House Secretary-General Reginald Velasco y Sagun has stirred the hornet’s nest at the Batasang Pambansa by “outlawing” political statements adorning the dresses and shirts of lawmakers when they attend the July 22, 2024 State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
Velasco, known to be very close to Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, also worked for a long time with former Interior Secretary Ronnie Puno, the administration of former President and now Pampanga Gov. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and also landed a job at the Journal Group, now owned by the Romualdezes. Now, he is a power to contend with at the Lower House, elected to his post by the hundreds of lawmakers who kissed the ring of Romualdez.
Conscious as well that the President, Speaker and First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos are not too keen in being surprised by lawmakers whose advocacies are worn, and whose agenda does not hew closely to that of the newly-minted, much fancied “Bagong Pilipinas, Velasco simply banned protest attire inside the Batasang Pambansa, earning the contempt of ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, also the House deputy minority leader, and the entire Makabayan bloc in the process.
Velasco, who is not a member of the Lower House, runs the risk of getting himself squashed for appointing himself the fashion police of the Batasan and imposing a rule that his predecessors never contemplated. For Castro, Velasco’s directive violates the right to freedom of expression, explaining that he is not Pitoy Moreno or Ramon Valera and neither is he the commander of the PNP at the Lower House. He cannot use his whip to make all the Batasan ducks to fall in line.
Neither is Velasco authorized to meddle with what lawmakers wear during the SONA, whether clothes can be used to express political beliefs or not is not for him to determine. It is a matter for a legislator’s taste and conscience to choose. Velasco is not new to controversies as he had reportedly been impleaded in a cybercrime complaint filed by a journalist against a red-tagging Journal columnist.
However, Velasco is adamant in enforcing his own rule, which is not subject to review by the elected members of the Lower House but may be rescinded by Speaker Romualdez and the very right-thinking officers of the Batasang Pambansa. Velasco insist he “would be very strict against the expression of protest in a SONA outfit.” Continuing with his undemocratic, anti-fashion tirade, Velasco warned he would ban outfits that convey anti-government slogans or imagery, since “the SONA is not the time and place to express protests.”
For Velasco, caricatured faces or statements critical of state initiatives like the much-condemned jeepney modernization program (which is a profitable Duterte program) will be prohibited. “Anything derogatory to a personality or persons or authority, ‘bawal yun,’” Velasco argued. “We will be polite in asking dress code violators to change their clothes.” If they refuse, they will be barred from entering the plenary hall. So there, Velasco is starting the Batasan Inquisition, starting with a ban on protest clothes and, later on, perhaps a ban on “disrespectful language” and watered-down parliamentary immunity when “persons in authority” are displeased. In short, fashion fascism leads to legislative fascism.
Castro and the Makabayan bloc want nothing of Velasco’s ridiculous ban, noting that Catherine the Great had long been buried but still Velasco wants her Potemkin villages to portray bogus prosperity for the eyes of the Russian empress to see. Castro will flout the Velasco directive since the Makabayan bloc wants Marcos Jr. to see the brutal reality, not the edited beauty conjured by Velasco. For the thinking lawmakers, Velasco is a dangerous bureaucrat who may also follow in the footsteps of Tomas de Torquemada, the Spanish Dominican friar who led the Inquisition and compelled the Moriscos or Moors and Jews to renounce their faith, embrace Catholic orthodoxy or if they don’t, prepare to be tortured and burned at the stake. With the kind of blind faith or obedience to the holders of power, Velasco may also bring in the garrote and the guillotine.
