bananarit

this morning was my first time to enter the GSIS building, the place where the distinguished men and women senators of the Philippines hold office. the couple of times that i have been there, i only stayed outside. i don't think they allow mobilizations inside the building.

misty and i went there to personally deliver letters urging the senators to enact the anti-torture bill into law. our first stop was at the sixth floor where there were the offices of senators pimentel, pangilinan, drilon, and flavier. i didn't expect to speak with the senators or at least with their staff, so i just had the letters received and asked who i should look for when i call to follow up.

ok...four down. then, we went to the fifth floor where the rest of the senators, except loi ejercito (who stays at the second floor for i don't know what reason...isolation?) held office.

there was nothing extraordinary with the task of delivering letters, though there were some bloggable things that happened...

i was inside the office of enrile when suddenly the door opened and a man came in and said, "miss! tabi, tabi!" and pushed me aside (mahina lang naman...pero kahit na 'no!). i later understood why he acted that way when i saw the great senator arriving. a woman who was fully made-up walked ahead of him while two other persons were behind him. it looked like the world stopped for the people inside his office. they all fell silent and while the senator walked towards his room, his staff mumbled muffled greetings. as soon as i lost sight of enrile, the woman who received the letter handed back to me the receiving copy. after i thanked her, i went out right away. whew! glad to have gone out of that office.

just immediately after i came out of the office of bong revilla, i saw him walking towards it. he was in a tightfit white shirt and black slacks (i think). about five people were behind him. if the building did not have centralized airconditioning, i bet there would have been someone fanning him. i was lucky i was already out of his office before he entered, or else i could have been pushed again.

unfortunately, i only got to see two senators (and their delegation) that day. but i got to see how all of their offices looked like.

going into the office of jamby madrigal was like going into a blessed sacrament chapel. there was dim lighting and the smell was different. it was like a mixture of myrrh and frankincense. the door to her office also seemed heavier than the doors of the others. hmm...i wonder why...

when i entered the office of lito lapid, i thought there was an ongoing shooting. there were about twenty people inside, i think. i even saw a man who looked familiar, a stuntman, i guess. i wonder if all those inside are part of his staff. wow!

there were also many people inside ping lacson's office, though nothing can beat the number inside lapid's office. i was expecting to get a different reaction from the secretary when i told him what the letter i was delivering was about. but, he just gave a blank expression all throughout. oh well...

misty and i had a difficult time finding the office of mar roxas. when we finally found it, we were still hesitant to enter. there were lots of gallons of mineral water right outside his office that it looked like a storage room. (baka dadalhin sa araneta center?)

when we have finally delivered all the letters, we went out of the building. i was relieved that i was able to finally send the letters to the senators. but somehow, after having seen their offices, their staff, and two of them, i seemed to have an unsettling feeling inside me, specially when i think that these are the people who make the laws of the land.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 at 7:05 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.