By Mario Casayuran
Senators-elect see the need to exorcise the spirits or for priests to bless the Senate rooms they will inherit from out-going senators.
Senator-elect Imee Marcos (FACEBOOK / MANILA BULLETIN)
This came after Senator-elect Imee R. Marcos, being the last of the neophyte senators to draw the lots, got the room to be vacated by Senator Antonio F. Trlllanes IV.
Marcos, outgoing Ilocos Norte governor, said she would ask the Igorots to dance at Trillanes’ room being the last room available to the three other neophytes – Senators-elect Ronald dela Rosa, Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go and Francis Tolentino.
The Igorots are one of several ethnic tribes in the Cordilleras.
Whether the Igorot dance was aimed to drive away bad spirits, Marcos did not explain.
The daughter of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos smiled when someone labeled the Igorot dance as “Canao”, a ritual performed by a native priest depending on the purpose -- either for bountiful harvest, for economic progress, and for healing.
Although Marcos was smiling when she narrated the process of selecting senate rooms to Senate reporters, senator-elect Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go told Senate reporters that Marcos was “galit na galit (very angry)” because her staff picked the last slot that turned out to be Trillanes’ room.
Go said he advised Marcos to call a priest to bless the room so that bad spirits would stay from her room.
Marcos ran under the Nacionalista Party in the May 30 mid-term elections and was among those supported by presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, the head of Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP).
The HNP was locked in a political battle with the opposition in the midterm elections which was supported by Trilllanes.
Go is not in good terms with Trillanes.
Trillanes accused Go of allegedly having advantage in getting contracts in Davao City.