Parliamentarians against corruption

THE plunge to the bottom of the image of Filipino lawmakers has made Filipinos more cynical about the government as a whole and politicians in general.

Of the two major national parties in our country during the post WW II period, the Liberal Party, more than the Nacionalista Party, was always the more corrupt in the eyes of our people. It was an LP leader, Senate President Jose Dira Avelino of Samar, who became notorious for saying “What are we in power for?” Avelino had spoken in Spanish and said “Para que estamos en poder?” at an LP caucus precisely called to discuss how to combat allegations of corrupt doings by LPs--including the incumbent President Elpidio Quirino. Perhaps the notoriety of this quotation has unjustly erased all the good things that Avelino did and stood for from the time he was a contemporary of Manuel L. Quezon. He, for instance, authored the Workmen’s Compensation Act and other laws good for the people and our Repbublic.