THE week started off with a heated debate at the Senate between the allies and foes of Senator Manny Villar in connection with the C-5 road controversy.
'Tis also a season to be jolly as the elections are nearing and candidates vying for reelection or seeking higher posts will make use of each and every occasion to make themselves visible. Seems these upstanding lawmakers beieve in the dictum bad publicity is still publicity.
Foremost in mind is the sexual innuendo made by Senator Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. to his colleague Mar Roxas on insertions.
"Well, I'm sure that after your marriage you've had some insertions," the elderly senator said.
This elicited involuntary laughter but none from Roxas who shouted: "I demand that that be removed from the record!, shouted Roxas. This is an affront to my wife!"
Who likes the wife of Mar Korina or Villar? But that is not the issue here.
The behavior of Pimentel is but reflective of the behavior of most if not all senators who seem to resort to desperate trash talk, thereby turning the Senate into a playground.
Pimentel's comment not only shows a total disrespect for women but also an outrageous way to get attention.
Villar's brazen absence in the hearings only makes matters worse as he appears to mock the proceedings and even accuse the committee as only out to censure him.
According to earlier reports, the Senate Committee of the Whole says Villar supposedly allotted an additional P200 million from the 2008 national budget to fund the re-routing of his C-5 project. The said re-routing was supposedly done to increase the real estate values of Villar's properties along the new extension, according to reports.
In John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men, the divergence between being a man and being a mouse was clearly depicted. In the present Senate, no divergence is ever palpable.
They all look and act the same and leave us with no choice to make.
It is perhaps time to change the face of our lawmakers and other elected officials. This coming May elections, let us, the voting populace, choose men and not mice.