Bravo Sen. Villar but...

Have you seen Sen. Villar's public service ads on television? I've seen about three already for the past six to nine months. The main theme is the rescue of abused Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW). And the rescuer is no other than the good senator. Admirable.

But in the midst of good images, question this: Did those rescued got their plane tickets paid for by Sen. Villar as the ad claims? Did he really pay for them? I need proof. Why? Because of earmarks or popularly known as pork barrel. What is pork barrel? Pork Barrels are alotted tax money that legislators (like Sen. Villar, Lacson, Madrigal, Arroyo, etc...all of them) can freely spend without being asked for accountability or so I understand. If that is pork barrel money then technically it's my money, your money, the taxpayer's money and not the senator's. However, who can prove it? So can the senator just make those claims? Can we ask him to clarify it? Why don't we ask? Or we can let our votes do the talking.
Interestingly, a May 6, 2009 story (Senate press release) about a Saudi-based OFW came home with plane tickets paid-for by donations. Another story from the senator's website didn't report any payment by Sen. Villar to pay the plane tickets of those abused OFWs in Poland. I guess the camp of Sen. Villar is slowly erasing that "generous senator" image.

Not so fast.

In this age where character is a question among politicians, I need to question that. People need to question that.