Critical collaboration

While going over the list of candidates for senator the other night, I played a few of the less-popular record albums of some great singers in my collections. There was the song “The Last Time I Saw Her Face” by Glen Campbell and “The Last Waltz” by Arnold George Dorsey whose stage name is Engelbert Humperdinck. Then, I realized it was a week before the election and I should read through the senatorial candidates. To be honest, I do not personally know anyone of them so I had to rely upon any literature I could grab as well as relevant information gathered from responsible citizens.

I remembered that at the onset of the campaign period, I wrote in this column the candidates for senator I wouldn’t vote for. In my list were Bong Revilla, Lito Lapid, Jinggoy Estrada, JV Ejercito, Imee Marcos, Johnny Enrile, and Bato de la Rosa. I then said that I wouldn’t waste my vote on them for some reasons. In this last week of the campaign period, I will reveal my choices.

In the 1963 elections, when I was barely out of my elementary years and therefore not a voter yet, I volunteered to help promote the candidacies of two personalities belonging to opposing political parties. After studying their brilliant credentials, I thought that they were the senators who could serve our country honestly and patriotically. One was Atty. Jose W. Diokno of the Nacionalista Party and the other was Atty. Jovito R. Salonga, the stalwart of the Liberal Party. To my great joy and in my expectations, they topped the elections. In our political history, they were among the few most honorable members of the Senate and I felt privileged to have picked them from the heap. In fact, in the later years of Sen. Salonga’s political life, I had the highest honor of personally sharing with him some ideals in public service.

Among today’s senatorial candidates, the person who tops my list happens to be the son of Sen. Jose W. Diokno. In a happy twist of events, he carries the party of Sen. Salonga, the Liberal Party. He is Atty. Chel Diokno. When I went through some of his election materials, I was playing the song of Eddie Fisher entitled “Oh My Papa.” I could not help but notice the mystical coincidence. Atty. Chel may not be as fiery as his father, but certainly his lucid and scholarly espousal of nationalistic issues shows not only his intellectual pedigree but more importantly the nobility of his patriotic upbringing. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, to adopt a foreign idiom. I truly believe he will not dishonor his father if he gets elected.

The next in my list came after a still-inexplicable coincidence. I was listening to John Gary’s interpretation of the song “Windmills of Your Mind” when I began reading the materials on former solicitor general Pilo Hilbay. Many times I heard him speak fearlessly on issues of national life. His discourses were enlightening. Always, he talked with the profound sense that is absent in many pretenders. His voice is what we need in the Senate. When my lady, Carmen, and my daughter, Beatriz, met him, they felt his clarity of thought. If he gets elected, he can illumine legislative discussions.

I believe that what we need is a Senate whose members have independent and discerning minds and caring hearts. We need more nationalistic senators who will defend their institution from the cloak of the president. Is it too much to vote for people who can help the president in critical collaboration?