I AM one with everyone in decrying, in absolute frustration, the chaotic experiences we are made to take amid the comedic goings-on in the institution which has long been revered. The Senate, once the bastion of legislative independence in its half-share of congressional duties, has seeingly gone way way down in disrepute. If not for the clowning moments that are simply source of detraction, we have had no way to explain how else this once esteemed institution has plummeted in utter disrepute.
How else explain how this institution has quickly degenerated into a Ring of Circus in just a day of still inexplicable incidents? How else rationalize how in less than 24 hours, just as a sitting Senator, once respected, had to scramble up the stairs to be counted on, risking his very life, just to be the last cog in a wheel that had to ascend the revered rostrum?
How else could a shooting incident, with bullets ricocheting all around, be allowed to happen in an institution once high up in the citadel of institutional regard? How else could a fugitive from justice, the once hallowed standard sternly observed in civilized nations like ours, be given sanctuary, harbored till kingdom come, be even escorted to become overnight a runaway in abject fear of his life, not to mention the perks and privileges of a public servant mandated to make manifest by his thoughts, deeds, and actions what are expected of him?
This is not to laugh away what everyone must have seen in all the time that the once revered institution was on its shameful descent into deterioration just in a day where the clowns have stood majestic in their pontifications to justify actions that merely showed how degenerate our public servants have become.
First of all, why the so-called protective custody been so loosely granted to a lawmaker, giving him immunity from being issued the arrest warrant that an international criminal court has issued since November of last year? Has the Senate become the refuge of relief and the wellspring of protection, simply because he is viewed as an honorable member of this now-reviled institution?
This is why it is time that we ought to have a momentary pause and re-calibrate minds that may have given way to obfuscating experiences such as what we had to bear through. This why there is sanity restored when we begin to consider certain standards that may have been so irrationally raised, despite their irrelevance to the crux of the matter.
Chaos never brings back the disorderly if not given the second hard look that is richly deserved. Chaos simply dissipates memories till the next batch of incriminating incidents are allowed to take place with as much irresponsibility.
This is the very time when time itself shall get on with its unstoppable journey. Ours is the duty to take time’s travel into moments of deeper reflection, of stronger resolve even, to ensure that nothing as hilarious as the last will sweep away the disgust and dissappointment that resulted irresponsibly from supposedly noble citizens of the land, no less than an institution once hallowed by the likes of Tanada, Salonga, Defensor-Santiago, Aquino and their kindred colleagues during their esteemed tenure.
Nothing less is expected, something more is well-deserved.
