Now that the Senate has shown itself for the circus that it really is, ain't I glad I did not file an appeal with the Comelec when it disqualified me from running for senator because I did not have a party.
I could have had a party. One presidential candidate included me in his list, but slid down to vice-presidential candidate and was heard, as the writer of macabre tales Edgar Allan Poe would put it, nevermore. I tried contacting his party, but you have to talk to 10,000 layers of the hierarchy before you could get a clear word in. Chaos is the name of their game.
I could have had a party. Another presidential candidate sent an emissary and I kinda liked the candidate, but they were offering ten percent of what a senatorial campaign needs. A senatorial campaign needs PhP 200 million. What will I do with PhP 20 million? It won't even pay for everything when the gun starts to bark on February 9 -- the start of the official campaign season.
I could have had a party. I kinda liked the vice presidential candidate of another party, but I did not like the presidential candidate. All bluster, all talk, nothing, nada, zilch, wala.
I could have had a party. But one of the senatorial candidates of this controversial party disliked me to high heavens for placing higher than him/her in the unpolluted senatorial surveys in the past year. Is it my fault if the people like me and not you, Super Brat?
Thus, I have enumerated the top four presidential candidates and what they offered or had in store for me before December 1, the last day for the filing of certificates of candidacy for senator of this beautiful but poor country.
But since the money offered was not enough or I did not like the party or I loathed the presidential candidate or one senatorial itsy bitsy yellow polka dot bikini hated me, I did not run under any of the so-called mainstream parties.
And so I filed as an independent candidate, to go solo, banking only on the LGUs and youth groups and NGOs and teachers' associations and LGBT groups I have allied with since 2007, when I criss-crossed the country quietly, every two weeks. And yet Comelec -- that fountain of Infinite Intelligence -- said we do not have a national network.
Really?
Then why, oh why, now that Ang Ladlad might run for party-list elections, am I getting phone calls and e-mail letters every day from governors and congressmen and mayors -- both incumbent and opposition -- asking me to form an alliance with them in their provinces and cities and towns? They said that Ang Ladlad is very strong in their localities, and please naman, Professor Remoto, visit our localities and we will host you and we will meet, please consider this urgent request for an alliance. Our people, Professor Remoto, they really want to see you because you are funny and brave and bright. (Really? But the Comelec does not think so). If all politics is local, then what do all these urgent phone calls and e-mails mean?
If I do not have a national network, then why, oh why, do people running now for senators have asked Ang Ladlad and I to please, kindly, sige na naman, bring home to our respective regions, provinces, bailiwicks their tarpaulins and posters now that the campaign season is just a breath away? Because you do not bring home a tarp or poster. You hang or post them in junctions, in residences of important people in a town, and you need permission and local clout to do that, kapatid, so 1,000 tarps and posters will bloom in a particular street corner or wall or gate.
Kung ito ang grupo ng walang national constituency, bakit nagkakandarapa sila na makipagtulungan sa amin?
And many of the senators in yesterday's circus at the Senate will run for re-election and will certainly win. So tuloy ang kabalbalan even after May 2010.
That is why I hope the Supreme Court will allow us to run, finally, and this country will see what running as an independent senator would have been -- mirrored in the impending landslide victory of Ang Ladlad Party List.
I could have had a party. One presidential candidate included me in his list, but slid down to vice-presidential candidate and was heard, as the writer of macabre tales Edgar Allan Poe would put it, nevermore. I tried contacting his party, but you have to talk to 10,000 layers of the hierarchy before you could get a clear word in. Chaos is the name of their game.
I could have had a party. Another presidential candidate sent an emissary and I kinda liked the candidate, but they were offering ten percent of what a senatorial campaign needs. A senatorial campaign needs PhP 200 million. What will I do with PhP 20 million? It won't even pay for everything when the gun starts to bark on February 9 -- the start of the official campaign season.
I could have had a party. I kinda liked the vice presidential candidate of another party, but I did not like the presidential candidate. All bluster, all talk, nothing, nada, zilch, wala.
I could have had a party. But one of the senatorial candidates of this controversial party disliked me to high heavens for placing higher than him/her in the unpolluted senatorial surveys in the past year. Is it my fault if the people like me and not you, Super Brat?
Thus, I have enumerated the top four presidential candidates and what they offered or had in store for me before December 1, the last day for the filing of certificates of candidacy for senator of this beautiful but poor country.
But since the money offered was not enough or I did not like the party or I loathed the presidential candidate or one senatorial itsy bitsy yellow polka dot bikini hated me, I did not run under any of the so-called mainstream parties.
And so I filed as an independent candidate, to go solo, banking only on the LGUs and youth groups and NGOs and teachers' associations and LGBT groups I have allied with since 2007, when I criss-crossed the country quietly, every two weeks. And yet Comelec -- that fountain of Infinite Intelligence -- said we do not have a national network.
Really?
Then why, oh why, now that Ang Ladlad might run for party-list elections, am I getting phone calls and e-mail letters every day from governors and congressmen and mayors -- both incumbent and opposition -- asking me to form an alliance with them in their provinces and cities and towns? They said that Ang Ladlad is very strong in their localities, and please naman, Professor Remoto, visit our localities and we will host you and we will meet, please consider this urgent request for an alliance. Our people, Professor Remoto, they really want to see you because you are funny and brave and bright. (Really? But the Comelec does not think so). If all politics is local, then what do all these urgent phone calls and e-mails mean?
If I do not have a national network, then why, oh why, do people running now for senators have asked Ang Ladlad and I to please, kindly, sige na naman, bring home to our respective regions, provinces, bailiwicks their tarpaulins and posters now that the campaign season is just a breath away? Because you do not bring home a tarp or poster. You hang or post them in junctions, in residences of important people in a town, and you need permission and local clout to do that, kapatid, so 1,000 tarps and posters will bloom in a particular street corner or wall or gate.
Kung ito ang grupo ng walang national constituency, bakit nagkakandarapa sila na makipagtulungan sa amin?
And many of the senators in yesterday's circus at the Senate will run for re-election and will certainly win. So tuloy ang kabalbalan even after May 2010.
That is why I hope the Supreme Court will allow us to run, finally, and this country will see what running as an independent senator would have been -- mirrored in the impending landslide victory of Ang Ladlad Party List.
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