WE ARE a family of five. We are all anticipating the Dec. 25 commemoration of the birth of the Savior Jesus. For now what is left in our pocket is P500. We will try our best to hold on to the amount until Christmas. And if luck sides with us and some amount will come our way then our family will likely be blessed with a somewhat sumptuous Noche Buena meal on the night of Dec. 24.
But if luck frowns on us, then we will have to make do with the P500 and find a way to put some truth to what the Secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) asserts will suffice for a Noche Buena meal.
And maybe it will. That is, if the family will settle for a much simpler celebration of Christmas for its current five members. Say, if we will buy a one head roasted chicken now sold at from P250 to P260 each depending on the size. Then we buy a kilo of rice at about P45-P50. Add one pouch pre-sliced ham at P60, plus one large size bottle of soft drink at, say P50 or P60.
With those on the dining table all five of us will definitely have our stomach full until morning of the 25th of December.
So, the DTI Secretary may be right with her figures. Of course, the normal thing is for families to prepare extra food on the table because relatives usually visit on Christmas.
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We saw a post on Facebook of four Congressmen from Davao City making known their support for suspended Cavite 4th District Congressman Kiko Barsaga. The young Cavite lawmaker was suspended on the recommendation by the body’s Ethics Committee for “conduct unbecoming of a member of the House of Representatives.”
Of course, the Davao Congressmen, all three bearing the Duterte family name with only 3rd District Congressman Isidro “Sid” Ungab having a different surname, will definitely go all out for their fellow lawmaker who showed guts to lambast the administration of President Bongbong Marcos, Jr., the nemesis of the Duterte patriarch and Vice President Sara Duterte who is known this early as strongest among aspirants for the Presidency come 2028 elections, or earlier as demanded by noisy protesters.
Intriguingly, we did not see on the same post any of the four Davao lawmakers, including one Partylist, standing up to explain their votes. We have not even seen them in the pictures of those who voted “no” to Barsaga’s suspension.
Nevertheless, even if the tirades of Barsaga were not clearly an open support to the cause of the former President and his family member politicians, Barsaga’s harangues against the President and his administration are clearly beneficial to the Duterte group, now led by his daughter VP Sara.
The situation obtaining is clearly applicable to the common saying that, “the friends of my enemy are also my enemies. Inversely, the enemies of my enemies are my friends as well.”
In the same vein, it is our take that Batangas Congressman Leandro Leviste’s abhorrence of the decision of Congress to suspend Barsaga was way off the line, a clear misreading of the issues resulting in his erroneous comparison.
In his explanation of his “No” vote to the suspension, Leviste mentioned the misplaced priority of the Congress in suspending Barsaga. The lawmaker from Batangas mentioned that Congress, instead of acting what is necessary to members charged with committing billions and billions of graft and corruption cases, the lawmakers preferred to delve into the behavior of Barsaga.
Leviste capped his speech by saying that such action showed that the House of Representatives is coddling congressmen who robbed Filipinos of their money by not punishing them instead.
Our take is that the young Leviste might have misinterpreted the suspension as a crime committed by a member of the House. No, it is a violation of rules, specifically on how lawmakers should act and behave outside or in the performance of their duties.
Your Honor, clearly it is not. The suspension of Barsaga is a kind of disciplinary measure for his open manifestation of certain behavior not appropriate of a person who is a member of a highly honorable institution charged of crafting laws of the land that are supposed to be obeyed to the letter by the people.
In the situation of the lawmakers allegedly engaged in corrupt practices, the allegations have to be proven in the courts. The Congress can only investigate the charges to help establish the truth and “in aid of legislation.”
Maybe, a Congressional probe can pressure the alleged erring House member to resign. But for Congress to suspend a member claimed to have committed graft and corruption charges requires a judgment by the court. A case in point was the one supposed to have been served on Sen. Joel Villanueva by the Ombudsman during the time of former Omb. Conchita Carpio Morales.
The most that Congress can do is to forward the findings of the investigating committee to the Ombudsman with the recommendation of filing the appropriate charges with the Sandiganbayan, the government’s graft court.
What if, Congress suspends a member charged with crimes and later the same member will be exonerated by the courts? Would not that be a major disgrace to the lawmaking body?
Maybe, Leviste can do better if he will pressure his fellow Congressmen to open an investigation into the corrupt lawmakers. Or, perhaps the youthful Congressman son of a sitting Senator needs some more lessons from her veteran lawmaker mother.
