I quiver every time I watch our congressmen exchange words during committee hearings, especially each time they have to assert their authority with arrogance. But hey, we all know that the House of Representatives is a kaffeeklatsch club of sorts.
So, most invited “resource persons” are fearful instead of being just chill. Can’t blame them, can you? On that note, there are certain things each congressman must always bear in mind – that he is not a boss but a servant of the people who put him in office.
My advice to neophyte members is to secure a copy of Robert’s Rules of Order which is really the bible of parliamentary bodies in western countries after which our legislative body is patterned after. Read it word for word and thoroughly acquaint yourselves with the intricacies of floor debates, deliberations, and inquiries “in aid of legislation.”
This is the first step towards credible performance in the two chambers. There are so many pitfalls and traps in legislative debates and proceedings, and if you are not adequately prepared, it would be best to maintain a discreet silence, like one senator who went through his six-year term without even taking the floor. He always shot back at press interviews with his usual “No comment.” It is also important to get a good research staff and a competent speechwriter.
Never take to the floor without sufficient preparation because it will certainly mean certain embarrassment, unless you can plead with your colleagues not to subject you to interpellations, which is most unlikely. In important debates, some of the
wiser legislators always bring a cheering squad to root for them and to boo the other side.
This is the job of your PR men. And sometimes, it’s good to have some bottles around for the press.
Fast track it
Many of you will certainly agree that one sure way to push the economic recovery of the country is for the full rehabilitation of our railways both to the north and south of Manila.
The modern and efficient rehabilitation of the Bicol Express all the way up to the province of Albay and the Ilocos Express up to La Union must be taken into serious consideration. Faster trains also mean faster delivery of basic goods to the marketplace.
And the result is that if more people took to the trains and left their vehicles at home, we could live to see the day when a remarkable drop in air pollution may be a reality.
The biggest stumbling block for these plans is the presence of thousands of squatters along the tracks. Efforts to move them away have been sluggish, and many relocation efforts have ended up in violent confrontations due to the squatters’ adamance to be
transferred to other sites.
Sadly so, they have become uncontrollable and have contributed to stone-throwing at passing trains, including threatening PNR personnel with bodily harm. But things look bright today with the coming of a new PNG general manager whose name I cannot yet make public.
By this new management, the new PNR could help solve Metro Manila’s mammoth traffic with clean and comfortable trains plying the Los Baños to Manila and Malolos to other connecting routes, and then possibly connecting Damortis, La Union and San Jose, Nueva Vizcaya up to the Cagayan Valley.
PNR stations could well be made with clean restrooms just like the ones in other progressive cities – where commuters arrive by train, leaving their cars in the countryside.
Or how about reviving the pre-war streetcar or tranvia?
Underbones break bones
Every single night and day, as we go to our places of destination and back, we are surely bound to encounter at least one reckless behavior with an underbone motorcycle rider.
How many times have we witnessed such accidents on the road? What is the Land Transportation Office (LTO) doing about it? We have to put some control programs in place when it comes to the sale of these motorcycles, say a cap of about a few hundred each month.
But how?
Manufacturers are the greediest, and they do not care too much about the proliferation of these units as much as they care for profit. Plus the fact that it is too easy to acquire a driver’s license
All you need is some ‘padrino’ inside, for even a cross-eyed man can have a license.
We need disciplined underbone riders. Drivers of four-wheeled vehicles cannot see you next to them all the time, so please stop staying too close lest another mishap occurs.
The Aguado Boys of Padre Faura
There was a time when at the utterance of the words ‘Padre Faura,” the very first thing that comes to mind is not the priest but the department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for the simple reason that it had its main offices on that street. The DFA then held offices in Arlegui and then Padre Faura.
When Raul Manglapus was its secretary, another street hounded him each waking day. This not-so-lonely road was none other than Aguado, and over there frequented a group of grown-up boys aptly called the “Aguado Boys.” They used to lord it over the DFA during the senior Marcos’ regime., while headquartered on Aguado street just across Malacañang.
Their loyalty was to the late Ambassador Benjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez. This team practically ran the DFA to the consternation of the secretary and other top DFA officials. But operations were smooth as silk, and without the usual bureaucratic red tape. No promotions, assignments, and budgets were okayed by the DFA then without prior clearance from Aguado.
And so Manglapus had to flex his muscles, and first to fall was one of the ambassadors close to Kokoy. He was Consul-General to New York when Romualdez was our ambassador.
READ MORE:
Sabah, Philippines? (April 17, 2024)
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