The Senate enacts laws, doesn’t write songs

Egay Uy .

LAST week, the  Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) issued a statement that urged us to brace for warmer days ahead, or specifically in the next two months.  Forecast temperature in April will range from 30 to 39 degrees Celsius in the lowlands of Luzon and in the northern part of the island.

In Metro Manila, forecast temperature will range from 35 to 38 degrees while in the lowlands of the Visayas the temperature range will be from 32 to 38 degrees. Mindanao will not be spared because its lowlands will have a temperature range of 33 to 38 degrees Celsius.

The worse will however be felt in May when the highest temperature in the lowlands of Luzon will reach 40.7 degrees, 38.2 degrees in Metro Manila, 38.3 and 38.8 degrees in the lowlands of the Visayas and Mindanao, respectively.

These projections seem to reflect how hot the campaign for the city’s leadership has become, what with all the vilification and persecution, and the lies and false claims.

True to form, the local campaign in the city has already started last March 29. Before that, local candidates however have already campaigned for hopefuls for national positions but that did not take away from the locals the opportunity to speak out for and in their own behalf.

And as the hot weather is setting in, The Oscar has become a hotter item in the political arena. His excellent performance as the local chief executive of Cagayan de Oro has highlighted the inept and sorely poor performance of his predecessor. The various awards he has reaped for the city speak for themselves even as his political persecutors proclaim otherwise – deliberately to mislead others.

People who support The Oscar and those who are contesting his leadership have their own reasons for doing so. It will be best for everybody to simply put forward what their candidates offer rather than play the dirty old trick of maligning those in the other side of the fence. And I have noticed that it is not only the candidates who have become the subject of bashings and ad hominem but also those who are closely identified with the candidates.

But then again, nobody can question anybody else’s reason for supporting a certain candidate for public office. For example, if supporters believe that an OPM artist will do good in the Senate, let them be. But I hope voters will remember not to put square pegs in round holes. I agree with one senatorial candidate who said that the Senate is not the place where songs are written or sung. It is where laws are enacted.

(Egay Uy is a lawyer. He chairs the City’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, co-chairs with the city mayor the City Price Coordinating Council, and chairs the city’s Joint Inspection Team.  He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)