Punchline
A House Speaker for Pangasinan
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THE speakership in the House of Representatives is now up for grabs.
It is the only post in the national political hierarchy where the province can help itself introduce laws for its benefit, including fresh funds for passed laws. We have seen this work for us when our indefatigable Joe De Venecia was Speaker for more than a decade.
Presently there are six major contenders. Two from Luzon, two from Visayas and two from Mindanao.
Pangasinan’s hopes are logically pinned on the Luzon bets: former Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco.
For both, the aspiration to effectively push President Duterte’s legislative agenda is primordial. The question is: who can likely do it better?
Being a lawyer, Velasco served as president of the Marinduque chapter of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and as provincial administrator of the province.
Cayetano, a lawyer, too, served as a city councilor, vice mayor and congressman of Taguig City, a two-termer senator and former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs. He was also the vice presidential candidate of President Duterte in 2016.
Our four newly elected congressmen (First District- Arnold Celeste, Second District- Jumel Espino, Fifth District- Ramon Guico III, and Sixth District -Tyrone Agabas), and two reelected congressmen (Third District -Rosemary Arenas and Fourth District – Christopher De Venecia) should lend themselves actively to the selection for Pangasinan’s benefit.
* * * * *
MANGLED PARTY-LIST SYSTEM. If I have one regret in last elections, it was to wake up to see that the party-lists Inang Mahal and One Philippines didn’t make the cut.
The two had the best programs for our country. Instead, we are seeing party-lists funded by oligarchs and political dynasties whose representations are dubious at best beating the two.
On exception is Abono party list. It is doing its role for our farmers.
But having seen how the party-list as an institution is being mangled and manipulated after the Supreme Court decided that a party list need not solely for marginalized sectors, I share the view that the party-list system be abolished.
A party-list, in fact is redundant, premised on the belief that district representatives, mostly oligarchs will not look after the marginalized sectors.
But who quickly claimed as the legitimate representatives of the marginalized sectors? The left wing sector. And you wonder what they have initiated and authored as laws for the marginalized? A few after years of existence of the party-list system.
For the most part of their existence, the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives took the opportunity to use public funds they get as members of congress for their anti-government activities. Mind you, a party-list gets the same budget as a regular congressman. Worse, a party-list can have as many as three sitting as congressmen depending on the number of votes they get.
What an irony.
But right now with 51 of them now entrenched in their seats, there is no hope that the party-list system will be abolished. It can only happen in a constitutional amendment and or the installation of the federal system in the country.
So let’s Con-con, Con-Ass or whatever… but the abolition of the party-list system must be on top of the agenda!
* * * * *
CHURCH’S PERIOD OF INFAMY. In the latest edition of “revelations of “Bikoy”, he mentioned that a priest was instrumental in meeting outgoing Sen. Antonio Trillanes that led to the production of the “Ang Totoong Narcolist”.
Curiously, when he mentioned it, nobody among the media seemed surprised by it all. Has it come to this? That members of the clergy are already known to be part of destabilization plots against the Duterte administration? That learning and seeing members of clergy participating in acts of sedition is already a given?
This is the worst era yet for the clergy. Who would have thought that the glory days of EDSA Power in 1986 charged by the clergy would end in a state of irrelevance and disconnect with the times, whose role is already likened to that of a party-list of politicized clergy.
The unmistakable resolve of the politicized bishops, among them our own Archbishop Socrates Villegas, to have the catholic church be counted in the effort to destabilize the government left many of faithful divided and confused. Whey they bandied “One Catholic Vote”, it resulted in a more divided church.
The bishops can continue to invoke the vow of obedience among priests and nuns but they cannot even hope to persuade the lost flock to listen and heed their pastoral letters.
How can the situation be helped to reverse the lost standing of the clergy to its faithful?
Only the parish priests, who genuinely shepherded their parishioners when their bishops were busy spewing venom, can now save the day for the church in the country. Only the millennials among the priests can restore the lost sheep’s faith in catholic liturgy.
First and second quarters of 2019 will live in infamy among Roman Catholics in the Philippines, the period when a few members of the clergy flagrantly violated the separation of state and religion law and dared to involve themselves in destabilizing the government of Rodrigo Duterte from Day one of his assumption to office.
* * * * *
NEW DOUBLE BARREL FOR DRUG WAR. First the good news for families. The election to the senate of former Special Assistant to the President Bong and former PNP Chief Bato dela Rosa assures them that the war on drugs will stay for their protection.
Now the bad news for drug lords and syndicates. Their tentacles and influence in the police and judiciary will have be cut immensely and their networks will be smaller each month that passes. The bottom line for them? The death penalty will be restored in their honor principally.
To the law enforcement officers in Pangasinan, the election of the two close allies of President Duterte should tell you that there is no more holding back in the war on drugs. The families must be protected at all costs!
The Senate and House are set to cover your back in all legitimate operations against the enemies of the state – the drug lords!
Let their election be a warning to the judges and prosecutors in the pockets of the drug lords. The war is closing in on your salas.
* * * * *
EG’S DEATH ANNIVERSARY. Last May 20, we observed the 53rd death anniversary of my father, Ermin Sr. He was, in fact, the first journalist to be killed by a politician in his line of work in the country. He was killed by a Lingayen councilor whom my father exposed to be behind the payroll padding in his town.
The recognition of his death and heroism was emblazoned in Quezon City’s annals by renaming the long Minnesota Street in the city as “Ermin Erfe Garcia St.” that can be seen on EDSA.
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
