Same old Senate

ITHINK it’s time for her critics to loosen up on Vice President Jejomar Binay’s daughter Ma. Lourdes Nancy. She has been proclaimed as among the 12 winners in the senatorial race, landing in 5th place with more than 16 million votes. Meaning that her critics could no longer prevent Binay’s entry into the Senate.

I understand where Binay’s critics are coming from. The main beef is, of course, her belonging to the political clan the VP initially built to dominate Makati City and which is now prowling national politics. Jejomar, an anti-Marcos activist, used to be anti-political dynasty. The other criticism is on Nancy’s qualification for a Senate position.

But I find the criticisms against her rather harsh and bordering on both jealousy and arrogance. The woman is being portrayed a moron when she is more qualified than some of the current senators, including actors Lito Lapid, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada. Nancy is a graduate of BS Tourism from the University of the Philippines in Diliman and worked as personal assistant to her father and mother, former Makati City mayor Elenita.

The senatorial race was surprisingly topped by Grace Poe, daughter of the late Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces. Social Weather Station and Pulse Asia survey results earlier showed her outside the Magic 12, then inside the winning circle as the official campaign period was under way. The conduct of surveys stopped a few weeks before the May 13 polls, so it’s wrong to say the two survey firms erred in reckoning her rise. Poe must have gained momentum in the homestretch.

That Poe bested Loren Legarda in the race for the senatorial polls’ top spot only proved how damaging the issue on her non-disclosure of a property she owns in the United States had been to her campaign. Legarda was lucky the controversy erupted as the campaign was winding down. Had it surfaced earlier, she would have suffered worse than Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

The issue against Escudero in the midst of the campaign was not as sinister as that of Legarda. It “merely” in- volved his quarrel with the family of his girlfriend, actress Heart Evangelista, although it exposed an unpalatable side of the senator. He plunged to fourth place, with Alan Peter Cayetano ranking No. 3.

I was not surprised that Cayetano topped the senatorial race in Cebu. He deposited a big chunk of his pork barrel at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center for the medical needs of poor patients there. How many Cebuanos availed themselves of the financial aid throughout Cayetanos’s previous term as senator?

In sum, nine Liberal Party (LP) bets made it with only three winners from the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), which means that the administration party already has the majority in the Senate. The possibility of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile losing the post has gotten higher. And whether PNoy’s control of Congress is beneficial or not remains to be seen.

The winning circle is also dominated by reelectionists and members of political families (think Cayetano, Binay, JV Ejercito and even Bam Aquino). So the Senate will again be composed of the same politicians and new faces that, because they belong to political dynasties, are not really new. So in the Senate, it will be same old same old.