Coffee Session with Rep. Ruffy Biazon

Last night I helped organize a blogger coffee session event with Congressman Ruffy Biazon at Bo’s Coffee in Bonifacio High Street, Taguig. He’s already announced his intention to seek higher office and his name was even mentioned by several Liberal Party leaders already in their official senate slate. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity of arranging a blogger session with him so I immediately sent him a message on Facebook asking if he was open to the idea and he agreed.

Late Night Talk
The event was actually scheduled to start 7:00PM. However based from experience a lot of bloggers are actually late so I pushed back the schedule to 7:30PM. Unfortunately the rain made it worse and the traffic jam was insane all over the Metro. We started the event roughly around 8:20PM. At least Cong. Ruffy was a sport and didn’t complain that everyone was late, including me! Hahaha!

Just like all political blogger events, the discussion stretched for hours and we discussed a wide variety of topics. For the most part we were very political but we also touched on youth issues, reform, family, and spirituality.

My first impression
Despite the Biazon blood running in his veins, Cong. Ruffy was actually mild-mannered and soft spoken. He wore the typical politician t-shirt. You know… the plain collared shirt with the Philippine map embroidered in the front? We actually asked him about that and he said that a lot of politicians just found the design nice and that it wasn’t a Liberal Party uniform. If you think about it, I’ve seen Senator Escudero and even several administration figures wear the shirt with the same design.

Anyway, what struck me the most about him was his honesty, deep relationship with God, and his priorities. There was an instance in the discussion that personal finance coach blogger Randell Tiongson fired a salvo of economic policy questions. I was expecting the traditional boring economic political answers but Ruffy honestly replied that he’ll have to get back to us. He goes on to explain that he’s been having briefing meetings with various finance and economic groups

The most striking thing about him though was his faith in God. I’m not talking about how Governor Panlilio or JIL leader Brother Eddie uses God in their campaign. Ruffy explains that what makes him keep his focus, integrity, and passion for service were his values that he learned from church. He relates that they have an accountability system in place wherein his peers and pastors constantly keep him in check.

“You can be accountable to your people but you can still lie to them. However you are accountable to God but you can never really lie to Him.” – Cong. Ruffy Biazon

Another fascinating quality that I liked was his love for his family. Ruffy shares that during the campaign his handlers would push that he go out and campaign during Sundays because people would be at home and that’s the best time to do house-to-house. However Ruffy never agreed to do it because he reserves his Sunday for his family and for his church.

Which brings me to something that I learned from personal experience since I come from a political family:

You cannot be an effective leader of a country if you cannot lead your family.

How do you expect to manage a barangay, a city, a province, a district, or a country if you can’t even manage your household?

His Platform
We didn’t really get into deep discussions about his actual platform but we did discuss several things he’d want to do once he gets to the Senate. Basically we talked about how he’s anti-corruption, pro-AFP reform, and anti-drug trafficking. I’ll try to briefly talk about them in bullet points:

- AFP Reform: Not just modernization but reform from both sides. Come up with an oversight committee to make the AFP more accountable to the people and not just to a select group of people. Where does all that intelligence funds go into?

- Drug Trafficking: Stricter penalties for drug traffickers. In fact Ruffy shared that he’s for the Death Penalty when it comes to really severe cases. Couldn’t be more timely since drug traffickers are now using Filipino OFW’s to smuggle illegal drugs.

Ruffy definitely still has a lot to learn for national service. However I personally believe that he has a heart for service and that he really means well for the country. That’s the main reason why I am definitely for Ruffy Biazon for Senator in 2010. This guy deserves a seat in the Senate, and we deserve public servants like him.

Here’s what some of the bloggers had to say so far about the “Ruffy” experience. I’ll update this later on when more of them start writing.

Ruffy, by the way, is running as a senator this coming elections. He’ll be under the Liberal Party. Mark his name in your voting machine. That would probably be the one thing you can do for your country. -Ricky Rivera from Pinoy Observer

I’ve always had the notion that politicians are the type of people that if you typically don’t rub elbows with. But tonight I think I’ve seen what a public servant is really. No body guards. No entourage. Just his wife as well as his personal assistant to take pictures. No men in barongs outside Bo’s Coffee. It was just him. – Carlos Palma

‘Till the next blogger event. Thanks again to Congressman Biazon for doing the blogger coffee session. Cheers!

Related Posts:

• Upcoming Coffee Session with Cong. Ruffy Biazon