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The
Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) was correct to ignore the
Senate and write directly to Mrs. Gloria Arroyo. She is,
after all, the only person to talk to about any pending
legislation, unless, by some miracle, this present
Congress grows balls.
“Pot-pot
before you lusot [Honk your horn before you pass
us by]” is all an emasculated legislature can ask for.
That’s why it was comical of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile to
lecture foreign investors about “intrusion into the
domain of policy.”
Crusty
Johnny can bitch, bluster and bluff all he wants, but he
does not make policy. Arroyo makes and dictates policy
to him and his fellow note-takers. Johnny should stop
bitching and “just lie back and enjoy it,” as the saying
goes.
It was
also pathetic of Enrile to say, “I raised my voice,
pointed my fingers, against these foreigners. I was not
elected by these foreign chambers. They do not merit my
respect.”
Is
earning the respect of Enrile something to strive for,
something to wear like a merit badge? If you were
applying for a visa, a job, a school scholarship or
membership in a club, and you were asked for a character
reference, would he be your prized reference?
As for
Sen. Joker Arroyo, I don’t know what’s gotten into that
man. Or what that man has gotten himself into.
When
Sen. Ping Lacson reminded him and company that guests
deserve courtesy and “bullying, cutting, insulting or
yelling” at them is counterproductive, Joker retorted:
“Senator
Lacson and company conveniently forget that with
complete abandon, they had bamboozled, bludgeoned and
pilloried to the pulp Filipino Cabinet members and
resource persons who appeared before them in the NBN-ZTE
investigation.”
Hello,
is anybody home?!?
The
Cabinet members and resource persons were “bamboozled,
bludgeoned and pilloried to the pulp” because they were
withholding, obfuscating and lying to the committee!
Age, or
rage, must have deafened and blinded that man.
I used
to think the world of Joker, back in the days when he
cared about right and wrong. Nowadays, I think Enrile
merits more respect.
Finally,
we have Sen. Miriam Santiago. Her spokesman said she was
firm, not rude, based on his tortured definition of
firm.
He said,
“The videotape and the transcript of notes during the
proceedings will show that Senator Santiago was firm, as
she always is. . . . When Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile asked
the president of the French chamber to name the
legislators and the practices criticized by the foreign
chamber, the Frenchman refused to answer the question.
Instead, he read his opening statement . . . . At this
point, under the rules of procedure, the chairperson has
the duty to ask the resource person to answer the
question or explain why he couldn’t answer it. That was
exactly what Senator Santiago did.”
Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the German-Philippines
Chamber of Commerce and Industry from concluding that
it’s “strange that the Senate invited representatives of
the JFC and then did not give them the opportunity to
present their case.”
The
Germans still have to learn that when Miriam is
involved, strangeness is the firm norm, as it always is.
Senator
Lacson deserves the last say on the Three Stooges: “I
think Senators Enrile, Arroyo and
Santiago crossed the line of statesmanship in that committee on
energy hearing last Friday.”
Nyuk,
nyuk, nyuk.
Buencamino is a fellow of Action for Economic Reforms (www.aer.ph). |
