Last Friday, former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel, Jr., expressed his latest sentiment on Communications Assistant Secretary Margaux “Mocha” Uson that the latter figure should stick to entertainment and dancing instead and not involve herself in the administration's campaign on the shift to federal form of government.
The former head of the Senate, who was also a member of a former constitutional committee, believes that Uson should not join in discussing issues which she does not seem to understand and such is a waste of time and government funds.
Uson, it can be recalled, made a video with blogger Drew Olivar that drew the ire of many especially netizens who expressed dismay over the controversial video. The supposed federalism information campaign had become a lewd viral video after the words “pepe” and “dede” were used while it was women's private parts that seemed to be given emphasis.
The proposed government's shift to federalism is a serious issue and should be explained to the people seriously and in a dignified manner. It has complexities that the public should carefully know and understand.
***
Another Senate President and in fact the incumbent is in the news after he has given up on his proposal to change the last line of the national anthem after some flak on social media.
On his Twitter account last Thursday night, he answered criticisms on his proposal by posting “Maraming mahina intindi-miento. Ayaw niyo? Huwag!” Such remarks do not fit him as the President of the Senate and as expected of him having such high position in the government.
The comedian-actor said of our national anthem, which was written by Jose Palma in 1899, as having wrong cadence of words and is a mere original translation from the Spanish to Filipino lyrics. He added that he prefers the singer-composer Joey Ayala's version which is slower and have a different last line.
The Ayala's version has the “ang magmahal nang dahil sa iyo” instead of the “ang mamatay nang dahil sa iyo” as its last liner. Meanwhile, Sotto wanted “ang ipaglaban kalayaan mo” as the replacement.”
At this point in time where calamities struck our country recently worsened by an economy affected by a rising inflation rate, the Senate President should deviate from considerably trivial matters and focus instead on more pressing problems affecting Filipinos.
Not long ago, Sotto was tagged as master plagiarizer and even filed a complaint before the Senate Ethics committee after he allegedly used parts of a blog post of US blogger Sarah Pope without attribution in his speech during the controversial Reproductive Health Bill debates. He was also accused of using a quote from the late US Senator Robert Kennedy which he translated into Tagalog in another speech.
Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Senator Kennedy, demanded that Sotto make a public apology.
***
For any comments, ideas, suggestions or opinions, text or call The Advocate at 0921-3636360 or send email at dencious@gmail.com