Accents
Julia Carreon-Lagoc

The nation's best and brightest future

There is hope for the country, dear readers. I could see silver linings penetrating through the thick, dark, dirty clouds of politics. I write this with verve and courage and optimism. Where before my glass was half empty, now it is half full.

Listening to Rep. Edmund Reyes speak on TV why the impeachment process should be pursued against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is to have your hope inching up, be it ever so slow but inching up just the same. Your spirit is uplifted because the hearing on the impeachment complaint is the only way of getting at the truth. Did she or did she not cheat her way to the presidency? If the hearing proves election frauds have placed GMA in Malacanang, that means she doesn't have the mandate of the people, and must therefore step down immediately. If it is proven that she won the election fair and square, then let the country abide her governance till the end of her term.

The loudest whisper is that money by the millions is working to sway congresspersons from signing the impeachment complaint. Rep. Eulogio Magsaysay has been the object of unpalatable remarks for withdrawing his signature from the Impeach GMA list. Whether money changed hands in his case, nobody knows. Maybe he is not aware that survey after survey has shown that 70% of Filipinos are for GMA's resignation, or he simply chose to disregard the will of the majority.

It was a study in contrast we viewed on TV last week: Rep. Eulogio Magsaysay one night and Edmund Reyes, the next night—the former doing an about-face with his signature on the pro-impeachment list, the latter steadfast on what he has set his hand, sacred as if it were some blood compact. Looking sheepishly embarrassed, Magsaysay could not quite explain why or how he slithered to the other side.

Where Edmund Reyes spoke with smoothness, Eulogio Magsaysay was inarticulate. Where every word of Reyes was ringing with conviction, Magsaysay's was pitifully devoid of substance. Brickbats and bouquets—the TV host read them all, and you know who received what. Let Magsaysay toss in his sleep, let his ilk waver and vacillate with the onrushing censure. For Reyes, the congressman from the lone district of Marinduque, plaudits have come from all over the country and, as I've said earlier, the TV host read them all. That's why I began this column with There is hope for our country, dear readers.

I write as a representative of the press, the Fourth Estate no less. And here on this corner of this paper, I urge our congressmen and congresswomen teetering on the brink of the impeach-or-not-to-impeach issue to go back to their constituents and sound them out. Hear their cry and speak in their behalf. Be a true representative of the people. It's not for you to dictate your choice that the wheeling-and-dealing in congress might have debased. Yours is the duty to voice out their opinion.

We shed tears with Ninoy Aquino's passing, leaving us with his unfinished vision of the Philippines—standing proud, progressive, self-sufficient in the family of nations. He would have been our nation's best and brightest future, and we are glad that the torch has been passed to the upright, fightingest, young generation in congress. We see in Edmund Reyes and his kind a Lorenzo Tanada, a Jose Diokno, a Chino Roces in the making.

Reyes is the epitome of what Rizal calls “the youth as the hope of the Fatherland.” He embodies the universal youth that holds aloft the triad of truth, beauty, and goodness. As long as we have congressmen like him, there will always be hope for our country. They are our nation's best and brightest future. Onward, soldier! Carry on! (Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)