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With the increasing number of senators engaged in product
endorsements, the Senate has become a rich source of future Super
Models. I would not be surprised if Tyra Banks would suddenly pop up
and conduct her search for the next Super Models at the Senate. I am
sure that senators who find nothing wrong with endorsing products
and earning megabucks in the process would jostle against each other
to get the first crack at the search. After all, the Senate has been
converted into a training ground for upcoming models. And some day
soon, some senators might even be daring enough to become ramp
models!
At Wednesday’s plenary session, Sen. Juan
Ponce Enrile decried that some senators were still unprepared to
interpellate him even weeks after they had made the
“reservation” to do so. The bills on the floor had already
undergone several public hearings and had been on the floor for
several weeks. JPE wondered why a week or two would not suffice for
some senators to study a bill.
“If we are not prepared to interpellate
despite the length of time, then what are we in here for? For our
education? I don’t think that gives a good picture of us
senators,” JPE moaned
Well, some senators might not be prepared to
participate in floor debates but definitely, a number of them are
prepared to participate in the challenging task of endorsing
commercial products. It does not matter that they were elected to
make laws, not become models. Sure, as Senator Miriam had barked:
“They were not models before they became senators!” But then,
who would not want to make millions on the side by capitalizing on
their name and position? I can see the tempting come-on for
prospective candidates in future elections: “Join the Senate and
become a Super model!”
Not for Nene
Senate Minority Leader Nene Pimentel said that
he had never appeared in any commercial advertisement, nor had he
received any offer to do one.
“This face is already hopeless!” Nene
chuckled.
Senator Miriam is less than amused over the
conversion of the Senate into a chamber of commercial models. She
noted that most of these “models” were eyeing the 2010
presidential election and she charged that they were engaged in
premature campaigning. She said the claim that there was no
premature campaigning because no certificate of candidacy has been
filed is “a false and mentally dishonest argument.”
She also raises the question of delicadeza in
opposing the product endorsement of senators. Then, she went further
by saying that “some of them just do not deserve to inflict their
faces on the TV audience.” Ouch!
One of the senator models, Dick Gordon,
justified his endorsement of the Safeguard campaign called “Laban
sa Limang Banta [Fight against Five Threats]” as a legitimate
advocacy of public health, hygiene and safety.” The core message
of the Safeguard advertising campaign was to teach the general
public the benefits of proper hand washing and its importance in
preventing the spread of communicable diseases. Gordon said he knows
Safeguard well because he was the brand manager of Procter and
Gamble when the product was launched.
Incidentally, Gordon donated his P6-million
talent fee to the Philippine National Red Cross, of which he is the
chairman. Procter and Gamble has already given P3 million to PNRC,
wit the balance to be given next year.
Another senator model, Loren Legarda, said she
did not profit from these endorsements because she donated all her
talent fees to foundations. She gave no figures, however. She is the
endorser of Luntiang Pilipinas and a beauty product containing
glutathione, a questioned ingredient. Her credibility would be
affected if the product she has endorsed is proven to be defective.
Model at the House
The House also has become a model but not in a
commercial sense. The House has become a model of industry by
approving last week10 socioeconomic measures and 62 bills on rural
and countryside development. It looks like the House had suddenly
awakened from a deep sleep, punctuated by the failure to muster a
quorum for several days, to start working like a house on fire.
It was not only the huge output that impressed
me. Equally impressive was the directive of Speaker Prospero
Nograles to Majority Leader Art Defensor of Iloilo that the House
adopt the Senate version of the bill granting tax relief to
individual taxpayers. This move averted the time-consuming and
nerve-racking negotiations that usually characterize bicameral
conference committee meetings. Remember the Universally Accessible
Quality and Cheaper Medicines Act of 2008?
Speaking of the medicines bill, I am surprised
that some congressmen are saying it lapsed into law on May 29, 30
days after the House and the Senate had ratified the bicam report,
for the failure of Malacañang to sign it. Excuse me, gentlemen, but
the reckoning day for the 30-day period is not the ratification of
the bicam report but the transmittal of the enrolled bill to Malacañang,
which is May 21.
efrendanao2003@yahoo.com
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