E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Where is Sen. Edgardo J. Angara?
Sunday, 07 16, 2006
The question was popped to me recently by Dean Nicolas Lapena of the New Era College of Law. I have been asked it many times before, especially when the "Garci Tapes" was a household topic, and in the aftermath of the many scandals that besieged our political institutions.
True enough, ever since the Senate took an adversarial stance on almost every issue surrounding the government of President Gloria Arroyo — which, in knee-jerk reaction, heaped on its detractors an equal amount of badmouthing — Angara has been silent amid the strident chorus of unkind remarks, the muckraking and the spiteful sensationalism.
From this observer who worked with Angara for 25 years, there’s this standard answer to the question: Angara shuns the publicity, but he has always been around, quietly doing his job and serving as the statesman out to solve the tribulations that ail the nation. The chairman of two major Senate committees, he has submitted the most number of committee reports, held the most number of committee hearings, and was a member of all bicameral conference committees that crafted the compromise bills eventually signed into law in the 13th Congress. In addition, he is doggedly pursuing his new advocacy: anti-corruption.
The visible — and aural — eminence of Angara is directly proportional to the productiveness of Congress. If Congress is productive, you can be sure Angara is right there in the thick of things. But if Congress is merely engaged in mudslinging with the executive, or knee-deep into sensationalizing its investigations, do not expect Angara to contribute to what some call “infantile paroxysms” — which are not productive at all for both Congress and the executive. Or for the nation, when you really come to think of it.
Sure, Angara’s voice is not always present in the public debate on every issue. He chooses his propositions well. And, always, he chooses a ground where the warring factions could — and should — reason together. On Charter Change, for instance. Angara is partial to a Constituent Assembly, with either chamber voting separately. His personal stance on this issue is nothing secretive. But that he allowed the members of his political party, the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), to choose their own approaches to this issue of national importance is a testimony to Angara’s openness for a sober debate where a compromise satisfactory to everyone could eventually be reached.
The landmark laws that Angara crafted during his entire legislative stint are products of compromises. They would not have become laws were it not for his skill at persuading his colleagues in Congress to accept versions which are attainable. The AFMA, the E-Procurement Law, the AFP Modernization Act, the New Central Bank Act, the Senior Citizens’ Act, the Ombudsman Act, the Absentee Voting Law, the Anti-Money Laundering Act, the PhilHealth Law, educational reforms, etcetera, all these significant pieces of legislation bear the imprint of Angara.
Speaking of compromises, Angara has thus proposed a dialogue between the leaders of Congress and the executive. And he advocates the regular convening of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) — his brainchild when he was Senate President — where all shades of the political spectrum meet with one objective: to adopt a legislative agenda attainable within an agreed time frame. Today, it is precisely the absence of an agenda that has made Congress engage in infantile paroxysms. Perhaps a revived Ledac could pave the way to clear-headed thinking.
Despite the somber persona, it would be a mistake to think that Angara has remained unaffected or unconcerned about the cheating in the last elections. His candidate Fernando Poe, Jr. had been a victim, and it was Angara who was the spearhead of the opposition in denouncing the fraud. It was he who prepared the True Minority Report that detailed the fraud. Long before the "Garci Tapes" became the cause célèbre for impeachment, the report of Angara was the most detailed and documented source for anyone who wished to question the legitimacy of the current government. Angara had done his job.
The statesman that he is, Angara knows that there is a time and a reason for everything. It is one thing to pursue your advocacy before the courts; it is another to pursue it on the streets or in media. His active verbal support — that’s what “advocacy” really means — for a cause or position has always been within legal and constitutional limits.
Those who recall the turbulent nine days culminating in Edsa I on Feb. 25, 1986 will remember Angara, then the head of Namfrel, calmly dissecting the extent of the fraud that had marred the elections. While all the panelists in that TV debate were emotionally high-strung, either by choice or from having drunk one too many, Angara was the only intelligent, restrained voice that explained all too well to the people what exactly happened. And the people believed him. That clear-headed, analytical mind catapulted him to national prominence, and has been his trademark ever since.
So here today we have Angara, who is not exactly vociferous, but concerned really on how to bring about a dénouement to the political impasse arising from issues that tend to divide the nation. He has wisely steered himself to the middle of the opposing forces, offering a solution for the country, to avoid an unnecessary dive to the abyss of division.
Meanwhile, his stand against corruption is one advocacy he has pushed beyond the boundaries of the Philippines. He sits in the executive committee of the Global Parliamentarians Against Corruption and is the principal founder of the South East Asia Parliamentarians Against Corruption.
Those who make noise without reason destroy themselves eventually. Those who work but keep silent about it triumph in the end. Angara belongs to the latter mold. And so I close with a reply: Angara is right here; right now.
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