More on Politics

Yesterday, we had a 'field trip' to Batasang Pambansa and experience first-hand a congress session. I was looking forward to this trip because I wanted to prove myself wrong about Philippine politics.

We stared at the different congresspeople in the lobby. Kris was already checking out potentials. She was dressed to kill in her "I'm-not-trying-to-seduce-a-congressman, trying-to-seduce-a-congressman" outfit.

The session starts at 4pm. And it's not surprising to see that the people who were early can only be counted in on hand. The woman there told us that they have a grace period of 1:30 hours. Oh, yeah, Filipino time at it's finest...

It started with a congressman from Negros Occidental started his speech on tariffs on sugar. We all noticed that nobody even paid attention to what was being discussed. The current house speaker (JDV wasn't there, due to a very much awaited premiere) didn't seem interested (from where I sat).

We weren't there for an hour and we were escorted back to the lobby. Lho and behold, we had an audience with the minority congressmen... bakit puro mga Anti-Gloria tong mga kumausap sa min? And I'm sorry Kris, hindi ko talaga trip si Gilbert Remulla. I'm a brown-eyes person, if you know what I mean...ehehe

I asked why many congresspeople weren't listening to the guy speaking, using this speaker-phone thingy

Pagbabatikos!

Feeling part ng Blue Ribbon Committee

...and they said that they do not want to listen to things that are not related to them. Forgive me for being narrow-minded but I did not like the way they answered my question.

From their answer, it gave me the impression that congressmen only listen to what they want to listen. That didn't sound right...

No matter how articulate they sounded...it all sounded fake for me. Politics wasn't my cup of tea...and visiting Congress didn't change it one bit...