Cesar Montano

I once thought about writing a screen play and giving it to Cesar Montano in exchange for an acting role in the movie.

I have not started on the script yet as I am busy speculating about my future as a lawyer or will I ever become one.

Last night, I was amused by Cesar Montano's honesty on TV.

He did not know how many posters and other campaign materials he needed for his bid for the Senate. Logically, he did not know the amount a candidate had to spend for a national campaign. He heard it is around 200 million to 400 million pesos, or, according to a grapevine, 500 million pesos for a sure win.

He is glad that there are people who are sponsoring his TV and radio advertisements. He is however thinking about not having the ads because a TV ad, for example, costs around 40 million pesos to make. He is aware that the Country has a lot of immediate needs. The money for his adds could be used to address those needs. There is, for example, the families who do not have decent homes. Cesar is aware that Bahay Kalinga needs only 50 thousand pesos to build a new home.

He was in Cebu and, unlike his fellow candidates, when he announced his candidacy there, he had no headquarters and staff.

Cesar admitted he was not prepared to run.

He disappeared from the public for sometime to do what he calls a "one step backwards" so that he could make a "two steps forward" move.

Once he is elected, he will be too busy learning the rules and regulations of the Senate and, unless he plans to sleep for the cameras, like Robert Jaworski did, also learning the pending bills so he could participate in the deliberations.

If he losses, this election will be the longest days of Cesar's life. He will grow older and of course wiser after these.

If he wins, however, Cesar will have a hard time in the Senate. By the time he learns the logic of the law and by the time he and his staff come up with a draft of a bill, he might realize his six years are over.

It takes one to fail in exams and to be humiliated in the presence of his peers to realize that laws have logic of their own. One can not just guess or rely on his lay man's conclusions.

Four years in law school are not even enough for most of us, law graduates, to know the laws and therefore pass the bar exams.

I admire Cesar for the transparency he has shown in the news last night. As a fan, however, I am very disappointed that he allowed himself to be involved in politics in such haste.