WHAT, Juan Ponce Enrile is running for senator again? I’d rather vote for Mocha Uson. At least she’s sexy, I mean, healthy.
Enrile managed to get himself out of jail free by convincing the Supreme Court that he was old and sickly. That was three years ago. He is now 95 years old. With his age, he should be put out to pasture.
You don’t need a wrestler in the Senate but one who understands the problems and the solutions of the country, he argues. That is precisely his problem, his history of failure in reading what ails the country and how to address it. He was the chief executor, some say architect, of martial law about which he had successively revised his versions, depending on which best suited him. And don’t forget why he was jailed in the first place.
Now, about the above-described Mocha Uson, she is unfortunately not running for the Senate. Instead, she is gunning for a seat in the House as party-list representative. Unlike the Senate election where you can vote for 12 candidates, you can choose only one party list. So sorry, Mocha. Your misfortune is that there are just too many entertainers in Congress already.
Which is the same reason why I cannot lend my support to resigned presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, who was a good lawyer until he agreed to entertain us from his perch in the Palace. Example: when his boss kissed a fan on the lips during a visit to Korea, he explained that it was a cultural thing, nothing wrong with it. Now, he’s saying that it was in fact inappropriate. That’s entertainment, with apologies to an old local TV show with the same title.
Roque’s problem was that he believed it was only he who should lie and it was an outrage to be lied to, even by his boss. He also might have acquired a bit of self-importance from his lying, okay, covering up, effectively for his boss. So he resigned or threatened to resign (the facts are hazy here) when his boss kept him in the dark about his visit to a hospital. But the aforementioned boss called his bluff and immediately hired a replacement.
JV Ejercito, like Enrile, wants to be senator again. Unlike Enrile, he is an incumbent member of the Upper House. But his re-election bid is seriously threatened by someone, who like Enrile, spent time in detention for the same alleged offense of abusing their pork barrel, to put it mildly. Quite ironically, that someone is his own brother.
There must be something about detention that rekindles the political fire in the detained during an election. Or maybe, Estrada and Enrile think that getting elected to the Senate again is a vindication greater than what they can secure from the court through an acquittal. They may have a point there, too, at least in terms of timeliness. An election verdict can be had in a matter of days whereas court proceedings can sometimes last a lifetime.
Jayvee was a guest on Frankahay Ta yesterday morning (our scheduled interview on Tuesday was cancelled at the last minute) and while he said he did not want to dwell on his misunderstanding with Jinggoy, it was obvious that emotions were still raw between them. He hedged when I asked him if he would answer yes if people asked him if they should vote for his brother.
Jayvee also admitted that his relationship with his father, former president Erap Estrada, is strained owing to the latter’s prioritizing his brother’s candidacy over his. But he is not quitting on his father, he said. “I owe my life to him. He raised me.”
Not quitting was also the message of Mar Roxas when he announced his candidacy for the Senate. “I do not have any quit in me and I won’t quit on my country.” If those who voted for him in the 2016 presidential elections have not quit on him yet, Roxas could easily win a Senate seat again.