Wanted: qualified men and women with competence, courage and integrity who are willing to serve the Philippine Senate to their level best. There is no question that the Senate, one of our venerable institutions, is damaged and is very much in need of urgent repair. What we need are senatorial candidates who are willing to stake their political careers to expose venalities and corruption in the government.
They must be unafraid to make powerful enemies and offend vested interests that could promote or destroy their political future. Filipinos look for leaders who are not daunted by the risks they may confront in order to uphold the principles that we hold dear. Our voters will support senatoriables who will not shrink from paying the highest price for speaking out their minds even at the cost of losing support of influential power brokers. Topping our wanted list are exceptional public servants who are not afraid to lose their government positions because they will refuse to subordinate the public interest to their own personal motives, unlike many who have pursued and achieved their ravenous ambitions by betraying the public trust to advance their private agenda. We look for leaders with deep-seated conviction, unsullied integrity and moral courage to prosecute the rightness of their cause; politicians who dare to follow their conscience and disdain personal aggrandizement; and unafraid to cross the path of the President for fear of losing their official perks by becoming a pariah of the ruling administration.
Unfortunately, our wish list is frustrated by political realities on the ground. Voters go for popularity instead of competence. The masses will believe deceptions and lies over unvarnished truth. A majority of our people will embrace empty slogans and false promises.
It’s a tragedy when well-deserving candidates fall outside the probable list of winners in the coming senatorial elections. Many will agree with me that the pre-election polls are unkind to Senator Richard Gordon, Senator Risa Hontiveros, Gibo Teodoro, Leila de Lima, Chel Diokno, Neri Colmenares, General Guillermo Eleazar, Dra. Minguita Padilla and other highly qualified candidates. Half of those who outrank them in the surveys cannot hold a candle to them when it comes to qualifications, integrity, competence and character.
How many of the front-running senatoriables can match Richard Gordon and Neri Colmenares’s legislative skills or the legal acumen of Gibo Teodoro, Senator Leila de Lima and Chel Diokno? Who can surpass the dedication of Senator Risa Hontiveros and General Guillermo Eleazar in discharging their duties? Based on most recent surveys, these names placed outside the top 15 contenders with slim statistical probability to join the winners’ column. They are not even on the periphery of the winning circle.
They need to upstage formidable candidates whose popularity among the masses are well entrenched. Can they still succeed to make a giant stride within the next two weeks to overtake the others who presently occupy the first dozen slots? This is unfortunate to one of Gordon’s caliber that has even been considered as a presidential timber in the past. Even among the current presidentiables, Gordon’s wealth of experience in public service and effective administrative skills are beyond question.
Getting elected as senator is one of the highest honors a Filipino can aspire for. It is an exalted office that must only be reserved for a leader who is gifted with fastidious and incisive intellect, an unblemished integrity and uncompromising conviction to serve the public good. There is no middle ground or compromise if we want only the best and the brightest to serve in the Senate. Applying these exacting standards, only a handful can qualify to sit in that august chamber.
Reviewing the current crop of senatoriables seeking our mandate on May 9, many will undoubtedly fail. We no longer see the likes of a Claro M. Recto, Jose P. Laurel, Arturo M. Tolentino, Emmanuel Pelaez, Lorenzo Tañada, Jovito Salonga, Ambrocio Padilla, Lorenzo Sumulong, Benigno Aquino, Jr., Jose W. Diokno, Doy Laurel, Joker Arroyo, Nene Pimentel, Serge Osmena and other outstanding senators who have made the Senate the greatest legislative and deliberative body in our land. The Philippine Senate observed its 100th Anniversary six years ago and it’s grossly disappointing how our highest legislative body has degenerated over the years. It’s true that some bright stars illuminated that august body but they are few and far between. Blas Ople, Edgardo Angara and Frank Drilon brought a breath of fresh air there for a while. Will the likes of Raffy Tulfo, Loren Legarda, Alan Peter Cayetano, Mark Villar, Chiz Escudero, Migz Zubiri, Jojo Binay and Joel Villanueva bring back the luster of the old Senate? Or will nincompoops who hardly know the business of lawmaking populate the Senate in the 19th Congress? Whoever gets elected as our next batch of honorable senators should be ready to meet the challenges of his or her office. So much is at stake within the next five years. The next administration will be hounded by horrendous socio-economic and geo-political problems, which will require tremendous legislative support. Our newly elected senators would do well to remember every word of what the great US Senator William Pitt Fessenden had said in his eulogy of his colleague Senator Foot of Vermont more than a century ago:
“When a man becomes of member of this body (the US Senate), he cannot even dream of the ordeal to which he cannot fail to be exposed; of how much courage he must possess to resist the temptations which daily beset him; of that sensitive shrinking from undeserved censure which he must learn to control; of the ever recurring contest between natural desire for public approbation and a sense of public duty; of the load of injustice he must be content to bear, even from those who should be his friends; the imputations of his motives; the sneers of sarcasms and malice; all the manifold injuries which partisans or private malignity, disappointed of its objects, may shower upon his unprotected head. All this, if he would retain his integrity, he must learn to bear unmoved, and walk steadily onward in the path of duty, sustained only by the reflection that time may do him justice ….” Posterity will be the ultimate judge of a senator’s performance in office.
Let everyone seeking a Senate seat reflect and ponder on the awesome task that awaits him or her in office. A senator should be equal to the task at hand and perform his or her duty to be the people’s voice and the constituted protector of public welfare. He or she can do no less.