Moral brigade

In 2019, a report on GMA News said the Philippine Congress had only 19 millennials — those born between 1981 and 1996 — and 15 of them belonged to political dynasties.

Why this is even worth mentioning has to do with the recent verbal vomit spewed by some lawmakers soon after the flood control project anomalies were revealed, linking many hidden personalities in Congress to graft and corruption.

It is no secret that the game of longevity is played in politics, and many an election had seen voters practically throwing their hands up wondering if there would be an end to the “same old same old” candidates.

Our Congress is full of dynastic families, and while some of the younger ones cannot yet be judged on their abilities or leadership, it makes people wonder if they will someday carry on what we now reject in our government officials.

A young lawmaker who has been in the spotlight recently is Cavite 4th District Rep. Kiko Barzaga, who seems to be running loose in the House of Representatives and causing his fellow congressmen to raise complaints with the ethics committee.

Barzaga is in his 20s and social media savvy, we suppose. Yet for all the generational divide, there is no question he has gone over the line with posts showing “lewd photos” and “displays of wealth” “(fanning) cynicism and hostility.”

He is an elected official, not a shameless influencer who does not know where to draw the line between sense and sensibility, let alone comprehend the underlying meanings behind mere punctuation.

Kiko, as some netizens have analyzed, appears to have only his lineage backing his career, from council seat to assistant majority leader, as there are no public records of his educational history nor a substantial body of work to speak of.

Yet, there he was, spouting words against the alleged corrupt and gunning for the speakership too. One wonders if this is all an exercise to distract from the real issue: the corruption in government.

Speaking of which, some veterans in government who seem to have smut-free faces immediately came out to speak up on their views about corruption.

Senator Joel Villanueva had critics on a meme-spree after he gave a fiery condemnation of his fellow lawmakers for “failing to protect him” over his alleged involvement in the flood control brouhaha. Before that, he said he would never do anything to taint the name his father gave him.

And then, of course, there was that opposing repartee between the brothers Cayetano, with Senator Alan Peter quoted in a livestream on Facebook as saying: “Kaya itong grabeng corruption, nangyayari. ‘Yung lines of morality natin, urong nang urong. So parang pag kaunti pwede, tapos mas maraming kaunti, okay din. Until ‘yan, ghost na,” the senator said.

But it was his words, “We are all guilty from vote-buying to cheating to stealing to lying … Importante ang repentance,” that got his brother Lino to retort: “Stealing is not natural. Vote-buying, lying… And repentance alone is not the solution and absolution.”

In this light, the younger brother added the need for a “new set of leaders to emerge in this country.”

All this moralizing only bounces off a very tired, frustrated Filipino people who can no longer tolerate the abuse of their trust.