Thursday, February 07, 2008 Seares: 'House of ill repute' By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
THE House of Representatives has been called a lot of names but rarely has it been slandered with intensity and venom (1) by its own members and (2) right inside its chambers.
Last Monday, they deposed Jose de Venecia as speaker. The mutiny, led by two congressmen sons of the President out for blood, finally erupted and JDV's head rolled with the vote to declare his post vacant.
Anti-JDVs justified their vote with demand "for change." They thought they could push that more strongly by depicting the House in its most sorry, degrading state.
JDV was the whipping boy but in some act of charity they didn't beat him directly. They just disparaged the House he ran.
Thus, the name calling: from "house of ill repute" to "chamber of deals," from "den of thieves" to "lair of iniquity."
Nobody questioned the slander, obviously because the business on the table was deposing the speaker, not saving the House's honor. And nobody asked what the names would make them: if it's a whorehouse, aren't they whores; if it's a den of thieves, aren't they thieves?
Bashers
We still have to hear some outraged member protesting the assault by its own residents.
But then, didn't a true picture emerge from the bashing though the bashers' motive was less than honest?
Some anti-JDVs hailed the speaker for efficiency in running the House and yet would remove him now for the bad names he had efficiently earned for it.
Listening to the speeches, one sees they desperately needed to explain to the public, and themselves, why they praised and defamed in the same three minutes the leader they came and stayed up the whole night to bury.
