The Hard-Nosed Dreamers

I’m starting to have fun.

I attended a Senate public hearing for the second time early this morning. It was about the bills proposing to build a railroad in Mindanao to stimulate its flagging economy by producing jobs and incentives for the industries in the far South to produce more. If you know me, you should know that I hate hate hate HATE going to any formal event where people other than myself get to talk for extended periods of time; this includes fora and symposia at the University where (if I have the choice) I walk out fifteen minutes after the start of the program. I have a short attention span—this is a fault, sure, but it saves me a lot of time. College life is too short to waste a third of it on uninspiring forums.

But Senate hearings are different. Would you believe, our Senators are actually smart? Well, at least Chiz Escudero and Dick Gordon are. They know how to ask the right questions and how to MAKE people answer them, not through their esteemed position but by being like Oprah Winfrey: they don’t back down. I actually learn a lot during hearings. My brain works, trying to analyze the exchange of questions and answers and the subtleties of meaning in every word. And of course, there are funny moments:

Resource person: As you can see, here is Davao, and the shipping line…

Senator: No, Davao is on the other side.

Resourse person: (flummoxed) Ah, so, Davao is…

Senator: No, no, it’s on the other side of the map.

Resource person: (Points somewhere, obviously at random) Here is Davao…

Senator: (exasperated) It’s on the right side.

And then there are inspiring moments. Senator Gordon said today on the building of railroads in Mindanao:

"I’m a dreamer, which is why I want a railroad for Mindanao while Senator Enrile is hard-nosed, which is why he is asking specific questions like that. What we need in the Senate is a mix of dreamers and the hard-nosed.."