The sins of sons and fathers

Is it really the behavior of his son and namesake that has made his old cronies in the House of Representatives turn their backs so cruelly on him? It is true that Joey de Venecia's imprudence had created irreconcilable differences between the Arroyo and De Venecia families, but I am inclined to suspect that the other members of the House, the alleged 140 members who are all set to kick the longtime Speaker of the House out, have another ax to grind with JdV.

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Oh yes, we are seeing the opposite of what is said in the Bible about the sins of the fathers being visited upon the children. In the De Venecia affair, it is the “sin” of the son that had shaken the solid stand of his father. In his fury over missing out on the broadband deal with the wealthy Chinese company, ZTE, Joey de Venecia had shot his mouth off, recklessly letting the chips fall where they may. Alas, some of the chips fell on the President's spouse, who happens to have two very protective sons and one brother in the House of Representatives.

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Clutching at straws, supporters of the Speaker are hanging on the possibility that the caucus last night will smoothen things out, and that the President, who has been insisting that she wants JdV to stay in office, will influence the rampaging solons. That is doubtful, because, so far, her sons seem to be getting more determined than ever to replace the Speaker. I can't remember who said it, but somebody had pointed out that if De Venecia could not stop his son, the President will not also stop her sons.

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The sons have reasons, but, to go back to the other congressmen, remember how displeased many of them sounded when the Speaker declared that he was going to institute reforms in the House? Among those reforms was that he would work for the monitoring of the scandalous pork barrel funds and even advocated for its audit by the proper agencies. That was unforgivable to many members of the House, maybe most of them, for how can they play the games they have been playing with that P70 million annually, if they had to account for it, and submit their receipts for expenses to audit? Unthinkable! And so, JdV must go.

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Another mortal sin that De Venecia committed that may have solidified the animosity of his fellow solons was his recent move to install a computerized system of recording the attendance of house members. The new system would require them to establish their presence by touching the mechanism and their finger mark would be recorded, with the time they arrived. Voting, too, would be recorded in a similar manner, so nobody has to raise his or her hand and be afraid of being noticed. Those were supposed to be “reforms”, “improvements” or “modernization” steps, but obviously they didn't sit well with his colleagues. And so, it's Aloha for JdV. The technical term now is “Loss of confidence”.

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In the United States , meanwhile, everybody is girding for tomorrow which they have dubbed “Super Tuesday”. This is the day when 20 states will hold their “primaries” and we will see which of the Democrat and the Republican wannabes will edge closer to their party's candidacy. Late polls yesterday gave Hillary Clinton an edge, but I hear that Oprah Winfrey and Caroline Kennedy will go on a blitz for the “Change Man”, Barack Obama, so we will see how influential they will be. I admit that the American electoral process is too complicated for me, so I will just sit and wait for the last counts.

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Meanwhile, what's the matter with the vessels now plying the sea between Bacolod and Iloilo ? On Saturday, the feast of the Candelaria, or Our Lady of the Candles, who has many devotees in Negros, drew many Bacoleños to Iloilo . Later in the evening, I heard that the vessel Weesam, which was supposed to sail to Bacolod , was delayed for a long time, and the passengers were very disgusted because they were not even informed about the delay.

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The boat finally left after 7 p.m., maybe closer to 8 p.m. This also happened a few weeks ago, and among those who had to wait for hours were Inquirer columnist Amando Doronila and wife Lulu. Is something wrong with the maintenance of the vessels at the Bredco port? I remember that when it was Negros Navigation serving the two provinces, its boats were always well-maintained and always on time. The management of the new vessels should improve their service, Negrenses and Ilonggos are used to competent and safety-conscious companies.*

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