Tuesday, October 02, 2007 Malilong: Senators and the law By Frank Malilong The Other Side
IT’S so unfair. You go to law school for four years and labor through four grueling Sundays of the bar examinations only to find out that there is a much easier road to the legal profession.
I have stopped watching Senate investigations. I can’t prevent the senators from practicing law (who can?) but nobody can prevent me from switching channels or turning off the TV set either.
I fear for my education. I was taught that the days of the kangaroo court are long gone so why am I seeing so many smartly-dressed ladies and gentlemen gathered under one roof and conducting a trial where they are prosecutors, witnesses and judges at the same time?
“Just answer with a yes or a no,” roared one of them, the now too familiar smirk never leaving his face. Excuse me? The poor guy was invited supposedly as a resource person to educate the senators on the matter that was under inquiry. How can he do that if he’s not allowed to talk beyond a yes or no?
“But I know from my own sources that what you are saying is not true,” bellowed another. Then put your sources and yourself in the witness stand, sir, instead of proclaiming, ex cathedra, that what you said you know is gospel truth.
And from someone who probably thinks that he is the second coming of Boy Abunda: “Do you know a woman by the name of so and so? Is it true that you fathered a child by her?” It may not be too late for him to embark on a new career path when his Senate days are over but until then, if it’s tsismis I want to hear, I’d rather get it from Boy himself than from a clone.
They’re doing it for the cameras, that’s for certain. The urge to preen and be seen in the idiot box nationwide is irresistible, especially for politicians. But television is a cruel medium that could devastate the image of a ham or a bad trying-hard-to-be attorney.
The Senate has good and brilliant lawyers and except for a few who fit in the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s description of cantankerous, they have so far acted with decorum. Mar Roxas isn’t a lawyer (and doesn’t pretend to be) but he comes out as one who is aware that the purpose of the investigation is not to convict or crucify anyone but to guide the senators on what law to craft.
It will take time for most of his colleagues to recover their bearings and go back to their main function of legislation. That means that for a number of days in the next few months, my TV set will stay muted or tuned in only to the Cartoon Network.
