I’M sure many Filipinos saw the video on social media about a party-list congressman, Rep. Alfred de los Santos of Ang Probinsyano, throwing a punch at a hapless waiter who was serving his group in a Legazpi City restaurant. The honorable congressman dishonored the entire batch of the 18th Congress by acting like one of the thugs in the popular TV series after which his party-list was named, Ang Probinsyano. I’m sure the great and well-loved actor, FPJ, who created the original top-grossing flick, must have turned in his grave, and his heir, Coco Martin, must now be distancing himself from the honorable congressman after this fiasco.
This is one of the defects of the party-list system, since we vote for the party and not the personal nominees who represent the party-list. We have no opportunity to vet the qualifications and character of the nominees, as they are hardly known to the electorate. Maybe we should pit the congressman against Sen. Manny Pacquiao to give him a chance to demonstrate his boxing prowess against a legitimate opponent.
As a member of Congress, the congressman’s role is to defend his constituents and not to oppress them, particularly the less fortunate. If memory serves me right, there were previous punching incidents in the halls of Congress. One was when Rep. Marcial R. Pimentel of Camaraines Norte threw a punch at then Rep. Aguedo Agbayani of Pangasinan after the latter accused the former of being a mouthpiece of former President Diosdado Macapagal. Another incident was when Rep. Jose Mari Gonzales of San Juan City slapped the House Sergeant-At-Arms during the impeachment proceedings of President Erap Estrada. We should remind our solons that their duty is to make laws, not to break them.
Incidentally, both Pimentel and Agbayani were outstanding legislators and governors during their terms, although they belonged to different parties.
Next week, the President will formally open the 18th Congress and deliver his fourth Sona. As the elected representatives and senators start performing their official functions, let us recall to mind the immortal words of Agbayani, who once said that what we need is a “leadership that conceives of public office as a trust, not a privilege; as a duty not as power; as a responsibility not authority; and as an instrument of service to the people not for self-aggrandizement.” Let’s pray that they carry every word of it in their hearts as they start discharging their duties.
****
Almost gone unnoticed even in his home province is the 77th death anniversary of one of the greatest heroes of World War II, the former governor and congressman of Camarines Norte, Wenceslao Q. Vinzons. Vinzons was the foremost youth leader who was elected as the president of the UP Student Council, editor in chief of the Philippine Collegian, and the founder and first chairman of the College Editors’ Guild. He placed third in the 1933 Bar Examinations. He organized the Young Philippines Party, which counted among its members the likes of Arturo Tolentino, Lorenzo Sumulong, Charito Planas and many other young turks who became political luminaries after the war.
He was elected as the youngest delegate to the 1935 Constitutional Convention, and youngest elected governor and congressman of the Philippines. When General Emilio Aguinaldo ran against Manuel Quezon for president during the Commonwealth period, Aguinaldo won only in one province outside of Cavite, in Camarines Norte, with the support of Vinzons. He organized the first guerilla movement and just a few days after the Japanese forces landed in the Philippines, he launched an ambush against the Japanese troops in Laniton, Basud, on their way to Quezon coming from Legazpi, Albay. He even successfully liberated the capital town of Daet, and occupied it for a couple of weeks during the war. This infuriated the invaders who launched an all-out assault against him, leading to his capture in his mountain lair in Labo. Despite the pleas of the top Filipino collaborators in the Japanese war government for him to cooperate with the invaders to spare his life, Vinzons courageously declined. Wounded and tortured, he was paraded around the town to discourage his hundreds of armed supporters, and was reported to be taken to Manila, where he was no longer heard from. The date of death was placed on July 15, 1942, and his remains lie in an unlocated grave.
Outside his native town, Indan, which is now named Vinzons, and those living along the main street in Daet, Camarines Norte, that carries his name, Filipinos have no memory of this great patriot who sacrificed his life for the country. However, the embers of his undying patriotism is enkindled and kept burning in his beloved alma mater, UP, which rightfully named the students’ center, the Vinzons’ Hall, after this illustrious Father of Student Activism in the Philippines.