Ducky Paredes

“If Senators want our respect, they cannot get this by insisting on their self-importance.”

by Ducky Paredes

The Senators probably do not realize it but when they make so much of their being Senators as when one had a shouting match with a cabinet official and said during the altercation: “I am a Senator and you are only an appointed official” or when another refuses to pay his electric bill and noted that Meralco will not dare to cut off his electricity because, after all, what else is he Senator for, they are lose whatever popular support propelled them to the Senate.
Remember that unfortunate quip of a congressman who wanted to know: “What are we in power for?”
If Senators want our respect, they cannot get this by insisting on their self-importance. In this week when the Senate was very much in the public eye, the one Senator who impressed many of us was Mar Roxas. He did his homework. He never asked silly questions or whimsical ones; he never asked questions that had already been asked and he never got personal with the witnesses. Yet, he asked direct and probing questions that were answered by the resource persons only with great difficulty.
I honestly do not understand why our Senators cannot hire good staff that can advise them during these hearings. How much would it take to have one of their staff in the hearing room taking notes while the Senator is out of the room? Then, when the Senator returns, he can be briefed on what transpired while he was out and who will brief him on what occurred in his absence? We certainly provide them with enough money to hire whoever they want for their staff.
If the Senators do not shape up, their odd and unruly behavior during these hearings will prove Gloria Arroyo right that these hearings are only a waste of one’s time.
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Strangely, Ben Abalos has caused me to have great doubts about the credibility of Joey de Venecia. If it is true that Joey turned down a $10 million bribe offer from Abalos, why did he still meet constantly with Abalos, even to going to China with the Chairman of the Comelec?
When one refuses an offer of money, doesn’t that mean that the bribe-giver was also being rejected as a person — that one does not want to deal with him? If one continues to pursue that person, however, wouldn’t that mean that the game is still on and the offer is still being considered and that one is only awaiting a slightly better offer?
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If the other hearing in the Senate is on wiretapping, why are they stuck on what the Doble family has to say about that celebrated Hello Garci tape? The Dobles have nothing to contribute to our knowledge about wire-tapping. As for revisiting “Hello, Garci” what will this lead to? Most of us are convinced that the cheating was the big difference in the 2004 elections – that if Gloria had not cheated, she would not have won.
That is already a proven to the general public. Yet, we have done nothing about it and we will not do anything about it. Thus, what is the purpose of the Doble hearing? If, however, the Senate wants to know whether wiretapping of cell phones can and does happen, it ought to talk to the technical people who understand the installed equipment of the mobile phone service providers. Can this be tapped? How is this done? As happened in Greece in 2004, a rogue computer program was uploaded into the system, which then tapped several phones of government officials and sent the signals to pre-paid phones.
They never knew who did it because the phone company bungled the investigation. Could that also be how it had happened here – also in 2004?
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My brother Raffy inquired about Ladonia, after reading about it on the Internet. This is the reply that he received:
“Your confirmation of your citizenship is to be found enclosed. Best wishes. Lars Vilks, state secretary. (This is the Swede or Ladonian who drew the controversial cartoon of Mohammad as a dog).
“What you should know about your country.
“Ladonia is a remony(?), a republican monarchy, with at queen and a president, who, together with the ministers rules the country in the cabinet. The president is elected by the people every third year. Ladonia became independent in 1996 and is situated in the south of Sweden, close to Denmark. The area is 1 square km. Nobody lives in Ladonia, but around 30.000 people is every year visiting the country.
“Anyone can propose a new ministry, proposals are handled by the cabinet. The ministers are presented on Ladonia home page www.ladonia.com - link ‘administration’.
“The flag of Ladonia is green with a green cross in the same colour. The national anthem is performed when throwing (gently) a stone into water.
“The currency is Oertug (1 OT is about 1 $). Ladonian language has two
words: “waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallll” (can be spelt in many ways) and “ÿp”.
“The number of citizens is growing rapidly, right now approximately 12,000.
“The latest news about Ladonia is to be found in the Herald News, daily updated, on the home page.”
Do look it up. Ladonia is a mythical country that grew out of the fevered mind of an artist. When I logged on to www.ladonia.com, I found page after page of actually very funny stuff. For instance, they have a Ministry for Nothingness and a Ministry of Blind Justice and Legal Impossibilities, a Ministry of Digression and so on. How I wish that there was an actual country of Ladonia, which would actually issue passports! There must be times when being a Ladonian will feel better than being Pinoy.
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A reader writes: “Everyday I watch Philippine news. Almost everyday, I see that congressmen and senators are investigating, questioning members of the executive and other departments of our government.
“But, who, if I may ask, is investigating congressmen and senators? Are there no more ‘tongressmen’ and ‘senatongs’? Is everybody clean now in the legislative department? Or, it’s just media partial in favor of our legislative department?” — Dan Pena
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I note that not only one senator asked Joey de Venecia why he did not accept the $10 million which, according to Joey, Abalos offered him so that he would withdraw his unsolicited proposal on the broadband?
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The Manila-Bicol Golf Association will have its monthly tournament Tomorrow, Sunday, September 30, 2007 at the Villamor Golf Course. Tee-off is at 10:30 in the morning. Tournament fee is P1,500 for non-Villamor members and P800.00 for Villamor members.
As usual, there will be lots of raffle prizes and a lot of fun.
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Readers who missed a column can access www.duckyparedes.com,/blogs. This is updated daily. Your reactions are welcome at duckyparedes@yahoo.com

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hvp (09.28.07)