Our congressman's blurred vision

In the entire Cebu, there are eight representatives. Two of these congressmen represent Cebu City and the six others carry the legislative work for the province. Normally, at the start of the term of lawmakers, they take great efforts to publicize the bills they file for consideration by congress. That is understandable because they have the duty to inform us, the taxpayers, what kind of legislative direction they intend to take.Doing it on the first day of their term adds drama and multiplies the publicity impact.

What attracted my attention even more was the press release from the congressman of the Cebu City, First (North) District, Hon. Raul V. del Mar. As such press release, it was printed, free of charge, on this paper last Thursday. It was laid-out, to be a sure-fire eye catcher, as “Del Mar files 20 bills on first day of 16th Congress”.

At first glance, I was thoroughly impressed. Probably, other readers too, were. What played in my imagination was that no one of the eight legislators from Cebu has been reported, on this paper or in any other news media, to have done better, at least, not that I have read. Well, on the same The Freeman issue, reporter Gary Lao, wrote about the intention of Hon. Gerald Anthony Gullas, of the first district of Cebu province, to file a bill to benefit barangay officials. But, while it appears to be a solid effort of a neophyte congressman, one that Cebuanos should also be proud of, that's one bill only to be filed at a later time yet, compared to the 20 filed by Rep. del Mar on the “first day of the 16th Congress”.

To confess, aside from being impressed, my mischievous mind worked! To me, the press release made by the Cebu City first (north) district solon was aimed at emphasizing the inefficiency of Cebu's other lawmakers. Highlighting the incredibly large number of bills filed, 20, Hon. Del Mar just wanted to show that he was far more hardworking than the rest of Cebu aldermen, especially so, that the filing of the bills was done on the very first day of congress. It was supposed to mean that even before the day of the start of their public office, he was busily crafting proposed legislative measures while the seven others were simply enjoying the extended euphoria of their political victories.

To repeat, I was impressed. I was proud that my district representative could be compared much favorably as against the other supposedly lazier Cebu lawmakers. Buoyed immensely by that pride, I read each of the titles of the 20 bills filed by Rep. del Mar.

What I found out, however, dashed my excitement. The pride that pushed me to read the details contained in the congressman's press release was after all, not founded on, honorable ground. His litany of  “20 bills filed on the first day of the 16th congress” was in fact, a summary of failed attempts in the long past. I was horrified to realize that not one of the 20 bills is a new effort. All of them had been previously (as in several terms earlier) encoded in the registry of congress.

In his press release, Cong, del Mar listed 12 national bills. He meant that these were measures to affect the entire country. Of the 12, (a) three were filed first in the 12th Congress (years 2001-2004), (b) four were first filed in the 13th Congress (years 2004-2007), (c) two were first filed in the 14th Congress (years 2007-2010), and (d) three (3) were first filed in the 15th Congress (years 2010-2013). Of course, the last three bills were supposedly authored by his daughter, the former congresswoman, who served the term from 2010 to 2013.

This is something that we, the Cebuanos, are not necessarily proud of. The paucity of newer ideas evidenced by our congressman's insisting on re-filing old and dejected bills, may be taken as a reflection of the stagnant mentality of the electorate and if I may hasten to add, we are not that bankrupt in thoughts. If the vision of our lawmaker is blurred, it is because we the voters refused to be discriminating.