Cureless

Yesterday evening, I watched GMA7’s Isang Tanong episode until around midnight. (And I blame it for my near lateness if I didn’t take a taxi to the camp.) It was a bit too late in my part to hear what the senatorial candidates have to say because I casted my vote already. But I was always interested in political inquiries and debates even during those days when I was only interested in our provincial local politics. So, I have to shoo away my cousin who was watching a nomination for eviction episode of Pinoy Big Brother.

I have seen interviews with 3 groups of 3 senatorial candidates - Loren Legarda, Mike Defensor, Richard Gomez; Ping Lacson, Zosimo Paredes, Prospero Pichay; and Cesar Montano, Oliver Lozano, Victor Wood. (I haven’t seen the rest if there were any because I was already zzZZZing…)

Loren is good, she’s always been an articulate speaker since she’s a broadcast-journalist. Her stand on the issue of party switching, I didn’t quite get, but she suggested clearly that she wants a 2-party system. Mike Defensor, on the other hand, wants party switchers penalized. I think he made a strong point in the sense that he advocates the ideas and plans inherent in the political parties. Richard Gomez is at ease with his stand as a party-less candidate.

Ping Lacson thinks they’ve done the job in formulating laws on peace and order. All they need now is the correct implementation by the Executive order. Zosimo Paredes, an ex-military and former Director of the Commission on VFA, advocates belief in God as the key to a peaceful society. Prospero Pichay, although is not so impressive with his answers, seems to know his turf.

Cesar Montano wants to serve the country but he is a neophyte in politics, much more in vying for a senate seat and this shows in his answers which are mostly out of topic. Oliver Lozano from KBL also answered the questions well. He debunked the claim in Howie Severino’s inquiry that Bong Bong Marcos heads the party and he doesn’t approve of a constitutional reform.

Lastly, Victor Wood, singer and musician, claims to have no knowledge about parliamentary form of governance but blames the electoral process to be the cause of all the “political evils”. He appeared to be the comic relief in the midst of the tension-filled forum. But the thing that struck me among the OOT things he mentioned was the simple fact that amid the billions of pesos spent for the political ads of these candidates, only two benefited. And that would be the giant television networks named GMA7 and ABS-CBN.
No offense, but I think he got them.

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Listening to the 2nd part of Isang Tanong somehow convinced me that I was right in choosing TO and NOT TO vote for the candidates in the senatorial slots. I regret though that I failed to watch the 1st part of the show.

UPDATE: If you’re interested with the bills/laws authored by incumbent congressmen running for a position, visit the House of Representatives site. I just had to refute some broadsheet columnist’s article that Escudero, et al. didn’t author a single bill in the Congress.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 11:42 am and is filed under Concerns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.