"Walking dead"

Mocha Uson, in her column in the Philippine Star yesterday, categorically said she is not running for senator. She also enumerated her reasons why. The column was apparently prompted by the announcement at last week's mass oathtaking in Cebu of new members to the president's PDPLaban party that she will be in the senatorial lineup of the party for the 2019 midterm elections.

I also do not want her to run. In my book, she is not qualified to be a senator. But my book has time and again been rebuffed by the outcome of election after election, each reflecting a progressively declining measure of what it ought to take to be a real political leader, especially at the Senate. I used to have a very high regard for the Senate because I have been witness to a time when senators were truly men of overall greatness.

Such a Senate, and such senators, have all long gone. What has taken over is a very poor reflection of past glory, if ever it is even a reflection of that glory at all. So while I do not want Mocha to run as a matter of principle, who am I to say she couldn't if she decides to eventually change her mind? The Philippine Senate has long shed all pretensions of any standard. It is an open race for anyone.

I have noticed a lot of quick jeering right after the announcement of Mocha's name, not only from her usual detractors, but a lot from well-meaning citizens as well. And that is truly a sad commentary of contemporary thinking. Yes, there is no denying that Mocha could not be a senator from the perspective of an idealist. And I have said I do not want her to run if it was all up to me. But is she any different from the many this nation has accorded the privilege?

Just look at the composition of the present Senate, or the Senate before that, and so on down the line. Is there anybody willing to stand under pain of a hail of fire and brimstone that Mocha would be any less "senatorial" than a good number of past and present senators? In other words, while I do not want Mocha to be a senator, why prevent her from becoming one when the gates have been thrown wide open to everyone.

If there is anything good that can come from a Mocha senatorial run, in case she does change her mind, and which I think she eventually will, it is that her senatorial bid will serve as a great measure of the collective hypocrisy of the Filipino voters, as well as their collective intelligence, even if both measures will likely produce contrasting results.

Perhaps, as a likely consequence of this discussion, it might as well be asked if Mocha has a chance of winning. And let me begin by again saying I would hate it if she won. But then again, if others can win, why assess her with very low regard. If she runs, she could win. If others can win, why can't she. I can almost see a lot of heartbreaks around. Including mine.

It is truly a tragedy, this thing that has become of our country. This wanton and profligate open march into public office of the "walking dead" is the single greatest hindrance to why the "living lights" are shying away from national leadership. It is called aversion to association. It is a refusal to be contaminated. Without a great private sector providing a counter-balance, this country would have long sunk to the depths of failed states.

‘If there is anything good that can come from a Mocha senatorial run, in case she does change her mind, and which I think she eventually will, it is that her senatorial bid will serve as a great measure of the collective hypocrisy of the Filipino

voters, as well as their collective intelligence, even if

both measures will likely produce contrasting results.’