Lowdown
By Jojo Robles
Manila Standard Today
By Jojo Robles
Manila Standard Today
The best Congress that taxpayers’ money can buy didn’t only decide that it could not afford to fight Malacañang. It has also agreed that it should take on Canadian pop star Justin Bieber instead.
This, after all, is where your taxes go: Congress, on President Noynoy Aquino’s deadline and upon his certification of its urgency, coughed up the reproductive health bill to the Palace, signed, sealed and delivered. At the same time, allies of Aquino in the House of Representatives filed Resolution No. 2962 to declare Bieber persona non grata and barring him from entering the Philippines if he does not apologize for insulting Filipino boxing idol (and their Congress colleague) Manny Pacquiao.
In both cases, it is fair to ask: why should we pay for a Congress that acts this way?
In the first instance, concerning the shameless railroading of the RH measure, Congress once again abdicated its role as a co-equal branch of the Executive when it did not even pretend that it was doing something other than the President’s bidding. Despite the deep divisions that Aquino’s RH bill was obviously causing amongst the citizenry, both Houses could not even slow down the RH Express, especially after Aquino sent key Cabinet members to attend the deliberations and as soon as the President had certified the measure as urgent.
If Congress were truly a co-equal of the Executive, instead of a pork-fueled rubber stamp subsisting entirely on the taxpayers’ dime, it would have at least called a ceasefire to the overheating proceedings. It would have asserted its independence and told Malacañang that it wasn’t operating on Aquino’s deadline, as it should have under a true republican democracy.
Instead, Congress delivered what Aquino wanted when he wanted it, as if our congressmen and senators represented Malacañang, instead of the people who elected them to office. And all because Congress cannot afford to be on the “bad” list of the Palace Santa who would get coal instead of the pork that Aquino offers in this and every other season.
And the irony of it all is that the pork that Congress receives does not come from the Palace itself, even if it disburses it to our senators and congressmen. That’s our money that is being doled out and the law says that all members of Congress should get it, regardless of whether they’ve been naughty or nice to the President.
But Congress—or the money-grubbing majority that has always populated it, anyway—has once again forgotten who pays for its upkeep and lost its way. And it’s not Aquino who pays congressmen, even if he holds the terrible power to hand out Congress’ funds when and to whom he chooses.
And they said Ferdinand Marcos’ single-House Batasan was a rubber stamp. The latter-day Congress is a lot worse, if only because it is populated by hypocrites who say they are free and independent but who jump at the sound of Butch Abad’s dinner bell.
In the end, even the congressmen who initially voted against the RH bill changed their minds, after Aquino got serious. And Congress forgot who pays the bills and from whose flesh the pork they enjoy ultimately came from.
I agree with former Senator Kit Tatad, who argued that Aquino is now the chief corruptor of Congress. But I must add that I never saw a collection of people so willing to be corrupted with money that they are entitled to, to begin with.
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As for the ban-Bieber proposal, I can only hope that the outraged congressmen behind it aren’t angling for an additional infusion of money from the Palace —or even from their billionaire colleague from Saranggani. Hey, you never know, do you?
But it’s more likely that this group of congressmen—who shall, for our purposes, remain unnamed—merely wants to salvage some of that old “Pinoy Pride” that got mauled together with Pacquiao, when he fell unconscious to the canvas after being hit by Juan Manuel Marquez. Pinoy Pride is like that—it basks in the reflected glory of individual Filipino achievers like Pacquiao and gets severely offended when foreigners poke fun at it, as it often so richly deserves.
The Pinoy Priders are the same ones who get angry when some Hollywood celebrity remarks on the size of the cockroaches in Manila. They bully anyone from another country (online, especially) when someone says something that they feel deserves to be taught that you can’t mess with Filipinos, never mind if they come off as “pikon,” as the locals describe someone who can’t take a joke made at their expense.
Perhaps these congressmen believe that if they can pass a resolution commending Pacquiao on yet another victory, they are obliged to take up the cudgels for the boxer, never mind if he was made the butt of online jokes by a singer they never even heard of. Or maybe these lawmakers just had too much time on their hands because, as Aquino allies, they already knew how they would vote on RH and all the other palace-initiated proposals.
But that’s the quality of the Congress voters elected to office. And perhaps that’s probably why we shouldn’t complain too much about how bad our lawmakers are—we put them there, after all, and they represent us so well.
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