THERE are legislators who do our people good by devoting their time and resources pursuing their chosen advocacies, consulting sectors to build consensus behind these pet causes or policies, and shepherding legislation on advancing such worthy concerns.
And then there are legislators like Eli San Fernando of the Kampihan ng mga Maralita at Manggagawa, or Kamanggagawa Party-list, and his ilk in the House of Representatives who rant and rave on social media — mostly about absurd and pejorative stuff with the sole purpose of trending or going viral, and passing this off as lawmaking.
San Fernando and his colleagues in the self-styled Tres Niños group of newbie legislators which includes his similarly media attention-starved buddies Kiko “Meow-Meow” Barzaga of Cavite and Lean Leviste of Batangas so impetuously believe that their job in Congress is to eschew initiatives in aid of legislation to better Filipinos lives, but to simply shock and disrupt to trend online — and rack up the most number of “likes” and thumbs-up emojis.
This is the reason why we cannot seem to associate this second type of legislators — the pseudo solons — with anything substantial or worthy of our sustained attention and support ever since they got elected to Congress.
Take San Fernando, the supposed representative in the House of Kamanggagawa, a political party founded in 2024 to champion workers’ rights and labor reforms, with the goal of addressing wage inequality and promoting economic justice for the working class and marginalized sectors.
But we cannot recall San Fernando championing anything related to workers’ rights and labor reforms. What we remember rather are his rant-and-rave episodes about topics flirting with the false and calumnious that have earned for him notoriety, such as a resolution by a sanggunian, or council, in Batangas declaring him persona non grata for his below-the-belt attacks, and a libel complaint from Manila city government officials over a wild charge of fraud.
We can liken all the nonsensical political noise coming out of San Fernando’s mouth to — in the words of Macbeth — “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury” signifying nothing.
So, what needs to be answered is what measures or laws have San Fernando introduced or backed in the House, specifically when it comes to workers’ rights and labor reform, to earn him the rightful tag of congressman for the Kamanggagawa Party-list?
Better yet, San Fernando needs to answer whether he has kept his word on a campaign promise before last year’s polls that if and when elected as party-list representative, he would only keep the paltry portion of a congressman’s pay equivalent to the minimum wage of a Filipino worker — and contribute the rest to various labor groups.
The pay of a House member is Salary Grade 31, equivalent to about P300,000 gross per month, or about P214,000 after taxes. The minimum daily wage in Metro Manila is P695 as of July 2025, which is equivalent to a monthly pay of less than P20,000.
So what San Fernando is supposed to have been pocketing from his take-home pay each month from the Batasan is about P20,000, and the rest of just below P200,000 is supposed to be donated to workers’ organization, if he has indeed kept to his campaign promise.
In August 2025, San Fernando made a big thing in the media about having turned over a bulk of the first monthly salary he had received as congressman to various labor groups, and supposedly kept for himself only the equivalent of a month’s worth of minimum daily wages, in keeping with his campaign promise.
But why has there been silence about his “wage’ promise after that initial salvo in August 2025? Or is it because he had flipped and kept his entire monthly salary to himself after that?
Back in December, San Fernando’s Tres Niños comrade Lean Leviste said that all House members had received P2 million each as a year-end bonus from the House Speaker.
Leviste claimed that he did not get his share because he was rich enough to give up that Christmas bonus.
There was silence from House members after Leviste’s announcement in a press briefing — save for a subsequent clarification from House leaders that the P2 million was not a Christmas bonus but an augmentation fund for the legitimate constituency work of congresspersons during the monthlong break when they are supposed to be in their respective legislative districts.
The collective silence meant that even San Fernando got his P2 million bonus (or whatever). Question: Did he keep only P20,000 of that bonanza as his minimum-wage share for December? Or did he pocket the whole P2-million windfall?
And then there’s his call for Executive Secretary Ralph Recto to be hauled to court for effecting the transfer of P60 billion of PhilHealth funds to the National Treasury during his stint as finance secretary.
San Fernando accused Recto of being “hayok na hayok” as he called for the filing of plunder, graft and technical malversation charges against him. For that, he was declared persona non grata by the Lipa City Council.
San Fernando could have done a little bit of “googling” to understand the issue better. Yes, the Supreme Court on Dec. 5 last year ordered the national government to return P60 billion in “excess” funds to PhilHealth.
In ordering the return of the funds, the Supreme Court voided the Special Provision 1(d) of the 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA), which was the basis that Recto used for the transfer of the PhilHealth funds.
Thus, the Supreme Court clarified that Recto had no criminal liability as he acted in good faith based on the 2024 GAA as the former finance secretary would have gotten into trouble had he not implemented the GAA provision.
The problem with San Fernando is that he is quick to open his mouth, blabber loudly with his full ignorance of the law on display. Loud but empty.
