Senator-elect Honasan wants to put the past behind, eager to work in Senate

With a colorful career in and out of uniform, Senator-elect Gringo Honasan knows what it’s like to keep your head down and work with a big group. He was 17 years a soldier, after all.

 

But the soldier-turned-politician Honasan also has a streak of mischief in him, with seven years as a rebel under his belt. Proclaimed 12th in the list of incoming senators Saturday, Honasan said he was ready to work with all senators in the coming 16th Congress, including the administration bets.

 

“Sana hanggang halalan lang itong [parti-partido] dahil 'pag pinag-uusapan kahirapan, hanapbuhay, pagtaas ng sahod, pagkain, walang Team PNOY at UNA diyan. Pinag-uusapan public interest. 'Yan ang dapat tugunan ng mga nahalal na senador at mambabatas,” Honasan said in an interview with GMA News TV’s News to Go aired Monday.

 

 

Honasan said that despite his role as a coup leader during the years of President Benigno Aquino III’s mother Cory, he sees no problem with working with the president.

 

“I only remember participating in two coups, ‘87 and ‘89, for which I have an amnesty proclamation. I have paid my dues,” he said.

 

Additionally Honasan also expressed a different hope, one more radical than mere cooperation among senators. 

 

“It is still my hope that this will lead us into a charter change for a two-party system which is program- and platform-oriented as opposed to personality-oriented. 'Di naman personality pinaguusapan dito (kungdi) ang plano ng bawat mambabatas sa araw-araw na buhay ng 100 milyong Pilipino,” Honasan said, adding that the existing system forces senators to keep forming new alignments and alliances.

 

“In a situation where party politics do not exist in the country, you have to deal with it that way, (with aligning with those with similar ideals),” he said. 

 

For now, however, Honasan consented to say that he will work toward being a “good” opposition senator.

 

“'Yan naman ang gawa ng mabuting oposisyon. 'Pag tama ang ginagawa ng administrasyon, susuportahan. 'Pag 'di tama at nilulustay lang ang pera, sisitahin. Not to obstruct but to come up to a better law which is job of senators,” he said. —Patricia Denise Chiu/KG, GMA News