E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Edgardo Angara in La Casa Gloria
Sunday, 04 01, 2007
From where I stand, it looks like I’ve never left home. Both Afghanistan and the Philippines have presidents trying to cobble up a coalition of politicians “for the good of the nation.” Mr. Karzai of Afghanistan has his “Big Tent” approach, a political signature designed to bring the fractious Afghans to a responsive system of governance. Similarly, Gloria Arroyo has her Team Unity of politicos of various persuasions. Observers view these as mere ploys designed to turn a situation to one’s own advantage. But both leaders seem to be saying: “Don’t stay out there. Come on over here; there’s plenty of room in my casa.”
Now, that word — casa — has special connotations, and one of them suggests a building one finds in red-light districts where its occupants are, in the words of my friend Leina de Legazpi, “wrapped in gossamer deceit.” Sure, you find plenty of these characters, mostly at La Casa Baja, where otherwise talented persons are queuing in for admission, sacrificing their self-respect for the sake of financial and political gain.
To be sure, among the aspirants who want a seat in Arroyo’s Upper Casa are candidates who have no qualms about prostituting themselves to the worst instincts of the electorate. It’s no wonder that a good three-fourths of their number have taken a beating in the pre-election surveys.
But not Senator Edgardo J. Angara.
For here is a man who is asking for a chance at another six years in the Senate, whose enlightened legislative agenda has benefited the electorate immensely: free high school education, benefits for senior citizens, agricultural modernization, health insurance coverage, bills addressing the political fabric — the Office of the Ombudsman, the Central Bank, anti-money laundering, absentee voting, political party reforms — as well as those that conserve and promote the culture and the arts.
Canards, ridicule and vile propaganda leveled against Angara are powerless in the face of his legislative achievements. In the past 20 years, in his quiet and self-effacing way, he managed to chalk up a record that speaks very highly and well of him. It is a virtue characteristic of the man: His voice never rises to the strident and self-congratulatory, or even accusatory, tone too often adapted by those who place themselves as guardians of truth and liberty, or as defenders of social justice.
The charge that Angara sold out the late Fernando Poe, Jr.’s presidential bid is as vicious as it is baseless, coming as it did from one who could not quite decide his true political leanings — a Pavlovian dog of Arroyo one second, then a chameleon in opposition the next instant, and a butterfly back again in the other camp. One merely has to reread all the papers, replay the television clips and radio transcripts from December 2003 onwards, recounting the candidacy of FPJ — all the way to the “Noted!” proceedings, to the stolen dawn proclamation, to the filing of the presidential protest, until the protest was mooted by the death of FPJ. Images of these past events show Angara at the forefront, nursing the opposition in its fight to bring out the truth, and to prove the fraud.
But there had to be an end to all the bickering. Faced with an issue that was debilitating to the nation, every waking hour no more than a stolen moment at sanity while the nation suffered, Angara saw the futility of the internecine conflict. The Senate had to buckle down to work, and go back to work Angara did. He shepherded his pet bills, which became laws before the 13th Congress adjourned last February. Without losing his voice, he railed softly but firmly against the many unconstitutional edicts of Arroyo, even as he silently worked on his legislative agenda. No other senator can lay claim to such level of diligence, intelligence and dedication to his primary task: To legislate.
Then came the snub from those who claim to carry the torch for the opposition. What to do then in that event, when the call to duty is first and foremost? Angara saw the opportunity in joining the slate of the administration. Let me get one thing clear: I am not rooting for all members of Team Unity to emerge victorious. I am only partial to Angara, knowing how he deserves much to stay in the Senate.
What matters is consistency of purpose. Angara is a symbol of the way to go in these times: An oppositionist pursuing his advocacies for reform within the camp of what he has set out to reform. What better vantage view could offer itself, without necessarily being co-opted.
Angara spelled it out the day he filed his certificate of candidacy under the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP): Reconciliation amid the highly charged political tug-of-war; a governance that looks beyond partisan politics. He continues to be and remains in LDP, the only political party he has been with his entire political career.
Angara had seen politics as it degenerated, stuck in hate and negativism, and he refused to fall into its evil embrace by advocating politics relevant to the lives of the people.
Angara as a fourth-term senator will be engaged in meaningful legislation, in a Senate that strikes productive bipartisanship. Angara in the Senate through 2013 will be engaged in his same passion for legislation in education, health, agricultural modernization, job creation, environmental protection and cultural enrichment.
I saw Angara the last time in April 2006. I have since joined the United Nations, but continue to monitor the political scene. Angara still looms large, and the nation deserves Angara in the Senate. Even as I serve in the UN, I shall take my periodic vacation from work, and benefit from the changes wrought to the national fabric by Angara and like-minded others who share his passion for governance that looks beyond partisan politics.
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