Long Overdue
Nowadays, congressional hearings are nothing but venues for political grandstanding and posturing. They hardly accomplish anything, except give the illusion that something is being done in order to appease the unmindful public. Countless scams have been brought to light in recent memory and numerous congressional inquiries have been made to shed light on these scandals. The issues make headlines for a while, the media talks about them, until they slowly disappear from the public consciousness and slip comfortably into oblivion. These hearings are a sham, much like the very issues they pretend to address. The media is in on the con as well. Journalists fire at the culprits, then fall silent once money is offered to them by the guilty parties. How can these hearings have any credibility when the ones conducting them are the very same crooks that should be subjected to these hearings? Our political system is rife with inherent conflicts far too many to count. At the end of the day everything becomes part of one giant zarzuela.
Both houses of Congress are likewise being used as venues to divert attention from issues of more significant bearing, especially ones concerning the legislators themselves. Now that Andy Bautista's domestic problem turned haywire threatens to explode into an all-star cast classic ensemble clusterfuck, with splinters of shrapnel sure to hit them no matter which way they run, legislators are once again scrambling not just for convenient cover, but for creative ways to deflect the issue from their usual guilty-ass selves. Take for instance the Kian affair. In a different time, a different king, none of these bastards would give a shit about this poor kid getting whacked under any circumstance. But these are desperate times. And desperate times call for equally desperate measures. And everyone is busy jumping into the Kian bandwagon for the rare opportunity it presents. Times like these, every single opportunity to divert must be conveniently mined and exploited. When there is nowhere left to run, and your prospects for survival are getting slimmer by the minute, chaos and confusion become potent tools in the desperate man's arsenal. It happened during the height of the PDAF scandal, it is happening again now.
Lacson's "exposé" against Faeldon and the BOC is no different. As are Grace Poe's diversionary press releases, Nancy Binay's preemptive finger-pointing stunt vs. Smartmatic, Trillanes' and Hontiveros' usual stage antics, and Frank Drilon's sudden awakening from his mysterious purposeful and studied slumber. To clueless and naive fools these may seem to be normal incidences, just a bunch of senators doing their jobs, but a clearer look at the bigger picture reveals the true nature and intent of these deliberately engineered spectacles.
Congress has truly outlived its purpose. Instead of having selfless patriots preoccupying themselves with all kinds of legislation that will uplift the plight of the public, what we have are a confederacy of clowns, crooks and buffoons who do nothing but lie, pillage and divert. It's about time we reevaluate the nature of its existence. A simple cost-benefit analysis would suffice. If the benefits outweigh the costs, or at least equate to a satisfying level of equilibrium, then perhaps there may still be enough reason to argue for its continuance. But if what we have is a system that falls easy prey into the machinations of crooks and scoundrels, and the social costs far outweigh whatever gains it dissimulates to offer, then dispensing with it altogether seems like a more practical and beneficial alternative.
Congress must be dissolved. Along with it the electoral system that allows thieving crooks and rich powerful individuals with vested interests to thrive and cheat their way into public office.
There is no need to prolong the nation's agony. A revolutionary government is in order. It is long overdue.
