If the recent polls are accurate and those projected to win will in fact win, the Senate composition will really become the laughing stock the world over”
WITH the midterm elections literally just around the corner, the candidates vying for political office both local and national have been ramping up their campaigning feverishly.
It is a process we have been doing since 1907 with interruptions during the second world war in the 1940s and Martial Law (1972-1981).
I do not know of any Asian country that started this process earlier than us. And since we have been having elections for 118 years, it presupposes we should have grown in democratic stature and political maturity.
It seems we have the complete opposite. Just look at the families who have taken control of municipalities, cities and provinces as if political positions are something to be inherited by family members, a phenomenon found only in this country.
Let us also look at our Senatorial and Congressional elections.
In the current Senate race, all that the public see on TV are the political ads of senatorial candidates extolling their virtues on why we should vote for them.
The political ads, however, should make us question their public service sincerity. Many of the senatorial candidates have their own Party List with family members being the nominees.
If the recent polls are accurate and those projected to win will in fact win, the Senate composition will really become the laughing stock the world over.
There will be three siblings in the 24-member Senate which will be the first of its kind here or anywhere in the world.
If Camille Villar will also win, she will join her brother who is currently a Senator because her mother Senator Cynthia Villar can no longer run for the 20th Congress.
Pia Cayetano will simply continue with her brother Alan, already a sitting member.
With the two Estrada brothers already in the Senate, there will be four sets of siblings totaling nine. They will join the current four Senators whose background have been in the entertainment field.
This is not all.
It looks like comedian Willie Revillame might also make it together with former pugilist champion Manny Pacquiao who is trying to regain his Senate seat.
A quick scan of those who might be in the Senate come July 1 does not at all inspire confidence.
Given that we are living in perilous times with so many challenges confronting our country, we the public would be sleeping better knowing that those we will be electing as Senators are topnotch and capable legislators.
Problem is, there is one Senator who the public never heard speak in his years as a senator.
I have always maintained a healthy respect for the collective wisdom in the choices of our voters in national elections in the past but I am now having second thoughts.
There seems to be other factors influencing their choices.
It also does not make us feel any better if some Senators are doing other endeavors aside from legislating. Some of them have their own Podcasts, product endorsements or have their own TV programs.
In the House of Representatives, their number continues to grow instead of decrease.
This is mainly due to our broken Party List system which has not only become a big joke but scandalous as well.
It is hard to believe that no member of Congress can even think of filing a bill to put a limit to this preposterous situation.
Can the country afford for instance if the number of Representatives reaches 400 with all the billions of pork barrel money being allotted to each member instead of spending the money to improve our country’s infrastructure or modernizing our defense capability?
This May 12 election has been billed as a referendum on PBBM or a proxy fight between the Dutertes and PBBM.
Both descriptions are apt for it will almost certainly determine the outcome of the upcoming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte when the 20th Congress convenes.
Let us hope that our political leaders can think strategically for the sake of the country and not only for their own self-interests.
