In one of my private conversations with former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, now Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, he once intimated to me that there are some senators who should not have been elected to the Senate.
And I couldn’t agree more.
From this conversation, several names immediately ran through my mind, and I will just give you a hint from my personal list. One erected a statue in a rotunda honoring a traitor in an obvious brown-nosing act, while the other refused to honor a gentleman’s agreement on term sharing.
Still, another disobeyed a home quarantine order and instead went to a hospital to accompany his wife even while showing symptoms of Covid-19. Another turned the Senate into his private circus, perhaps missing the days when he was a clown serving a bigger clown.
The other one disgustingly treats the Senate like the venue for his radio/TV program. By the way, has his siblings returned the P60 million already?
The Senate under JPE was of a different caliber especially when he was presiding officer during the Corona impeachment trial. Also, he increased the benefits of the Senate employees while another SP just gave them bottled water.
Today, at age 100, he is still as sharp as a pencil, that is why no decision is made by the President before the matter is taken up with him.
President Marcos Jr. needs his wise legal counsel and his expertise on the country’s political history, since he is knowledgeable of the many Presidential Decrees of the late FM which are still in effect to this very day.
Après la pluie, le beau temps
In times of calamities, much is mentioned and is written about the help of the United States., Japan, Australia, and Taiwan to the Philippines and we are most grateful to their progressive governments.
But little is known about the aid coming from France. Several years ago, the former French ambassador to PH Oliver Gaussot delivered a speech to Filipino Rotarians on Franco-Philippine relations, which did not get much media attention.
In his speech, Gaussot stressed that France has been active in helping the Philippines face its difficulties, whether from devastation from natural calamities or from the foreign debt burden, since France first established its consulate in Manila in 1837.
The envoy said that France pledged $200 million to the Philippine Assistance Plan, cancelled a Philippine debt amounting to 20 million Francs, instructing that the amount be used instead for Mount Pinatubo victims, and accepted a debt-for-equity swap of $20 million to facilitate investments of French firms in the Philippines.
Gaussot also asked the Philippine government to be more active in establishing contacts with the European community. He said the French embassy, in cooperation with the European Commission in Manila, is acting to give more exposure to the Philippines in the European nations and to arouse more economic and political interest in the Philippines.
He then quoted French President Francois Mitterrand who said that after the Filipinos had been visited by natural calamities, “The courage constantly shown by Filipinos, too often the victims of natural calamities, has won the admiration of France.”
Today, France continues with its pledge to help the Philippines during natural calamities in many positive ways.
So who says France is only good for Peugeot and Renault, Guerlain and Givenchy, Bordeaux and Margaux, Beaufort and Roquefort?
Bedouin the lines
So many of our women have been subjected to extreme cruelty in the Middle East, and a majority of them have been sexually molested and raped. Quite a few have even died under mysterious circumstances.
The trouble is that even our diplomatic officers in those countries have been coerced and terrorized into refusing to help Pinay OFWs, and the different labor attachès are simply just useless.
I am optimistic though that things will be better under a Marcos administration.
One depressing report was that quite a number of our diplomatic and labor people from these countries have even victimized our OFWs, demanding money for the services that Filipino taxpayers already pay them to do.
Many of these people are protected by their political padrinos and there is not much that can be done to discipline them. Most of these patrons come from Congress. So what is it with many Arabs that make them cruel and depraved masters?
Even their diplomatic people assigned here shrug off protests from Filipinos over cruelty to our OFWs. Is this the price we have to pay for being a Third World nation? Or is it because the bulk of oil comes from the Middle East?
Is it also because we have some frightened people in government who dare not face up to the mighty oil sheiks from these desert nations?
We have spoken to some domestic helpers from the Middle East who told us blood-curdling tales of cruelty and viciousness and sexual debauchery at the hands of Arab employers.
Those stories have made even hard-boiled police reporters cringe. None of these Pinays who were able to escape and return home would dare go back there for all the money in the world. It’s desert hell, they say.
And maybe even Allah would be displeased. Again, we are optimistic that all these will now change under a new leadership.
Factoid: The great Filipino painter Juan Luna was a sailor and a licensed seaman who studied at the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy in San Narciso, Zambales. One of his greatest paintings, The Battle of Lepanto is majestically displayed to this day at the Senado de España.
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