By John Nery

This is an excerpt from John Nery’s Newsstand Opinion column on the Inquirer, where he talked about Loren and Risa. Let me share this part to all of you.

The antidote to depression exists, however. The possibility, for instance, that a non-traditional politician like Risa Hontiveros can make it to the Senate is thrilling, and seems to me to signal a break, momentary to be sure, from the electoralism that has characterized much of our history of elections. Take a look at the names of the 18 candidates with a fighting chance of landing any of the 12 Senate seats at stake; only Risa’s is an untested political brand. (Reading her website Monday, I found out for the first time that her grandfather was a senator in Manuel Quezon’s time. Correct me if I am wrong, but I do not think this is a factor in her steady climb up the surveys. For all intents and purposes, Risa is a new face in Philippine politics.)

I have known Risa for over 25 years, and she has remained the same gracious person she always was. But her resolve is pure steel. At a forum Monday, I heard her excoriate “ang mapalinlang na administrasyong GMA” in her musical Tagalog (she is, in fact, an excellent singer), but there was no mistaking the authoritativeness in her stance. It is the fruit of years of political experience, in the peace movement, in the party-list sector, in the halls of Congress. (She was the driving force behind the agrarian reform extension law, and a moving spirit, impelled by her deep faith, behind the
reproductive health bill.)

Akbayan, which Risa helped co-found in 1994, traces part of its roots to the “Jovy-Nene” campaign of 1992 (Senators Jovito Salonga and Aquilino Pimentel Jr. ran a valiant but ultimately losing campaign). It is a bracing thought to imagine: that someone like her can follow those two unlikely politicians into the Senate.

Read the rest of the article here: Risa and Loren

Viewed 6088 times by 1873 viewers

Uy! Ka barrio, kung first timer ka dito sa Barrio Siete o kaya naman ay napasaya ka ng aming mga writers, inaanyayahan ka naming mag subscribe sa RSS Feed namin! Pwede mong gamitin ang Google Reader para dito.

Powered by WP Greet Box WordPress Plugin

reynz is one Uragon and a Filipino-American, has many years of public accounting & auditing, broadcast investments, housing tax credits and equity investments as his background. Based in the US, he maintains his personal and humor blog at reyna elena dot com. A graduate of Aquinas U, he went to GWU and Temple U in the United States.