Why we need Satur Ocampo & Liza Maza in the Senate

(published in Cebu The Voice, March 26, 2010, page 6)

Today, March 26, is the official start of the campaign for local posts in this year's polls. Before we all get caught up with the local fights though, allow me, dear reader, to pitch for two of the ablest candidates for the Senate this year: nine-year lawmakers SATUR OCAMPO and LIZA MAZA of the Makabayan Coalition.

There's some urgency in this pitch, as a larger fight looms this year. And in this fight, we'll need a Senate primed to work for the changes that matter to the Filipino people. A Senate that will rise unbowed from an unprecedented siege it will face in the months ahead.

I'm sure you're somehow aware of the context I'm talking about here. The past weeks have seen an emerging pattern of actions from the camp of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo: it is hellbent in pushing ahead with its notorious Charter Change (Cha-Cha) agenda, with the prime goal of catapulting Arroyo back to the commanding heights of political power as the first eminently powerful Prime Minister of the Philippines under a parliamentary regime.

To get to that, the Arroyo clique is determined: (1) to ensure Arroyo clinches her election as congresswoman of the second district of Pampanga; (2) to ensure her key minions running for Congress—which include her relatives, former cabinet members, her partners in crime in the foiled Con-Ass plot, and bogus partylist bets—win as well; (3) to muster the tyranny of numbers in the next House of Representatives so Arroyo becomes the next Speaker; and (4) to ram through as quickly as possible Arroyo's Cha-Cha scheme so the shift to a parliamentary regime is promptly in place and Arroyo is entrenched as Prime Minister soonest.

The prominent victims of collateral damage from this insidious ploy will include the partylist system and the Senate. For this Arroyo-instigated plan entails bastardizing an already-embattled partylist system and obliterating the Senate from the fundamental law of the land.

To thwart this, it is particularly urgent that our people and their democratic movement bring their mettle to bear: (1) to foil Arroyo's run for Congress; (2) to defeat her key minions in the congressional races—her relatives, ex-cabinet men, Con-Ass stooges and brazen opportunists gunning for partylist seats; and (3) to bring to victory partylist candidates, congressional bets, and senatoriables proven reliable in the nine-year fight against monumental corruption, unprecedented oppression and bloody political repression of the Filipino nation.

In this people's fight, the aforementioned Makabayan Coalition stands foursquare and primed for battle. Among the various electoral coalitions to emerge for this year's polls, the Makabayan Coalition is eminently the most well-organized electoral formation to emerge from the nine-year-long struggle of the people against the U.S.-Arroyo regime. It brings together Filipinos of firm democratic conviction from all walks of life and has in its fold partylist organizations that all deserve the people's confidence: Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela Women's Partylist, Kabataan, ACT Teachers Partylist, Katribu, and Akap-Bata.

And in the Senate contest, the Makabayan Coalition has fielded two of the most outstanding lawmakers we've had the past decade: both outgoing House of Representatives Assistant Minority Floor Leaders SATUR OCAMPOand LIZA MAZA

In this coming fight where we'll need a Senate with far more substance and patriotic conviction than we've ever seen since People Power in 1986—as the Senate will be practically fighting for its dear life—having Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza as senators makes that fight far more worthwhile for the masses of our people:

Satur and Maza have been outstandingly consistent in the nine-year-long fight against the corrupt and much-disdained U.S.-Arroyo regime. They've led the moves to impeach Arroyo, and to bust her regime's lies, scandals, and anomalies. They have remained steadfast in spite of severe repression they and their partylist organizations have faced all these years;

Satur and Maza are proven dedicated public servants who have not at all amassed private wealth for themselves, and advocated for urgent people's concerns (you name it—opposing oppressive taxes and rising prices of oil, utilities, foodstuffs and basic commodities; demanding wage increases for working Filipinos; opposing school tuition hikes; defending national sovereignty and patrimony from foreign military and economic aggression; fighting for genuine agrarian reform; condemning extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations, etc.—they've done it!) all these years;

Satur and Maza have prominently and heroically done their part in building our people's democratic gains towards completing the unfinished Filipino struggle for a democracy we truly deserve, towards effecting the authentic social change we've long been denied as a people. Clearly, faced with a demonically- determined “Install Prime Minister Arroyo” ploy, Satur Ocampoand Liza Maza will be our most reliable senators in defeating this and other anti-people schemes foisted on us.

Indeed, it's about time Filipinos do away with non-performing celebrities holding sway in the Senate, and start having a hefty Upper House peopled by worthy bearers of the finest tradition of the Senate exemplified by the late Senators Claro M. Recto, Lorenzo Tañada, Ninoy Aquino, and Jose W. Diokno, all outstanding presidents the Filipino people didn't get to have. With SATUR OCAMPO and LIZA MAZA leading the way, we can look forward to a Senate that's as good as it'll ever get for Filipinos.

Joel Garduce is with the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP). This and previous contributions can be viewed online—with links added—at the Notes section of his Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/joel.garduce