Quadcomm debacle

The House Quad Committee with its grandstanding chair and members has met its downfall. Despite, by their design, getting free mainstream and social media exposure, they were an ignominious failure in the recent elections.

Bienvenido Abante of Manila and Dan Fernandez of Laguna lost miserably. Had Paduano and Barbers run, they would have lost too. Super grandstanding leftists Flores, Castro and Manuel essentially got zero in the tallies. Well, aside from indications of stupidity whenever they slandered the resource persons, the huge question was who would vote for communists, anyway. 

Obviously, the rejection of Abante and Fernandez et al. indicated the electorate abhorred the persecutory nature of the Quadcomm, whose avowed objective was to destroy the popular and mass-supported Duterte camp and make big money from the crime. The Quadcomm, unless proven otherwise, was designed not to aid legislation but to destroy their feared political enemies who were a clear and potent obstacle to their dreams of perpetuity in power. 

But will the poor majority and the few filthy rich Filipinos take a pro-evil stance with their votes in 2028? I seriously doubt it.

What the next course of this quack committee will be we do not know, considering the status of forces that will develop with new faces coming in. 

There are reports of possible changes in the hierarchy of the House with Reps Albee Benitez, Toby Tiangco and Angelo Marcos eyeing the speakership. Current Speaker Martin Romualdez certainly would not take any and all attempts to unseat him, more so now with a mere three years from the next presidential derby. Although being Speaker is no guarantee of victory, Romualdez can use the huge funds under his control and the corrupt district reps to support his run.

The recently concluded electoral exercise indicates a better appreciation of the character and integrity of the winning bets belonging to the Duterte camp. Reelectionist Mr. Malasakit Senator Bong Go along with four others got major votes too, namely, former senator Bam Aquino, reelectionist Bato dela Rosa and Rep. Erwin Tulfo.  

Kuya Bong, as he is fondly called by the common folk, garnered the most votes in our election history with 27,121,073, even surpassing Sen. Robin Padilla’s 26,612,134 votes in 2019. 

Kuya Bong admitted that this time the campaign was extremely difficult for him compared to his first run for senator in 2019 when President Digong Duterte was around to support him. This time, he was on his own which was a huge challenge. 

But observing him from the time he was a neophyte senator, he was the only one from the Senate who was always there when people needed assistance. We saw the Davaoeño senator at fire scenes, flood-stricken areas, volcanic eruptions, where there were calamities. We had never seen anyone like him here and there in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. 

Of course, the law creating the Malasakit Centers as an institution showed his concern for the health needs of our financially challenged countrymen who were taken advantage of by greedy hospital owners.

He was at the forefront of exposing the poor health insurance service provided by PhilHealth, persistently calling for improved benefits, decrying the siphoning of health insurance funds for non-health purposes. He stressed the need to return the snatched funds and use them for the expansive health coverage mandated by law.

Congratulations, Senator Bong and all those on the slate who won our trust and confidence. We wish him and the others the mental and physical strength to continue to serve us more. As for the rest, their only interest in running was power and their pockets.