THIS COUNTRY NEEDS A WORKING SENATE -- ANGARA

Popularity alone does not a good senator make. Action does. There is nothing glamorous about being a senator, considering the workload one has to accomplish in the name of God and country. This country needs a working Senate more than anything else.

This statement was made by senatorial re-electionist Edgardo Angara in reaction to survey results that peg popular candidates in the Magic Twelve. For Ed Angara, popularity is fine as long as the candidate is also intellectually quick to the draw.

A good senator must have a view of the forest and not just the trees, he says. He or she must have a macro perspective as well as knowledge of specifics. An effective senator anticipates what might happen just by reading the movement of the times, and consequently drafts bills to arrest any and all impediments to progress.

Even earlier in his career as a senator, Angara made strides in providing legislative solutions to the country's problems, oftentimes even before these problems became full-blown.

He has enacted laws protecting the welfare of the youth as well as senior citizens, promoting social justice and human welfare development, advancing the concept of local autonomy, and promoting small- and medium-scale enterprises.

He saw the need to draft laws that would benefit rural folk and the labor force. Thus he authored the Magna Carta for Small Farmers. Angara did not cringe from delving headlong into the fight against heinous crimes by enacting bills that required government to compensate victims of violent crime. Alternatively, he also drafted a bill that seeks to compensate victims of unjust imprisonment and forced detention.

Even before the dreaded El Nio hit the country, Ed Angara had foreseen the devastation that it could bring. He authored The Desalination Plant Incentive Act to provide solutions to the problem of drought by compelling private industries to initiate the production of fresh water from seawater or brine. It was to be the beginning of Ed Angaras advocacy to include the public sector in the battle for a clean environment and against other social problems.

One of his most significant contributions to the welfare of society was his introduction of amendments in the Penal Code that peg the wifes adultery and the husbands concubinage as equal offenses, bearing equal punishment regardless of gender and manner of offense.

Angara also pushed for health laws that require hospitals to promote breastfeeding, establish the Medical Service Contracting Program to aid private hospitals to accommodate poor patients, and raise the penalty for drug-related crimes.