Imagine if Dr. Jose Rizal were a senator today

Today is the 165th birth anniversary of the greatest Malayan who ever lived, Dr. Jose Proctacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda, the national hero of this forsaken land which he called the Pearl of the Orient Seas, the cradle of noble heroes.

- Atty. Josephus B. Jimenez

Ours too is the home of the Filipinos, who Ninoy Aquino considered worth fighting for and dying for. This also happens to be the home of such characters as Alan Peter Cayetano, Rodante Marcoleta, Loren Legarda, Bato de la Rosa and Robin Padilla.

If Dr. Jose Rizal were a member of the same Senate, I would think he would lose no time but take the rostrum and deliver a privilege speech, on a question of collective privilege, if only to denounce in the strongest words of condemnation, the multiple abuses of many modern Capitan Tiagos, who shamelessly use political positions in order to plunder the nation and oppress the people. He would not mince words in exposing the flood control anomalies, and unmask the blatant and unmitigated corruption in high places. He would risk his life again in order to attack the government who exploit the poor, the ignorant and the powerless. If he needed to die again, he would.