By: Telly Gonzaga-Ocampo
Meow-Meow: A square peg in around hole?
There are two young congressmen aged below 30 in the House of Representatives. One is meow-meow. At first, I was not comfortable with this guy who seems to be kind of weird. But the more he speaks, the more he becomes sensible. The guy is Francisco “Kiko” Barzaga. Meow-meow is the brand he is labelling himself of amidst that group of honorable men expected to protect the interests of the people of this nation. People are seething with anger. And yet, people in Congress continue playing their role from the script in a drama whose director and producer are yet to be identified. Are we in a guessing game? Or is it very obvious?
Anyway, I have viewed an episode where Korina Sanchez-Roxas interviewed Kiko. And these are some of the information nuggets I have gathered about the man.
- He is the son of the late Congressman Barzaga of Cavite who died last year. The mother is a mayor in one of the towns and another brother is also in politics. This means he belongs to a political dynasty.
- He studied at the Ateneo de Manila University but was not able to finish his baccalaureate degree due to the demands of politics.
- He is very articulate in his communication skills and sensitive to and sensible on the present issues besetting the nation today.
- During the recent electoral event in the Philippines, the family ran under the party of BBM but in the present reality, they are dissociating themselves from the majority party. He seems to fight windmills like The Man from La Mancha popularized in the song The Impossible Dream.
- He is a cat lover. He has 200 cats, some of which are adopted and rescued from the streets. He has built a house for his cats within their compound.
I am an animal lover, too. Animal lovers know the meaning of empathy. If you love animals, you also love people. People in Congress find him a bit off. In fact, he is put to the ethics committee for alleged scandalous behavior. Being an octogenarian, I found him weird at the beginning. But like any animal lover, I see the honesty in his eyes including the sincerity of his heart. The other congressmen might appear normal in their behavior. But are they honest? Are they protecting the interests of the people? Can they talk as straight as Kiko Barzaga? Are they as eloquent as he is? Do they sound sweet when they say meow-meow coupled with the hand gesture of a cat?
During this heavy season of corruptionin the coumtry, honesty is what matters most. He belongs to generation z and if all congressmen were as honest as Kiko, I would rather have all of them belonging to his generation.
Meow-Meow!
