The lighthouse

On many issues that put the country at risk from turbulent seas, Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros is a beacon of hope. Where sorting of these issues requires more than the flow and moorings of shifting political winds, she stands alone. And like a lighthouse, she stands out.

All went well like no harm was done until President Bongbong Marcos vetoed House of Representatives (HoR) Bill No. 8839 on 11 April 2025. When enacted, the bill would have granted Philippine citizenship to one Li Duan Wang. Mr. Marcos did not need to lift a finger for the bill to lapse into law. A passive approval spites no one yet concedes to being part of a congressional overreach, if not a rip-off. But he chose to be emphatic with a rejection.  

HB 8838 (originally filed as HB 1318), principally authored by House Representatives Joey Salceda and Juliet Marie De Leon Ferrer, was filed on 10 August 2023 and approved on third and final reading on 5 September 2023 by 211 affirmative votes (1 negative vote and 17 abstentions). Sixteen months later, on 27 January 2025, the Senate approved the bill without amendment on third and final reading. All senators voted in its favor except Hontiveros.

The veto exposed a congress that works in darkness. It is as if we have a gang—men and women in black, all tightly bound by conformity. The underworld shuns dissent. Its conceit claims the voice of reason as a perennial casualty. But that did not prevent her, no matter how futile, to try to turn on the light.

Hontiveros asked her colleagues in a speech on the senate floor explaining her negative vote on the bill: “Hindi pa ba tayo natuto sa panloloko ni Guo Hua Ping, alias Alice Guo, o kay Yang Jianxin, alias Tony Yang? Hindi pa ba tayo nadala sa mga abusadong dayuhang nagpanggap na Pilipino para pagkakitaan ang taumbayan at dungisan ang ating mga sistema?” 

She earlier led a series of Senate investigations that uncovered the dubious ties of Mr. Wang to shady characters. She suggested that instead of granting him Philippine citizenship, congress should subject him to a more rigorous scrutiny. She alleged that, among other screaming “red flags,” Wang has been found (1) to hold multiple taxpayer IDs, (2) have links to illegal POGO operations and, (3), as an affiliate of a group reportedly tied to the Chinese Communist Party.

In his veto message, Mr. Marcos said: “I am unable to blindly ignore the alarming and revealing warnings raised by our relevant national agencies that find the subject grantee’s character and influence to be full of ominous and dire consequences. If not, of a clear and present danger.”

With the rejection, a solitary voice thus sinks a boatload of congressmen—made heavier with bags of questionable motives and loyalties, wading through treacherous waters.

Senate President Francis Escudero rationalized the collective act of his colleagues as a win for democracy. He said: "Bawat panukalang batas, hindi naman lahat sumasang-ayon... Hindi porke’t may isang may reserbasyon, eh siya na ang masusunod. Kaya nga demokrasya at mayorya ang sinusunod. Pinagpasyahan ng mayorya na hindi sumasang-ayon sa kanya o wala namang pumipigil na mangyari at gawin 'yun, kahit na may basehan man o wala."  

Escudero invokes a henpecked concept and comes across blighting the democratic ideal. He finds the numbers handy with a simple metric of quantity over quality but conveniently ignores the tyranny of it: because for democracy to be of true service to people, it requires an even playing field where resources are not concentrated in the hands of a few. Applied to the Senate, democracy demands that its members have more or less equal aptitude over topics being deliberated on, that each one puts in an equal amount of research and analytical work to their assigned tasks, that each one has comparable records of professional integrity, that each one shares a vision for long-term development rather than the scooping of short-term advantages, that each one is on the same page when it comes to advancing national interests, etc.

Do the likes of Bato de la Rosa, Robin Padilla, Lito Lapid, Bong Go, Bong Revilla, among others, bring anything of consequence to the table? Maybe they are good in other crafts, but I doubt it if they are contributing something to the legislative work of congress. A hundred votes from their kind have less value than a solitary vote from Hontiveros.      

There are deadwoods and quislings, but the tacit enablers of business-as-usual cliques, unable to rage when inequities are having a field day, are equally hopeless. I am particularly disappointed with the likes of Joel Villanueva and Koko Pimentel who come in full of promise and idealism but ultimately come out consumed by the flow and movable moorings of the ever-changing political weather.

Villanueva comes from a family of preachers for Christianity, one of the major global faith groups that submit to the ten commandments. With his background, one would expect him to go underground rather than say nothing about the murderous war on drugs waged by the previous administration.

Pimentel had a father who thrived at a time when snipers were eager to please the dictator. That one was not afraid to die for his convictions. This one is afraid to lose an electoral fight.

The veto also exposed congressional overreach. A legislative fiat is an affront to the law that vests in the courts and the justice department the power to evaluate the fitness of the applicant for naturalization. But there is no limit to what congress can do, except ignorance and clash of motives. 

Uncheck, naturalization by legislation can have the effect of amending the stringent economic provisions of the constitution. The case of Wang is illustrative for its incomplete staff work. Salceda has filed similar bills with copy-paste template for explanatory notes (interchangeably referring to him as Mr. Liduan or Mr. Wang, full in praise of the applicants’ affluence and philanthropy but nothing on character checks, including possible conflicts as defined by the law on ethical standards for government employees.

Here is but only one of many instances where Hontiveros had consistently shown her unmatched level of commitment to the lofty standards of public service. Her courage, competence and hard work speak of her distinction from colleagues who are fine with pandering on everything that is fashionable and voter friendly.