Buencamino is a fellow of Action for Economic Reforms. This came out in the Business Mirror on June 18, page A10.
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 Senator 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 Senator Joker Arroyo, I don’t know what’s gotten into that man. Or what that man has gotten himself into.
When Senator 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. It’s either that or the man’s head is so far up Gloria Arroyo’s rear he can’t see or hear anything.
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 Senator 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 Ping 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.
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