Mabini Hall - Access to Justice

Every Filipino has the right to serve his country. No doubt about it. I will fight for this principle until I draw my last breath. Every Filipino too has the obligation to serve his country – no matter what capacity, regardless of status. This imperative I will continue to push until the very end.

Certainly, actors have the right and the obligation to do so. In fact, athletes, comedians, taxi and jeepney drivers, army men, OFW’s, every Tomas, Juan and Jose can and should be similarly situated. Shame on us those who has never thought of joining government to improve governance or running for public office to restore public trust. Alas, the matter of competency is altogether a different issue and the attempt to convert popularity to public office is the highest perversion of the democratic ideal.

Competency is about being fit to deliver what is promised. It consists of that bundle of knowledge has one diligently accumulated over a lifetime; the package of skills honed by day-to-day experience and constant involvement; and the set of attitudes ingrained with the love for people and nourished with faith in God.

Let us not put the acting candidates to the test with their knowledge and skills. I have no doubt that passing is not an option even if they cheat. The essential question is one of gravest concern: the clear lack of humility. For any neophyte to even think that they are entitled to national positions like senators because of whatever claim to fame is the supreme form of ‘yabang.’ It is a bastardization of the electoral process; a mockery in our august legislative halls. Being a senator is not a joke. It is definitely not an acting career. Or maybe nowadays it is. Or maybe our Congress is already fully packed with ‘mayabangs’ so they join the club. I don’t know.

I do know that local government is where they should start if they believe that they have the heart for government service. Local issues are way simpler and the dynamics more understandable for someone coming in from the cold. How dare one go for the title of ‘honorable’ with no credentials or performance to back it up?

In this light, hats off to former President Erap who started at the very first levels to gain his spurs and made it all the way to the top. What happened along the journey is a different story. Kudos to Herbert Bautista who put himself back to school and pared down his showbiz activities to better serve his constituency.

Look at our ‘star’ legislators now and weep. They continue to pursue their professions without an iota of embarrassment to be accountable to the masses or to account for their pork barrels so apt in the year of the pig. Their collective record is a disaster on the scale of flying billboards. Do we never learn. Rare it is for an upstart to be competent overnight and suddenly do a credible or a minimum decent job without the requisite preparation and industry. Then again, which solon in recent memory has merited the title ‘honorable?’

To think that perhaps it doesn’t matter either way and that whoever we vote into office will only serve their personal interests is a thought we must be banish. Every Filipino has the right and obligation to serve his country; not everyone can or ought to be in government in order to make a difference or to contribute his just share in nation-building. Wherever we are in stations of life, we give our best and that should be more than enough to usher in a strong and free republic. Never mind the present crop of turncoats. Take the long view on our sick institutions. The call is to ensure that those who seek our votes especially this May elections truly deserve to be called ‘Honorable’ and competency is a prerequisite - humility lies at the heart of being honorable.