Katataspulong

TOUCHING BASE ON CHRISTMAS.....

2008-12-29T02:42:00.000-08:00

Our family reunions date back in the 1950s. We had a faint recollection of our 1960 clan reunion held in Lopez, Quezon. Yes, it was a clan reunion, meaning, relations fifth level removed. In this country, a third cousin is a prized relative never to be messed up. A third cousin means your great-grandparents are siblings.

Relatives with common ancestors congregate in one big old house somewhere in Calle Anda in Lopez, its owner we could no longer recall. What visits our memory is what appeared to be an old woman whose weathered face had seen better times. Our grandmother, Ina Favia, deferred reverentially to her as Impong Consuelo.

In that reunion we saw our fair-skinned relations from the family of Celso Pulgar. Tio Celso’s brood was in the main, girls of striking beauty. We took fancy on one of the Kuya Celso’s girls by grabbing her attention. While she was perched on the swing, we pushed her as hard as we could. Instead, we got her goat. Getting off from the contraption, she called us her “kababag-anak”. Just as we told you, she was never to be messed up.

The Uranzas and the Floridos and the Capanzanas and the Leopandos and the Martinezes and the Unlayaos and the Requintos and the Torreses and the Nanteses were there. It was a well-attended Christmas get-together. That was the last time our great clan from Esperanza-Canda-Tan-ag-de La Paz-San Roque all in Lopez, Pipisik and Hagakhakin in Gumaca, and Calauag had a great gathering. The last time we heard was that old Impong Consuelo died in her sleep in that same year. She was in her 90s.

In 1961 only the family of Ina Favia, widowed in the 1950s, held her first family reunion this time in Calauag. She decided to have her own get-together because of her growing family and just in time to welcome her children who were then on vacation from Manila as students. Tito Honey was enrolled in Feati taking up an engineering course, Tito Phil in UE as an accounting student, Tita Ling, a UST medical intern, and Tita Sonia into an education degree.

Of course, close relations in the town were invited like Justo Florido, Rogarciano “Kuya Ogar” Florido, Jose “Kuya Oti” Leonor and Ignacio “Kuya Igna” Pulgar, the feared guerrilla warriors of General Gaudencio Vera’s Guerrilla Party. Kuya Justo and Kuya Ogar were the sons of Matilde Pulgar, the first cousin of our old man Tiburcio. Our late uncle Eriberto, a teenager during the war, idolized them. These war veterans regaled us with their war exploits notably the ambush of a 6x6 truck filled with Japanese soldiers and killing them all in Bebito, Lopez, Quezon. And just like Simon Wiesenthal, they tracked down war collaborators right after the war and gave them their just medicine. In fact Kuya Justo was dragged for decades in the murder of one Lt. Amadeo Lozanes alias Azarcon in Pitogo, Quezon together with his commander, Gen. Vera, a war decorated hero and an elected congressman right after liberation of the second district of Tayabas. The Eighth Guerrilla Amnesty Commission however found that

“the motive for the kidnapping and killing of Lt. Amadeo Lozanes of the Hunters was the keen rivalry between the Vera's Guerrilla Party and the Hunter's ROTC Guerrilla organizations. It is noteworthy that the Hunters were driven away by General Vera from Pitogo in December, 1944, and that after said kidnapping and killing on February 13 and 14, 1945, Mayor Ramon Isaac of Unisan, was in turn kidnapped by the Hunters. Leopoldo Miciano, secretary of Col. de Luna of the Vera's Guerrilla Party, testified that General Vera told him of his (Vera's) suspicion that Mayor Isaac was kidnapped by way of reprisal as he, Vera, had ordered the liquidation of Lt. Lozanes (dinispatcha).

In any event, since it is an established fact that when Lozanes was kidnapped, tortured, and later killed, he was actually a lieutenant of the Hunter's ROTC Guerrilla Organizations then engaged in the resistance movement, it may not be said with any amount of truth that the aforesaid killing was to further the resistance movement at the time, as the defense intimate. Rather, the killing of Lt. Lozanes of the Hunters ROTC Guerrilla would tend to weaken commensurately the resistance movement against the Japanese invaders.”

Kuya Igna nurtured the suspicion that one Chinaman in Calauag, during the war, was contacting the enemies on the sly, and in one confrontation injured his suspect leaving the Chinaman permanently blind in one eye. That explains why the children of Lim Ychuan avoided the Pulgar family name like a plague. Kuya Oti, who died early this year, acquired US citizenship owing to his USAFFE services. He stayed briefly in Brooklyn, New York. The civil courts exonerated them however one after another. As war veterans, all their children became professionals enjoying scholarships with stipends courtesy of the US Veterans Commission.

That first exclusive family reunion was held in our old house along Quezon St. It was capped first by a long serenade of Ina Favia by her entire brood. “Ang Pasko ay Sumapit” became our Yuletide national anthem, sang year after year, followed by other more familiar Christmas carols while Ina, in her signature Lumban Quimona, was seated in the second floor window all by herself, gazing down at all of us, and teary eyed. Right after the serenade, all the guests were ushered in the kusina at the back of the two-storey wooden house where a long dining table for twenty two persons made of maulawin waited for them.

The night before Kuya Peping and Kuya Cesar, both in-laws, were all busied up dressing animal carcasses ready to be transformed into great dinuguan, apritada, menudo, and inihaw. All the ladies were on hand scraping papayang manibalang for achara. As kids, we dreaded loitering in the kusina where the taliasis as big as pawikan were steaming with innards their frightening mouths enough to gobble us up and never to be traced again. The skill of Kusinerong Castor, the grandfather of the Follosos, never failed to amaze us with his facility of sanitizing the kalinawan and lamang loob for thick dinuguan and spicy kandingga.

All the kasama of Ina from San Roque and her all-widow entourage were given special mention and individual kalagimay from the old lady. The little kalagimays were filled with tikoy, suman, monay, Serg’s chocolate and coins. Before we partake of her handa from San Roque she led us to her special prayer of thanksgiving to her patron, San Roque, for the generous gifts we all received the last twelve months. After the sumptuous tanghalian, each grandchild had to show his terpsichorean talent. The older apos like Ate Ludy and Ate Aden managed to sing some love songs of Brenda Lee and Petula Clark. They were joined by Tita Ling and Tita Sonia with their portable turntable and did some dances to the accompaniment of the vinyl 45s of Gary Lewis and the Dave Clark Five. Our rendition of Sa Bahay Ni Kang Para was a hit among the Lambanog boys chaired by Tio Nesto.

Right after the program, Ina led her ceremonial prayer. It was the same invocation she recited in San Roque every 16th of May. The shiny Lambanog from Pisipis and De la Paz flooded the Pulgar abode. By nightfall we never failed to see the prostrate figures of drunks adorning the yakal staircase of the old house.

Our reunions were memorable because of special bakes from Puyat Philippine Four Mills in Hondagua where Tito Phil eventually worked as pay master. A day before Christmas, Tito Phil made it a point to instruct the Puyat helicopter pilot straight from Makati to circle the old house in Quezon St., before landing in Hondagua to deliver the bonuses and payroll. That gave us the signal that Tito Phil had arrived and the pastries on our annual gathering. On occasions, Tito Jay, a US based Navy officer, visited his fiancée Tita Ling on Christmas days armed with PX goods from the commissary of Subic Cubi Point. With nine children spread all over, yearly hosting was assigned from the eldest to the youngest and on with the cycle.

Our reunions went on until 1994 when Ina Favia died in Las Pinas. Just like after the death of Impong Consuelo, and our Ina was no longer with us, our family, the Higino branch, decided to go it all alone this time in Manila where most of us were already based. From 1995 till now, we have the same Christmas assignation rotated from the eldest to the youngest.

This year is our turn. In other words, as far back as Impong Consuelo, the latest editions of our family have observed the tradition and see each other once a year for more than half a century since.

A week before Christmas we practically stayed the whole day in the wet market and SM. What could be the most practical gifts within the latitude of limited financial parameter, read: scarce cash due to economic recession? Our destination was a give away, the wet market. The wet market has everything. Why loaf in the supermarkets when prices in these places have skyrocketed just in time for the season? And SM? Of course, this mall is well tuned in the financial language of the middle class by talking with it along the lingo both of them understand: Sale! In it, there is also the universe of designs for disposable (biodegradable) paper plates, utensils, and paper cups.

In the wet market we were able to buy several kilos of deboned and skinned fresh silvery Bonuan bangus for relleno. For an extra P20 per piece, the fish is cleaned, deboned, and skinned. The leathery skin is separated from the meat ready to be minced and mixed with the missus’ secret formula for her famous super pescado recipe.

Just like Ina, our 80-year old matriarch has made it a point that no sibling, without regard to financial wherewithal, shall shoulder by himself/herself, the cost of the reunion. The policy was potluck for every sibling with reasonable notice so that there will be no duplication. By bringing just one simple unique dish (and we are seven not to mention cousins who are Manila-based as well) we are assured of the to-die for putaje from each attendee. Her rationale is by being focused in the preparation of one dish, there is no reason why it won’t turn out to be the best. There is therefore satisfaction in the sharing. The real reason actually is not in the food compliance, but the presence and the pleasure of togetherness. For a Pinoy, his one true thing is his family and that makes him happy in the well-being department. The Impo, Ina Favia, and now our 80-year old Super Mom know that only too well.

As for the gifts to all and sundry, we made it already a tradition (our younger siblings still get to enjoy gift wrapping) to give a book store gift certificate to encourage our family to book familiarity. The gift certificate or GC slashes the cost of gift giving like wraps, boxes, and scotch tapes (not to mention time economy in gift scouting that fits well to the recipients).

From the wet market we proceeded to Suncheers, a party thingamajig provider. We borrowed collapsible tables (with red table cloth) and chairs with balloons in sticks. Next we called Jerry Leal for one videoke machine rented for P500.00 per bash. A videoke doesn’t fail to sustain the momentum of the occasion as there would always be an entertainer from every member of the families present belting out an archaic or latest ballad.

And the end-o’-the-year party doesn’t look like one without a glistening golden lechon. For a little less than a good fortune, we placed our order in Jomari & JJ Duran along National Road in Tunasan. The queue was kilometric where we ended up in the hot and flaming ikutan where still a number of swine carcasses were swivelled atop crimson stoked coals by sweating half naked lechoneros in the labyrinthine looban along the railroad track. The Tunasan lechonan has equalled if not eclipsed Retiro in instant roast pig dish.

On the appointed day, each family member together with his brood came trickling in. Our phone practically burned for dishing out continuous instructions for direction on where again to find the event’s venue. That meant they forgot where in heaven’s name is our house because it was ages ago the last time we were together. Susie’s Joey barely walked when we last hosted. Now, Joey is a handsome 15-year old. Everybody was on tenterhooks upon arrival not because of the twist and turn of finding the place but because of grumbling tummies. It was already lunchtime when much of the invitees showed up. But the table-for-six was ready for the heavy appetite. In a jiffy, Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit was rendered, the serenaders, pale as a foot sole, sang the anthem in the direction of our misty-eyed 80-yeal old matriarch. And everybody pulverized the waiting table. This reunion is memorable, because 7-month old Mayo Inigo Madrid Pulgar, the latest addition to the family, joined the affair.

That is what reunions are all about. Nothing far from ringing out the old and ringing out the new. The old folks sit still in their chairs affectionately gazing at the new editions while the latter fidget in every which way.

As the sun sets, the gate once again is flung open as if to disgorge the revellers from a year long euphoria and they are all trooping back to their own business. As we stood near the entrance, each car passes with all the pairs of hands sticking out of the window waving “auld lang synes,” until same time some place next year. Until they were gobbled up by the distant corner of the village.

It’s probably Paang Bundok in Calauag. From the corner of the gate we saw the faint images of the Impo and the Ina dressed in their signature quimonas smiling in utter approval. While our mother, sprightly as ever, collected herself, retracing the returns of the day.

QUEZON del SUR TRO'd

2008-11-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

The Supreme Court had shown some rare sensitivity when it took cognizance of a petition characterized as parochial. (Parochial indeed because in Quezon Province the local dioceses, that of Gumaca and Lucena had joined forces harnessing their clergies and parishes to go all out campaigning for a Yes Vote on the division of the province into Quezon del Norte and Quezon del Sur. With their pulpits and Sunday masses parishioners, the affirmative proponents have gone way ahead in the persuasion department).

By all indications, the High Court has acquired the reputation of touching controversies of national interest only. Seldom does it involve itself with issues too distant from what it perceives to be of far reaching importance. It has developed what it called cases with “transcendental import”. With the spate however of mindless creations of new local government units meriting space in reputable broadsheet columns through the likes of Manuel Quezon III and Juan Mercado, they validate the observation of Speaker Tip O’Neil that indeed, “all politics is local”.

Manolo Quezon has been observing the events unfolding in the province named after his illustrious grandfather. Manolo took interest in the genesis of RA 9495 creating the Province of Quezon del Sur. Mercado, on the other hand, has consistently sniped at the local politicians in his home province Cebu who openly floated the proposal of chopping Cebu into four separate provinces. Mercado has since then raised hell with the suggestion calling the proponents of “lilliputian minds.”

Senator Nene Pimentel the vaunted father of RA 7160, (this law has been ingrained into the mind of all local officials, approximating that of the Bible when it comes to the religious, that there is no need anymore to indicate its title as the Local Government Code) has already raised the alarum about the slew of bills from the Lower House creating new cities and provinces. His unmistakeable sentiment was that these local leaders are laying the predicate for extended office once their original term limits expire. Not only that, they are gifting their heirs with territorial protection.

There were two cases in recent memory where the Supreme Court has put its foot down already in the LGU-creation craze.

Shariff Kabunsuan Experience

One was that of the birthing of Shariff Kabunsuan where the High Tribunal snapped the law creating it as “undelegated power”. It turned out that the new province was a creature of the ARMM, an autonomous region. The High Court said that only Congress has the power to do so.

Only Congress can create provinces and cities because the creation of provinces and cities necessarily includes the creation of legislative districts, a power only Congress can exercise under Section 5, Article VI of the Constitution and Section 3 of the Ordinance appended to the Constitution. The ARMM Regional Assembly cannot create a province without a legislative district because the Constitution mandates that every province shall have a legislative district. Moreover, the ARMM Regional Assembly cannot enact a law creating a national office like the office of a district representative of Congress because the legislative powers of the ARMM Regional Assembly operate only within its territorial jurisdiction as provided in Section 20, Article X of the Constitution. Thus, we rule that MMA Act 201, enacted by the ARMM Regional Assembly and creating the Province of Shariff Kabunsuan, is void. BAI SANDRA S. A. SEMA vs. COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS and DIDAGEN DILANGALEN, G.R. No. 177597, July 16, 2008.

During oral arguments in that seminal case of Sema, it is worth noting the following exchange between Justice Tony Carpio and Sema’s counsel, one Atty. Vistan II:
Justice Carpio:
So, you mean to say [a] Local Government can create legislative district[s] and pack Congress with their own representatives [?]
Atty. Vistan II:
Yes, Your Honor, because the Constitution allows that.
Justice Carpio:
So, [the] Regional Assembly of [the] ARMM can create and create x x x provinces x x x and, therefore, they can have thirty-five (35) new representatives in the House of Representatives without Congress agreeing to it, is that what you are saying? That can be done, under your theory [?]
Atty. Vistan II:

Yes, Your Honor, under the correct factual circumstances.

Justice Carpio:
Under your theory, the ARMM legislature can create thirty-five (35) new provinces, there may be x x x [only] one hundred thousand (100,000) [population], x x x, and they will each have one representative x x x to Congress without any national law, is that what you are saying?

Atty. Vistan II:

Without law passed by Congress, yes, Your Honor, that is what we are saying.

x x x x
Justice Carpio:

So, they can also create one thousand (1000) new provinces, sen[d] one thousand (1000) representatives to the House of Representatives without a national law[,] that is legally possible, correct?

Atty. Vistan II:

Yes, Your Honor. (ibid. Emphasis supplied)

Where this power of the ARMM is confirmed, we awaken one fine morning that there are now a thousand more LGUs ready the devour the dwindling IRA or what’s left of it.

This is the other side of Congress running amuck with, borrowing the words of Justice Carpio, “disastrous consequences” on the creation of LGUs.

The Demotion of Tayabas City

The other was the demotion again of 16 cities to municipalities. Think about the 16 Republic Acts that went thru the grinder that is the legislative mill. This indeed is testament to the growing reputation of the mediocrity of our Legislature. Incidentally, one of these cities is close to our heart, Tayabas. Truth to tell, nobody ever lifted a finger in Quezon questioning the propriety of the law that transformed the town into a city. Because their interest is at stake, the League of Cities took the cudgels and went to the High Court protesting the unconstitutionality of the laws creating the 16 cities. Again, the Supreme Court lent a sympathetic ear to the League by saying, among other grounds:

Congress Must Prescribe in the Local Government Code All Criteria

Section 10, Article X of the 1987 Constitution provides:

No province, city, municipality, or barangay shall be created, divided, merged, abolished or its boundary substantially altered, except in accordance with the criteria established in the local government code and subject to approval by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite in the political units directly affected. (Emphasis supplied)

The Constitution is clear. The creation of local government units must follow the criteria established in the Local Government Code and not in any other law. There is only one Local Government Code. The Constitution requires Congress to stipulate in the Local Government Code all the criteria necessary for the creation of a city, including the conversion of a municipality into a city. Congress cannot write such criteria in any other law, like the Cityhood Laws.

The criteria prescribed in the Local Government Code govern exclusively the creation of a city. No other law, not even the charter of the city, can govern such creation. The clear intent of the Constitution is to insure that the creation of cities and other political units must follow the same uniform, non-discriminatory criteria found solely in the Local Government Code. Any derogation or deviation from the criteria prescribed in the Local Government Code violates Section 10, Article X of the Constitution. (LEAGUE OF CITIES OF THE PHILIPPINES (LCP) represented by LCP National President JERRY P. TREÑAS, CITY OF ILOILO represented by MAYOR JERRY P. TREÑAS, CITY OF CALBAYOG represented by MAYOR MEL SENEN S. SARMIENTO, and JERRY P. TREÑAS in his personal capacity as taxpayer, vs. COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS; MUNICIPALITY OF BAYBAY, PROVINCE OF LEYTE;MUNICIPALITY OF BOGO, PROVINCE OF CEBU; MUNICIPALITY OF CATBALOGAN, PROVINCE OF WESTERN SAMAR; MUNICIPALITY OF TANDAG, PROVINCE OF SURIGAO DEL SUR; MUNICIPALITY OF BORONGAN, PROVINCE OF EASTERN SAMAR; and MUNICIPALITY OF TAYABAS, PROVINCE OF QUEZON, G.R. No. 176951, November 18, 2008)

The League in effect was saying that by creating new cities we put a strain on the internal revenue allotment. New LGUs don’t have the reputation of being creative in their revenue generation. They without fail rely on the automatic sharing of the IRA. Since the IRA is constant, the more divisors, while the dividend is fixed, the quotient naturally dwindles. The net effect therefore is less efficient use of scant resources. With new LGUs, the tail is wagging the dog.

Lending a sympathetic ear, the Supreme Court struck down the enabling laws as contrary to the Charter (equal protection clause) and the standards laid down in the LGC, among which, were the arbitrary suspension on minimum requirements on income per annum.

Legislative Power for Personal Ends

It is under this milieu when Save Quezon Province Movement declared its opposition to the law creating Quezon del Sur. It feels that the dismemberment of the old Quezon Province has more than the economic rhetoric in it. Its passage was just about after the local elections when the Suarezes were licking their wounds from what was touted to be the most expensive gubernatorial election hereabouts. Somebody simply could not move on. The motive of creating for a new republic is all over right after their ignominious defeat.

Using legislative power for personal ends was not a first impression in Quezon politics. Ironically, prior to the 1992 elections when the bicameral committee was fine tuning the provisions of the Local Government Code, the late Congressman Benny Marquez was already on track for the governorship of Quezon. He already had a falling out with his erstwhile ally, Eddie Rodriguez, the sitting governor then loomed as an insurmountable obstacle to Benny’s ambition. When the Oversight Committee was into the provision on disqualification of local officials, Marquez proposed that “fugitives from justice, here or abroad” be included. There were of course vigorous exchange at that stage of polishing the law. But what prevailed of course was the spirit of “old boys’ club”. This was not lost to the Supreme Court when it tackled that disqualification case:

In turn, (Rodriguez) would have the Court respect the conclusions of the Oversight Committee which, conformably with Section 533 of R.A. 7160, was convened by the President to "formulate and issue the appropriate rules and regulations necessary for the efficient and effective implementation of any and all provisions of the Code to ensure compliance with the principles of Local Autonomy.

Here are some excerpts from the committee's deliberations:

CHAIRMAN MERCADO. Session is resumed.
So, we are in agreement to retain Line 12, Page 36, as is. So next, Page 39.
CHAIRMAN DE PEDRO. Kay Benny Marquez.
REP. CUENCO: What does he want?
CHAIRMAN DE PEDRO. Kung puwede i-retain lang iyan. Bahala na kung kuwestiyunin ang constitutionality nito before the Supreme Court later on.
REP. CUENCO. Anong nakalagay diyan?
CHAIRMAN DE PEDRO. Iyong disqualification to run for public office.
Any person who is a fugitive from justice in criminal or nonpolitical cases here or abroad.
Mabigat yung abroad. One who is facing criminal charges with the warrant of arrest pending, unserved. . .
HONORABLE SAGUISAG. I think that is even a good point, ano what is a fugitive? It is not defined. We have loose understanding. . .
CHAIRMAN DE PEDRO. So isingit na rin sa definition of terms iyong fugitive.
Si Benny umalis na, with the understanding na okay na sa atin ito.
THE CHAIRMAN. Whether we have this rule or not she can run. She is not a fugitive from justice. Mrs. Marcos can run at this point and I have held that for a long time ago. So can. . .
MS. DOCTOR. Mr. Chairman. . .
THE CHAIRMAN. Yes.
MS. DOCTOR. Let's move to. . .
THE CHAIRMAN. Wait, wait, wait. Can we just agree on the wording, this is very important. Manny, can you come up?
MR. REYES. Let's use the word conviction by final judgment.
THE CHAIRMAN. Fugitive means somebody who is convicted by final judgment. Okay,. Fugitive means somebody who is convicted by final judgment. Insert that on Line 43 after the semi-colon. Is that approved? No objection, approved (TSN, Oversight Committee, 07 May 1991).
xxx xxx xxx
THE CHAIRMAN. Andy, saan ba naman itong amendment on page 2? Sino ba ang gumawa nito? Okay, on page 2, lines 43 and 44, "fugitive from justice". What "fugitive"? Sino ba ang gumawa nito, ha?
MR. SANCHEZ. Yes, I think, well, last time, Mr. Chairman, we agree to clarify the word "fugitive".
THE CHAIRMAN. "Fugitive from justice means a person" ba ito, ha?
MR. SANCHEZ. Means a person...
THE CHAIRMAN. Ha?
HON. REYES. A person who has been convicted.
THE CHAIRMAN; Yes, fugitive from justice, oo. Fugitive from justice shall mean or means one who has been convicted by final judgment. It means one who has been convicted by final judgment.
HON. DE PEDRO. Kulang pa rin ang ibig sabihin niyan.
THE CHAIRMAN. Ano? Sige, tingnan natin.
HON. DE PEDRO. Kung nasa loob ng presuhan, fugitive pa rin siya?
THE CHAIRMAN. O, tama na yan, fugitive from justice. He has been convicted by final judgment, meaning that if he is simply in jail and because he put up, post bail, but the case is still being reviewed, that is not yet conviction by final judgment.

The Oversight Committee evidently entertained serious apprehensions on the possible constitutional infirmity of Section 40(e) of Republic Act No. 7160 if the disqualification therein meant were to be so taken as to embrace those who merely were facing criminal charges. A similar concern was expressed by Senator R. A. V. Saguisag who, during the bicameral conference committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives, made this reservation:

. . . de ipa-refine lang natin 'yung language especially 'yung, the scope of fugitive. Medyo bothered ako doon, a.

The Oversight Committee finally came out with Article 73 of the Rules and Regulations Implementing the Local Government Code of 1991. It provided:

Art. 73. Disqualifications. The following persons shall be disqualified from running for any elective local position:

(a) . . .
(e) Fugitives from justice in criminal or non-political cases here or abroad. Fugitive from justice refers to a person who has been convicted by final judgment. (BIENVENIDO O. MARQUEZ, JR., vs. COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS and EDUARDO T. RODRIGUEZ G.R. No. 112889 April 18, 1995)

The amendment, without being introduced or discussed in plenary or deliberation on second reading, was inserted. The anomaly was not questioned before the Supreme Court. RA 7160 was signed into law by President Cory Aquino with no less than Senator Pimentel proclaiming its paternity. But the sleight-of-hand never escaped notice. The law or its implementing rules and regulations never defined the context of what a “fugitive from justice” means. Before the May 11, 1992 elections, armed with the novel proviso never tried in Philippine jurisprudence before, Marquez filed a petition for cancellation of Rodriguez’ certificate of candidacy for governor, on the ground of disqualification under Section 40(e) of the Local Government Code before the Comelec that Rodriguez is a “fugitive from justice”. The case was dismissed and Marquez elevated his case before the Supreme Court on quo warranto proceedings. It was only on July 24, 1996, enriching our sparse jurisprudence, when by judicial fiat the phrase was defined, thus:

the term "fugitive from justice" as a ground for the disqualification or ineligibility of a person seeking to run for any elective local petition under Section 40(e) of the Local Government Code, should be understood according to the definition given in the MARQUEZ Decision, to wit:

A "fugitive from justice" includes not only those who flee after conviction to avoid punishment but likewise those who, after being charged, flee to avoid prosecution. (Emphasis ours.)

Intent to evade on the part of a candidate must therefore be established by proof that there has already been a conviction or at least, a charge has already been filed, at the time of flight. Not being a "fugitive from justice" under this definition, Rodriguez cannot be denied the Quezon Province gubernatorial post (EDUARDO T. RODRIGUEZ vs. COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS, BIENVENIDO O. MARQUEZ, JR G.R. No. 120099 July 24, 1996)

RA 9495 was a Courtesy from Friends

When it was the turn of RA 9495, the same camaraderie prevailed. Bringing the bill before the Joint Committees on Local Governments, Congressman Erin Tanada shepherded it in no time at all.

“REP. EDUARDO V. ROQUERO, M.D. Mr. Chairman.

THE PRESIDING OFFICER. The Honorable Roquero

REP. ROQUERO. Thank you.
Maari din po ba nating malaman kung ano po ang pleasure o stand ng provincial board, the governor?

REP. TAÑADA. Yeah, Mr. Chairman, the resolution signed by the Board Members are comprised by Board Member Roderick Magbuhos, Board Member Gerald Ortiz, Board Member Icias Ubana and Board Member Rommel Edaño. This has not yet been voted upon by the Provincial Board, so it is hard for me to speculate on how the Provincial Board will vote on the matter but there is a resolution that was filed.

REP. VIRADOR. Just a follow-up on that, Mr. Chairman.

THE PRESIDING OFFICER. The Honorable Virador.

REP. VIRADOR. I noticed that the Governor is not mentioned in this resolution. What is really his stand on this proposal Mr. Chairman?

REP. TAÑADA. Again, Mr. Chairman, this would be mere speculation on my part, but when this bill has been filed (sic) as early as the 11th Congress, this was sponsored then by my father, the former Senator Bobby Tañada,and Congressman Raffy Nantes. It passed the House in the 11th Congress but due to the impeachment case of then President Erap Estrada in 2001, it was not tackled in the Senate.

The position of Governor Enverga the (sic) time was to let the people decide. So I am not sure if the Governor would still maintain the same position today. In the 12th Congress, this bill creating the Province of Quezon del Sur was, again, filed by Congressman Nantes and former Congresswoman Aleta Suarez, but this was not passed in the Committee nor in the Plenary of the House. So this will be the third attempt. Hopefully, we will see the light of day and get it pass through the Senate.

xxx xxx xxx

REP. VIRADOR. Mr. Chairman, while I recognize that the approval of the governor or other members of the sangguiniang panlalawigan is not necessary for the creation of a new province, I just want to manifest that, maybe, I can interpret this that this is also the sentiment of other governors that they don’t want that their allocation, their IRA will be divided. I hope that is not the reason. But at any rate, Mr. Chairman, I do support this bill for the betterment of the lives of the people from Quezon.

REP. TAÑADA. Mr. Chairman.

THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Okay. The Honorable Tañada.

REP. TAÑADA. Yeah, just to clarify what Congressman Virador mentioned. It is not stated in Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code that the approval of the governor or the sangguniang panlalawigan is a condition precedent for this Committee to tackle House Bill 2861….”(Transcript of the public hearing conducted by the Committee on Local Government)

The Novaliches Lesson

Dante Liban, in his prime, was an undefeated political leader of Quezon City. He started out as a city councilor representing Novaliches. His voters’ appeal was daunting such that when he ran for congressman, again and again, his district comprising the giant Novaliches returned him to Congress. And then one fine day when he woke up his term limit was staring right up his face. Running for mayor was not an option because of the formidable Mel Mathay, an undefeated local leader as well.

As a third term congressman, he authored a bill creating the City of Novaliches which later on was signed into law by FVR as RA 8535. Being a Lakas stalwart smoothened up his pet bill’s passage. The Supreme Court found nothing wrong with the law and dismissed a certiorari petition by one QC councilor.

When the issue was brought for approval by the entire electorate of QC in a plebiscite called for the purpose on October 23, 1999, it was resoundingly rejected. The rejection was expected as the intelligent QC voters smelled a too personal agenda of Liban. He ran for Mayor in 2001 and failed. He tried to reclaim his old congressional seat in 2004 and was repulsed by millionaire Anne Marie Susano. In 2007, he again opposed Susano in the congressional contest and was bitterly unsuccessful.

While he bench warmed at Tesda and Philippine Red Cross, he was hounded by charges of corruption. It was the beginning of the end of his political career.

Ipagpaliban muna natin yan si Dante Liban, said Senator Richard J. Gordon, chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, in response to former Congressman Dante Libans threat to have Gordon removed from the Senate.

I find it so strange that Liban is threatening to sue me for sitting in the Senate while serving through Red Cross. Wasnt he Chairman of the Quezon City Chapter and a member of the National Board when he was himself a Congressman?

Dante Liban has been kicked out of Red Cross by unanimous vote of the National Board because he violated fundamental policies and procedures. He did not follow orders of the Secretary General. He did not follow the National Board. The Court of Appeals has upheld the actions of the National Red Cross Board. He has not turned over more than 10 million pesos of Red Cross funds. He continues to use Red Cross property as if it were his own despite reprimands, despite his expulsion. We have criminal cases of robbery and estafa pending against him. All that you are hearing from former Congressman Liban are the whinings of a man who has been disgraced for breaking the law (RED CROSS FOCUSED ON DISASTERS, NOT LIBANS CASES Office of Senator Dick Gordon Press Release December 12, 2006)

This was not the first time Dick Gordon had differences with a congressman of similar stripe with that of Liban. Incidentally, he is one of the authors of RA 9495. The Philippine Center for Investigative journalism reported in its website:

OF COURSE, other legislative prerogatives, such as the power to initiate investigations, have been used to further the business interests of some congressmen. One of the most memorable examples was three-term Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, a defense contractor and entrepreneur who also has considerable interests in trading and agribusiness. Suarez stirred a hornet's nest in the 10th and 11th House when his colleagues accused him of using his position to wangle contracts for his firms.

In the 10th House, Suarez called for an investigation of the purchase of radar systems by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA). Suarez's company supplies radar systems, and during the investigation, the irked SBMA chief, Richard Gordon, pointed out that this could be the reason the inquiry was taking place at all. Congressmen also accused him of requesting the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) to reopen the bidding for the P600-million Nationwide Airport Navigation Facilities Modernization program so that his company could make a bid for airport radar.

Another Suarez company has the contract to operating three parking lots at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). The congressman also owns the Kayumanggi Restaurant at the airport. In 1998, he filed a resolution asking the House to investigate the awarding of a contract to a single corporation to run all the concession areas at the NAIA Terminal II, allegedly because his company was eying some of the concession areas at the terminal.

Suarez was banned from running for a fourth term in 2001 so his wife Aleta took his place in the House. Meanwhile, the former congressman, who was a staunch supporter of ousted President Joseph Estrada, was named by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as the vice chair of the National Road Board, which looks into how the tax imposed on motor vehicles is spent.

As chair of the ways and means committee in the 11th Congress, Suarez was instrumental in the drafting of a law, passed in 2000, that imposed the same tax. It is not surprising that he has interests in road construction and road-safety businesses as well (Open for Business, i-site.ph)

INITIAL MORAL AND LEGAL VICTORY

Exactly eight days after SQPM filed its certiorari petition on November 17, 2008 before the Supreme Court, its application for temporary restraining order was granted. But we are not gloating. It is still a long and exhausting fight. As Juan Manuel Marquez said after his surprise defeat via split decision with The Pacman, “Boxing contest is not about the first round. It is a 12-round fight.”

The TRO however turned out not what everybody was expecting it to be. What was restrained was not the conduct of the plebiscite on December 13, 2008 but the proclamation of the results of the votes. In other words, the plebiscite proceeds as fixed, all registered voters of Quezon are enjoined to vote. The caveat is that, while the Comelec keeps with the process, it stops right after the canvassing. No one is allowed to disclose or proclaim the results of the voting “until further orders”. The results shall only be made public once the Supreme Court declares RA 9495 as valid and constitutional. Otherwise, the results of the plebiscite are meaningless and moot.

Without missing a beat, SQPM promptly filed a reconsideration request citing the expense involved and the attendant confusion the tenor of the TRO created upon the electorate of Quezon. The media was even discordant in their reporting of the Court’s disposition of the application for injunction abetting futher puzzlement. This was not lost to the Supreme Court. And in due time, with resolute deliberation, hopefully it will issue the corresponding clarification on the restraining directive. The P38M budget for the plebiscite should be set aside for more salutary electoral purposes, the long overdue poll automation, for one.

THE demons OF VICENTE ROXAS

2008-10-12T05:27:00.000-07:00

How did he get it right? Oh yes, his daughter called him up as she wept to tell him that it’s all over the radio and television. His departure from the bench was the banner story of all the early evening news. The next day, his weeping daughter said, his termination from the Court of Appeals, as sure as the sun explodes in the East, is the newspapers’ front page.

He was stunned. Almost paralyzed. This is what they call nervous breakdown, he thought. His fingers failed him. Simultaneously, he sweated all over despite the almost blast freezing temperature inside his Mercedes Benz. His friends hitching with him always said something best about his car air-conditioning as something nothing like it. Ironically, the last of them who made that unctuous remark was Justice Jose Sabio, the man who went to town.

The traffic along Taft Avenue was as thick as the clouds masking the afternoon sun of September 11, 2008. People were on the sidewalk, most were on the waiting sheds, some along covered parkways of malls and office buildings in United Nations. This is Ermita, his little world since four years ago. The Philamlife building in the corner of Orosa and UN reminded him of the structures in the busy National Avenue of San Diego, his favourite city in Southern California. It was the season of heavy rains. While his car was on a standstill, all he could figure out was the surreal tapestries of multicoloured faces as if gawking at him. “There is Justice Roxas! Crucify him!” Startled, his instructions to his driver were almost inaudible. But almost always since June this year his loyal chauffer was overly sympathetic by repeating what he thought were the biddings of his boss. If he was unresponsive, then he got them all right.

They went straight to UN Avenue towards the direction of Roxas Blvd., went passed Orosa, then turned left to Nakpil and again left to Arkansas St. He looked at the blight of the block contrasting the majesty of the Court of Appeals Building looming from Arkansas St. This might be the last day he’d see the man in wife-beater contentedly sitting in the corner of UN and Nakpil. How long has he seen that man whose satisfaction was all written on his face? Now he felt an unimaginable envy towards the contented man in that street corner. He had his own satisfaction. His extended decisions gave him some lift that looked like astral projections or fireworks in the midnight sky. Maybe that’s how the masters felt after a magnum opus is done. The levity, the high, the adrenaline, his midnight toss and turns, his heart’s audible thumps.

How does one create his soul? Fundamentally, he thinks a man has no soul. He caught his grandfather muttering that life after death is one tall tale. Is it faith in some cosmic force that soul is formed? He has heard the admonition from the good book, “many are called, but few are chosen.” What exactly did that mean? Now he has some ideas. It is when you get those demons out from your head. That’s how you get your soul. Or by clutching at the last straws of immortality? Work, work, get a canvass for your work and leave.

He got hold of his cellphone. He pressed on its phonebook. Where is that name Justice Sabio?, he thought. There were almost sixty names with “Justices” next to their names. Early on, he gathered all the numbers of his colleagues four years ago when he got his appointment. Of course he has Supreme Court connections. He is a Quisumbing, don’t they ever forget that. In this country, genealogy matters. The High Court justices regard him as future peer. His Malacanang pipeline is awesome. His contemporaries in the appellate court believe that in no time at all he shall sit in Padre Faura looking down at them from some Mt. Olympus. Finally the name Justice Sabio appeared. He pressed the “option” mode and scrolled down looking for the “delete” command. The “delete” command appeared with a question mark.

He pressed it with all his might. Finally, in two months he felt his first satisfaction.

If life could only be as simple as that. But there is no button that can simply rearrange his life. Can he delete what seemed to be uncut unbelievable events in the last eight weeks that crescendoed to his dismissal? Now his name belongs to the Rogues Gallery that include Jalosjos, Ecleo, Sanchez, Webb, Rolito Go, and a host of others. He is now the Justice who got the boot for greed.

How dare the Supreme Court short circuit a process in exchange for national catharsis? Have they forgotten that he is their peer? He should have been treated deferentially. He is no ordinary mortal. A Justice he is, or have they simply forgotten. His curriculum vitae all the more exalt him above his mediocre colleagues whose appointments were on the strength of anything but skill. Not only that. He has what it takes to be a hotshot Filipino consigliore that mesmerizes the legal academia short of epic proportion: a bar topnotcher. As a bar placer, his colleagues in the bench look at him with awe. His fraternity from the State University regard him as a living legend. That makes him at par with the name partners of the Firm, the gods of Sigma Rho. In this poor country, landing in the annual bar examinations’ top ten is enough to establish a name for oneself. Look at Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos’ career pivoted on the legend of his topping the bar while being in prison for murder. People thought he walked free for being a legal genius. He hopes, just like the legions of bar topnotchers, that Filipinos won’t outgrow this inane folklore.

Right after his Ateneo and University of the Philippines training, he has the enviable academic record from no less than Georgetown University Law Center in Washington D.C., USA for his Master of Law degree (LLM) and special studies in Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. While still wet in the ears, he learned the texture of the law while perched on the lap of his idol, the late nationalist Jose Wright Diokno. Pepe Diokno taught him that even in old age idealism could still rage. And righteousness. The old man drilled on him that equity is the soul of the law. As Commissioner of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ Commission on Bar Discipline for five years, his recommendations were heavy on cleansing the bar of misfits and the depraved. His ethical sense is beyond compromise. For a time, he was a knight in shining armor mouthing Ka Pepe’s egalitarian take on this country’s ills when the latter famously wrote, “jobs and justice, food and freedom.” Justice, that’s where he fits most, he swore.

His output as a jurist was outstanding and his writing skill is legend. He wrote unorthodox decisions that only need confirmation by the High Court. The late Justice Ricardo Galvez, his colleague in the appellate court who was plucked by Erap as the latter’s Solicitor General, was heard saying, “Writing is one big talent. It’s like the gift of carrying a tune. Either you have or you don’t have it!” But he is thankful of his long stint in the bench. It honed his writing wizardry. As a trial court judge, from the trial briefs alone no matter how excellent they were prepared, he can smell the shyster a mile away. A short stint in the Securities and Exchange Commission made the Corporation and Securities Laws like the palm of his hand. With those credentials, his CA equals seek his opinion on matters of intra-inter-corporate conflicts and stocks or securities controversies.

An administrative case brought against him by an Ilusorio scion was trashed by the Supreme Court for being frivolous. Walking down towards his car one day, an elderly colleague accosted him. “Tell me whose case is that you’re clutching?” pointing at the manila envelop clipped by his arm. “The Ilusorio family feud,” he replied. “Ah, Marcos money!” the old man exclaimed and went on in a monologue. He said in this country you can attain immortality by simply being a big thief. “Almost twenty years after his death, Marcos is still a piece of talk. The Courts are all busied up dismantling the blocks and barriers the crook assembled around his trove’s fortification. In the next fifty years, the new judges would look kindly at the bandit now romanced by sheer fatigue. Marcos money…..not far from the fabled Yamashita treasure.”

The Supreme Court has dossiers of appellate justices where they are graded according to intelligence and integrity. The list is most useful in the reviewing of cases brought before the High Court on appeal. There are CA justices whose reputations precede them. A decision penned by a notorious jurist is subjected to microscopic scrutiny and gets reversed pockmarked with acrimonious adjectives. On the other hand, that of a reputable justice’s easily earns the High Court’s affirmance. His appealed decisions, especially his findings of facts and conclusions of law, get the nod of the Supreme Court in no time at all.

All what he did was to pen what he thought was an outstanding decision. It was a no-brainer, actually. His stint in the SEC, albeit short, gave him the essential skill in the application of corporation law and jurisprudence. He just needed a whole afternoon writing his ponencia. The gods of the Firm were on the line for consultation.

This is where the Firm is known for. Why bother cultivating upstarts to compile legal briefs and materials in bolstering the gates of Meralco? An expert in the field is all it needs for peace of mind, and a Justice at that.

The venerable Vicente Roxas forgot that he is a member of the appellate court. Where he was enmeshed of is simply a juvenile contest between buccaneers and highwaymen. The loot is fairgame. Meralco wanted permanence on its turf. On the assets of Meralco one finds embossed the Lopez family name. We are indeed a sentimental lot, and this family is not about to give up.

Meralco is a money machine. One ingenious accounting entry alone can build you a Makati landmark, the Rockwell. There is no difference between a gambling lord and the Meralco monarchy. A gambling lord has his territorial franchise where he rakes in millions of pesos a day. A franchise in CALABARZON is an equivalent money machine. We are always in search of the proverbial cornucopia, a Meralco or a lucrative territory as retirement fallback. A gambling lord’s good fortune is looked upon with green eyes by another pretender to the franchise waiting for one opportune time. The history of illegal gambling in this country for the last 100 years is replete with folklores of dislodging one gambling lord with another.

That is the tragedy of a President. He is reduced into another pretender who covets Meralco. A President who has gone thru the wringer of elections in this part of the world believes that a money machine is fair target. Erap brainstormed with Atong Ang to perfect the Bingo Two Balls to obliterate jueteng and hold on to it for the rest of their lives. But Chavit went to town.

There are many ways of gobbling Meralco up. One is by nationalization, next is by declaring a national emergency or martial law, and lastly, by letting loose the trust fund of a government insurance firm. Marcos went on the strong arm method and failed. Declaring martial law, Marcos hemmed and hewed, and by some artifice grabbed Meralco by way of dacion en pago. Cory Aquino, on matters of sentiment voided Marcos decrees viewed as perturbacion de mero hecho and not perturbacion de derecho, and delivered the Meralco assets to the Lopezes by way of pacto de retro. GSIS, with over a billion dollars in excess cash, the Palace tenant experimented with the last option. She enjoys her growing reputation as a genius of managing her stay in office for the rest of her term. Now, as a cerebral tinkerer, she trains her attack dogs to snatch the money machine that is Meralco. With thirty percent shareholdings floating in public, she can achieve where Marcos failed with less violence. Three steps ahead is the sympathetic ear of the SEC. Faced with this prospect, the Lopezes opened their vaults. And with a door ajar, the Firm got a glimpse of the logistics enough to win a global war! Malacanang failed to reckon the twist and turn in the Court of Appeals. From the bluebook of the Firm out came the name of Vicente Roxas, the boy genius of the day.

That’s how he looked at the intramurals between Meralco and GSIS. There is no honor in it. This is a war between two predators awashed with bullions ready to burn in the plains of Kilimanjaro.

He and the Firm are just there to get the vantage point in the food chain.

He just wrote what he thought was an outstanding Decision.

His demons still possessed him.

A day IN THE LIFE OF JUSTICE SABIO

2008-09-06T23:55:00.000-07:00

He stared at the mirror looking at the image of an odd man staring back. He feels the breaking sweat on his nape and forehead after a quick hot shower. Last night’s pochero still appealed to him. Its steaming thick soup cleared his nasal clog. A piece of this tenderized beef quickened his belly. He remembered his father’s marquee line, “the Lord does not require you to win, He does require you to try.” The month of May is slowly inching out from his life, all of 67 years. He has not used his hair piece for quite some time. It’s time to have this oddity pasted to where it belongs. He could hear the whispers of his distaff staff of a familiar name he’s sure refers to him. Twenty years in the judiciary looked uneventful. A few reversals by the Supreme Court are his only consolation. No, he does not find contentment at par with a litigator. He is a jurist par excellence. The face on the mirror suddenly becomes acceptable. His salt-and-pepper toupee perfectly hews his round cranium. Fifty years ago his first inamorata told him he had the bonhomie. Four years in law school took a toll on his face. He believes he is telegenic though with a baritone voice his students found attractive despite his thick Cagayan de Oro accent.

But today is like no other day. A few hours from now, the media would be at his bidding. Obscurity would soon be past him. He is going to preside over an application for a temporary restraining order by Meralco, the power distribution company behemoth. The papers on days on end logged the impending take over by the GSIS, a government retirement provider, of the giant electric firm. He knows that this gobbled-up threat is orchestrated by the President. A quid pro quo is not far behind. It was Erap who appointed him in May, 1999. Mayor Vicente Emano wasted no time signing his credentials.

His cell phone’s familiar ring tone sounds sweet to his ears. Finally, in these parts, he is at the center of the universe. During a get together with his co-alumni in Procter and Gamble many years back, he announced that soon if not later he would reach the pinnacle of his career as justice of the Supreme Court. As Regional Trial Court Judge of the southern cities of Tangub, Gingoog and Cagayan de Oro for several years, his stint was as bland as his favourite balbacua in Barangay Gusa. His decisions in the lower court merely regurgitated settled jurisprudence. He longed to handle the case of the century and append his name to his ponencia. How about a Sabio doctrine? In no time his destiny awaited him.

The round face on the mirror would soon have a name etched on granite. Destiny awaited him no doubt. How can one explain the turn of events when the presiding justice of the 9^th Division (out of 23) was replaced twice? This certainly was it. The interesting times the Chinese crow about.

Again his handphone disturbed him. It reported three missed calls already. The number was unregistered. But that gave him some lift. His phonebook seemed bare, skinny. Now was the time to add some real biggies to his directory. The real serious players. 60% of his phonebook entries were just old friends in Cagayan. Sometimes it took him weeks to return a call. Why bother when returning a call promptly was just a waste of time? But sitting in some corner at Robinson Mall along Padre Faura was worth his while to touch base with pestering relations from far away Misamis Oriental. To him, an inconsequential person who called was a pest. He was a big fish in the Gusa pond. Swimming in the big national ocean would be in no time at all. Breaking into the national consciousness was the penultimate thrill to a jurist like him. While he knew that any disposition at his level was subject to appeal, he was well aware of the value of the Court of Appeal’s preliminary ruling. He found himself in the midst of public relations maelstrom. Initial victory to one party mattered most. Up there was just plain p.r. callisthenics.

The government did not want embarrassment. It could not afford to lose at this stage. Malacanang knows the Court of Appeals is an uncontrollable mob. Due to its sheer number of justices, it has hold-outs from previous administrations of Ramos and of course, Erap. It still smarted from the humiliation Mayor Jejomar Binay wrought before the May 2007 elections when the diminutive Makati Mayor snagged a temporary restraining order issued by an Erap appointee, His Honor Enrico Lanzanas, and eventually a preliminary injunction against an Ombudsman’s fast tracked suspension order. He knew that Malacanang had placed its bet on its stooge Winston Garcia. The words of Winston were nothing but the words of the President. With Winston legendary physical heft, he was just GMA’s bulldozer, nothing else. When he was in P & G in Cebu, he met Winston when the latter was a fledging practicing lawyer. The man loved to eat. Soon he felt deep down, Winston was going to call him. With the revolutionary cellphone, no one these days can run and hide.

The so called judicial modesty has now become Jurassic. His younger colleagues in the Court sport multiple cellphones. The self-deprecating excuse is that one is for official use, i.e., for the missus, and the rest are for the rest of the world. But he had not seen such a number of jurists in his old building in Orosa constantly talking on their remote phones. Even on deliberations and oral arguments, justices suddenly multi-task by half listening to oral debates and check on their SMS messages or send one. Yet he knew that these honourable men and women didn’t always receive text messages that spelt life or death. Most were plain domestic reminders and jokes. Some of them in one division owing to camaraderie and familiarity even shared the text messages in the middle of a hearing unmindful of hiding their glee on the banter.

Finally, the unknown number sent a text message. “Justice Gud AM dis is Francis de Borja Can I kol u.” His memories suddenly stream before him. “This is the guy who thought had bought me”. In 1993, a land transaction involving the sale and development of a 400 hectares land near the Lumbia Airport in Cagayan de Oro with complicated partition among the Ex-Mayor Oloy Roa heirs was brought to him for unravelling. Being a Regional Trial Court Judge is a ticket to expediting complex paper works. That’s how they do it in Cagayan. Why hire a lawyer and bleed for acceptance fee when the local agencies would just give him the run around? He knew the BIR revenue district officer, the register of deeds, and the local assessor. With a local judge as the consigliore, it is akin to the popular arrangement of hecho derecho, i.e., “everything’s in there.” Most importantly his intervention suggests any recalcitrant would go nowhere since a judge is already untangling their differences. Going to court is an exercise in futility and may only antagonize the judge. His influence in the Hall of Justice could not simply be ignored. All he had to do was to draft all the legal papers with his stenographer and had them notarized. Compared to a transaction in Manila, one in Cagayan doesn’t have to be incubated that long because that was the only transaction anyway. In no time at all, the buyer was handing a manager’s check to the squabbling heirs. Waiting for the parties to get settled, they engaged in small talk. De Borja bragged that he had good connect in Malacanang. Was the judge interested in getting promoted? That was during the Ramos administration and the Firm was also well-entrenched. It was the first time that de Borja dropped the name of Pancho Villaraza. He said de Borja didn’t have to bother. Deep down he felt slighted by the impertinence and presumptuousness of the man. Who did he think he was? Hadn’t he cultivated his own network all the way to Malacanang? He had his own share of hotshots who were willing to bankroll his appointment to the appellate court. But he didn’t want to dismiss the man outright. A sizeable contract was on their hands for disposal. De Borja was just one low-life who believed that rubbing elbows with the bigshots was a diploma for having arrived. The judge thought that he wouldn’t be surprised if this guy would again surface later on and boast for being an emissary of a litigant.

After the closing of the Cagayan de Oro land deal, he was called by de Borja to meet him at VIP Hotel along Velez Avenue to have coffee with him. There, de Borja handed him a short Manila envelop with crispy three hundred one thousand bills. He thought that his share was too minuscule compared to the 3% this dreg earned in the transaction. The man had short-changed him. To this day, he nurtures some resentment against de Borja for having arbitrarily fixed his “legal fee”. Pueblo de Oro Golf and Country Club located at the erstwhile 400-hectare Roa estate today commands a P1.2M membership with playing rights.

Truth to tell, he doesn’t like the personality of de Borja. For one, he repels him. To him De Borja’s face looks like a wily green lizard with that blank stare and expressionless eyes. When the guy’s lips break into smile, the eyes are left to their own devices. There’s too much contraption in de Borja’s demeanor. As a trial judge, de Borja is one witness a lawyer should not rely on or the case bombs. To him de Borja is just a grizzled bounty hunter. He fixes deals and he seems always to be in the middle of them. His connection seems deep and he boasts of acquaintances that are practically a who’s who in Philippine professional and business sectors. Ticking his fingers de Borja counts the multi-million contracts he recently clinched. He says the Ramos administration is the best so far because of the real estate boom in this country. De Borja was grateful he met the good judge personally and ironed out a pesky land deal. In the future, he assured him, they’re going to seal another multi-million peso deal. That in itself made de Borja a fair weather friend. Friendship is cultivated for economic value. Ironically, he is ambivalent about de Borja now. For one, this man at this time is a valuable messenger. But he has learned from his coyness. He is no longer the three hundred thousand-peso man. “If he asks me how much does it take me to go his way, I’ll answer P50M”, he thought. “Mihangyu ug cuarenta y nueve, sapol!”

Twice he ignored his vibrating handphone. When he checked the caller, it was the number of de Borja. On the third time, he decided to pick up the call. His contrived unavailability is one message to de Borja, that like the latter, he too has arrived.

“Hello?”

“Justice, si Francis ito. Kumusta ka na? Matagal din tayong ‘di lumabas!”

“Oh, Francis, this is my fourth phone. Madalas mawala kasi, naiiwan ko kung saan-saan. Buti nakuha mo number ko?”

“I called up Evelyn (Roa Clavano) and asked your number. Mahirap namang tawagan kita sa landline.”

“Yup, madalas kong kausap si Evelyn sa Cagayan. Anong atin?”

“Mabuhay ka, Justice.”

“Why did you say 'Mabuhay'?”

“I just want to let you know that the Makati Business Club is happy with what you did.”

“Why, what have I done?”

“Di ba isa ka sa pumirma ng TRO?”

“Yes, in fact, I am the Acting chairman of the Division.”

“Mabuti hindi ka na pressure.”

“Ay Francis, you have no idea of the pressures I am undergoing from the government. I voted according to my conscience.”

“Saludo talaga ako sa ‘yo”

“Ano balita?”

“Wala naman, baka lang kasi makapagnegosyo tayo.”

“All the time. Just call me up.”

“Sigue. Mabuhay ka Justice!”

He hit the red button while the last word of de Borja was still audible. He felt a chill down his spine. For no reason at all a trickle of sweat fell from his unruly false bangs. De Borja wouldn’t call for no reason at all. This time, de Borja is in for a big surprise. He is no longer the promdi judge. In this brewing controversy between the President of the Republic and the giant electric power company, he is virtually the sun where all these personalities, major and factotums, revolve around. There is one hitch however. He is not the only one who craves for the limelight. His destiny is in danger of being derailed. The chair of the 9^th Division and the ponente of the TRO, Justices Bienvenido Reyes and Vicente Roxas, want him expelled from their division. De Borja’s phantom seems to dissolve into the light when J. Reyes suddenly appear in the horizon to reclaim his chairmanship. He knows J. Roxas, a dyed-in-the-wool Sigma Rhoan, and appointed in the appellate court only on February 6, 2004. At that time, the Firm was the unofficial Commission on Appointments of Malacanang. Nonong Cruz, a fellow Sigma Rhoan, was the Secretary of National Defense. He found solace however in the novelty of the issue. Section 1, Rule VI of the 2002 Internal Rules of the Court of Appeals, as amended, which says: “Justice Assigned for Study and Report. - Every case, whether appealed or original, assigned to a Justice for study and report shall be retained by him even if he is transferred to another Division in the same station,” is still virginal in the law books. The lawyer in him told him to hang on to the chairmanship. His protestations might enrich this third world country jurisprudence. In the event of a high court appointment, his colleagues would find it hard not to sustain him. But something disconcerted him. He remembered de Borja dropped the name of Villaraza, the senior partner of the Firm in the thick of Heirs of Roa- Investment and Capital Corporation of the Philippines (ICCP) negotiation. Three things bothered him: J. Roxas is a Sigma Rhoan; was only appointed in 2004, prior to the Presidential elections when the Firm called the legal shots in San Miguel; and on May 30, 2008 he personally brought to J. Sabio’s office the draft of the TRO. One doesn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out the tentacles of the Firm on the case.

De Borja never called during the entire month of June. The appellate court was embroiled in turf war. J. Roxas suddenly became scarce thinking these differences would soon be ignored. Nobody in his right mind is going to blow the whistle on them. But J. Sabio knows J. Roxas keeps the bigger bag. The signature of J. Roxas was the give away. Meralco has already got the services of the Firm.

Robinson Mall looms along the historic Ermita District. This landmark has been his refuge for the last nine years. Its pipe in music soothes him. He’s a great fan of Dean Martin. Grudgingly, he trod towards the Gokongwei edifice humming his idol’s undying signature song “Sitting on the Corner.”

Standing on a corner watching all the girls go by

Brother you don't know a nicer occupation

Matter of fact, neither do I

Than standing on a corner watching all the girls

Watching all the girls, watching all the girls go by

I'm the cat that got the cream

Haven't got a girl but I can dream

Haven't got a girl but I can wish

So I'll take me down to Main street

And that's where I select my imaginary dear

Standing on a corner watching all the girls go by

Standing on a corner giving all the girls the eye

Brother if you've got a rich imagination

Give it a whirl, give it a try

Try standing on a corner watching all the girls

Watching all the girls, watching all the girls go by

Brother you can't go to jail for what you're thinking

Or for that wooed look in your eye

Standing on the corner watching all the girls

Watching all the girls, watching all the girls go by

Descending from the steps of the old Court of Appeals building, he looked at the direction of Roxas Boulevard. The July sun was always behind some dark and foreboding clouds. He drew a deep sigh. He looked back at the Parthenon-like Doric architecture behind him. Was it the image of Icarus gazing back at him? His shoulders stooped as if conceding that he was just passing thru this great institution where once jurists of note sat and wrote immortal legal disquisitions.

“Brother you can't go to jail for what you're thinking

Or for that wooed look in your eye”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Justice Sabio and his antagonist Francis de Borja (in italics), separately under oath, recalled the following exchanges that took place on July 1, 2008:

“Justice, pwede ba tayong magkita? Importante lang.”

“But I have classes from 6-8 o'clock tonight.”

“Pupuntahan na lang kita pagkatapos ng klase mo.”

“Sige, pero hindi ako magtatagal. Kasama ko and aking asawa at anak.”

xxx

15. On that same day, by the time I had finished my class at 8 p.m., Mr. De Borja was already waiting for me at the Lobby Lounge of the 3^rd Floor of the Ateneo Law School. His first words to me were: Alam mo Justice kung sino ang kasama ko ngayon sa kotse? Si Manolo Lopez.

• Then he said: Noong tanungin kita at sinabi kong "Mabuhay ka Justice," si Manolo Lopez and katabi ko noon. Papunta siyang America, kaya ako na lang ang pumunta dito para makiusap sa 'yo. Alam mo, itong kaso na ito is a matter of life and death for the Lopezes. And alam mo naman what the Marcoses did to them, which is being done now by the Arroyos.

• At that point he mentioned the impasse between Justice Bienvenido Reyes and myself. He said: Alam naming may problema kayo ni Justice Reyes tungkol sa chairmanship.

5.1.1 Justice Sabio confided that he was the Acting Chairman of the Division hearing the case but that he was very piqued with the regular Chairman of the Division, Justice Bienvenido Reyes, who was exercising efforts to reclaim his seat.

• I was surprised how he came to know about it, as this was an internal matter of the Court of Appeals which only happened fairly recently and many associate justices of the CA were not even aware of this. Just the same, I explained my stand and why I could not relinquish the chairmanship to Justice Reyes.

15.1.2. Justice Sabio mentioned the following reasons why he thought he should remain the Acting Chairman of the Division hearing the Meralco/GSIS/SEC case:

15.1.2.1. He had signed the temporary restraining order issued in the case. He said “hindi bale sana kung hindi ako ang pumirma.”

• He then replied: Alam mo, Justice, ang opinion dito ni Nonong Cruz ay i-challenge ang stand mo. Kaya lang, mayroon namang nagsabi na it might become messy.

• Then he bragged to me: Ako din ang responsible sa pag-recommend at pag-hire ng Villaraza Law Firm.

16. Justice Sabio then told me about the blandishments coming from the government side. He said that he was being offered a promotion to the Supreme Court and money to favor the GSIS position.

• Then he explained that he was there to offer me a win-win situation.

• He said: Justice, mayroon kaming P10 million. Ready.

15.1.2.2. In the last few weeks, he had conversed several times with the said regular Chairman of the Division, Justice Bienvenido Reyes, but he groused that “walang sinasabi sa akin yun pala gusto niyang bumalik. Why did he not say anything to me? Parang trinaidor ako.”

15.1.2.3. Justice Sabio added that he was very suspicious of Justice Reyes’s motives. “Why does he want to come back? Siguro meron silang gustong gawin dito.”

15.1.2.4. He mentioned that “Justice Cruz” who had issued a ruling on the matter to the effect that he (Justice Sabio) should give way to Justice Reyes was even “junior” in rank to him. He commented “Insulto sa akin yan.”

15.1.2.5. He said that he had consulted other colleagues in the Court of Appeals and that they had told him that he was in the right and should stick to his guns.

15.1.2.6. He said he had two children who are both lawyers and he had discussed this matter with them and they had likewise advised him not to give way.

15.1.2.7. He vowed that he would hold on as Acting Chairman of the Division for the case even if he had to elevate the matter to the Supreme Court.

16. At that point, I was shocked that he had a very low regard for me. He was treating me like there was a price on my person. I could not describe my feelings. I was stunned. But at the same time, hindi ko rin magawang bastusin siya because I had known him since 1993 and this was the first time that he had ever treated me like this, or shown that he believed I could be bought.

• So I just told him: Francis, I cannot in conscience agree to that.

17. I was nonplussed by this last statement since Justice Sabio had just expressed suspicion about the motives of Justice Reyes and other Division members in their wanting Justice Reyes to resume the chairmanship of the Division. He, in effect, had just given me his motive for wanting to remain as Acting Chair of the Division.

18. I concluded that this was probably the reason why he was hanging on so desperately to the Acting Chairmanship of the Division. If he would give up the said Acting Chairmanship, he would lose his chance for a Supreme Court seat and the promise of monetary consideration.

• His answer was: Sabi ko na nga sa kanila, mahirap ka talaga papayag. Kasi may anak iyang Opus Dei. Numerary pa.

• At this point, I just wanted to leave, so I told him I could not stay long. I told him my wife and lawyer daughter were waiting.

• Even then, he was already insistent. His parting words before I left were: Just think about it, Justice.

19. I had been appalled from the beginning by the way GSIS and the government were going after Meralco. I told Justice Sabio that it was obvious that the government was doing this in retaliation for the news coverage by ABS-CBN of the Administration. I then asked him “what would it take for you to resist the government’s offer?”

20. The response of Justice Sabio was “Fifty Million.”

21. I was so taken aback by the answer of Justice Sabio and the huge amount he had mentioned that I was at a loss for words to say. After regaining my composure, we made our goodbyes as his wife was already waiting for him in their car.

17. When I went down to the car park, I told my wife and daughter about what Mr. Francis De Borja tried to do to me. Both of them got angry and insulted on my behalf. They likewise expressed the sentiment that, although we did not know him well, we thought he respected me as a person. I also told them that Mr. Francis De Borja bragged to Manolo Lopez of his perceived closeness to me at pinapaniwala niya siguro si Manolo Lopez na kaya niya ako.

18. At this point, I thought I had made myself clear to Mr. De Borja that I was rejecting any offer. But Mr. De Borja would not quit. A day or two later, I found out that Mr. De Borja called up our mutual friend in Cagayan de Oro, Mrs. Evelyn Roa Clavano. He actually urged Mrs. Clavano to ask me to give way to Justice Bienvenido Reyes because they cannot be sure of me.

19. I found out about Mr. De Borja's call because a few days after that meeting, I had called Mrs. Clavano about some personal matters. It was during that call that I was again shocked to learn that Mr. De Borja had called her. She told me she was also shocked that Francis De Borja had the gall to ask her to convince me to accept the bribe. As we speak, Mrs . Clavano is finalizing her affidavit on the phone conversation she had with Mr. De Borja and this statement will be faxed to me within the day.

20. Again, I was still of the opinion that since I had given a firm NO to his offer, I thought the matter had already been settled. Mr. De Borja, however, kept pestering me with phone calls and text messages. On this point again, I challenge him to produce his phone records to disprove what I am saying.

21. By this time, I had begun to feel oppressed by his pestering. I called him up to tell him once and for all to stop pestering me. Let me say again: I never initiated the calls to him except this single time after he kept pestering me with his text messages.

• When he answered the call he said: Mabuti naman Justice tumawag ka, kasi malapit na ang deadline ng submission ng memorandum. Pinag-isipan mo bang mabuti ang offer namin? Kasi sayang din kung di mo tatanggapin, Kasi kahit aabot itong kaso sa Supreme Court, matatalo ka din. Sayang lang 'yung P10 million. Baka sisihin ka pa ng mga anak mo.

• Again, I was shocked at the things he was saying, and could not believe he would repeat an offer which I had already rejected. I repeated my "NO." And then, because his insistence seemed to me like he could not understand why I kept saying "NO," I tried to explain: If I accept that, my conscience will bother me forever. How can I face my wife and two daughters? One a lawyer and the other a Numerary member of Opus Dei? And besides, how can I reconcile my being a member of PHILJA's Ethics and Judicial Conduct Department; being a lecturer of the MCLE; and being a Pre-Bar Reviewer of the Ateneo Law School on Legal and Judicial Ethics?

• At that point, he told me: Wala naman kaming pinapagawa sa iyo na illegal, eh.

• And he added: You know Justice, after two or three weeks,

makakalimutan na ito ng mga tao.

• And he said: Meron naman diyang mga Atenista na tumatanggap.

• I told him: I don't know about them, but I am different.

• Then he said: Well, if you will not accept, we will be forced to look for other ways.

• Then I told him: But they will have to contend with me.

• As a parting statement, he said: Justice, no matter what, saludo talaga ako sa iyo.

KIDSPEAK IN THE BENCH

2008-09-06T23:50:00.000-07:00

Raging in the papers is the ongoing investigation by a select panel designated by the Supreme Court to look into the revelations made by Justice Jose Sabio that a bribe offer of P10M was dangled to him by a gofer of Manolo Lopez, the President of Manila Electric Company. The High Tribunal gave the probe squad until August 21, 2008 to wind up the investigation and submit its findings.

The panel ended its inquiry on August 30, 2008 and has submitted its findings to the High Court which calendared it for deliberation on September 9, 2008. Shortly thereafter, a decision shall be announced. Already, scuttlebutt has it that about seven members of the appellate court are up for replacements.

GRIZZLED PROBERS

The Investigatory Panel is composed of venerable former justices of the High Court. It is chaired by former Justice Carolina Grino-Aquino, wife of the late Chief Justice Ramon J. Aquino. The panel counts on ex-Justices Flerida Ruth P. Romero and Romeo Callejo as members. Justice Grino-Aquino strikes fear among the parties involved. She has the track record of meting out stern penalties upon the culprits. Especially in cases involving the integrity of institutions like the courts, the bar and the legal profession. She first headed a panel that investigated the 2003 Bar Examinations scandal. On the basis of admissions from those who were summoned, one lawyer was disbarred and the honorarium in millions of pesos allotted for the bar examiner Marcial Balgos who committed the gaffe, forfeited, and was severely admonished for being reckless. The young lawyer who was disbarred testified that he downloaded the bar examinations from his computer owing to the interconnections of all computers in their law office, Balgos and Perez. He justified his action by telling the panel that he just wanted to help a fraternity brother who was taking the bar for the second time. It was not his fault he said when his intended recipient had it reproduced for the benefit now of his alma mater. While he said that there was no pecuniary gain from the misdeed, the panel did not believe him. On top of the disbarment, the ex-lawyer now faces a string of criminal cases.

From all accounts, there were surprising admissions made by those who were called to testify. PCGG Chairman Camilo Sabio justified calling his brother Jose to favour GSIS to champion “social justice”. He said that Meralco has victimized the unknowing public by its unconscionable systems losses since the Lopezes acquired the power company. That, to him, is “social injustice”. He doesn’t see anything wrong in convincing his brother not to sign the temporary restraining order against the Securities and Exchange Commision and GSIS. Atty. Jesus Santos, the First Gentleman’s lawyer, owned up to calling Camilo to ask some legal advice concerning the pending case between GSIS and Meralco on account of his being a Director and does some legal jobs to GSIS. These admissions were on top of the super admissions in the heat of the exchanges among the main protagonists. The panel allowed the parties to submit their own sworn statements subject to cross examination by those mentioned or alluded to in the affidavits. Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez, Justices Bienvenido Santos and Apolinario Bruselas complied as well as the rest.

FOR THE BOOKS

Already, the commission cuts itself above the congressional committees which called on innumerable investigations of various corruptions in the Executive branch that essentially ended nowhere. Interestingly, the media lapped up the exchanges between the probers and the probed. The proceedings were on high notes of the never before disclosed labyrinthine trip of a special case taken care of by no less than a member of the Court of Appeals. The public was amused by the human drama in the sad spectacle.

First, there was that curious description given by one justice to another when they met inside the hearing room provided by the Supreme Court in Padre Faura. There was that furious trade of discourse in the media as to the propriety of the use of the word “Dedma” by a Justice of the CA in describing her encounter with her fellow protagonist. Even Justice Sabio borrowed the term “Dedma” to describe how he behaved when he met his tormentor, Francis de Borja. A certified linguist came to the rescue of the warring jurists. He opined that the use of “Dedma” descriptive of an encounter with another, should by no means denigrate the persons who uttered it. Language, he said, is in constant flux. We should welcome new terminology or expression no matter how crude it is as long as a great number of our people understand its use. It is the beginning of the birth of a new word added to our ever evolving lexicon.

Second, as if “Dedma” was not enough, Justice Myrna Dimaranan-Vidal christened Justice Vicente Roxas as “Denial King”. It is reminiscent of showbiz term descriptive of a couple who deny their amorous relationship. It was when Roxas made circuitous explanation on why he lugged the entire expediente of Meralco vs. GSIS when he brought the draft decision to Vidal’s room for signature, a curious actuation of a ponente. According to the lady justice there was no request from her office for her to look at the draft decision and the many other lies, according to the lady justice, uttered by Roxas.

Third, Roxas elevated Penguin, the reviled Batman and Robin nemesis, at par with Wigmore, Manresa, Black, or Colin Y Capitant noted legal commentators. He said that he should not be faulted for being too supercilious in his safekeeping of the case records. Litigants now are bent on getting inside information on the status of the cases pending before them. They even go to the length of rummaging thru the garbage of justices just to have a peek of the decision from discarded or shredded drafts. It was Penguin, according to Justice Roxas, who cautioned about how one disposes of his refuse. That elicited amused reaction from Justice Romeo Callejo, panel member, who asked “what about Batman and Robin? Have they also made some kind of advice to that effect?”

WAS THE FIRM IN THE THICK OF THINGS?

Atty. Santos made a feeble shrift at the Firm. He confessed that he was troubled by the fate of the Meralco petition before the Court of Appeals. He came to learn he said that the lawyer handling the case is Sonny Marcelo, the former Solicitor General and Ombudsman of GMA, and who never lost a single case. Santos advertence to Marcelo was an attempt to corroborate the statements of the hip-shooting GSIS counsel, Atty. Estrella Elamparo. It was a legal strategy to drag the Firm into the controversy. It was thought to be a brilliant idea of brinkmanship: attributing a statement from the lawyer of the First Gentleman, risky, yet persuasive in its objective. Now Santos has the enviable reputation in legalandia as the stupidest lawyer there is. But the panel ignored the association. It wound up the inquiry and went on to write its report. All the more Atty. Santos unwittingly added luster on the Firm’s myth. The Firm is indeed peopled with sleek intelligence and incredible luck. It looks like the world is falling, and yet the Firm is having a ball. Stories flew that when the news exploded about the victory of Meralco at the CA courtesy of Justice Roxas, the Firm threw a party in its Makati office attended by the Lopez family members until the wee hours of the morning. Within half a kilometre radius, the ponente was at rest in luxury. There were no self-congratulations. Just plain ole good time and nervous laughters. Yes there will be MRs they say, but the CA seldom changes its mind. So GSIS guns towards the Supreme Court, and the Firm says, they can do so for all it cares. Yet somewhere something feels terribly wrong. Is the Firm ready for the fight of its life? GMA is in the palace for yet another two years. What if her minions give her a new aquarium that is the parliament?

When Justice Sabio went to town to tell his story, the Firm’s smile vanished. In its place, the Firm wore the face of trepidation. Some associates thought that it was the beginning of the end. But the big boys of the firm went on pr blitz. “Hindi na trabajo ng abogado toits. Let’s hire the best spinmeisters money can buy.”

WE ARE THE VICTIMS

We see these grown up men and women, all learned in the law and molded by experience, reduced to little kids. From where they sit, they conjure up fantastic raison d’être for their actions. They want the panel to look at them as wise and erudite men and women who have nothing on their minds but the good of this country. They all say they are all guilty. But there seems to be more to what they have done. If they were all in that nightmare, may the panel lend its sympathy of waking them all up? The judiciary as an institution is abstract and meaningless. Its dispositions are nothing but a dart board. While they are, all blood and sinews, the Sabios, and the Vasquezes, and the Roxases who have achieved the heights of their careers denied to millions of us.

And thus spake Jose, Vicente, Myrna, Estrella, Conrado, Bienvenido, Apolinario, Francis, Camilo, and finally Jesus. As Nietzsche said, “What then is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms — in short, a sum of human relations, which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that is what they are; metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power; coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins. We still do not know where the urge for truth comes from; for as yet we have heard only of the obligation imposed by society that it should exist: to be truthful means using the customary metaphors - in moral terms, the obligation to lie according to fixed convention, to lie herd-like in a style obligatory for all…”

PLEBISCITE MATH

2008-09-06T23:47:00.000-07:00

On August 19, 2008, the birth anniversary of MLQ in Quezon Province (where it’s a holiday), we deem it opportune to launch our baby, the SAVE QUEZON PROVINCE MOVEMENT. It is now a body corporate, no less than registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a corporation, it is now what the lawyers call - a juridical entity. By way of digression, why doesn’t the GRP, that’s the government of the Republic of the Philippines for you, just create a corporation under the Corporation Code instead of embellishing the MILF with high fallutin’ legal terminology, christening (they might issue a fatwa against us for this!) it Bangsa Moro Juridical Entity, and in the process shooting itself in the foot?

We invited various media representatives on the occasion. A good number of student leaders from the state universities from Lucban and Lopez and from private schools in Lucena City attended as well. They fielded interesting questions that crystallized the countervailing reasons necessary for the electorate to make an intelligent choice hopefully. The students really are more of our target sector owing to their idealism and interest on issues rather than personalities. More questions of the implications of the division cropped up. They confessed that they emerged wiser from the brief symposium.

A great number of the media attendees however were sceptical as usual about the viability of the movement to counter the inevitability of finally dividing Quezon Province into two: Q del Norte and Q del Sur. Or to those who are uncomfortable with the Spanish language, Northern Q and Southern Q. They told us that what we are facing are the formidable mean machines of the two kingpins from the 3^rd and 4^th Districts, Congressmen Danny Suarez and Erin Tanada. These local leaders are not about to be embarrassed by this ragtag and impoverished team. Or so they thought.

We introduced the officers that make up the leadership of the movement. The initial reaction was short of violent because some of us are identified with the Capitol Occupant. John Bello being an assistant at the office of the press officer in the Office of the Governor; Hobart Dator as the brother of Lucban Mayor Apin Dator and brother-in-law of congressional hopeful Victor Reyes of San Narciso who challenged the Suarez old man (his followers call him reverentially as the Big Boss) from the 3^rd District; and of course this writer who has done some yeoman’s legal assignments by the victorious gubernatorial candidate last May, 2007.

The composition seems suspect of the invisible hand of the sitting governor. But one thing bothered them. RPN is one of the authors of the law slicing Quezon along with his ally Congressman Procy Alcala and bedfellow Erin. They smell of a brewing proxy war in the coming plebiscite. But they also smell the awkwardness of the situation. It would be different if the governor outed himself against the division if the main proponent is Suarez by his lonesome himself. But Erin Tanada has already fired irrevocable declarations for the geographical divorce and has already spent good fortune thru his district engineer Ronnel Tan parlayed to the local officials sending home the message of Tanada as a strong proponent of the law. Remember that it was only he who brought the law before the Senate Committee on Local Government. His appearance, as if on cue, cut the proceedings’ corners. Who would dare cross the young Tanada in the presence of his grand old man’s soulmate Joker Arroyo? The law no longer passed the final reading. The second and third readings were lumped into one. The journal keepers made these legal requirements looked complied with by making it of record that the law did so. It eventually morphed into law without the signature of the President baptized as RA 9495.

What we are saying here is that the governor does not have to be told about the interest of Erin in seeing the final objective of the law. With a twist of fate, a congressman elected as governor, some perspectives were changed. Was it President Quezon himself who said, “only fools don’t change their minds?” The governor is no fool. His allies can’t read his body language and that pains him. The Suarezes, having been foiled in the governship, want an overwhelming vote of affirmation for its ratification. The stakes are indeed formidable. We are unwittingly gifting that family some kingdom come.

First, the new province needs a capitol site. Stake number one is a budget of P1B for acquisition of land and construction of administration buildings. With the rising cost of construction materials, an escalation clause of 20% looks reasonable. When one looks at the SOP at another 20%, then a good picture of the first benefit is not hard to think about.

Second, the operation of the Small Town Lottery. We know that the franchise holder of the STL is our kababayan based in San Pablo. She counts the good bishop of Lucena as a strong advocate of the now legal lottery for the masses. Once Southern Quezon gets its new boundaries, its new undisputed king will now exact a pound of his own “boundary”. The franchise of the Lady from San Pablo ceases at the tie lines in Atimonan and Padre Burgos. “Wala na tayong pakialaman, ika.” A gaping hole in the pocket stares the Lady in San Pablo. From the STL, the governor can demand a monthly intelligencia of P1.5M. What about the other officials like the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, the PNP Provincial Director, the mayors and so on down the line.

Remember that with the advent of a new LGU, we have the same duplicative officials. If the operator can afford to set aside these mindboggling monthly retainers, think about the gross income from the franchise! Why not be the owner-operator himself? Just like the district engineer or the contractor who became wiser. Instead of making a fool of himself to the politicians (running errands and picking the endless tabs), why can’t he seek the elective position himself? It’s all money anyway. Just like the bees, local leaders swarm around generous political patrons. Look at Nani Tan of Aurora and Bon Bon Villasenor of Lucban. Easily the operator earns a gross income of P50M a month. The operator takes care of the national and local intelligencia and still keeps a sizeable net. Think about the networth of the conjugal partnership of Bong and Lilia Pineda of Lubao, the hometown of GMA. This husband and wife team was able to elect two Presidents of this Republic already. While they appear a grovelling couple, some political beneficiaries already felt the discomfort of their gaze. “We made you! And don’t your forget that!” Erap conspired with Atong Ang in drafting the precursor of STL: the Bingo Two Balls. That early, Erap wanted the Pineda couple decommissioned. Ironically, Lilia failed in her quest for an elective position in Pampanga having been upended by a miracle that is Among Ed. Throwing just half of the gross to the crocs, the beast-tamer still manages and richer by about P25M a month. Not bad by any standard. That’s P300M a year, baby.

Third, how about the 20% development fund from the IRA? Let’s say that Southern Quezon gets half of the P900M original IRA, the new province retains about P450M a year. It’s doubtful however if Southern Quezon gets that amount. The Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines has voiced serious objections in the spate of LGU creations. The more there are LGUs, the more are eating on the common pie that is the annual IRA. It results in diminished IRAs. RA 9495 defeats the purpose. What takes the cake, no pun meant, is that the local messiah looks at the SOP (read: cut) from the 20% discretionary fund. Since the Big Boss is habitually on the take from the CDF, the 20% development fund is just another trust fund at his disposal. “Giving is an art, ika“. If the 20% DF is further chopped by 20% SOP, the new province is at least left with P63M a year divided up by 22 towns. Go figure. So where’s the development there? It’s personal development that seems apparent.

Fourth, since we (the dynasty) call the shots in Southern Quezon, why not create new congressional districts to bring further developments in the new province. Southern Quezon will just have 1^st and 2^nd congressional districts from the old 3^rd and 4^th. All they have to do is file a new bill proposing new districts and relaxing further the requirements for their creations. Their congressional confrere won’t object. Anyway these are bills of local applications. They won’t affect their own agenda. Besides, pay it forward. Maybe next year it’s our turn for a favor. And a host of others. Eventually we find ourselves being “served” by the entire family from Unisan. One family member can put up his residence, a multi-million mansion, in Gumaca or Lopez or Calauag and run uncontested as congressman or assemblyman (where we to phase out the cursed Presidential system and turn Parliamentary).

Now that the stakes are made clearer, we go now to the battle royale.

The sitting governor does not want his territory diminished. And for good reason. Having seen and wielded the gubernatorial powers broadened his perspective. After all there is nothing spectacular about the size and configuration of the province. 39 towns and 2 cities are chicken feed. With the advent of information technology, of which he is immersed being an engineer, the province appears small and can be micro-managed by a hands-on Governor. He has with him the complete directory of the telephone numbers of the local officials from the mayors down to the barangay tanod. The next project that he has in mind is to wire up all the municipalities so that teleconferencing in real time can be achieved wherever he is.

Recently, Lee Hsien Loong, the Prime Minister of Singapore talked about the timeline of today’s technology. According to him with the stride of modern information technology, one year today is equivalent to 7 years 10 years ago. Obsolescence is the name of the game. In other words, 5 years today means 35 years in technological standard. Such that if we waste one year, we in effect lost 7 years. While IT brought tremendous impact on development, there are pitfalls nonetheless. He cited the cases of Korea and China which have the most number of internet users. Just recently these two countries were mired in internet hoaxes devoured as facts by a great number of their population. PM Lee reminded his countrymen that they could not afford to waste time just like the Koreans and Chinese who swallowed hook line and sinker dubious internet information that proved to their undoing. He never referred to the Filipinos as the worst Asian wastrels who drained away 25 years of their wretched existence blasting each other since the death of Ninoy Aquino. Come to think of it, since 1983, we lost 175 years in real time. No wonder we are the basket case in Asia.

Going back to the battle royale, the sitting governor has enough logistics to mount a crammed campaign to get the NO votes going his way. Quezon Power Plant pays an annual land tax of P240M. Team Energy paid goodwill money of P400M just recently. On the assumption that he saved P150M from these collections, all he has to ask from each barangay captain is to produce a minimum of 60 votes for NO in exchange for P10, 000 with the prospect of bonuses if the barangay chief exceeded the governor’s expectations. In the plebiscite, we don’t expect the entire province to participate. We have 800,000 registered voters. In regular elections, our turn out is only 80% or 640,000. By experience, plebiscites in large measure don’t interest the voters because no personalities are involved. As a rule, we are not issue oriented. Remember we are not a reading nay writing people and that’s our undoing. Give or take that the turn out province- wide is in the vicinity only of 10% to 15%, that’s 120,000 votes more or less. We have 1,200 barangays. By giving each barangay captain a quota of 60 NO votes computes to 72,000 NO votes. The rest, 48,000 are YES to complete the projected 120,000 turn out. The governor has a secret Plan B. He has the money language. As if the Suarezes don’t know.

Not only that, his argument of non-division is the better argument. One Quezon no matter where you look at it is the better option.

“ONE QUEZON pa rin!”

MANNY'S FAITH

2008-05-12T04:43:00.000-07:00

It was 11:15 am when I entered Cinema 2 of Trinoma. The crowd spilled in all its alleys. True to its anticipation of an SRO, the theater management provided monobloc chairs even right in front of the screen. It was the latest fight of the warrior from Dadiangas, the best ex-future congressman General Santos City never had, Manny The Pacman Pacquiao.

What drove Manny fearless in the ring? Doubtless, it is his abiding faith. His faith in his destiny and his god made Manny the best of the best, pound for pound, in his category. His antagonist, Juan Miguel Marquez, is an equally brilliant pugilist, never unmindful of the instructions of his seconds. Both, incidentally, have the same God.

While Marquez has got everything it took, Pacquiao, on the other hand has that undefined faith of divine protection from his heavens.

Upon entering the ring, we see the familiar and too original Pacquiao genuflection. With it, the pugilist summons all the spirits astray in the universe to once again envelop him and fill the empty recesses of his arsenal of might. With it, the Pacman emerges as a new man: invincible, determined, hungry, and never unlike the Crusader, with the singular mission of retrieving his own Holy Grail.That center square is his cosmos, it is his church. All the gods conspire to hand him his legendary victories, one after another.

The Pacman’s punch wallops with all the collective heave-ho of everyone of us. Each of his punches releases some catharsis from all of us. Each of his bruises miraculously heals itself. His foe’s counter punch was just a cinematic effect. Just like the deathless cartoon character, our Pacman can never go wrong. I have never seen nor heard the roar of a teary eyed crowd upon seeing the levelled Mexican.

The Pacman would never go down. It was presumptuous and stupid for Quinito Henson to tell us all to pray for the Pacman’s deliverance in the 8th round. No, the Pacman will prevail. And indeed he did. Pacquiao no longer needs our collective entreaties. He already had them in his bosom. As Anton Chekhov said, faith is an aptitude of the spirit, simply a talent; you must be born with it.

Just like every other fight, the champion hurried up his corner, as if climbing up his own Everest, and with eyes closed, mutters prayers of thanksgiving to his Almighty.

We are all lost in our rambling voyage. Where exactly are we going? Manny the Pacman provides us a simple lighthouse perched on his angular face. It is his faith in something far greater than him. It is his consuming dedication of slaying that gnawing dragon in our collective underbellies. He knows that we have all that it takes. He believes in that smoldering fire in our guts. “Our faith is faith in someone else’s faith,” reminds US President William James.

Now, at least we have something to start on.

WHERE IN HADES IS HEAVEN

2008-02-09T00:14:00.000-08:00

With the proliferation of various faiths, danger lurks on their memberships. Being a dyed-in-the-wool or practicing Sunni or Shiite or Hindi or fundamentalist Christian or Mormon in the mould of Mitt Romney or plain Esperikitik is dangerous to one’s health. To most Republicans, Mike Huckabee’s or Romney’s faith is simply unacceptable.

Being religious is a health hazard. One’s life expectancy, by new reckoning, is determined by religious faith. The idea of being in the midst of a hundred virgins in the after life is too irresistible to some. Who’s got the best, magnanimous, Almighty?

Instead of prefacing one’s prayer as “Oh Dios ko….” it is now politically correct to address one’s Intelligent Architect as “Oh Dios Mo….” That way you skirt the peril of intifadah or fatwa or excommunication or being stranded in the infinite cosmos unable to download to some physical body in the process of reincarnation. There is high probability of reincarnation given the upward trajectory of world population. Being a Chinese or an Indian in the next life has some certitude in it. This early, brush on your Mandarin or Hindi.

Professional Pessimism

Not belonging to one denomination spells eternal damnation. The Iglesia ni Cristo is steep on professional pessimism. They tell you without fail that human life is too frail and you need salvation. All you have to do is sign up with them. Outside of Manalo, you’re a certified Natalo, a loser.

Its founder nonetheless had all what it took: he knew the psyche of the Filipino politician. His block-voting made this religion a by-word by every candidate. With its influence from the Presidency to the Courts up to the barangays, its members are assured of heaven on earth. They practically don’t lose in any election or litigation. Every aspirant who enters the inner sanctum of the Over-all Administrator (Tagapamahala) is photographed and videotaped. The letter request for support is archived and plucked out for future reference once the candidate got what he wanted. Their backing has the psychological effect of being there.

Once the political bet gets INC’s support, its ministers give him the thumbs up with the assurance, “panalo ka na!” Those who failed to muster their support get the salving statement, “mangampanya ka pa, hindi ka matatalo.”

Fear Factor

Doctors tell you that you need immediate surgery to remove what looks like a magnetic resonance or ctscan’s mass inside you or else metastasis comes in. Being labelled a walking time bomb gets home the message that you’re a candidate for surgical intervention. Lawyers believe that a class suit or an injunction is the best remedy pronto or you forever keep your peace and you lose your liberty, property or in case of those destined in the death row, your life. Lawyers and doctors are certified pessimists. Yet, one American super lawyer, by adding in the list an insurance underwriter, said:

I heard the preachers every Sunday: “If you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will know the unspeakable bliss of eternal salvation. If you don’t, hell awaits.” The insurance salesmen argued the same: “Buy our insurance and you will enjoy security. Fail to buy it - well, can you see your family huddled under a bridge someplace? We’re here to provide peace of mind, ma’am, Blessed security.” It’s easy to sell salvation and insurance. Were it otherwise, the insurance industry and the churches wouldn’t control the major wealth of the world.

Years later as a lawyer. I viewed the insurance companies with their pay-on-death policies and the carnival crooks with their shell games and the Mafia chiefs with their protection scams as all kindred under the skin. They all peddled the same thing - the placation of fear. All understand the dominant motivations of the species - fear and greed. In the end, fear wins out. (Gerry Spence, THE MAKING OF A COUNTRY LAWYER p. 12)

It’s hell or nothing. How does it feel to be grilled in some hot coal deep in the bowels of the earth? Since death is as certain as taxes, keeping the health of your soul becomes a tithe of your earthly time. Hammering on fear means big business. Each religion has its own glossary of mental guillotine. Blasphemy and heresy mean certain death to some faiths. Excommunication or itiniwalag has some cultural and social signification equivalent to ostracism.

Being out of the Faith Means a Meltdown in Hades.

Ely Soriano’s Ang Dating Daan tells us his brand of evangelism has the imprimatur of heaven. His mastery of the Bible is testament to his appointment. His second in command prays deliverance from the oppressive shadow of his boss. Alzheimer’s won’t visit Ely. He jogs his mind daily on the rhythms of the Psalms.

Nobody beats PACQ. His initials almost made it. That’s Davao’s Pastor Apollo C. Quibuloy for you all in caps. He says he is the Son of God. He is short on Bible quotes. But he has a shotgun blast of being outside his flock means, again, professional pessimism tactic; you are an incubator of the serpent’s seed, or whatever that means. His multi-media empire is the Sonshine World TV. His favourite guest is his equally queer Man in the Center of the Universe Davao City Mayor Rody “Deep in your guts, you know he’s nuts” Duterte. His constituent couldn’t get his name right as Rudy as in Giuliani, so he issued a local decree that henceforth his nickname is Rody. PACQ has an unbelievable following all in white. He tells us that if you can’t make heads or tails his kinship with God then Houston you have a problem. Not only Duterte is PACQ’s habitué. You get big political names kowtowing to the prophet.

And we have the religious cults interspersed in Surigao where the Ecleos are lording them over. A law was shepherded in Congress, without any opposition, creating a new political territory exclusively for the Ecleos carved from the Barbers country. Now their Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association runs undisturbed. Herbie Gomez, Correspondent of The Manila Times recounted:

The PBMA claims Ecleo started his “mission” as early as 1941 when the PBMA founder was still a boy. At eight, it said the boy Ruben had “reached far places on mission” and that he had received “dictations from the spiritual realm” in the mountains of northern Leyte at the age of 11.

He began his “full mission” a year later, when he was already 12.

The “dictations,” according to the PBMA, came in the form of a voice from Devachan while Ecleo was meditating, surrounded by “pythons, deadly insects, venomous vipers and reptiles.”

Devachan, in Indian, is the equivalent of the word “paradise” to Christians, a second heaven for the soul and a place of rest to Buddhists.

The PBMA also claims Ecleo was guided by the Arhat and taught by the Avatar.

Arhat is a Buddhist term for “worthy one” or “destroyer of the foe (ignorance),” a title given to those who have achieved “Nirvana” which is the state wherein a man is believed to have been freed from suffering or from the cycle of birth and death. In Hindu usage, Avatar refers to any incarnation of the god Vishnu. Used generally, it refers to any descent of a god into the world in human form (June 9, 2002)

Mass Suicides

In March 1997, people found dead bodies in a house in Canada. The house belonged to a ‘New Age' religious cult, the Order of the Solar Temple. Like this group had done before, it was both suicide by cult members, and murder of people unwilling to join them in death.

However, on 26 March, news about a bigger collective suicide replaced this item in the media. In a luxurious mansion at Rancho Santa Fe near San Diego in California in the United States, police found 39 bodies of members of the Heaven's Gate religious organization. Their age varied from teenager to elderly. They included an ex-Miss Rodeo, a former cowboy movie actor, and the brother of an actress in the TV series Star Trek. Some of them were castrated. This was an extreme case of negative ideas about sex, which one may find also elsewhere in occultism, like in the novel The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. They wore uniform clothes. After their deaths, purple shrouds covered them.

Heaven's Gate had started in the 1970's. Applewhite, a music teacher then, landed in a psychiatric asylum. Bonnie Nettles was his nurse there. Nettles was a prominent member of the Theosophical Society in Houston, Texas and wrote the astrology column for the local newspaper. Together, Applewhite and Nettles read The Secret Doctrine by Madame Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy. When Heaven's Gate started, Nettles called herself Shakti Devi. Later, Nettles and Applewhite called themselves Ti and Do. Though they were able to impress small numbers of people with their ideas, they were not good at managing large numbers. So, Heaven's Gate stayed small. They also stayed small because the leaders kept announcing that a UFO would come to take them to heaven very soon. Some followers started to wonder why this was postponed many times. Jonestown was the short-lived settlement made in northwestern Guyana by the Peoples Temple, a cult from California.

Jonestown became lastingly and internationally notorious in 1978, when nearly its whole population died in a mass murder-suicide orchestrated by their leader, Jim Jones. The name of the settlement thus became, also, a term for that incident. The site is now an abandoned ruin.

Named after Jones, Jonestown was founded on his initiative in the mid-1970s, as an agricultural commune. It stood amidst jungle, about seven miles (11 km) southwesterly from Port Kaituma. Jonestown's population was about one thousand, once it was fully established and the bulk of Jones' followers had moved to it, but most of them lived there for under a year.

In November of 1978, United States Congressman Leo Ryan, accompanied by reporters and a delegation of concerned relatives of Peoples Temple members, visited Jonestown to investigate allegations of abuses there. The visit ended in the murders of Ryan and four others by members of the Peoples Temple, shot at the Port Kaituma airstrip as they were about to fly out. That evening, November 18, Jones led his followers in their mass murder-suicide. Somewhat over nine hundred men, women and children perished, Jones among them.

Jonestown was shortly abandoned by the collapsing remnant of the Peoples Temple. Afterward, it was at first tended by the Guyanese government, which allowed its re-occupation by Hmong refugees from Laos, for a few years in the early 1980s, but it has since been altogether deserted.[1] It was looted but otherwise avoided by the local Guyanese, mostly destroyed by a fire in the mid-1980s, and its remains were left to decay and be reclaimed by the jungle.

On February 28, 1993, the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) attempted to execute a search warrant at the Branch Davidian ranch at Mount Carmel, a property located nine miles (14 km) east-northeast of Waco, Texas. An exchange of gunfire resulted in the deaths of four agents and six Davidians. A subsequent 51-day siege by the Federal Bureau of Investigation ended on April 19 when fire destroyed the complex. Seventy-six people, including 21 children and two pregnant women, along with Davidian leader David Koresh, died in the incident. This has come to be known as the Waco Siege or the Waco Massacre.

Does the Divine Architect Play Favorite?

In the movie The Kingdom, a grieving father confronted a Saudi cop, who is obviously a Muslim, and asked the latter if his Allah loves Islamic children more than Christian children. This was in the face of a fictional triple suicide bombing that happened in succession killing hundreds of Americans inside an American residential high security enclave. The cop was dumbfounded and failed to respond. It looks like he is a moderate Muslim who doesn’t buy the fanaticism of a fundamentalist.

Who’s Got God’s Attention?

Talking to God or His equivalent is the most normal thing to do. Spiritual thirst comes naturally. It is Zen, relaxing, and one easy way out from depression. But we are confronted with religious crackpots who lay claim to having talked to God on a regular basis. Does religion really make one an addict to its rituals? A hundred years ago, Karl Marx, upset the religious world with his dicta “religion is the opiate of the people.” Central to Marx’s theory as historian and political scientist is the inevitable class struggle fuelled by the economic inequity. Sooner the elite and the bourgeoisie would melt and get vaporized by the inexorable march of the proletariat. Religion basically is the structural pillar of the Establishment despised by the working class. To a communist, the idea of God is a superfluity. Religion exaggerates the idea of God. In effect, Religion is the first and last Ponzi. Someone said history is the best laboratory to any ideology. The best way to test any ideological deduction is by passing it thru the wringer of history. After 80 years of trying, hard core Communists the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev bowed to the demagoguery of the likes of Boris Yeltsin. The Communists retreated in disappointment.

Marx theory is a figment of his wild imagination. Man has not overcome his spiritual thirst. The idea of God is man’s invisible crutch in his dark journey from birth to death. Just as there are thousands of tongues, there are equal number of divine perspectives. That’s where the trouble is. Who’s got His singular attention? The Jews say that they are it. They have the Old Testament as testament to that. Mel Gibson in drunken stupor accused the Jews as Christ killers. Being sober, he made and directed his version of the life of Christ.

No Messiah for the Jews

Nowhere near is Jesus Christ the messiah the Jews expect. They are still in the preparation of welcoming their own. While Christ is one of them, the Good Book records the derision they inflicted on the son of the carpenter. "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?” Crucifying him the Jews gave him the moniker

IESVS·NAZARENVS·REX·IVDÆORVM, which translates to English as: "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews." For the Jews, they look at Jesus as some kind of a wise man. They marvelled at his intellect, a first of its kind in that epoch. Was he a messiah, a rebel, or a prophet?

A Gifted Child

It looks like the Jews are in awe with Jesus not for anything but a gifted child. The kid manifested a sharp intellect way above the rest. He has an IQ that of a genius. Certainly if we have gifted children now, there are gifted children then. If we have kids gifted with super IQ now, there is nothing spectacular if there are kids born with those same gifts two millenniums ago. Only now we are told that gifted children are easily bored and exhibited behavioural problems. They seem to explode with inactivity.

Highly gifted children tend to be those who demonstrate asynchronous development. Due to their high cognitive abilities and high intensities they experience and relate to the world in unique ways. These children are often found as a result of extremely high scores on an individually scored IQ tests, generally above the 140 IQ range. Others may be prodigies in areas such as math, science, language and/or the arts. Profoundly gifted children can score in excess of 170 IQ.

Highly gifted children demonstrate characteristics such as the extreme need to:

1. Learn at a much faster pace.

2. Process material to a much greater depth.

3. Show incredible intensity in energy, imagination, intellectual prowess, sensitivity, and emotion which are not typical in the general population.

The child of 160+ is as different from the child of 130 IQ as that child is different from the child of average ability. Current research suggests that there may be higher incidence of children in this high range than previously thought. Due to their unique characteristics, these children are particularly vulnerable. Highly gifted children need a specialized advocacy because very little has been done to develop appropriate curriculum and non-traditional options for these children (From the Hollingworth Center for Highly Gifted Children)

But Jesus was not a contemporary of the great scientists like Einstein or Newton or Curie and the rest. The latter had a vast of recorded knowledge before them. Gifted children now are blessed with the vast libraries or technological institutes or the internet. Geniuses now are afforded with laboratories and physical equipment to test their hypotheses. A man trapped in a gifted brain seeks an exhaust valve or they wither. Jesus suffered torment on the regurgitations in his brain.

I was continuing to shrink. To become, what? The infinitesimal? What was I? Still a human being, or was I the man of the future?... So close, the infinitesimal and the infinite, but suddenly I knew they were really the two ends of the same concept. The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet, like the closing of a gigantic circle. I looked up, as if somehow I would grasp the heavens. The universe, worlds beyond number, God’s silver tapestry spread across the night. And in that moment I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of man’s own limited dimension. I had presumed upon nature. That existence begins and ends is man’s conception, not nature’s, and I felt my body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing. My fears melted away and in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation—it had to mean something. And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the smallest—I meant something, too. To God, there is no zero. I still exist (Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990), Swiss dramatist, novelist, essayist)

But since Jesus has no Mensa Workout during his time much less Mensa International to join its ranks for interaction, what is there for this kid to do? He devoured all imaginable religious manuscripts. Remember that there were no scientific manuals then or equivalent books. Maybe he had the manuals of carpentry dating back from his ancestors. Since his medium was wood, it’s a pity that nothing was found of his earliest woodworks, pieces of arts by all measures. All he had was the Talmud or the Mosaic with the Old Testament and Roman laws. Perhaps on the side somebody gave him the books on Isis, Orisis, and Horus of Egyptian mythologies. A genius with a burning mind, Jesus synthesized all these works and came up with an original one. His sermons and parables are first of its kind during his time. People were simply awed. The carpenter’s son can deliver.

LENNONISM

9/11 and the war on terror are the aftermath of religions gone wrong. Even George W. Bush puts some religious flair in his call to arms speeches. From that fateful day of September 11, 2001, how many lives were lost? In the continuing saga of the Palestinian people, who indeed own the Holy Land? In the name of religion, these two peoples are into each other’s neck. This conflict has spread in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. London and Barcelona have their share of grief. Bali mourns the hundreds who died there. In Southern Philippines, how many perished in the name religion. Remember the Juramentados? The US Army was asked to invent the .45 calibre pistol that could stop a charging amok.

The end is still nowhere in sight. President Bush ordered his ‘military surge’ and found it effective. Osama bin Ladin, although on the run, sends religious death orders from the vastness of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Just like the starfish, the Muslim fanatics manage to re-emerge and regenerate with fresh call to war after their religious leaders get killed or erased.

Remember Lennonism? Right after their disbandment, John Lennon wrote his philosophy. Perhaps his friends from the Beatles found the lyrics too radical or too uncommercial as it would block off the conservatives or the Establishment. A slash in the market is not the wise thing to do. Besides, John was too ahead of his time. Yet John Lennon went ahead with his creation, or he go nuts. The boy was another gifted child with so many musical notes and ideas in his mind. Not only did he advocate abolition of manmade institutions that proved banes to human existence, but he teaches us human thought out of the box. For him, and the others before him, human life is a continuing gift and miracle. In the vast unfathomable universe, human life, no matter how lowly, deserves respect.

Hummed it he did, and the song became a masterpiece. Watch the New Year’s countdown in Time Square New York, and 5 minutes before the ball goes down one gets goose bumps when John Lennon’s Imagine dominates the air. The crowd fall silent and instantaneously sing along with the great master.

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

AMONG ED, any one?

2008-02-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

"Good people are resented for their virtue. And because they make everyone around them feel even worse about themselves, they need to be taught a lesson "

(DOGVILLE, Lars von Trier)

Have we reached the apex of misery that we hate good people all around us?

Good people are certainly dwindling in these parts for fear of being ostracized or worse, mobbed.

Where have all the good people gone?

Are we short of options that we have nothing but the worse of the worst?

Come to think of it, day after day we are told that this country is going in a dead end. We see and hear some characters that don't deserve our attention and yet the media feast on them. Is the media the only profitable ventures hereabouts? What happened to the old fashioned fabricas along the South and North Expressways? Have you noticed that these job generators have long closed shop and moved outside of this country? Now those abandoned huge industrial lots are being offered as one of those malls pock marking our geography, from the Ilocos to Mindanao? How many were laid off from these establishments? Where are they now? We bet they are reading those broadsheets and tabloids telling us how in bad shape we are. Indeed, misery loves company. But the companies are gone!

(Henry Sy is lionized for his success as the Mall King. But have you ever wondered how many thousands of SM workers are yet to be regularized? Staffing agencies rake it up from the sweat of these floating merchandisers.)

A talk show host was telling us why we gravitate towards the public figures be they in public office or entertainment. Why are they hot stuff? It seems that nothing distinguishes these personalities from each other any more. All of them are par for the course insofar as gossip is concerned. It is not news if a public figure observes the daily routine of a common mortal, that is, outbound for the workplace by 6 am and home by 5 pm.

We expect these politicians and entertainment personalities to engage in sybaritic and out of this world gimmicks until the wee hours of the morning. In fact, nothing surprises us anymore if these public officials are caught dipping their hands in the public coffers. What if suddenly we find ourselves in need of their help? Where do we expect them to get what we want from them in the first place? Besides, there is that unwritten law that these public figures must dish out and distribute their bounties or they face the wrath of the electorate for being stingy or suapang.

There is that former Quezon provincial excutive who corners the jueteng intelligencia all by himself and the SOPs from favoured contractors and yet he was not known for his generosity. Boksingero, ika (a closed fist person or tightwad, as distinguished from a Karatista, a person with open palm indicative of open-handedness). He was known for his absenteeism and sloth and earned the monicker Kunat-be-located. This specie of corrupt public official is one the people hate most, because while he feathers his nest to the max, he neither parlays any part of it nor allows anyone near it.

In other words, we don't want good people to rule the roost. Look at Pampanga's Among Ed, the miracle politician. One Yeng Guiao, a basketball coach who still is incredulous of the victory of Father Ed Panlilio, is daily sabotaging the programs of the new Governor. He has enlisted the assist of the local officials, who are dyed-in-the-wool professional politicians (those who rely in politics for a living), to derail the vision of Among Ed, that the latter's crusade is made in heaven.

Ironically, we want them bad, the worst the better, like GMA or Erap, because if we had the chance, we would be like them as well. If they are good, as one journalist once told us, walang delejencia, ika.

There is one big synergy, as these corrupt public officials feed on corrupt media practitioners. One former governor of Quezon had one apt description of these media practitioners: media-media, a play on half cooked condiment or a person masquerading as journalist totally bereft of principle out to make a fast buck.

Have you noticed the swashbuckling members of one well-known family all in one line of investigative journalism or so they thought? They practically cornered this type of television reporting that no one accuses them of cornering the market. They are all over the TV network except CNN, BBC and FoxNews. Once you get a peek at their obnoxious visages and grating falsetto voices, you can switch channels. And they act as if they are God's gifts to Philippine journalism. Aren't they guilty of some kind of restraint of trade? Patay kang bata ka pag nakursunadahan ka ng pamilyang ito. One of them was even accused by one elected official of being in the payroll of their agency when he was its chief for P250, 000.00 a month in exchange of silence or praises, as the case may be. When the payola was withdrawn, incredible thunderbolts were unleashed towards the official's direction. Is there no group in the Kapisanan ng mga Broads that investigates unusual lifestyles of their members? This family, for starters, drive around in a convoy of expensive SUVs. When they hit you, this family throws in the wind the rules in human relations and engages in unbelievable abuse of right trampling on the target's right to dignity, peace of mind, privacy, and personality all in the name of press freedom! ‘Lang ‘ya! Even some members of the judiciary are wary of this pack.

Going back to good people on the way to extinction, please come forward and be recognized. Perish the cynicism from your mind.

We don't believe that we are really going to the dogs. You good people out there don't exist only in the books of JK Rowling or John Grisham. You are flesh and bones worried sick on the fate of this nation. Please come forward and let us together pull out this country from the road to perdition.

Just found this piece in my email courtesy of Atty. Arsenio Lim, Jr., as hot as a hot pandesal yet (mainit-init pa!):

A One-Dollar Moral Crusade Against
Graft and Corruption

Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS*
Chairman, Filipino United Network (USA)

How would you like to launch a historical fight against graft and corruption in the Philippines and "buy" back morality in our government --- all for just One Dollar?

You and I have always abhorred the corruption among our government officials in the Philippines, from top to bottom, and deplored the sad state of our country, where more than 70% of our people wallow in massive poverty. While the issue is a complex one, the most obvious etiology of this shameful malady is the overwhelming graft and corruption among our amoral and decadent government leaders.

Would you be willing to invest a dollar --- yes, one single US dollar --- in the fight against graft and corruption in the Philippines?

Our inspiration in this battle is a man of God, the Reverend Father "Among Ed" Panlilio, the newly elected "Miracle" Governor of Pampanga, a man of dignity and integrity.

What happened in that province is amazingly unbelievable. A humble priest, without political experience, without a bank account, without a political machinery, beating two "unbeatable" seasoned, well-funded, and powerful political giants. "Impossible," said the political gurus when "Among Ed" first started his crusade. But the Greater Power above obviously had a grander plan for "Among Ed," and proved the pundits wrong. Suddenly, there was hope for the Philippines.

Armed with his unblemished character, moral ascendancy, love of country, and a strong commitment to honesty and transparency in government, "Among Ed" handily won the election, in spite of widespread vote-buying and rampant cheating. It was evident that a visionary leader with integrity can truly inspire and bring out the best in the Filipino.

The billions of "missing" revenues from the Lahar collection in the past, which Governor Panlilio has exposed since he assumed office June 30, 2007, is only the tip of the iceberg of the invasive cancer of graft and corruption afflicting every level of government in the entire country.

Unfortunately, an honest man makes some people uncomfortable, so there is now a move to eliminate "Among Ed, or oust him thru a Recall, Recount, or, as rumored (hopefully not true), by "Requiem."

One can easily imagine what a man of God, of honesty and decency, of principle and genuine love of country, can do when elected President of the Philippines. A dream, yes. A tall order, definitely. An impossible task? No, not with the Divine Providence, with YOU, and people power on his side!

Governor Panlilio has adopted Gawad Kalinga as the pillar of his vision for Pampanga and the nation. His crusade is gaining speed and momentum, and like Tony Meloto's GK, it will soon be unstoppable. Two giant national religious groups, and many other segments of society, are now supporting "Among Ed." Filipinos around the world are rejoicing and rallying behind him. And we want you to be a part of this historical transformation.

Come and fly high with Governor Panlilio in this moral crusade, to get rid of gutter politicians and immoral officials. Our country and our neglected poor need heroes like you in our battle for morality in government, for justice and dignity for our people. This is, indeed, a revolution. Not a revolution of arms where blood will be shed, but a revolution of ideals and of principle, where dreams and vision, sweat and tears shall bathe the nation clean.

All this crusade needs is your personal commitment and moral support, an investment for the future of the Philippines. Let's not miss this opportunity. Let's use our power to help change our country for the better. The Reverend "Among Ed" Panlilio is heaven-sent and is the hope for our ailing nation.

The Filipino United Network Drive (FUND) for HOPE is a commitment of overseas Filipinos to rally behind the crusade against graft and corruption in the Philippines. We invite you to be a patriot and join us in this historical revolution.

Please make your donation payable to: FUND FOR HOPE, and mail it to: 1830 Mirmar Road, Munster, Indiana, 46321, USA, or, any peso contribution to Buenaventura Condominium, 62 E. Osmena St., Guadalupe, Cebu City, 6000, Philippines.

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QUEZON ON MY MIND

2007-12-09T01:24:00.000-08:00

Crimes increase as education, opportunity, and property decrease. Whatever spreads ignorance, poverty and, discontent causes crime…. Criminals have their own responsibility, their own share of guilt, but they are merely the hand…. Whoever interferes with equal rights and equal opportunities is in some … real degree, responsible for the crimes committed in the community. - Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822-1893), U.S. president. Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes: Nineteenth President of the United States

Quezon – the Promise Land

In 1996 the legendary Gordon Wu and the slip form engineering genius Stewart Elliot of Hopewell Holdings were in town to personally sign the preliminary contracts (memorandum of understanding) in the construction of the South Luzon Expressway Extension all the way from Calamba to Pagbilao. Officials of Philippine National Construction Corporation were on hand in the signing. It was no doubt a flagship project of FVR.

There was much rejoicing from the side of Quezon delegation led by former Governor Eddie Rodriguez as the historic inking spurred the engine revving of the province towards the high road to progress. Everyone who mattered in Quezon was in Malacanang except the now ex-governor Willie Enverga who was one of the congressmen then, and the sitting representative from the Bondoc Peninsula, Danny Suarez. Their absence was never noticed, except now in hindsight.

No less than FVR lent his electric presence in the company of his cabinet biggies headed by Justice Secretary Tito Guingona. The message was loud and clear: everything was legal and above board insofar as the impact project was concerned. Within earshot, we heard FVR fancied “let’s relocate the Philippine capital to Pagbilao ! They ain't seen nothin' yet!” He flashed his trademark thumbs-up sign. Everybody followed suit.

The exuberance and excitement were all over, rightly so, because of the unparalleled Hong Kong clone blueprint the duo Wu and Stewart presented to FVR and Rodriguez, a complex modern metropolis to rise from the reclaimed areas off Grande Island of Pagbilao. Once commenced, the project attempts to wipe out unemployment in Quezon and usher in the province to the forefront of development. We have reasons to rejoice. By opening that valve, the rest of South Quezon, i.e., the Lamon Bay area and the Bondoc Peninsula, is on the throes of unequalled development. With the vaunted shoreline and cantilevered coast of Plaridel and Hondagua open to further port development on the Pacific side, the possibilities of international trade is boundless. Whereas, on the Bondoc Peninsula, the food basket of Quezon, agriculture begs full time attention at last.

Pagbilao, The New International Port

It looked like everybody was focused on Quezon as the new gateway from China Sea and the Pacigfic. Quezon, in its integral whole, is the only component of CALABARZON with an enviable access to the waterways, the Pacific Ocean in the West, and in the South-eastern side, the China Sea. A world class port as part of the Quezon development plan would soon break the waters of Pagbilao. While there were talks of another port in Batangas, as in fact the Batangas International Port is now in full swing. Parallel ports were being pushed by the Wu-Elliot team on Pagbilao and Plaridel. A Plaridel development means the spark plug for the development of the rest of the Lamon Bay area. A proposed viaduct would join the Pacific and Tayabas Bay in China Sea. “Forget about Metro-Manila because Quezon is the answer. Metro- Manila should be converted into a museum”, we heard FVR uttered time and time again.

Those words were spoken not from sheer energy but from tenacity of purpose. Quezon was in the grand vision of FVR. Dividing Quezon at that point is the craziest idea there is. For the most part of Quezon connects the most parts of Bicol, the Visayas, and Mindanao. Batangas has the limited access to China Sea and that is all. Hearing those words from no less than the President of the Philippines makes one break into goose bumps and of course understandably proud.

Some feng shui experts gave the Wu-Elliot team a positive opinion on the location of Quezon of being in the best of both worlds. Its eastern location reaps the blessing of the rising sun. While its westerly location at the Tayabas Bay gives Quezon the wide reach of developmental dimension guided by the setting sun. In sum, Quezon is straddling the entire Eden.

The experts were in unison that the soil and configuration of Quezon fit the bill as the site for massive world class processing and export zones. Quezon time has come. The best top soils are in Cavite , Laguna, and Batangas. By bulldozing this topsoil and converting the land into industrial and residential complexes, Wu and Elliot could not help themselves but protest to FVR. It was a mindless approach, they chorused as it destroys a farming basin. These provinces are meant for agriculture development. Whatever is planted in those parts grows. While in Quezon only the coconuts agree. By building the link expressway to Quezon, it is expensive alright, but forward thinking nevertheless as distance is overcome by the infrastructure. While Laguna, Cavite, and Batangas are nearer to Manila, Quezon's distance on the other hand can be fixed by the construction of an equally vast 6-lane express way.

From Guangdong with Love

Experience taught them that this was so from the lessons of Guangdong, a China province north of Hong Kong. Guangdong is connected to Shenzhen and Hong Kong by a colossally broad highway built by the tandem of Wu and Elliot. They put up gigantic coal-fired power plants in Guangdong stimulating unprecedented development there. From the dusty countryside of Guangdong rose the magnificent cities of Guangzhou, Maoming, Mexian, Shenzhen, Shaoguan, Yangjiang and Zhanjiang that forever altered their skylines.

Guangzhou is the main communication centre of Guangdong with generous amount of railways, highways, bridges, multi levels of flyovers and labyrinth of waterways. The transport conditions in Guangdong Province are of international standard. So far, the water transportation has been playing a very important role in its relentless development. The ocean shops go from Guangzhou or Zhanjiang to South East Asia , Africa , Europe and America , and more than 40 ports in Shanghai , Dalian , Tianjin , Qingdao , Nantong , Ningbo , Yantai, Fuzhou , Xiamen , Wenzhou , Beihai. Guangdong is also one of the provinces in China where the highways have been developed into the networks all over the province. And there are four railways: Beijiang to Guangzhou, Guangzhou to Jiulong, Guangzhou to Maoming and Litang to Zhanjiang.

The air transport services are developing rapidly. Besides an airport in Guangzhou, there are some other airports in Zhanjing, Shantou , Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Foshan, Huizhou, Wuhua, Meixian, and Yangjiang which connect with all the large cities in China . There are more than 10 international airlines.

In just a little over a decade, Guangdong as an autonomous region like Guangxi is now an equally proud Asian destination within the league of Singapore and Hong Kong.

It Could Have Been Quezon

But indolence and the fastbuck mentality ruined FVR's vision and along with it the primacy of Quezon in the faithful hierarchy of plans in the CALABARZON. Some people are now poised to make money out of their alleged vested rights on the consortium. Instead of proactive follow-thru of the economic blueprints for the province, the unimaginative congressman from the Bondoc Peninsula thought of suffering us with another provincial bureaucracy. The plans are all there for the asking. Flaunting his alleged closeness to President Macapagal, the Congressman should have lobbied for the early commencement of the projects.

The contracts were signed as early as 1996. The ground works were done. By Wu-Elliot estimation, the project is operational by 2000. All that was necessary was the implementation and passionate follow-up. All that Quezon needs is an action man. What we got unfortunately was a foul-up. Nothing came up for the last nine years. Hopefully, a new man sits on the helm ready to slay the dragon of indifference. But he is faced with a dilemma: should he spearhead the division of Quezon he authored as well? Are we again facing another uneventful three years?

Quezon Wasteland

For the last nine years we saw substandard buildings sprouted all over the landscape. We saw the mushrooming of E-type School buildings worth P65M each. For posterity, the wheel-chair bound governor left us the P500M Quezon Convention Center and the P700M bare and flooded Quezon Medical Center. By all accounts, from the SOP alone, ex-governor Enverga has assured his retirement. He even wangled from the bowing Sanggunian Panlalawigan a supplemental budget of P145M in the dying days of his term. It is only them and their moneybags together with a handful of contractors benefited.

We now find ourselves knee deep in the river but we are dying of thirst.

The sick are dying. Crimes are in the upswing. And the ignorant? Legions! Blessed are those in this blissful state, Quezon now attains the distinction as one of the poorest LGUs in this country along with Samar, Masbate, Siquijor, and Quirino. Let us learn from our past mistakes. Granted that we elected substandard men whose sloth had irrevocably interfered with equal rights and equal opportunities painstakingly initiated brick by brick by their predecessors, but the story does not end there. While the people, buffeted by unemployment, poverty, illnesses, and non-existent opportunity, sulk in the background. Joining the NPA is not a viable option anymore as it has coexisted with the government as well. Besides, Marx fantasized of driving a Rolls Royce in his life time. Deng Xiaoping declared “to be rich is glorious!” And Lenin, Mao, and Fidel Castro are victims of the greatest hoax on earth. Joema Sison, Ka Roger and their ilk believe that this country or Quezon in particular is the perfect laboratory of the polemics of Marx and company. But instead of capitulating, our people opted to migrate and hibernate in foreign lands. History and as events unfolded proved the ideologues wrong.

Two Quezons Don’t Make a Right

Dividing Quezon is not the right formula. The gerrymandering motive of RA 9495, the law creating Quezon del Sur, is too palpable to miss. More than ten years ago, the government is in possession of the best blueprint for development.

There is nothing spectacular about the size of Quezon. Pangasinan, Palawan, and Cebu are much bigger than Quezon. And yet, mangling them up did not occur to the sensibilities of the Pangalatoks or the Kamarimakutan or the Cebuanos.

By being one and united is the best defence against the vagaries of the times. The FVR episode remained a flickering dream for Quezon.

How much time do we have? It is not true that time goes. We go.

..HERE'S AN INTERESTING NEWS ITEM....

Davao Norte, Compostela settle legal issues on separation
By Edith Regalado
Saturday, December 15, 2007

DAVAO CITY – Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley have finally settled three pending legal issues that would complete the full separation of the two provinces.

Compostela Valley was carved out of Davao del Norte in 1998 through Republic Act 8470, but there were certain issues that remained unresolved.

Compostela Valley Gov. Arthur Uy said the two provinces forged agreements the other day, resolving issues on the proprietorship of a piece of land in Monkayo town, the setting up of a separate provincial rehabilitation center, and the cost of devolved functions.

“This is to perfect the transfer from Davao del Norte to Compostela Valley. We finally feel relieved because now the existence of our province has finally been legitimized with all those issues finally resolved,” Uy said.

Davao del Norte Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario told The STAR that there had been a delay in forging the agreements since the details had to be thoroughly reviewed.

“There were other concerns that had to be settled simultaneously with the transfer of the jail facilities, aside from just the turnover of the 90-hectare agricultural development facility in Barangay Pasian in Monkayo,” Del Rosario said.

Del Rosario said the members of the Davao del Norte provincial board were instrumental in drawing up the details of the agreements, including the deed of donation for the Pasian property.

Uy said the provincial government would continue developing an agricultural and food production facility in the Barangay Pasian property.

“Now, we will be solely responsible for Pasian,” Uy said.

Del Rosario also cited the importance of the turnover of the cost of devolved functions in the internal revenue allotment (IRA), specifically on shares from the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

“The sharing had to be reviewed. Nothing happened in the last three years. And when I came back I advised Gov. Uy that we should work on it already,” he said.

Uy said he also welcomed the long-delayed transfer of inmates with cases in Compostela Valley from the Davao del Norte Provincial Rehabilitation Center in Tagum City.

“As to the jail, the Local Government Code provides that local government units must establish their own (detention facilities) within two years. We shall start the construction of a new jail facility in the province early next year,” Uy said.

Uy said he can now work on the full development of Compostela Valley, especially now that the legal issues with Davao del Norte have finally been settled.

“We could now move forward with everything in place now and nothing is left hanging with Davao del Norte,” he added.

http://philstar.com/index.php?Nation&p=49&type=2&sec=28&aid=2007121422

this is something that future gerrymanders should learn. look at these UNTHINKING LGUs. it took them 10 years to settle their legal differences in the division of assets. 10 years is a long time gone. in China, they build one city every 10 years. what happened to these 2 new provinces now? they are still the same poor backward decrepit godforsaken. ask the local leaders how are they now? and they will certainly smirk and say "we're richer than prior to the division".

in Quezon, some moronic local leaders are at it again. they want to slice the geographically imposing province into two: Quezon del Sur and Quezon del Norte. with this experience of Compostela etc, it sure would hound Quezon for the next 10 years as well. sa ogag ng mga tao dito.....pambihira....

THE GENIUS OF MEDIOCRITY

2007-12-01T01:23:00.000-08:00

Work ethic is absent in the Filipino psyche. We hear of the enviable work ethics of our fellow Asians. The Singaporeans work as if tomorrow is the end of the world. The Europeans come up with the best literature, scientific theory, music, poems, and designs. The Japanese, their gadgetry. Work to these people means a confirmation of their humanity. To them, miracles happen because of work. As a migrant, the Filipino works his head off. In his own country, time and again, Rizal’s sloth theory of his fellow Filipino is validated.

Notice: in most groups in this country there are only a few movers, while the rest are in comfort zones. This country is apparently run by a handful of men and women, not necessarily the best and the brightest. Our institutions allow only the worst. An honest job in this country is not the meaning of work. Work is thievery in large scale. The bigger the theft, the grander the thief. There is always truth to the truism that “behind every great wealth, is a great crime.”

One story has it that Congress does its business thru a small number of congressmen. A clique that is composed of the doers and the getters. The doers are the honest-to-goodness public servants who push pro-people legislations while the getters are those who delight that Congress moves after all, and ram their own selfish agenda. In the end the getters prevail.

When Joker Arroyo was a congressman, he was in the centre of the legislative mill, like fish in the water. He knew the rules like the back of his hand. He scrutinized every national and local piece of legislation. And his views were sought after by the media, chiefly on his one-liners. When he moved to the Senate, the Lower House was made poorer. The pork barrel was never his reason for being. Joker Arroyo is a legend in the making, within the same moulds of Recto, Laurel, Sumulong, Padilla, Tolentino and Osias,

On the other hand, we have a group of shysters in Congress, responsible for moving “strong medicine” legislations. Too tough that powerful sectors frown not on their poised effects but on their attendant shakedown in exchange for a watered version.

Remember the Oil Deregulation Law? Its effects are anti-poor. Instead of a spirited open competition and the attendant fair pricing for the consumers’ benefit, the big players manipulate their prices to the detriment of the public. Its first version was chopped down as unconstitutional. Its resurrection was inevitable given the lobby money of the oil industry. Ironically, its principal author was eventually appointed to the Supreme Court.

These notorious congressmen manage to get re-elected, thanks to the endless lobby money they corner and repack for their clueless colleagues. They operate in the dark. They have no time for interpellation and look down at their conscientious peers as grandstanders or do nothing dorks like a lost nerd inside a classroom. They talk of millions on their cell phones while the sessions are going on, substituting cell phone talk as work. They twiddle on the gadget, and like Linus, holds on to it as security blanket, giving them the semblance of being busy. “May negocio ba tayo diyan?” When asked what is going on in Congress right then they reply, “Ito daldalan ng daldalan sila, wala namang pera.”

Once cut by term limits, they have their spouses warming up their seats. As barnacles, they make Congress a stranded ship. With these crocs in the lower house, they add nothing to it but notoriety. One story has it that during the last election, an incumbent congressman known for his vaunted war machine wanted to impress the President about his clout. Unopposed, ika. He personally visited his announced rival by portraying himself as eating humble pie, and dissuaded the challenger from slugging it out with him. Pang-speaker ako, ika. The elder brother of the aspirant appeared convinced, and uttered in good nature, “umurong ka na utol, dahil sa totoo lang lalamunin ka lang ng buwaya!” Feeling slighted for the buwaya attribution, the congressman left in a huff.

They have clients in the construction, re-insurance, telecommunications, and import-export industries. They, however, are the first to breach customs laws by importing their own top-of-the-line vehicles. They toy on the tax on soft drinks, for example, and see how the soft drinks industries tremble. An innocent call merits a fine dinner at the Manila Peninsula. And the tax measure was never heard again. Tax on banks is floated. One bank is placed on the legislative block for investigation allegedly for some tax misreporting but the obvious motive was to get even with it when that bank foreclosed the congressman’s house when he was a struggling shyster. Foreign-financed infrastructure projects are squeezed dry for pet subcontractors, since they have no role in the bidding. To make sure that foreign-grant projects are credited to them, the shyster congressmen name them after some obscure relatives whose only claim to fame was siring the hotshot crooks.

A privilege speech by a crusading peer on the doer side is capitalized by the shysters group. A government financial agency head is called to a committee hearing only to be offered by a re-insurance contract from the shysters’ client. Once the contract is clinched, the shysters group boycott the committee hearing resulting in adjournment for lack of quorum. Even in plenary, some sessions get snagged for lack of quorum, thanks to the pocket money sent by the shysters.

There are, by all accounts, congressmen of modest means who give in to temptations. A bursting envelop is enough to cause a sore throat. Visiting one’s district is no mean feat. One needs money for the local rah-rah boys. Their constituents seek the warmth of their congressmen. Congressmen admit that the people in general have a negative regard for them. Yet, they brag that their districts display wild paroxysm on their visits. Had not the Supreme Court affirmed his conviction, Romeo Jalosjos would have been re-elected again and again. Unbelievable.

But of course there are exceptions in the person of Way Kurat. To make a coffin, he removed a part of his home for a dead poor constituent.

Congress is the microcosm of the country. There is no work ethic there. In fact, congressmen abhor any semblance of work. Work for them is being seen, heard, or in some occasions, felt. Once criticized, they react violently by describing the critic as, ironically, an idle brat, “walang magawa.” Their take on their position is a never ending trip to Neverland.

We look at them as a bunch of do-nothing, and the feeling is mutual. In that case, if they don’t work, and we neither, then who makes this country move?

We are consumed by the genius of others.

A very few laugh all the way to the banks. Henry Sy, the owner of SM, gets our weekends. The coffee shops, our weekdays. The tabloids, a couple of hours. Kris Aquino with her inane TV shows that invent controversies has a share of our time. The cell phone companies, DVDs, the church, scandals here and there, etc.

Nothing remains for us to meditate on what exactly is good for us. We are not a reading people. Neither are we a writing people. Our view of the world is according to the ignorant congressman, governor, mayor and their ilks.

NAPURNADA GID

2007-12-01T01:16:00.000-08:00

A presidential candidate needs all the allies that he can get. An ally personifies a bloc, an influence, or in command of a machinery or system that translates into quantification of numerical numbers overwhelmingly or preponderatingly necessary in electing the presidential bet. These allies are independent islands unto themselves. Once their special operations turn into success, they are gifted with secret keys into the inner sanctum of Malacanang. Let’s look at this slice of our way of life.

Chavit, the Garcias, the Dutertes, etc.

Of course we have the usual Ilocano, Kapampangan, Cebuano, the larger Visayan, and the Muslim votes. These are blocs headed by warlords that indeed deliver some vital numbers enough to muster a trend in the initial salvo of the count.

The warlord has on his plantilla the provincial fiscal, the provincial election registrar, and the DepEd Superintendent. Recalcitrants find themselves in floating status literally or figuratively once they cross their patrons. In the aftermath of elections we see corpses whose killers remain unknown. Taking lives is the best and effective disciplinary policy in these parts. Morbid as this may sound but we easily forget the series of murders in Abra or Davao or Nueva Ecija or Masbate or Ilocos Sur, which to this day remain unabated. However these warlords exact their rules, it is of no concern to their sponsors.

There was that TV interview between a popular Visayan pastor and a notorious city mayor where the latter was trying to put on a tough guy face spewing tough language warning political holdouts in his city to shape up or ship out or they get his brand of due process. A sheepish approving smile broke on the pastor’s face forgetful of his hitherto homily preaching the sanctity of human life.

These cowboys were not uncompensated for long.

Speaker fixer

The Speaker of the House is another warlord in sheepskin. Since he knows the fine prints of the Annual Budget (with the able assistance of course of his fiscal advisers, one of them being Romulo Neri, or the Budget Secretary himself Rolando Andaya, Jr., a Lakas stalwart, a former congressman and Chairman of the Appropriations Committee), he can tap the hidden Mother Lodes from the voluminous appropriations bill for the next elections. Remember that the Speaker is the President of Lakas, and his mentor FVR is the Chair emeritus. What about the President? You bet she is the Chair herself. Kampi is just her Plan B.

In 2004, Lakas figured prominently in the hustling. During the fund distribution in the early part of February, 2004, the late Joey Rufino, Eduardo Ermita and of course the Speaker himself parlayed the party logistics in Silahis Hotel. Former DOJ Secretary Nani Perez, Batangas Lakas official bet for governor who was pitted against the Liberal’s Arman Sanchez, was seen holding with both hands on his way towards the hotel lift, what appeared as millions in campaign funds in two shopping bags.

All the local Lakas official candidates together with all the congressional bets of the party were there. Easily hundreds of millions of pesos were allocated to party mates from mayors to governors and congressmen. The Hotel then was abuzz with politicians from all over. It was just a preliminary exhibition of generosity. Antonio Vilar, the self-proclaimed Party-Treasurer made a special request. He assured that the President need not release any monies for Quezon Province as it was his alleged turf. He boasted that for the President’s campaign in that part of CALABARZON, he was earmarking P100M from his own pocket to guarantee her victory.

In the next three months of the campaign, the President embarked in micromanagement of the electoral funds. From the lowly barangay tanod, barangay kagawad, barangay captains, and barangay health workers, the President was at the forefront of disbursement. By the way, what happened to the boast of Vilar? FPJ buried GMA in Quezon by 190,000 votes losing in all but two small towns in the province, Jomalig and Sampaloc, with 2000 and 6000 registered voters, respectively.

Where did all the money come from? From the concealed Mother Lodes. Not everything is covered by the budget. Remember that we have to borrow from the outside to play safe with the budget. Our tax collections always fall short. China is a willing creditor with colatillas. As tied loans, only Chinese firms are allowed to undertake the projects. Three projects looked promising worth US$1B and payable, chickenfeed, for the next 25 years long after the Speaker, the Comelec Chairman, or the President herself are long gone. One is the North Rail Transit, the second is the NBN-ZTE project, and the last is the Cyber Ed of Jesli Lapus.

Being the President of the party, nothing is unusual if the Speaker pursues the NBN contract. Since the President herself is aware of the magnitude of funds to be raised for the next elections in 2010, the Speaker needs the wherewithal to finance the party’s candidates. The party standard bearer must not scavenge for logistics or they expose themselves to losing the mandate and therefore face the wrath of the likes of Trillanes, Lacson, the Cayetanos, and the Aquinos in her remaining lifetime. The China loan is an ideal Mother Lode enough to earn the party some US$40M in commission. But who shall initiate the project within the Speaker’s confidence? He said he has a son with experience in backbone broadband. The Speaker is now taking care of business and looking at the US$30M remaining out of the total US$70M. A son may drive the Jaguar at night but soon the father finds out. One can’t run and hide Php3.5B!

Soon after, the technician in Joey de Venecia drafted what appeared as the BOT proposal of the broadband project. The President has taken a look at the proposal and agreed in principle on its terms and stipulations. It was not a surprise when the President herself referred to the Joey III BOT proposal as point of reference. With Neri, the Speaker’s protégé at the helm of NEDA, a comfort letter is not unobtainable. Joey, by this time is besotted with the project.

“Commission”ers

For the first time in our history, a president owned up her mistake. Her confession made her look stupid to her political nemesis and somebody from the Comelec bungled his job. With the Garci scandal, she has distanced herself from the Comelec. Unbeknownst to her, its top honcho is in the thick of grabbing the lucrative pie.

With the sheer magnitude of the commission from the NBN project, there is a possibility of SOP jack up. What’s another US$80M more? Armed with utang na loob certificates, Chairman Benjamin Abalos, an ex-Municipal Judge, the ex-Mayor of Mandaluyong City and the worst and the most incompetent ex-Chairman MMDA ever had, with “money-gerial” ability, according to his unnamed colleague, sounded off to the First Gentlemen about the ZTE proposal. US$70M is only a ballpark figure. We can make adjustments up to US$130M. Joey and the Speaker are taken care of.

Commissioner Garcillano in all likelihood is not acting by his lonesome. By all indications, the entire Comelec, except Commissioners Borra and Tuazon, was in it. Remember that there was another Commission of Appointments’ unconfirmed Commissioner, who went silently back into obscurity, Atty. Emmanuel Barcelona right after the last presidential elections. Garci and Barcelona tandemmed to doctoring the elections results in the traditional Mindanao electoral swamps. Prior to May 2007 elections two unlamented commissioners retired, ex- Manila RTC Judge Ralph Lantion and ex-Professor Luzviminda Tancangco. Their lifestyles were never checked. Lantion the TRO trigger happy Commissioner, tried his luck in the congressional elections in Nueva Vizcaya but was resoundingly beaten by Carlos Padilla. This orchestra has a fixed repertoire under the baton of the Chairman himself, Abalos. After an insignificant 40 years government service, the old man wants to retire. He wants his last hurrah memorialized with Chinese fireworks. In Philippine cultural milieu, a debt of gratitude is financial capital. It becomes even more valuable and worth millions of bearer instruments if the recipient of the favor is the President herself. Abalos with Garcillano and Co. made GMA’s reelection possible. With a little help from the purse holder, the First Gentleman, Garcillano’s special ops was a breeze in the entire South. The Comelec officially declared a record 1,000,000 votes lead. Since the FG was privy and part of the dirty tricks department, the Chairman knows a little secret, negotiable before his retirement. Hindi ako matatanggihan, ika. With a substantial cut from the US$70M commission, the Chairman scouts around Hong Kong, London, or New York for some high-end flat near some breakwater. With enough millions of euros in his pocket, it was indeed a retirement of a lifetime. Sarap ng buhay. Aba’y dapat naman, nagpakahirap din ako sa kanila, ika.

Tug of War

Just like in any kids’ game, there is manuhan or the preliminaries as to who gets the first move. By all indices, it was the Amsterdam Holdings who got the proverbial first move, that is, by talking directly to the President herself. The Speaker’s Joey is confident that he got the commitment of “my President” already. By groveling, the young de Venecia sends the message to Abalos and the rest to “back off”. While this was Joey’s body language, FG verbalized it. The war on the media ensued with the likes of Mon Tulfo and Jarius Bondoc joining the feeding frenzy. Bondoc is married to an Oviedo, a close relation to the de Venecias in Pangasinan. Tulfo is married to something else. The Speaker unleashed his bulldozers in the House, headed by former congressman Seiko Plico.

To insure clinching the contract thru the ZTE, Abalos ratted on the expected commission to the recuperating First Husband. The latter having gotten wind of the transaction, called Ricky Razon, the main man in the contract owing to his international reputation, for confirmation. Upon replacing his receiver, Razon was heard cursing, “putang-inang Abalos yan, sinabi pa kay Mike kung magkano ang kikitain. Ayan tuloy, ‘di na makakalimutan yun!”

Nada Por Nada

Nothing for nothing. With what looked like an unbearable heat, the broadband project was shelved. The mutual termination included the Cyber Ed, the pet project of Jesli Lapus where he sources sana his senatorial foray in 2010.

All for naught, GMA’s swift trip to China to personally witness the signing of the loan agreement in the presence of President Hu Jintao himself. Nothing was heard from the Chinese about the broadband brouhaha and the acerbic aside that “the Chinese invented corruption”. Nonetheless, one senator aptly described the scandal as quarrel among dogs over a piece of carcass.

Into the sunset, just like the family of the ex-comptroller of the AFP, General Carlos Garcia, Abalos fades away, along with his unrealized dream of gazing at this spectacular view in Libyan Sabratha. With double entendres, the name Abalos is now in the same league with Jalosjos.

The Speaker holds on tenaciously to his post, with Louie Villafuerte barking aloud.

Ooops….the North Rail Thank You

Before we wind up, or so we thought, what happened to the US$480M NRT project? This is the first of the package disposed of (in compliance with a promise) as early as 2005. The clearing of the squatters along the riles was the first phase of the project. In all likelihood since the petition for injunction filed by the UP professors, Harry Roque, et al., financed no less by the former Senate President Frank Drilon, was ignored (its respondents were merely required by the Supreme Court to comment), the nth tranche must have been paid already. Somebody was tickled pink all the way to the bank.

Who was the warlord who got this prize? A warlord may not be so in the strict sense of the word. He may be some hotshot in the media or broadcasting business. His stint as anchor has made him some kind of icon catching the short attention span of the masa. Being associated with him might by osmosis translate into numerical approbation or an image of invincibility in the polls. An image has economic value where it can help to boost a flagging candidacy as what happened in May, 2004. Under Ronnie Puno’s calculation, being in tandem with this man contributes 33.33% of the candidate’s impregnability plus party machinery of 33.33% and the remaining 33.33% from the heave-ho of the religious con men. As boxing and sabong aficionados, the odds were out that GMA is Meron. Perception of victory is all what it takes. In sum, she has 99.99% oomph when she went out to battle FPJ. The Kristos placed all bets on her. It was easy to justify her 1M-vote margin over her fledgling adversary.

An ally, no doubt this man is. A story was told where a budding columnist introduced herself to the media icon. Trying to impress the legend, the tyro spoke in impeccable English. She was cut short by the media luminary, “huwag ka nang pa-English-English. Hindi ka kikita dyan.”

Noli de Castro, the Vice President, right from the start wanted the Housing portfolio. He got it, and in no time was all fired up to clear everything that obstructs the sidelines of the railways. This was all a quiet operation. By simple mathematical juxtaposition, if the US$370M ZTE broadband project can get an ally a commission in the vicinity of US$70M, how much did the lucky hawker get from the US$480M North Rail, Thank You?

It’s too late in the day for Dong Puno to refurbish his image from English commentator to sampaybakod na brodkaster. Money does not appeal to him anymore. He just wants to win one election.

HOW BASTOS IS BOY VERZO

2007-09-23T01:18:00.000-07:00

By all indications, it looks like Philippine demography in terms of intellectual pursuit is broken into three categories: the sachet class, the cerebral branch, and the creative techies.

ERAP WAS CONVICTED OF “BLUNDER”

When the graft court announced the conviction of Erap, one Erap supporter was asked on his take on the plunder verdict against his idol. He said that “wala akong alam sa blunder-blunder na yan. Ang alam ko mahilig sya sa babae kaya nagalit si Gloria. Unfair yun, di ba?”

The sachet sector comprises the bigger part of our population, patronizing the inanities, among other time zappers, of televisions’ noontime shows. This is on account of we have eternity in our hands. When Nora Aunor ruled the roost of the black and white movies, her director dubbed her following, the bakya crowd. With the ongoing word-war between the hosts of Wowowee and Eat Bulaga, the sachet crowd is lapping it up.

It looks like however, the sachet pack, no pun meant, is capable of redemption. The last elections show its awakening by rejecting two super stars as candidates in the Senate and hosts of other local candidates.

THE SNOBBISH

Our society has an intellectual layer personified by the academe, the media, the church, the business sector, and the government. This sector, thankfully, is our thinking department, no matter how schizophrenic.

The intellectual layer charts, more or less, the course of our nation. In it is culled the various competing ideas and views and surprisingly find application on the way how we should conduct our affairs, no matter how flawed.

This stratum competes with each other in manipulating the sachet seam. Erap is concededly a part of the intellectual layer. With luck and right timing, he was able to snare that sleeping sector long denigrated by the elite.

The Senate is a fraction of this accouterment. Its being ignored makes that institution worth the listen.

And the venerable Senator Loren Legarda is part of it.

OUR AMYGDALA

There is however an emerging sector that would soon shock us. In his novel The Time Machine, H G Wells categorized future Homo sapiens into two: the Elois and the Morlocks. The Elois are the compliant people while the Morlocks are the nocturnal working community of humanoid creatures who dwell underground that operate ancient machines. Are the Elois the sachet layer of our society?

This is not much different from the emerging outsourcing companies that employ thousands of tech savvy youth. They walk like zombies in the middle of the night. They too become statistics from the predatory Morlocks of the worst kind. We should not discount from this sector the emergence of new literature and culture brought about by the facility of the internet.

Mark Verzo is one fine specimen of this techie generation. The guy is unbelievably creative and we should take pride for that. His blogs flow like crystalline water. Fifty years from now, when the Senate Neanderthals have croaked to the great beyond, Verzo has a good chance of being declared national artist.

LOOKING FOR MR. WRONG

It is unfortunate that when the politician’s handlers meet, they scan the horizon for demons they can slay. The bigger the better. Once a perceived evil mind is identified, the politician’s rhetoric is unleashed. The apologists and publicists insist that a villain lurks in the horizon ready to devour our little children. Identifying that villain is talent in itself. These PR magicians work to making sure that their client hugs the limelight. It therefore behooves on the politician, a veritable Don Quixote, to don his armor and gear for a showdown to save his society or his republic.

BOY BASTOS IS IT

We have seen these characters when a notorious German campaigned for the eradication of the Jew in his country and blamed the latter for all their national ills. Or a homegrown Filipino dictator who relentlessly pursued the Communists and declared that he did not become President to preside the demise of his republic. By tinkering with the Constitution, he found the right excuse of Mao Ze Dong’s academic theory of the inexorable march of the proletariat’s New People’s Army in Mendiola and forthwith declared martial law.

In American history, they have the much unlamented Senator Joseph McCarthy who ushered in what is now known as witch hunt to further his political stars:

Four years after (Senator Joseph McCarthy) was elected he was looking for an issue; he could not, after all, keep running against the Japanese. In January 1950 he found it. On January 7 he had dinner with some friends, all Catholics: William Roberts, an ex-Marine and a liberal adviser of Drew Pearson; Professor Charles Kraus, a political science instructor at Georgetown, also an ex-Marine; and Father Edmund Walsh, vice-president of Georgetown, regent of its very conservative school of foreign service, a man who had been at war with Communism for three decades and had just written a book on the Communists entitled Total Power. At the dinner at the Colony Restaurant, McCarthy outlined his problem; he needed an issue that would catch attention and excite the voters. What about the St. Lawrence Seaway, Roberts suggested. No sex appeal, said McCarthy. Then McCarthy talked about a national pension plan, $100 a month to every one over sixty-five. Too utopian, the others argued (the mind boggles for a moment; suppose he had gone to pension plans instead of Communists. Would history have been different?). After dinner they moved from the restaurant to Roberts’ Office. Father Walsh began to talk about his favorite subject, Communism. It was, he said, a major issue, and it would be increasingly important. As Walsh spoke, McCarthy picked him up on it. It sounded right; he had done a little of it himself once or twice, and the feedback has always been good. As McCarthy thought about it, he became excited; it was a real issue, and it could be used. The government, he said, was full of Communists: “The thing to do is hammer away at them.” Some of the others warned him that he would have to be careful; he would have to do his homework and be very accurate (later they would all disown him). But it was too late; McCarthy was already on his way (David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest)

What better way for Senator Loren to pick up a fight with the creator of Boy Bastos.com? The website sounds sleazy. In all probability, the maintainer of this domain is a neo-Hugh Hefner or a local Larry Flynt wannabe. Boy Bastos is the ultimate Pinoy erotic website that deserves a spanking. But at whose expense?

NOT YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD PORN PROVIDER

Boy Bastos is not your run-of-the-mill porn portal. It is no more than just a community. In it we see in print the expulsion of pent up emotion of raconteurs engaged in serious talk. In it we feel vicariously the daily grind of the ordinary thinking Pinoy betrayed by the likes of Loren Legarda.

A piece of Boy Bastos, which is nothing but a running blog, is the literature of his audience. It is not a porn directory either, very unlike any other adult sites with brazen give away titles. And so it was, Senator Legarda just hammered it away. After all her housemaid’s feedback all the more encouraged her, “yan palang internet ay puro bold Ma’m, ano?”

Loren Legarda, a vaunted investigative broadcaster found the site pornographic. This is far from the truth. The good senator did not do her homework well enough and this she blew it. She was apparently abysmally misled by her amateur researchers-handlers. If she found the site in her kids Bookmarks, all she has to do is avail herself of blockoff sites like NetNanny.

The site is a portal of self-expression protected by the Bill of Rights. The good senator forgets that what she did is not covered by parliamentary immunity like a privilege speech. When she recklessly tried to shut down MV’s site summoning the entire machinery of the government, she breached MV’s civil liberties. The ill-informed lady solon tarred MV irretrievably or did she?

If only the lady senator cared to look further and asked her less than competent staff to Google Mark Verzo just a little bit more she could have discovered the Kafkaesque musings of a blogger.

His Thoughts in Binary is simply amazing. It’s a web magazine complete in itself. That site is a work of genius. The persecution of MV validates the observation that artists like him are figuratively slain only in countries like ours.

Sadly we have in our midst politicians who believe that the world began when they were born.

Just much ado about a booboo.

SENATE BULLIES

2007-09-02T00:43:00.000-07:00

There's talk on the street; it sounds so familiar
Great expectations, everybody's watching you
People you meet, they all seem to know you
Even your old friends treat you
like you're something new (Eagles, New Kid In Town)

We have now an interesting composition of the Senate. Gradually we are exorcising ourselves with deadwoods content only in the enjoyment of our subsidy. With the entry of young blood in the Senate halls, it now becomes a truly distillation chamber of significant second opinion.

It was Frank Drilon who said that the Senate was invented to afford us plain mortals second opinion. Without the cumbersome filtering of the Senate, we become easy prey to scheming predators in the other chambers. After all we are a democracy. The clash of viewpoints all the more strengthens our institutions. And hopefully at the end of any excruciating day, we protect our coffers.

MENTORS OR BULLIES

The exchanges in the Senate now are worth our time. At one end of the spectrum are the veterans, specimen of two generations past. Johnny Enrile, Nene Pimentel, Ed Angara, and Joker Arroyo are relics of martial law. Jinggoy Estrada, Ramon Revilla, Jr. and Lito Lapid are endangered species of the foregone and unlamented era of blind voting. The rest, Ping Lacson, Loren Legarda, Manny Villar, and Dick Gordon are the traditional ambitious politicians out to claim political turfs on account of seniority.

Early on, JPE was reported to shy away from babysitting Lito Lapid who demanded translation of the Senate Rules in Kapampangan. The former brushed off the unwritten request of going easy with the novices in their maiden foray on the floor. The lawyer in the old man declared that the competence of an elected senator is juris et de jure. “Sori na lang kung nagmukha kang cochero sa Senate floor!” was his parting shot.

NEW KIDS IN TOWN

The Young Turks: Peter and Pia Cayetano, Migz Zubiri, Noynoy Aquino, Chiz Escudero, and Sonny Trillanes are the offsprings of the revolutions. Mar Roxas belongs with distinction to this group. While these wet in the ears are into sizing up each other and initially made tentative groupings, they have fundamental differences in ideology or upbringing.

We are into peering their unique, albeit predictable, perspectives.

Zubiri personified the Spice Boys, the sparkplug of Erap Impeachment. The group consists of Rolando Andaya Jr. (1st district, Camarines Sur), Robert Ace Barbers (2nd district, Surigao del Norte), Michael Defensor (3rd district, Quezon City), Hernani Braganza (1st district, Pangasinan), Federico Sandoval II (Navotas-Malabon) and Zubiri of Bukidnon.

His other partners foremost of whom was Mike Defensor got skewered in the last elections. Andaya remains in the Cabinet, doing a wait-and-see. His late father Rolando, Sr. got clobbered in the 1998 senatorial elections. Rick Sandoval got licked by Toby Tiongco in the Navotas City mayoral race. Robert Ace Barbers ran for Governor of his hometown province Surigao del Norte and was successful. He was heard spewing venom towards the First Couple who apparently did not flex enough muscle in pulling up his late father, Bobby, in the magic twelve in 2004. We have Nani Braganza benching successive appointments in the Cabinet. Eventually he resigned and comforted himself with a local post in his hometown Alaminos City in Pangasinan.

Truth to tell, we owe it to the Spice Boys who added color in the otherwise drab impeachment of Erap in the dying days of 2000. They showed us their true mettle when they stood up at the right time and at the right place. Few are given the opportunity to grab a ripe and apt advocacy. The Erap days were dark and gloomy. The people were at deja vu not different from the atmosphere of the Ninoy Murder. The Spice Boys glamours all stuck their collective necks against the rampaging masa of Erap. That was six years ago. Soon Mike Defensor was recruited as the favorite political mechanic of the new president. In the 2004 presidential elections he carried a simple notebook bearing the hourly schedule of the now Chief Executive. It was he who fixed her itinerary. The other members of the Spice cast manned strategic posts in the new government.

With the unforgiving political evolution and the shifting public opinion, the new tenant of the Palace faced sporadic revolt that did not mature into a full blown third sequel people power. Her loyal court however, providing exhaust valves, got the beating. The Genuinos, Ermitas, Bert Gonzaleses were driven out of their turfs. Migz Zubiri hangs by the coattails and whose proclamation was shadowed by the protest of Koko Pimentel.

SKELETONS

Of course Chiz has his own misjudgments. His association with Danding may in the near future be used against him. When he spearheaded the unthinking impeachment case against the Former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, the activist media waited in ambush. His emotional reaction betrayed himself: he was affected by the label.

Escudero, afresh and exciting, is not the ideal representative of new leadership. As the legal point man in the Davide impeachment, he showed myopic view. He allowed himself to be used by a confectionary character out to exact revenge from an intractable jurist. The trompe-l'oeil was not cheap. His role in the sacking try assured the cost of his second term in the House. His connection with Danding is formalized by his link in the other wing of the Nationalist People’s Coalition.

Chiz striking association with Marcos personalities is to be resurrected once the opportunity arises. It was a mistake and he knew it, but he understated his potential. He thought that being a congressman of his father's district was just a rite of passage. Thereafter, he thought he is going back to private practice. But each one of us has his own epiphany.

THE PLUS OF YOUTH

Galvanized by the overwhelming people's support last May 2007 elections, these newcomers pose a threat to the leadership or the ambitious in the Senate.

We see the attractiveness of youth. Youth and vitality is worth one billion pesos in electoral logistics. They are computer savvies. They are the children of the YouTube and the facility of the internet. The traditional media hound them for reactions insuring patronage among the young audience. The likes of the old breed were habitué of the great halls of the UP Library, that no doubt about. Whereas the newly minted gladiators eat and drink instant knowledge from Google, Wikipedia, and myriad other search engines. While young chronologically, in terms of imbibed knowledge they are comparable to the magi. And they inhaled. Whereas, the tantrums of Johnny, the grunts of Nene, the ex cathedras of Joker, the smirks of Ping, the grimaces of Jamby, the eye rolls of Loren and the pedantic spiels of Miriam, are all consigned to Geriatrics. We remember Oscar Wilde saying, “My experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't know anything at all.”

We devour anything Chiz says, or the ramblings or rants of Trillanes or Peter Alan. The latter prevailed notwithstanding the clock-work demolition job against his candidacy. Mar Roxas, we can depend on his palengkenomics and innate old school philosophy. Legal niceties or constitutional hairsplitting, we have Peter Alan, Pia, and of course Chiz. General approach to agriculture, finance, technology or economics? Migz or Noynoy can take care of them. One doesn't confuse Sonny Trillanes on anything about the Armed Forces or peace and order. Remember too that, for the first time, we have two bachelors in that chamber.

Give these wizards a little more than six months and they emerge like Goliaths in their fields.

SENATE BULLIES

It was pathetic for Miriam to display annoyance on the firm and concise interpellations of Chiz last week. Miriam still harbors (or appears to harbor) that antiquated academic arrogance displayed by UP professors towards their wards. She tried, to no avail, to humiliate the young senator on the Senate floor. To Miriam this is the perfect pitch to get even for the disgrace her nephew suffered last elections. Mike Defensor, as reports disclose, was the biggest election spender clocking near the P200M mark. Butch Pichay was heard protesting in the ranking, claiming with the way he was butchered by the media based on unofficial receipts, he was the top wastrel.

During the maiden encounter, Enrile and Gordon and Angara were in full attention, quit their hand phones twiddling, and waited for a gaff somewhere from the neophyte legislator. They knew that the cameras were rolling and the media got hooked on the historic baptism, and any slip is recorded in eternity ready to be down or uploaded at an opportune time. Gordon, in case one forgets casts a moist eye on the presidency. From this batch emerges the next man in horse back.

The Senate bullies know that their battery life is in near end. Browbeating this mélange coterie of newcomers, the bullies only hasten their political funeral. The better view is to align with them and pray for political resurrection.

There’s talk on the street, it’s there to remind you
that it doesn’t really matter which side you’re on.
You’re walking away and they’re talking behind you.
They will never forget you till somebody new comes along (ibid.)

A FATHER'S REDEMPTION

2007-08-19T14:06:00.000-07:00

After two decades, we have seemingly outgrown our juvenile fascination with entertainment celebrities. We barred the likes of Tito Sotto and Lito Lapid from the Senate and Makati City Hall, respectively. Goma and Machete are sulking with their trophy wives. It looks like Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada are revving up their public relations machines towards 2010.

There’s an unwritten rule in the Senate where it says that the first 3 years of a 6-year termer, all 12 of them, should defer to the last 12 on their last 3-year term. Expect therefore the company of the new senators, i.e., Chiz, et al. to play audience to their colleagues who were elected in 2004 and are now gunning for reelection, or some other positions, in 2010.

Right now, we are struggling to cast out the demons of dynasties.

There’s an interesting dynasty in Valenzuela City made up not by an ascendant-descendant but by siblings. The dynasty is fueled by sheer logistics. Now that its members have captured the territory: Sherwin, 36, is the City Mayor, Rexlon, 32, is its congressman, while another younger sibling is a city councilman, they are now into public relations where they project the dynasts as highly qualified.

Sherwin graduated from Boston University, while Rexlon obtained his Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree, cum laude, from George Washington University. Weslie has a master’s degree in Management from London Metropolitan University.

Since they are now well-entrenched, they have changed gears of fund sourcing: from their petty cash to the public cash. The LGU has an annual budget of close to P2B.

Unlike the run-of-the-mills Quezon and Mindanao dynasties, for instance, the Valenzuela fiefdom is composed of Ivy Leagues’ alumni. The congressman however was quoted as saying, “an anti-dynasty bill is a regressive bill. It discriminates … How would you feel if you and your brother both want to write but because you’re already a writer people would tell your brother he could no longer do so?” The comparison made betrays a tapered mind, if not a slick one, figuring a good out. An anti-dynasty bill regulates behavior not profession.

Undoubtedly, its patriarch William Gatchalian, has a long term agenda. He has grown tired of being a political contributor and gofer to Presidents. Tales abound where he spends nights in Malacanang humoring Erap. “Napupuyat ako, ika” WG was often heard saying.

Of course, there’s that Chinese-slant dictum of “kailangan ka lang kapag may kailangan” frequently mouthed by the likes of Erap. The Chinese are notorious for being fair-weather friends. They treat friendship as part of the Financial Statement. There’s that chapter in our running cultural history where Chinese parents named their children after the latter’s godparents. Erap, since his mayorship knew the art of squeezing Chinese businessmen. He knows that these Chinese traders, being tax evaders, gravitate with politicians, or whoever is in power. The bigger the name, the better. Lucio Tan attached himself with Marcos. It was Marcos himself, assisted by the late Ruben Ancheta, the BIR Commissioner, who was the tax consultant of the Kapitan. If the tax schemes of Marcos were not perfect, Tan would have been in the freezer a long time ago.

The PCGG has the complete roster of Chinese merchants that paid retainers to the Malacanang tenant. During martial law, these Chinese entrepreneurs glued themselves with generals. There was that infamous military agency, the Office of Civil Relations, invented by Marcos ran by generals, then colonels, and during its dying days, by PFCs, that assumed parallel judicial power with inferior courts. It was a hit among the military top brass. Generals then became instant millionaires antedating the now languishing in jail, AFP Comptroller General Garcia. Chinese respondents were hailed before this extortion chamber under the guise of mediation. For a time, the luster and respectability of the Courts were lost. The legal profession was relegated in the background. Enrollment in law school dropped to the lowest of the low, while applications at the Philippine Military Academy, and of course military recruitment, shot up. Professionals made a beeline to the equivalent of the Human Resource Department of the AFP filling up and filing their resumes. Instantly, degree-holders became First Lieutenants and sported short and long fire-arms. Under the military plantilla, a great number with mental problems were admitted and sowed terror among the civilians. The favorite target was the Chinese community.

Everybody was hailing the genius of the creator of the OCR. This was right after the public execution of Lim Seng, an alleged drug manufacturer.

William Gatchalian has grown tired of being exploited. His days of being harassed by the Office of the Mayor and the taxmen are over. His Supreme Court case where he salvaged his citizenship by the skin of his hairpiece cost him millions of pesos. In 1998, he was one of the biggest plunkers in Erap’s billion peso war chest. He was rewarded handsomely. In an August 2, 1999 Business Asia report, WG was hailed as a businessman who had what it took to be successful:

Shares of tycoon William Gatchalian’s holding firm Wellex Industries have surged on reports that he is looking into buying more hotels and putting up casinos in the Philippines.

Wellex share prices gained 7.14 per cent recently.

Hotel firm Waterfront Philippines, in which Gatchalian has a 40 per cent stake, rose 1.09 per cent to 4.65 pesos and was one of the most actively traded issues with about 91 million pesos in trades.

“Waterfront is also with casinos and hotels. There’s been reports that Gatchalian is looking into acquiring more hotels and putting up casinos in there,” said Jose Ma Ricardo Garcia, executive vice-president at Diversified Securities.

Traders said Gatchalian, said to be a close friend of President Joseph Estrada, was not likely to encounter opposition against his gaming ventures.

“He’s basically a guy who has re-invented himself into a casino, gaming, hotel and leisure resorts tycoon,” one trader said.

Wellex also has a majority stake in Air Philippines, one of the Country’s new airlines.

“What you’re having is basically a lot of things with synergy,” the trader said.

Manila newspapers reported recently that Gatchalian was planning to acquire hotels that would add to Waterfront’s current line-up of two casino hotels in Cebu, central Philippines.

A former Erap Executive Secretary named WG as a regular habitué of Erap midnight cabinet. WG looked forward to reaping a hefty ROI on his political investment. He was cut short by EDSA 2. Not only that. In the ensuing frenzy of the revolution, WG was painted as a sycophant. In the Jose Velarde impeachment case, the posterity records told us that Erap made a triangular arrangement with Jaime Dichaves and Willliam Gatchalian. WG was borrowing money from Dichaves. To insure repayment, Erap and Dichaves opened the Velarde account where the P500M loan to WG came from. This kunyari or palabasin natin, ganito scenario made WG a bumbling stooge of the president. WG did not refute on record that version of Erap in the Sandiganbayan trial for Plunder. Erap got the reputation, unlike Marcos and FVR, of maintaining useful idiots who could not cover themselves up. Erap’s lawyer, Atty. Edward Serapio, an Ateneo Law graduate and bar topnotcher languishes in jail together with his client. At least, Erap ponders, he has a very loyal consigliore.

While Danding and Lucio Tan cozied up to President Marcos, their investments remain intact today. His association however with Erap gave him an up close and personal look at the presidency and its quest. He knows that any pretender must be fully gassed up.

WG wants a new tact. Why not target Malacanang himself. His issues are not mono-syllabically surnamed. Gatchalian sounds and looks very Filipino, unlike Poe of FPJ or Lim of General Fred. He has that Supreme Court decision that says he is a Filipino. Since he has that citizenship, his hotshot children are all natural born. He knows that this is a plus factor in the 2016 or 2022 presidential elections. His eldest son, the Valenzuela Hizzoner, is only 36 years old. In future presidential elections this dynasty shall figure prominently trying to catch the nation’s attention, the patriarch muses.

WG is in the process of reinventing himself again. Not only would he be a trader with a yen on the best investment bets but a kingmaker as well of any one of his own brilliant sons.

Where to get the campaign logistics? WG owns Wellex Petroleum Corp., and oil exploration and mining firm. “As of 1996, the mineral reserves of the Philippines were comprised of 6.67 billion metric tons of metallic and 78.472 metric tons of non-metallic minerals. A large part of the metallic reserves is copper (70%) followed by nickel (16%). A study conducted by East-West Center in 1994 estimated that about 11 new deposits under a “conservative estimate” and 25 deposits under a “most likely estimate” might be developed during the period 1995-2015,” says an online disclosure of the Philippine Embassy in the United States.

PDI filed this July 22, 2007 report:

OIL EXPLORATION and mining firm Wellex Petroleum Corp. said it has signed a partnership with a subsidiary of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), one of China’s biggest oil companies, to venture into oil and mining activities in the Philippines.

Wesley Gatchalian, director and executive vice president of Wellex Petroleum, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that Southern PEC Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Sinopec based in Guangdong province in China, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Wellex Group to bid for the government’s oil concessions in Palawan and Mindoro.

The bid was submitted to the Department of Energy about two months ago. The winner has yet to be named.

Gatchalian added that Wellex planned to form a joint venture firm with its Chinese partner to go into mining exploration possibly for nickel, copper, manganese, coal and chromite. Both partners are currently in the process of applying for exploration permits in possible mine sites such as Palawan and Samar.

“The Wellex Group is positive this will help our economy because Sinopec is a large company. The mining industry is booming. Wellex Petroleum is mandated to look for mining and oil sites or high-growth investment areas. We are very happy that Wellex Petroleum will push forward with the partner that we have,” Gatchalian said.

Gatchalian also said that its 10-year-old Wellex Petroleum was studying plans of an initial public offering once its oil and mining projects are “up and running”.

“Our Chinese partner is bullish on the peso and the Philippine stock market and the economy,” he added.

Sinopec, which is controlled by the Chinese government, is listed on the Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai stock exchanges. It is an integrated energy and chemical company.

THE LAMEDUCK IS A MINER

2007-08-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

He spoke too soon. Manny Villar is a marked man when he said right after the SONA that the President is a spent force, a lame duck. While she made some reassuring words that she won’t be seeking reelection as the Constitution bars it, she was heard saying in jest somewhere in Pampanga that she is prepared to represent one district of the province as its congressman. The announcement was met with enthusiasm by her Kabalens who took the joke as a promise made.

THE SENATE PRESIDENT FLEXES HIS PLEXUS

Right now, the Senate President is into working out his fledgling Nacionalista Party. His sight is no longer beyond his rostrum. His think tank is no longer engrossed on how to save his precarious corporate flagship corporation, C & P Homes, as his promissory notes were safely bought by the SPAVs he principally crafted under the guidance of his financial advisers, while he poured in his billions of pork from the last 6 years in what the Cavitenos call Daang Hari. Villar bought hundreds of hectares in Molino for a pittance per square meter. From Ayala Alabang, he caused the acquisition of rights-of-way towards his land banking and built a 4-lane boulevard. Upon completion of the highway in the backwoods, his land inventory shoots up to billions of pesos. Now he looks with misty eyes the mansion in Mendiola. Nakakasa na ang budget sa 2010, thanks to his CDF.

HOUSE MANOEUVRE

It looks like the Pablo Garcia blitz was nothing more than a Palace leverage. The Cebuano patriarch was used as credible gambit for GMA to get what it wants from the longest reigning Speaker in our history. Ginamit si Lolo. Talks fly that the old man Garcia has a mind of his own and may prove to be intractable for the next three years. Whereas Joe de Venecia bears the public mug of loyalty, that is, when rented he stays rented, so long as the lease contract subsists. The patriarch’s issues were shaking their heads in disbelief. Naisahan kami, ika. GMA used them a second time. The first time was when they delivered Cebu to her in 2004.

ROADMAP TO 2010

Perish the thought that the sitting President is into building her legacy.

2010 is a defining year of the Arroyo Presidency. The next three years shall prepare her to insure her retirement. She cringes in the thought of being hauled like a fugitive and incarcerated like her predecessor.

Two things are on her mind: build up a formidable machinery to backstop a protégé; or, cook a scenario a la Marcos to justify a Charter overhaul ushering a parliament peopled by her allies. And who do you think is the first ceremonial Prime Minister?

FEAR OF REPRISAL

With the likes of Senators Sonny Trillanes, Noynoy Aquino and Peter Cayetano in the realm, she fears of reprisals from these committed young men who have scores to settle with her.

With Trillanes, 4 years in the calaboose is just too much. The next 6 years and the prospect of reelection are comfortable enough to plan for revenge. Remember Gen. Reynaldo Berroya, an Erap gofer in the defunct Presidential Anti-Crime Commission who was convicted of kidnapping and was sent to Muntinlupa? He got his partial comeuppance with Erap now in Tanay facing plunder before the Sandiganbayan. His real nemesis and tormentor, Ping Lacson is a two-term senator with a pending espionage case in the US along with the sidelined Col. Rey Aquino and former FBI officer and alumnus of PMA Leandro Aragoncillo. For Berroya, it’s just a matter of time to get even with Ping. Spying in the US is a federal offense. Berroya believes that Ping shall get the same fate of General Manuel Noriega of Panama. With the prospect of Trillanes in the Senate for the next 12 years, the likelihood of plunder cases and their no bail proviso haunt the First Couple and their solons-kins. Nobody knows how far Trillanes goes. With P5M a month from the public coffers as legislator, “one of his men might become restless”, scrounging on the repartee of Gene Hackman in the movie The Legionnaires.

As to Noynoy, his resentment with the President has gone on the personal level. GMA has declared war on Cory Aquino’s family when DAR brought land reform compulsory coverage over their crown jewel, the Hacienda Luisita. Cory and Gloria are no longer on speaking terms. Walang utang na loob, ika.

Peter Alan on the other hand is still discomfited on what Mike Arroyo did last election: harnessing a namesake with matching budget up to the office of Chairman Ben Abalos. Comelec fidgeted, with the right allocation, on the disqualification case against the stevedore Joselito. With the demolition job on Peter Alan until Election Day, the Cayetano family was sleepless in Alabang. Now that Peter Alan was sworn in as the 8th senator, payback time is not far behind. Remember that the godfather of these young musketeers is the Prisoner of Tanay, grinding all available katanas once his progeny succeeds GMA.

INVIGORATING LAKAS

It was bargain time for GMA with Speaker Joe. Aware of the LP and NP square-off, GMA doesn’t want to be left behind. With the two-pary advance skirmish, the President is afraid that she is being relegated in the background. The people now are talking about two political parties, and Lakas and Kampi are not them. This early, the people are conditioned about the return of the two- party system. Under this scenario, the presidential blueprint is still it. GMA needs the Speaker. Whoever is with the Speaker, FVR is not far behind. Lakas is the son FVR never had. The game plan therefore is power sharing with FVR in the true sense of the phrase. FVR is the chief strategist. Either they field GMA or FVR bet in 2010. But FVR is a principled man. He doesn’t countenance government looting to finance a political run. Logistics should come from where it is abundant, and legal.

GMA’s son and kin-in-law were named the top honchos of the Committees of Energy and Environment. Those assignments came in the heels of transferring the Philippine Mining Development Corporation (PDMC) to the Office of the President. The President divested the DENR of its function centrepiece. The department is now relegated to protecting the trees of the City of Manila. An environmental watchdog warned of a virtual chokehold by the Arroyos of the mining industry in the next three years.

(Clemente Bautista, coordinator of Kalikasan Peoples Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE)) maintained that the situation evoke blatant conflict of interest with Ms Arroyo’s assumption of control over the PDMC, which will oversee mining development and the approval of new mining projects, and Representative Arroyo’s function in the House committee which is tasked to investigate problems related to the environment and natural resources, many of which are related to previous, current and future mining projects in the country.

…He expressed fear that Ms Arroyo can just approve mining contracts left and right with the PDMC under her control.

“While her brother-in-law can very easily block calls for Congressional probes into mining-related environmental disasters or mining deals that may be anomalous, dangerous, and plunderous by virtue of his position,” he added. (Two Arroyo’s in mining industry ‘fishy,’ says green group By Delfin Mallari Jr., Inquirer, Last updated 11:54pm (Mla time) 08/01/2007).

Faced with China’s insatiable need for metals in its development surge, it looks towards the Philippines to filling in the demand. With an initial ante of US$500M, foreign investors are gradually trickling in the country to partake of the biggest mining pie in Asia.

With stockholders agreements all over the place, the family is assured of a ratio in the investments in the form of shares. Without plunking in any amount, in exchange of access and pencil-pushing fees, the President thru her dummies is assured of sizeable capital from the mining ventures. Any scandal in the offing is squelched sub rosa by the son and brother-in-law in the House awashed with lobby money from the alien miners. May panggastos pa si Bayaw, ika.

The script is not preposterous. In fact, there is another family who to this day has started their trek to the Mendiola Manor. The Gatchalians are now busy sprucing up their mining behemoth in anticipation of the Chinese invasion armed with shovels to rake in the mineral and iron deposits of this third world country. Looking at the financials of the mining ventures, their peso-per-share looks promising and affordable. What we don’t know is that the family has tucked under their pockets billions of founding-common shares at a few centavos per share. Following the script of the patriarch, joint partnerships are announced with international mining players. Soon after, an IPO. By unloading billions of shares in the market 6 or 8 years from now, in utter insider trading, the presidential bet, without threats Erap style, makes billions in campaign kitty.

GMA’s dummies are into the same direction, unload their trust and deliver the moolah to their benefactress all ready to rock in 2010.

THE FATE OF MAR ROXAS

There is no question that the Aranetas are oozing with money. But their billions are all that they’ve got just like the Ayalas. Their money is on the table and the Araneta family is not about ready to push it on the middle, and go for broke. Their money is blood money. With Villar’s tubong lugaw and GMA’s tubong laway, Mar Roxas can not gamble dugo ni Lolo. Besides her mother Ruby remains first and foremost an Araneta. Sure, there are a number of Liberals in the Senate, but the sum of their pork is simply insufficient. Running on pork is not how it is done, unless you are the sitting President with billions in discretionary fund, including the still unaccounted fertilizer fund. GMA runs her office in exact opposite with that of her father, Diosdado. Right now, Mar is in the vortex of controversy. He has already earned the ire of the drug companies. With billions of pesos in lobby money these pharmaceuticals are into battle mood to stopping the cheap medicine bill of Roxas. If the media are indeed true to their calling of reporting no matter who gets hurt, they should support the advocacy of Mar. Sad to say, the big media players are careful with their annual bottom lines courtesy of the adverts from the drug companies. In the mean time, the pretenders to the presidency are playing it safe, secure in the thought that kapag presidente na ako, saka ko na gagawin ang gusto ni Mar.

BLOGGERS UNITE: MAR ROXAS FOR PRESIDENT

With gas running on empty, Mar suffers the same fate of Raul Roco, the front runner who never made it in the finish line. Local officials are sucker for logistics. Just imply that funds are the way, and they are on their way out. Filipinos look in awe at men oozing with money. Look at Mark Jimenez or Danding Cojuangco or Bong Pineda.

The trouble with Mar is he has scruples. And that incidentally is what we need after an amoral chief executive. His late father Gerry Roxas would have been a fine president. But in 1965 his political career reached a hump and got stalled when he was clobbered by Fernando Lopez in the vice presidential race. The Lopezes and the Roxases are Ilonggos and come from the propertied class, except that the Lopezes are industrialists. The Aranetas did not go for broke in that political contest. Had Gerry Roxas become Vice President in 1965, President Marcos had a formidable opponent in 1969, and martial law remained an academic discussion.

As local media recede in the background fearing the boycott of the giant drug makers, losing in the process billions in commercial revenues, it becomes the solemn duty of the bloggers to come to the forefront. Looking at bare statistics, if only about 10% of our people are deprived of cheap medicine annually, we consign them to mortality if not disability. 8M people dying or getting sick is no laughing matter. Instead of just pointing out what is wrong with our political system or how stupid the candidates are, or just going thru the electoral process catch-as-catch-can, let us tell our people who to root and of course vote for in the next elections.

I am willing to carry Mar Roxas on my shoulder 24/7. Up to Mendiola and Malacanang.

FILLET QUEZON

2007-08-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD

It was near the end of his term in 1998 when then Congressman Bobby Tanada introduced the bill proposing the division of Quezon. That came in the heels of his parting of ways with his congressional seatmate and gubernatorial candidate in 1998, Willie Enverga. Bobby Tanada was heard saying he would support Enverga in the latter’s quest for the governorship, not only because they were apparently distant cousins on the Ebarle side in Lucena, but also because the latter was mahinhin and mahiyain. Bobby thought he found his soul mate in the person of the ex-governor. It was the beginning of what everybody thought was a robust political alliance. In fact, a grandson of Bobby Tanada was the ring bearer when the now congressman of the 1^st district, Mark Enverga, was married at St. James the Great in Alabang.

The elder Tanada came all out in support of Enverga in 1998 against the onslaught of the well-oiled machines of David Emralino of the LDP and Lakas standard bearer Agnes Devanadera. Enverga was buried by Devanadera in the avalanche of votes in the 1^st district while in his hometown Mauban by at least 9,000 votes. Emralino prevailed in the 2^nd district, while the late Benny Marquez ruled in his own 3^rd district. The 4^th, where Bobby Tanada reigned supreme, rallied Enverga to the provincial capitol with a measly margin off Devanadera. Conceding defeat, the latter declared that at least “moral victory” was hers. Upon hearing the declaration, Enverga instructed his operators to cease manipulating the votes in Pagbilao.

THE FALLING OUT

It was a surprise therefore when Tanada and the ex-governor had a falling out somewhere in September, 2000. Apparently the Tanadas were imposing on Enverga on how to conduct the campaign in 2001 when Bobby was running as senator while his son, Erin, as congressman. Both sorely lost in those elections. The Tanadas were still engaged in idea that Enverga was neck-deep in debt with them. Zeny tanada could not believe what she saw from a lackey’s footage showing the presence of Manny Portes, a known aide of Enverga orchestrating the political rally of Lu Yumul in Atimonan. She tried to call Grace Enverga in her cell phone that just kept on ringing.

Right after the elections in In the elections of 2001, Enverga openly rooted and financed the fledgling congressional candidacy of Lu Yumul. The Tanadas were riding on the crest of their perceived popularity when Bobby Tanada was a member of the panel of prosecutors from the House of Villar in the impeachment case against President Erap Estrada, the then Speaker Manny Villar cleverly bound over to the Senate right after his invocation. Bobby, and his handlers, the chief of whom was the much lamented Chit Asis, thought that the efforts of the Tanadas in kicking out Erap would be rewarded handsomely by Quezon electorate by crowning the father and son the coveted positions. Enverga was already nursing hard feelings against the father and son whose swagger as the monarchs of Quezon offended the royal blood of Mauban.

FAIR-WHEATHER FRIEND

To those who know Enverga, it did not come as a surprise when he turned his back from his benefactor. He has the uncanny talent of using people at the right time and at the right place. He is obsessed with the idea of being the political kingpin of Quezon. Or the last man standing. He brags about his 100% batting average. No loss in six elections since 1988.

His first foray into dynasty building was in 1992. Unfortunately his sister Jasmin was resoundingly trounced by the late Jun Punzalan. He was heard boasting to his subjects in the University Site that his magic remains when his son, Mark, was overwhelmingly elected as congressman of the 1^st district in the last elections, waylaying veterans Ely Pasamba and his inaanak, Mauban Mayor Dingdong Llamas. What few know was the fact that the entire resources of the province in the last year of the wily governor were poured in his son’s district. Two weeks after the elections in May, 2007, Enverga thru his point man Vice-Governor-elect Kelly Portes approved a quick supplemental budget without committee insight worth P145M. The former Vice Governor Jayjay Suarez wanted to know the details of the allotment. He was not dignified an answer. What the ex-governor does not know is that there is now an ongoing documentation that 90% of the appropriations were not delivered.

P410M FROM ERAP IN 1999

It looked like Enverga had already paid his political debts to the Tanadas when he parlayed a fourth of the P410M presidential pork to Chit Asis, its fate was never known.

In February, 1999, Erap released to the provincial governor of Quezon P410M in discretionary fund. The wheel-chair bound governor filleted the funds into three, one-fourth went to the third district, and another fourth was favored to the 4^th district. Half of the funds or P205M was used exclusively by Enverga to unreported projects. That money could have concreted at least 41 kilometers of roads. That could have cemented the Tayabas-Mauban road and assuaged his kababayans of their generational distress as early as the 1900s. Reports show that the money was diverted to regravelling of unknown municipal roads and alleged deliveries of selected barrows to far-flung barangays. Then congressmen Raffy Nantes and the late Marcial Jun Punzalan of the 1^st and 2^nd districts were famished of the funds by the ex-governor.

Erap knew that Tanada was a beneficiary of the money. It was simply beyond the grasp of the ex-president why Tanada was at the forefront of his impeachment. Reports reached Erap that there was no proper accounting of the funds handled by Chit Asis. It was Enverga who was feeding Erap of information. Walang utang na loob, ika. Danny Suarez on the other hand was coy and ambivalent. For that Erap and Suarez remain in good stead.

ERAP SCORNED

With the falling out, Erap unleashed his fury against the Tanadas in 2001. He coursed millions of cold cash thru Enverga’s minions for Yumul’s war chest other than the short term assist of the ex-governor thru his confidante, Manny Portes. A gofer of Ronnie Puno now based in Alabat was heard saying that after her victory, Yumul was not heard since. The Iglesia Ni Cristo went all out with Yumul who was eventually sworn in as the second legislator who hailed from the town of Lopez, the first being the late General Gaudencio V. Vera in 1949-53. The Tanadas nursed their own first defeat and went home to Makati to hibernate until 2004.

To them Enverga was a marked man.

GMA STUMPED

Despite the substantial support let loose by GMA to the young Tanada, it was no assurance that he bought his loyalty. After warming his seat, Erin went all out calling for the impeachment of the President, not only once but twice. For GMA, it was the height of treason. The Tanadas could not be appeased. They have attitude problem. On the other hand, the Tanadas believe that they are only true to themselves or their family brand known as mavericks or patriots or nationalists. Yet their track records speak otherwise. A former lady supporter from Sabang Dos in Calauag, itemized the sins of the Tanadas. According to her the elder Tanada is a corporate officer of Pet Plans that caused untold misery to thousands of parents who invested in pre-need educational plans for their children. She adds that he serves as counsel to Meralco who positioned itself as nothing but pure business in imposing unexplained rates increases to millions of consumers. Lastly she adds that Bobby Tanada ignored the pleas of the labor union for additional compensation and other reasonable working conditions in Universal Motors where the former senator is an officer-director. One contractor could not believe that the old man allowed the demands of his chief of staff when he was a 2-term congressman. To most therefore there is much hypocrisy somewhere.

GETTING EVEN WITH ENVERGA

Before the House adjournment in 2001, Tanada and Enverga were thick in bad blood, the former authored the bill dividing Quezon. Tanada’s timetable however lapsed. He was confident that then Congresmen Nantes and Suarez would pick up the bill and shepherd it to approval. It was archived however because the two were already eying the governorship come 2007.

In the presidential elections in 2004, Erin Tanada ran alongside GMA. His campaign was fully fueled by Malacanang. With enough campaign logistics from their benefactress, the Tanadas were spared of disposing their recuerdos. The young Tanada won hands down against the bet fielded by Danding.

But Erin has a long memory. Enverga is still the governor in 2004 until 2007. By slicing Quezon into two, the young Tanada believes that goes with the funds which is Enverga’s principal obsession. By legislating two Quezons, Erin slashes half of the SOP of his nemesis.

This situation illustrates the exercise of naked power for its sake. Nothing salutary is achieved. This is nothing but an ego trip of a city bred legislator out in glorifying an alleged ancestral significance. In the same manner when the Bondoc Peninsula circumferential road was named after an obscure resident after an enabling law was sprung on us. Indeed Congress in its willy-nilly existence has gone berserk.

ERIN REINTRODUCES THE BILL

In July, 2004, with his seat still unused, Erin lost no time in reintroducing the bill and sought the help of his co-sponsors. The bill was not accompanied by intelligent or incisive research and factual basis supportive of its approval.

There were no recorded public hearings in the congressional committee tasked in collating data or in the province itself nor were there any intelligent discussions or consensus or position papers filed from concerned sectors or organizations from the affected local government unit. While the three congressmen, Nantes , Alcala and Suarez inked the bill, it was nothing but a sorry expression of solidarity. Ironically, now a fait accompli stares us in the face.

IT WAS A PERSONAL THING

It was after all a personal thing. The Quezon division is nothing but a trivial power play. The young Tanada was quoted as asking, “anong feedback sa bill, nagkakagulo sila ano?” He said the law is good as approved. Few will turn out in the plebiscite, and the uninformed will just say yes.

I remember one old lady in Kinatakutan in Tagkawayan who remarked, “kapag ang mga kalabaw ay nagsu-agan, ang mga bul-o’y maa-apakan.”

That seems to be our fate. We are left to our own devices and it is up to us to rearrange our lives.

NO TO QUEZON DIVISION

2007-07-23T04:48:00.000-07:00

When the provincial candidates hit the campaign trail last elections, nobody among them ever mentioned that there is a bill now up for plebiscite where we shall be asked whether we approve of the division of Quezon.

What we remember was the vehement exhortation of the local bets on motherhood statements like unity of purpose as the key to progress and other harmless vocal farts.

One local candidate nonetheless was heard saying in one unguarded moment on the unique resources of Quezon compared with our neighbors who look with singular envy on the integrity of our territory. He even made a contrast that the total area of CALABARZON is 1,850,000 hectares while Quezon alone is 880,000 or practically more than half of the economic zone.

Quezon in itself can be a potent economic power South and East of Manila. Traffic from the South passes thru the province. On it is the daily lifeline from the Eastern Visayas and the Bicol region en route to Manila . Tapping the harbor and waterlines from the East, Laguna and Rizal become accessible to the Pacific.

There is no need to belabor the other resources of the province that remain virgin by any account.

FORESTS IN THE EAST

Gen. Nakar is the biggest LGU in the entire country. Its land area is as big as the provinces of Cavite and Rizal. All we have to do is seek a perpetual government protection of its forests for the enjoyment of future generations.

With the onset of global warming an expansive lung in the East of Manila, only 80 kilometers away from it, assures the city of pristine air cover. We should assure our future generation of a viable airshed courtesy of our province.

FRESH WATER FROM NAKAR

Another selling point of General Nakar is its virtually unlimited supply of fresh water from the Sierra Madre freely flowing to the majestic Umiray River . Our great rivers empty themselves into the Pacific. By harnessing this natural faucet and redirecting them to the cities, our urban areas are assured of fresh water supply, with least chemical intervention. Foreign countries may even look at us for water supply. Nothing beats nature’s spring water more than those processed by desalination machines that taste like dense solvent.

In Gen. Nakar alone, we have natural oxygen tank and mountain sweet water enough to refresh and replenish the bustling Manila metropolis. The trees in Gen. Nakar should be marked and identified and preserved for posterity. No logging activities shall be allowed in those parts. We should appeal to the development banks to make available soft loans to tourism and related investments in Gen. Nakar.

P1B RPT ANNUALLY

With its income from real property taxes, the province can initiate developmental projects in this direction. The provincial government with enough capital from the P1B RPT, in its own initiative, directly invests in ecotourism project exploiting the natural wonders of Gen. Nakar, Infanta, Real and the Island of Polillo .

It is high time for our Quezon local leaders to initiate the development of the Pacific side. A new highway should be laid to connecting Atimonan to Real in anticipation of the Infanta-Marikina Road and the soon-to-be-constructed international port of Infanta-Real. Local funds can be used in building this Pacific Highway as an alternative to the traffic-laden Majarlika Highway. By opening this arterial road en route to Manila via Real-Infanta, time travel is slashed and the potential of the virgin coastlines to eco-tourism ventures is tapped.

US$2B INVESTMENT

Remember that Mauban is host to Quezon Power Plant, a P50B venture at the mouth of Lamon Bay . Lamon Bay is the fish sanctuary of Perez, Alabat, Quezon, Atimonan, Plaridel, Gumaca, down to Calauag, all towns of the 4^th District.

In other words, the mammoth chimney is breathing down the neck of the 4^th District, soon to be part of a new province, Quezon del Sur. Water temperature elevation will not affect Mauban and the entire soon to be established Quezon del Norte, but it will plague for the most part Southern Quezon where the proposed Quezon del Sur would be carved.

On the other hand, the Mirant power generator now owned by Team Energy in Pagbilao is spewing its exhaust towards the Bondoc Peninsula.

What we see is a gross anomaly where Quezon Del Norte reaps the fruits of the power plants while their detritus are poured in Quezon Del Sur. This is the intention of the proponent of the crazy bill.

LUCBAN: OLD TOURIST DESTINATION AND CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Lucban and its immediate neighbors are the traditional tourist Quezon destination. With its noted Pajiyas and iconic products like Longganisang Lucban, rice kipings, and handmade artistic buntal hats, we can broaden the festivities that would include Sampaloc and Tayabas. These towns are steep in established religious celebrations that make up for the most part the character of our people. We can hold simultaneous Pajiyas from Lucena towards Tayabas, Lucban, and Sampaloc.

What we are saying is that not only is the 1^st District rich in natural resources but also well-endowed unique traditions comparable to Mascara in Negros, Ati-Atihan in Panay, and Moriones in Marinduque.

REINA AND MARILAQUE: CROWN JEWELS OF THE 1^ST DISTRICT

During the bullish years of the Ramos administration, several developmental plans were on the drawing board.

One of them was the REAL-INFANTA-NAKAR economic and international trade area. The proximity of these towns to Marikina City and Laguna province even brought about parallel developmental plans zeroing in on these coastal towns of Quezon known as MARILAQUE. We don’t have to belabor the importance of these three additional crown jewels of Quezon. These three towns practically straddle the coastlines from Aurora to Atimonan. The ideal harbor of Real and Infanta must be integrated with the expansion of Marikina City and Laguna to the Pacific. Without the involvement of Quezon in these gargantuan undertaking, practically expanding the land area of Metro Manila to the West, any proposed study in that direction is worthless. With this new initiative, Real, Infanta, and General Nakar assume tremendous roles in integrative economic policies of the national government. With the prospect of division, South Quezon loses these territorial treasures.

CROWN JEWELS OF THE 2^ND DISTRICT

In terms of real estate and ideal locations for commercial, industrial, or international economic zones, the City of Lucena is an ideal site with its flat terrain. Foreign investors may also set their sights to alternative locations accessible by current infrastructure, power and communications facilities. We have the wide universe of urban centers of Candelaria, Tiaong, Sariaya, Tayabas and Pagbilao with a combined area of 350,000 hectares. Foreign capital can never go wrong in these locations.

With the spike in real estate valuation, these local government units are assured of sizeable annual income from land and improvement taxes. With its corresponding ripple effect, employment would balloon in those areas.

IMPLICATION OF DIVISION

Now that the bill cutting Quezon has finally become a law (GMA failed to sign it within the reglamentary period), we are now faced with the last hurdle of its implementation: the plebiscite. Once the people blindly vote for the division, we perpetually lose the physical, cultural, and psychological connect with the rest of Quezon. We lose the crown jewels including the head that adorns them.

Truth to tell, the proponents of this law failed to exert the minimum effort of notifying the sizeable sectors of the province. What was heard for the most part was the upside for the division. Nothing was heard for the downside. The proponent, while the bill was being railroaded in the Committee, was busy imagining the short haul political benefit for him and his family. What was heard was the litany of motherhood exhortations that the South must stand by its own feet, rely and develop its own resources, and enjoy the magnanimity of the Central government by way of the Internal Revenue Allotment. How about the local sources of revenue?

What can we boast in the South as its crown jewels?

Gumaca, with its century old water problem, is a transient town. It is the site of commercial banks and government agencies in the area. Despite the reign of an old political family there, nothing was done in the development of Gumaca, touted to be the Capital of Quezon del Sur. Its water system is the worst in the province. There was even an ordinance that proscribes taking care of pigeons. The reason is obvious. Doves with their droppings dirty the roofs that collect rain water! While Hondagua in Lopez is host to the Puyat Philippine Flour Mills, it has for the last twenty years operating in reduced capacity. PFM pays miniscule property tax to Lopez and provides employment to about 200 natives of the town. Catanauan in the Bondoc remains sleepy thanks to its sleepy and corrupt leadership.

Moreover, the proponent failed to see that the half of the IRA is for salaries and wages of a new bureaucracy for the new province. Assuming that one half of the P900M IRA goes to the South, or P450M, P225M of it goes to employees’ pay. Its 20% development fund is pegged at P90M or P45M for each district. We lose our availments from the RPT from the crown jewels, estimated at P1.25B annually, not to mention priority in landing a job where employment opportunities loom in the North. Why should we rely on the palliative Countrywide Development Fund of the Congressmen when we know that 50% of it goes where it shouldn’t go? Someone is looking at the multimillion peso budget for the construction of the new South Capitol Complex housing the new center for the newly minted province.

Most of us found ourselves holding a fait accompli for a law.

The act of division shall do injustice to South Quezon . There was no clinical or scientific neither an academic study made prior to floating the proposal. South Quezon needs North Quezon for unity of purpose. The North nourishes the South. South Quezon loses its physical and psychological connection with the North. By legislating territorial division it spells the economic petrifaction of its half.

ONE QUEZON

2007-07-11T01:45:00.000-07:00

Quezon Province, no doubt, is one big stretch of a country. A former governor once mused that Pres. Quezon, being a semi-dictator in his time, personally delineated the metes and bounds of his province, Tayabas, using a pencil in the presence of the chiefs of the Bureau of Lands and the present day National Mapping Authority. He made it a point that Tayabas had a taste of the Pacific, the belly of China Sea, the cheeks of Sierra Madre, the heels of Mts. Cadig and Labo, and the sharp elbow of Ragay Gulf.

LAND IS A MAJOR ASSET OF QUEZON

Quezon is indeed geographically unique. It pre-empted Laguna and Rizal from the sea. Thus, present day development plans integrate the geography of Quezon allowing the landlocked provinces access to the waterlines.

This might also be the reason why our neighboring provinces look at our tie lines with envy. Almost everywhere, we are beset with boundary disputes and not one of them is satisfactorily resolved.

In 1998, we had a rare opportunity to fine comb the vastness of Quezon. Not an unchartered frontier, Quezon province's enormity, breadth and length, is awesome. While along the northern fringes of Gen. Nakar, you feel as though you are in Nueva Ecija or Vizcaya and the spoken word thereabouts has a hint of "apay ti didyay”; while in Infanta or Real, you're in the ribs Laguna and Rizal mouthing the Siniloanins famous “ay naku, nakakita ako ng tren sa Tutuban, habang-haba, sunor-sunor!”; if you are in San Antonio, you hear the twang in words "aba'y asan ka na ga? Lugar ng barako na ire eh "; or somewhere in the peripheries of Calauag or Tagkawayan "oragon, sain ka maduman?" Moving southern phallus-deep into San Andres, goodness you'll be talking Greek, Waray and Bisaya "Ano an iyo kinahanglan?” Wait a minute, have you been to Patnanungan and Jomalig? Why, you are practically a stone's throw away from Waikiki dancing the hula near the navel of the Pacific. Thus, once you have roamed Quezon you would have duplicated the feat of Vasco da Gama.

Our soil consists of sandy loam. Pres. Quezon knew that only the coconut could successfully thrive in our land. He was right, in the short haul. Soon christened Tayabas, after discarding the archaic Kalilayan, the province became coconut country. While not a single nook of its terrain is planted to coconut, the character of the tree became the character of its people.

QUEZON: IDEAL INDUSTRIAL HUB

Whenever we see bulldozers cutting the nourishing lands of Laguna, nakakapanghinayang as Laguna's lands are for agriculture. The same is true with Batangas. Bakit ang mga industrial estate ay nasa Rizal, Laguna at Batangas samantalang napakaganda ng kanilang kalupaan at patubigan? Quezon, given the access right to infrastructure should be the site for industrial zones. There are good locations for export processing zones: the Pagbilao reclamations, Plaridel or Hondagua with its cantilevered natural coastlines, Unisan with its rolling California-like landscape, and the expanse of the Quirino Highway in the 4 th district - all 30 kilometers of it from Tabugon to the boundary of Del Gallego.

Mabato at mabuhangin ang kalupaan natin, not fully suited for an agricultural economy, except the Bondoc Peninsula. We are superior locations for container ports, expressways, airports, refrigeration installations, manufacturing hubs and the like. By opening up these areas to export processing zones, we are giving our people access to employment. We cease to be a migratory people. With their multiplier effect, foreign investments ripple towards alternative livelihood better than the 45-day waiting period of the now dwindling niogan. Awash with economic opportunities, the extra freebie cures the perennial insurgency problem besetting the province. A full stomach is an antidote against false ideologies.

WE LACK ENLIGHTENED LEADERS

Before, a 10-hectare niogan could send the entire brood to college producing MDs, lawyers, and engineers. How about now? Need I say more? Some crackpots look at legislated division as the panacea of the ills plaguing the province.

Korea was sliced into two, just like Germany after the Second World War. History tells us that dividing one contiguous land and people does not generally spell prosperity. North Korea is now on the verge of famine and obscurity. Its people are suffering from ignorance and abject mindless communist dictatorship as reported by Time (June 26, 2000) during the recent historic visit of President Kim Dae Jung to the North:

"The two societies are light-years apart as well. In the north, an entire generation of children has been stunted by years of malnutrition. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps more than 1 million North Koreans have died of hunger in recent years amid a nationwide agricultural collapse. A massive outpouring of international food aid kept the numbers from climbing much higher. Foreign visitors come back with tales of doctors carrying out operations without anesthetics, of hospitals washing and reusing cotton swabs. In Pyongyang, the rhythms of life hark back to a previous century: the city goes dark at night. And the most common way of getting around town is by foot across the border in Seoul, where cars clog the streets and cell phones are ubiquitous, the 21st century is well under way."

East Germany failed to measure up to the technological advances of its relations in the west.

Masyadong malayo na yata tayo. Closer, let's come home to the familiar.

Quezon province was geographically decapitated when Aurora was declared an independent province and Baler, its capital. The raison d'etre for divorcing Baler from Lucena was its alleged obvious physical isolation from the rest of Tayabas. They said that one has to travel all the way to Cabanatuan to reach the birthplace of Manuel L. Quezon and to transact business in Lucena City, a good 250 kms.

The southern politicians from Santayana-to Constantino- to Robles-to Alcala-to Caliwara were complaining about the difficulty of campaigning in that godforsaken place, and in the wet month of November at that! They were talking about waves as big as super tankers, and travel by land, veritable lunar landscape, was a death-defying adventure. "Kasya ang 6×6 truck kapag nabuslo ka," Adiong Caliwara, in one amusing anecdote, told us. "Mangangampanya ka doon, napakahirap pumunta katapus-tapusan isang pamilya lang naman ang pupuntahan mo, ayos na."

One may ask, ano na ang nangyari sa Aurora? Aba , ikaw na ang sumagot diyan . In one issue of the Inquirer, a Baler correspondent interviewed a jeepney driver who plied the Baler- Cabanatuan route. His view was a revelation. To date, the roads from Nueva Ecija to Baler and its neighboring towns of Maria Aurora, Dipaculao all the way to Casiguran and Disalag up north, are in state of disrepair. As if we were caught in a time warp, the same road condition as what Robles, et al. encountered during their time, exists today. And you are talking of 60 years ago or some four generations past, yet Aurora now is ruled by the Angaras, a dyed-in-the-wool Quezon family. Atty. Jorge Vargas volunteered the information that during the legislative hearings on the bill recommending the separation of Aurora from Quezon, the venerable Senador Enchong Tanada sent an urgent wire to Lucena pleading to the local leadership, "please object to the bill proposing the autonomy of Aurora as a distinct local unit". He said that weaning Aurora from Quezon was not the solution to charting its future or the prospects of progress for the whole province as it would only create homegrown principalia interested only in personal economic advancement. He was proved correct by what we witness today.

The Bishop of Lucena is keen on the division. He thinks that the 4^th District is historically ignored. Somebody is humoring the good bishop. Truth to tell, no one is serious in pushing the bill dividing Quezon, except those with scandalous political agenda. Kami na ika ang hari sa distrito namin. As Benjamin Franklin said during the signing of the Declaration of Independence creating what is now known as the indivisible United States, "we must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately". Right now, we have not heard from the good bishop if he is still a kindred soul of the proponent of the segregation. The new Governor, Raffy Nantes, ironically one of the authors of the bill butchering Quezon, is no longer keen in the division. Right after taking his oath of office, he was never heard of talking about the impending bill of late. Bobby Tanada and Danny Suarez were the main authors of the bill filed during the dying days of the Tanada’s term in the Lower House in 2001. Raffy Nantes joined them in apparent solidarity. But that was six years ago. Now that he is the Governor, nothing is anomalous if he is to change his mind. After all it was President Quezon himself who famously said that “only fools don’t change their minds.”

Besides, there is a well-known, existing in-depth study by the DILG published in the Inquirer that says in a nutshell - it is more expensive for the central government to finance a new local government unit whether it be a city, province, town, or barangay than to maintain the original unit. Rightly, because the new creation entails a new bureaucracy foist to inflict to its new constituencies the red tape that comes with it. As the economist, Merton Miller said while explaining his M and M theorem that won him the economics Nobel prize in 1990, "if you take money out of your left pocket and put it in your right pocket you are no richer. The shape and number of pieces do not affect the size of the pizza".

The creation of a new pocket entails expenses, then why create a separate pocket in the first place? Since we are no richer, we become poorer. If the trend is to make big - Bigger, why persist in transforming small - Smaller?

The new province as proposed is ready to be devoured by home grown chiefs interested only in pelfs and privileges. The family of the frustrated governor from the Bondoc Peninsula shall smother us poor Silanganins with their brand of skewed politics. Gagawin lang kaming hanapbuhay ng pamilyang ito.

ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS

Remember that the power behemoths are all in 1^st District. Quezon del Norte takes the 1^st and the 2^nd. QPL and First Energy, formerly Mirant, a total investment of US$2B, are both in the 1^st District. The 2^nd district boasts of commercial and industrial lands meteoric in value than those of the 3^rd and the 4^th. Income from real property tax alone in Metro-Lucena, i.e., the City of Lucena, Sariaya, Candelaria, Tayabas, and Pagbilao is enough to backstop the annual government operations of the province.

IMPOVERISHED 3^RD AND 4TH

On the other hand, what does the 4^th boasts of? We only have the Philippine Flour Mills in Hondagua, Lopez. PFM pays miniscule land tax to Lopez certainly insufficient to support a new province. How about the 3^rd District of the Suarezes? The local treasurers of the 12 municipalities have no official record yet on how much that section of the Province pays in land taxes.

The good congressman of the 4^th District appears abysmally misinformed. Unless he wants to rename Quezon del Sur as Province of Tanada after his name sake, the former Senator Lorenzo Tanada. With the current cutting edge technology, the 40 towns and Lucena City can be wired in one loop and by a flick of a finger call in a teleconference the mayors of Jomalig, Guinayangan, San Andres, and San Antonio. By allowing dismemberment, we betray our state of mind as masochists.

We have seen the Plazas gobbling down Agusan del Norte; the Chiongbians, Saranggani; the Antoninos, Dadiangas; the Lobregats lording it over in Zamboanga del Sur, etc. Quezon with its proud tradition and enlightened electorate has not elected a movie star yet…and any dynasty for that matter. Many tried and failed. Idolatry has no place in these parts.

This ploy however is effective in bringing home the message to Lucena that the fate of the province does not depend on it. The choice of leaders is not a monopoly of the second district. The people of Lucena being more cosmopolitan and urbanite (‘ow really), are presumably broadminded, issue-conscious and do not generally pander on the inanities of some politicians. The whole of Quezon, with its enlightened electorate must select men and women who best represent the ideal Quezonian as a public servant. And they can be found from all the corners of the province. Otherwise, the rest of the province will nurture tampo, which in the end might snowball into resentment for being left out, and therefore, clamor for division. This sentiment is no longer just a sliver of thought - it has reached a concrete stage in the form of the Quezon del Sur bill now pending in Congress.

Once the choice of future leaders is pervasive and truly representative, then perish the thought of dismemberment (http://www.sonnypulgar.com/one-quezon/).

NANINIGURO LAING PO.....

2007-06-11T21:20:00.000-07:00

NO JUSTICE IN THE HIGH COURT

In terms of watershed appointments in the Supreme Court, nothing beats the watch of Cory Aquino. She approximated the standard of excellence observed by her predecessors from MLQ, Sergio Osmena, down to FM. Imagine a Supreme Court without a Jose P. Laurel or a Jose Bambino Luis Reyes. JBL went to the HIgh Court with the singular appointment from a man named Diosdado, which literally means “kaloob ng Maykapal.”

When Cory tapped the old man Conrado Vasquez who was backstopped by his peer, the legendary Justice Jose Colayco, every body was sound asleep.

Our collective nights however were ruffled when FVR rammed us his military soul mate as Ombudsman. Since then, ours lives were never the same again. His constitutional appointments were impregnable levees against the onslaught of corruption investigations on day one of retirement.

FVR used his power of appointment as hanging swords against recalcitrants or hold outs or political nemesis unconvinced of his vision. Locals and political warlords think twice before crossing FVR. He stacked the Supreme Court of friendly nominees short in grey matters. While FM made sure that his appointee is a confidante, he tapped his contemporary intellectual giants.

FVR blazed dangerous precedents. Erap followed the trail, but fluked, when in a drunken binge, named Hilario Davide Chief Justice.

After Erap, GMA was on his heels, filling up all imaginable vacancies in the judiciary with blue collar lawyers. She betrayed her perception of the legal profession as dignified fixers. That was how the members of the Firm approached her, their clients’ statements of account to boast of nothing but influence peddling. The Firm made sure that all nominees in high profile departments and the courts pass their scrutiny.

OLD-FASHIONED UTANG NA LOOB

From Marcos to GMA, appointing powers have the false notion that the designation of a nominee, by plucking the latter out from obscurity, flows from their celestial destiny. With any other occupant, there will be no appointment. The appointee remains in anonymity or penury.

It is different in the High Court however. Remember that the government is constantly the respondent in every imaginable case, thanks to the taxpayer suit doctrine and controversies with transcendental issues, what ever that means. With the Filipinos’ litigious bent, every government functionary is brought to court. Legislators who could not accept defeat on the floor bring the issue to the High Tribunal on the doctrine of justiciable controversy. There, on oral arguments, the records of the court immortalize their legal regurgitations.

But there are cases that involve the pocket. Contractors and private individuals are haled to court for violation of public information privilege, or rules on public bidding or sequestrations, for example. We have the Amari-PEA reclamation cases. The PhilComSat, the Comelec P1.2B computers, the Coco Levy/UCPB/San Miguel Corp. cases, and the Lucio Tan tax evasion cases, among other 12-digit cases. Or the most notorious exoneration cases involving lawyer-client privilege penned by an equally infamous Marcos hold-out. The blue chip lawyers were exculpated notwithstanding the confession of the late Raul Roco that he, together with his colleagues, were used as fronts by their client. This latter case is an example of judicial collateral.

ENJOYING THE LOOT IN PEACE

Let us not stray too far. Cases that involve private individuals close to the tenants in the Palace. They dread losing their cases and they have to prevail in whatever means, fair or foul. Counting these cases, they number into hundreds clogging the dockets of the High Court. Not 10, 20, or 50 but hundreds of them gathering dusts that cause allergy. Remember there is no timetable for the High Court to decide their cases. Their TRO is in perpetuity beyond their life expectancies.

Cases are classified into academic, imbued with national interest, novel issues, and the hanapbuhay or what they dismissively call pera-pera lang.

Academic cases are those with issues on standing like taxpayer cases or the posterity cases where minors were granted personality to sue on some esoteric environmental issues that to these days remain on the textbooks while the rape of forests, the seas, and the air goes unabated. Brandishing the well-entrenched political doctrine or presumption of constitutionality, the Supreme Court invariably upholds executive or legislative discretions. Nakabayad na ako kay Boss, ika.

Those imbued with national interest are the interpretation of executive privilege of extending permission to cabinet subalterns before going to the Senate to take embarrassment pills from the grandstanders. Or the interpretation of the power of the MMDA to dismantle billboards or whether General Palparan should explain and locate the corpses of missing militants. Or whether the Philippine embrace on the WTO-GATT-TRIPS, and other globalization issues, are consistent with the Charter provisions on national patrimony.

There are those that involve non-payment realty taxes on power generation plants in billions of pesos. While the issues are of transcendental importance, some hit men in the High Court are on the prowl for the fixing. High calibre lawyers earn multi-millions in success fees, while the fixers pocket commissions on savings.

Since we are still feudal, some real estate or haciendas are auctioned off by the banks, and the former owners cry, not lack of redemption fund, but lack of due process. Given the sloth of the clerks in ministering the records, the petitioner gains a decade or more in holding on to the vassal. These are the types of cases classified as pera pera lang. Or election cases, or acquittal cases, or administration of estate cases most prominent are the Aguirres, the Potencianos, the Crespos, the Tambuntings, and the Silverios. These are the new status symbols. One doesn't claim arrival onto the social apex if the family wealth is not a court issue.

KEEPING THE SCORE

The appointee in the High Court has a score card. He knows the number of cases he has so far gifted the benefactor to humour him. The appointee has a false notion as well on the level of patriotism of the patron. The Justice thinks that any favourable decision, whether on the majority or the minority, counts. What the patron hates is when the beneficiary begins tinkering with his own brain.

Appointment on the High Court is irrevocable. They leave the Court at age 70. Or only Congress can fire them thru impeachment. Unlike the coterminous alter egos, they are sustained by the pleasure of the appointing power.

The privilege of tenure security is not lost on the appointee. With this blank check, ingratitude is not far behind.

The appointing power therefore looks for an underling, an intellectual lightweight, to do his biddings all thru out his incumbency in the High Tribunal.

DON’T GET MAD GET EVEN

Nothing is surprising when Sandiganbayan Justice Gregory Ong gets the nod of GMA. With the furor from Kilosbayan that the appointee is an alien, Secretary Eduardo Ermita defended the appointment as valid exercise of executive privilege and therefore beyond the province of judicial scrutiny. Ermita's theory was put in brief with all the legalese by the Solicitor General who looks forward for a lucrative law practice after GMA is gone. Not to be outdone, Secretary Ignacio Bunye went on print to say that Justice Ong is a natural born citizen from night one and he has no legal duty to set his birth record aright (citing a column of his Ateneo mentor Fr. Joaquin Bernas). Bunye's tirade is directed at Ex-Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban's column indirectly questioning the appointment of Ong to the High Court and even dropping the Bar rating, 76.45%, of the appointee. Bunye still grates after all these years since Panganiban's coalition with the majority of Tony Carpio in the People's Initiative cases. Truly, success has many fathers. With so many godfathers on record, the beneficiary expects lifelong repayment what ever it takes.

How old is Justice Ong? He is 53 years old, Class '79 of the San Beda College of Law. He looks forward to outliving the sitting justices when he expects to retire in 2024, when the Solicitor General is over 70 years old, a private practitioner by then. The same is true with Bunye and Bunye Law Firm. Did I tell you that the GMA's husband also has a law firm in LTA? The hubby once boasted that by his legal acumen he was able to cause the reversal of a Court of Appeals' decision sentencing the family of one Vicky Toh to pay a commercial bank in millions of unpaid debts before the Supreme Court.

By all indications, Justice Ong need not gain the friendship of the 14 incumbents. Who needs their camaraderie? They'll all be out of the High Court sooner or later.

GMA goes to spiting erstwhile ally Justice Antonio Carpio, the Charter Change garbage incinerator and the liberator of Crispin Beltran and Vicente Ladlad , when she finally appoints Justice Ong vice CJ Reynato Puno in 2009 as Chief Justice until 2024, five years before Tony Carpio retires in 2019.

RETIREMENT COLLATERAL

GMA does a George W. Bush when the US President appointed the 50-year old conservative outsider John Roberts, Jr. as Supreme Court Chief Justice. As there is no age retirement in the US Judiciary, its Justices serve during good behaviour, meaning they essentially serve for life and can be removed only by resignation, or by impeachment and subsequent conviction. Roberts expects to outlast, in all probability, most of the incumbents. Not a whimper was heard from the sitting magistrates. With the Senate as confirming body, the crevices of Roberts persona were already passed upon.

For the first time in our history, and probably in any legal order, the High Tribunal reviews the qualification of a colleague freshly designated by the Executive.

Where the appointment is struck down as unconstitutional and therefore grave abuse of discretion, the sitting President earns the repute of mangling a coordinate hallowed institution.

Incidentally, Ong’s appointment was handed by a little wisp named Gloria, a curious word in the immortal phrase, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.

THANKS, BUT NO THANKS

2007-06-02T06:22:00.000-07:00

We just have concluded the 2007 elections, with some dangling participles still to be fixed. While some operators are on the job doing cosmetic surgeries, the main point man and the face of GMA, Secretary Mike Defensor, has just conceded. The gesture has let off some steam and might look like a telegraphic directive on the ground to stay where they are until further notice, still the senatorial bets he sandwiched with the tail ender Koko Pimentel have no comment. Miracles happen a thousand times in a third world country.

SENATOR ANTONIO TRILLANES

With just three opposition candidates who failed to make it and those who mattered figured in the massacre, the people have sent their message loud and clear.

With the specter of Senator Antonio Trillanes looming like a giant in our political landscape approximating the feats of Latin American leaders with military resume, it appears as the beginning of a new chapter in our history.

Trillanes personifies the people’s aversion to the political gobbledygook our leaders for the last decades mouthed to sooth ruffled volcanic sentiments. Deep in our collective spleens, we have that uncanny feeling that our leaders are out to screw us.

Jamby Madrigal hit the right chord when she said that with the entry of Trillanes in the Upper Chamber the people shall see the beginning of genuine people’s welfare advocacy. In the attitude problem department, Trillanes should quit outdoing his nemesis, GMA.

While we see the reelection of the Senate stalwarts like Loren Legarda, Ed Angara, Joker Arroyo and others, it pales in comparison with the message of revulsion the people expressed vigorously when they elected Trillanes.

Trillanes’ election in the periphery added the mystic and magic of his persona. His 11th slot gave him the appearance once more of a shipwreck survivor hanging for dear life. Coupled with the pencil and paper counting stretching out months from election day, the people with bated breath wait in suspended animation duplicating a reality TV show.

DEMOCRATIC VALVES

The recent elections prove that the constitutional valves are in place. When the Supreme Court struck down the charter change rigmarole as unconstitutional, the furor of pocket rebellions died down. Once more, the flu-like election virus afflicting the country proved to be another effective valve. We are again glued to the boob tube awaiting the final tallies from the perennial slow poked south.

The sluggish tabulation once more adds billions to the media coffers. No election has made an impact as this since the incarceration of Ninoy Aquino. With Trillanes prevailing, the rosy economic performance of the GMA regime is muted. It’s their job anyway. Back to square one, the people continue to root for the underdog.

THE USEFUL IDIOTS

For the last six years we see the spectacle of the palace Rasputins mouthing well-crafted adverts for a statement. All presidents surround themselves with lightning rods. This is another testament to the unwritten power of the executive. Useful idiots are constitutional valves.

To GMA’s apologists, she looks near perfection.

We get accustomed to a freshly barbered Ed Ermita. Nobody misses the ala Humphrey Bogart’s spiels of Toting Bunye. No one sympathized with the hypertension stunts of Norberto Gonzales. And the disappearing acts of Davy Jones look-alike, PAGCOR Chairman Genuino. These are the faces of GMA for the last six years. These men thought they got the people by the balls. They have the privilege of ubiquity, the logistics, and the attention of Ben Abalos, for example. Brandishing these pieces from the armory, they deployed their progenies and protégées in the local posts. The current status symbol now is no longer a well-appointed manor, or a fleet of luxurious cars, or a trophy wife. Public service becomes a political destiny. Kamukhang kamukha ni Gob, ika, pati pagsasalita….With their surrogates in local positions, at least their retirement is assured.

GENERAL EDUARDO ERMITA

Ermita, the control freak, schemed to grab Batangas by the neck. He gargled the political soirees in Batangas insuring first that they were supportive of the palace. He boxed out the opposition in his vote-rich province. Two years before the 2007 polls, he made sure that the cash-rich Governor Sanchez toed Ermita’s line. His alliance with the notorious governor spelled potential revenue for 24 months. At least his two descendants, one an elected congresswoman, moved freely (in its true sense of the word) within Ermita’s territory. The governor bankrolled the projects of the Ermitas. On the side, he was a Merlin to the obnoxious Ricky Recto, feeding the latter with fodder for the Ombudsman. He assured the elder Recto of air-tight corruption case against the jueteng lord. With the latter suspended, Ricky Recto is the acting governor until the wee hours of May 14, 2007. With the prospect of P1B IRA and P1B local taxes, Recto is assured of buying the souls of the Batanguenos. But this scenario tanked because Sanchez bought a TRO.

But there are empty rooms in Batangas still spacious to operate on. Ralph Recto, in his early forties, is a threat to Ermita’s children. He was not afraid of the Rectos, in fact he was heard saying, Rectong malabnaw, a play on the old joke that Rafael, Ralph’s father is the Rectong hindi Claro. Nobody from among the progenies approached the brilliance of Don Claro Recto, a fine specimen of the Batangueno, who was born in Tiaong, Quezon. The young Rectos were put in place by the magic of show biz, Vilma Santos-Recto, a Bulaquena.

What to do? Inveigle the suckers to run simultaneously as governor and senator. Ermita knows down his pelvis that Team Unity is into extinction. There certainly would be survivors but one of them won’t be the author of the expanded value added tax. He factored in the sector that has aversion to dynasty. There would never be a husband-senator and a governor-wife. But he egged on the chin-chopped husband to announcing in Pampanga no less the fielding of his wife Vilma Santos as an alternative to the gambling king. Like a compliant client, the sitting senator dug his grave.

Ermita’s game plan is simple. With the husband out of power, and on the road to self-destruction as stage-partner in Batangas, his son Edwin is ripe for the picking as Governor. Edwin ambitioned to be governor once but one Mandanas skinned him alive.

Ex-governor Antonio Leviste, the estranged spouse of Loren, was not part of the Ermita equation. In February, 2007 he stood accused of gunning down a fellow Batangueno and confidant, a certain de las Alas. Murder most foul the tabloids shrieked. Tony Leviste claimed self-defense and pointed to a cocked 9mm in his minion’s possession.

The Batanguenos have peculiar fascination to a gun-slinger, the modern day balisong-wielder. A balisong or any weapon for that matter is part of the household of a Batangueno. Think about a Samurai without his katana.

Without exception, fire arms are discharged in festival abandon in every Batangueno celebration. In the annals of criminal law there is etched the balisong mind. A young Jose P. Laurel stood accused of attempted homicide for stabbing a rival to his inamorata. The case reached the Highest Court where the future President was exonerated on the basis of passion and obfuscation. Laurel went on to become a legend in his province for walking around town carrying his cojones.

Another story repeated in Tanauan was the similar bent of the son, Speaker Pepito Laurel. In an oral argument, the opposing counsel called Pepito, busisi or binabae. The future Speaker pulled out a Llama and shot dead the adversary point blank in the presence of the judge. The Laurels went on to rule the province and the nation for decades. That family taught us what the word bang-aw meant.

With the balisong mentality deeply engraved in the old man Laurel, he went on to write the majority decision in People vs. Ferdinand E. Marcos, et al. where he acquitted the young Marcos of assassinating Julio Nalundasan on September 20, 1935 under the mist of one early morning. Laurel understood the turmoil besetting the boy of witnessing the insult hurled against his father, Mariano, by his perennial political rival. The father lost in all his attempts to unseat Nalundasan as assemblyman of the Ilocos. The last election was unforgivable. The elder Marcos once again miserably lost to Nalundasan. Triumphalism got the better of the latter. He paraded with his supporters what appeared to be a coffin with the name Mariano on it. The message was clear: that was the end of the political career or of what remains of it, of Mariano. That, from Laurel’s viewpoint drove the young Marcos to homicidal insanity, understandable by the cultural and familial standards of the day. Dangal ang nakataya. The discredited state witness testimony was rejected. Marcos walked a free man.

Where the killing happened in another province, no Leviste in his right mind would put his head on the chopping block. But Governor Sanchez knows the intestines of a Batagueno inside and out: he convinced the son of Tony Leviste as his running mate. And so it was: a Sanchez-Leviste tandem versus Santos-Ermita. Subliminally what was painted was a true blooded Batangan team against a carpetbagger duo. Leviste was an attractive and true Batangas choice. In his veins runs the true utak-balisong blood, while that of the young Ermita, the cholesterol of Balayan lechon, courtesy of the Palace. The control freak lost control and in the dying counting days it was Edwin Ermita who cried failure of election. The Comelec believed him. In this state of affairs, the entire province is breathing down the neck of the father who claims no hands in the Comelec petition.

This time, the secret oracion of the elder Ermita proved a dud. He loves to recount the counsel his father gave him whenever he reaches a crossroad in his career. His father told him to visit the graves of his forebears at 12 midnight armed with only one candle. “Keep the candle alit, get down on your knees, and asked them their blessings.” Ermita said, that without fail, he rose from the ranks each time obeying his father’s reminder. When he ran as congressman in Batangas, a virtual unknown, he was seen entering the Balayan cemetery at midnight. His son Edwin, come election time, is a graveyard habitué as well.

In the end, the Ermitas would relent knowing that a sore loser in Batangas is anathema to the balisong mindset.

EX-MAYOR TOTING BUNYE

Running in Muntinlupa, this man blared the catchy slogan Basta si Toting, Magaling. He lost his magic in his territory. He wanted his daughter, the First Gentleman’s lawyer and high-caliber associate of the Firm, to run as congressman. He did not want to take chances with the Biazon bulldozer. Toting was decimated in 2001 by a minuscule 2000 votes. Nothing was heard from Toting, except disbelief from his Alabang supporters.

The entire ticket of the local slate in Muntinlupa identified with Bunye was wiped out. Dong Puno ran along side the wife of the outgoing Mayor, Jimmy Fresnedi the erstwhile vice mayor of Bunye when he was the local chief of Muntinlupa, only to be bamboozled by the reelectionist scion of Senator Pong Biazon.

SECRETARY BERT GONZALEZ

Norberto Gonzalez, the very visible National Security Adviser and prime mover of the outrageous Venable contract, cried a river over the loss of his daughter in the congressional race in Bataan. Gonzalez accused the local police, ironically under his clout, of political bias.

PAGCOR CHAIRMAN GENUINO

Salivating at the P10B annual revenue of Makati City, the Chairman of PAGCOR let loose P2B to challenge the Binay monolith. The investment was paltry given the pot at stake. Imagine controlling the combined revenues of the gaming corporation and the Philippine prime city. Filipinos look in awe at men with cash oozing from their ears.

Six months prior to elections, Genuino gathered a ragtag team composed of Lito Lapid and the detritus of Makati politics. P1B for each congressional district was allocated where one Genuino son pitted against a Binay daughter. Another son ran for the city council gunning the senior councilor, i.e., getting the highest number of votes. Plan B is to topple by legal means the tandem of the elder Binay and his vice mayor. Ergo, a Genuino ascends the city hall as Hizooner.

Stories fly in Barangays Palanan and San Isidro where the elder Genuino was summoning the local leaders to see him at Makati Shangrila Hotel where he holds fort. Funds by the boxes were moved from one room to another. Shame however consumed the local leaders. Ten days into the campaign the Binay camp spread the rumors that those who were called by the Chairman were bought out and out. The buying spree boomeranged. Nobody responded to the calls except the rotten. Mga bulok ika ang nakuha.

The ink in the order of suspension hardly dried up when it was served on the diminutive mayor on the eve of the elections. Obsessing manic control, the Genuinos miserably lost in all fronts. Time to account the provenance of the campaign funds. The BIR has no records of the deep pockets of the young Genuinos.

We felt relieved when these useful idiots went kaput.

BIBINGKA IS SERVED

The trouble with our democracy is we are cooked bibingka style: flame over and under.

In Makati its electorate was sprayed with P3B from the local revenues by the Binays; whilst the Genuinos, another P2B from the casinos. In one LGU alone, P5B flooded the streets enough to make an intelligent choice. Lito Lapid did not spend a dime in his forays. One local leader was aghast when Lapid treated them with inanities like, “masarap na ang buhay kong senador, subalit dahil hibig kong mag-lingkod, bababa ako bilang Mayor, abe.”

Binay on the other hand strutted like some King Arthur out to protect his Camelot, courtesy of his taxpayers.

No wonder our economy grew by 6.9%.

SO YOU GET ELECTED.....?

2007-05-24T05:55:00.000-07:00

Soon the euphoria of victory is finally on its death throes. The surge of supporters claiming paternity of the poll success is now trickling in and may soon dry up. The hangover has taken over, and the adrenaline is no longer there. It is now getting down to serious business.

Mayors and Governors are local chief executives. They are like the chief executive officers of a corporation. Of course, most of the elected officials pride themselves of adequate experience and training prior to running that makes the LCE position a walk in the park.

But not all LCEs are created or born equal. Some have training in other fields like legislation or are policy wonks. Some are in technical professions or the sciences, or simply, a few are clueless or plain dodos. As one wise man said, “nation building is too serious a business to be left to the people alone”

APPOINTMENT WITH THE CONSULTANTS

Calling the consultants to a conference is the best first order of the day. Over lunch or dinner or an extended blow out, ask this small council of elders their collective opinion on how to approach the job. Make sure that you have an economist, an academic, a spiritual adviser, an engineer, a health worker, a peace and order expert, or a lawyer. If your LGU has no experts as mentioned you may consult your parish priest or pastor, the town doctor, the school principal, the chief of police, or the town judge or equivalent professionals.

This group of men/women could input the needed general direction of your administration. Fix your policy mission and your vision for your town, city, or province. Remember that you did not seek the office for prestige or livelihood or proving yourself. You were elected to serve and fulfill a public trust.

CALL THE TREASURER, ACCOUNTANT, AND BUDGET OFFICER

Once you have formulated your general travel itinerary or approach to governance culled from your selected esteemed advisers, the next step is for you to call the LGU’s logistics experts: the treasurer, the accountant, and the budget officer. They make up for the most part the local finance committee.

You have to be realistic. You can only actualize your plans and objectives when you have enough funds to back them up. Funds, you must remember, are not infinite assets. They dry up at the end of the fiscal year, or even earlier in case the executive does not know how to optimize a limited resource.

Ask them the financial landscape of the LGU.

Annualy the Internal Revenue Allotment comes. Thanks to local autonomy. But the challenge of good governance in not on reliance but creativity. Ask first the finance heads how much is the income of the LGU from other sources aside from the IRA. You may also ask the input of the Local Assessor on the bulk of assessed assets in the locality. You will have a picture of the annual collections from the real property tax. Ask them why collections are southward or northward. Tell them to formulate immediate remedies in the event of dismal collections under the law and regulations. The treasurer has the data of the LGU's wherewithal from licenses, business taxes and other levies available to the LGU under the local autonomy law. LGUs have assets, in their proprietary capacity also being operated by management or directly by the LGUs themselves like terminals, public markets, batching plants, resorts and hotels, recreation facilities, etc. Review the incomes from these profit centers. Certainly there are rooms for improvement.

An LGU has savings.

Ask the Treasurer where and how much is the savings. Where are the savings deposited? How much does the LGU earn in interest?

Ask the debts.

It is now fashionable for LGUs to incur liabilities to finance developmental projects. The key to approval is that these so called developmental projects are self-financed. LGUs have learned the art of bond flotation. Some finance wizards approach the local chief and offer the latest in self-liquidating projects like hospitals, public markets, toll ways, mini-hydros, terminals and the like. Not only are these finance packages managed by the fund managers, but they also play the role of contractors. Thanks to local autonomy, LGUs now are neck-deep in debt. They pledge their Internal Revenue Allotment. Debt repayment of course reduces the budget. Under these situations, the management mettle of the LCE comes in handy.

SUMMON THE HEADS OF OFFICES

The next order of the day is to call all the heads of offices. You might as well brush up with the Local Government Code, the bible of LCEs. All the answers are there. All you have to do is look. A lawyer may come in handy to clear out the nuances.

Be wary of your chiefs of offices. They are ahead of you in the LGU and they pride themselves of their expertise and security of tenure. Of course, some of them are your avid supporters andthey expect you to treat them with kid gloves. Some look at you with distrust as some traveler who is just passing thru. Remember that you can only stay the maximum of nine years assuming that you get reelected while these bureaucrats are where you find them seated for decades and waiting for retirement.

Prior to the meeting ask them to give you briefs of their department's short and long term plans. Assign someone, usually your administrator, to collate these summaries and come up with a general approach of your own short and long term plans.

Be on the look out with the smart-aleckys or holdouts of your predecessor who're out to throw a monkey wrench to your renderings.

Impress upon them that for the next thirty six months you are the boss and not the other way around. Remember that you have the power to initiate administrative investigations of erring appointed officials and order their preventive suspension. As manager, the civil service rules allow you to second a department chief or transfer or simply float them. Where the offense is grave, you can bind over the case to the Ombudsman or the Civil Service Commission and seek their termination. While this is desirable, create the impression of being a tough but gentle leader. You are there not to create more enemies. Again, remember you are now the patriarch/matriarch of the LGU. Nothing is wrong in exuding the aura of a Mahatma. Nothing is wrong either where you seem to smell like Idi Amin.

Make the meeting an initial getting-to-know-you. Be observant. These are about a dozen individual with peculiar work habits. Look for factions within them. Try to decipher their body language. There are those who are intelligent, dumb, or simply lazy heads of office. Try to classify them into categories: those who deliver, the sycophants, the rumor-mongers, the out and out corrupt and the like. You will be surprised to find the rumor-mongers useful in some departments or special projects. In other words, a leader is tested on how he maximizes the talent of his subordinates.

Be an attentive listener. Was the 45-day campaign seem not enough for you? Do not monopolize the discussion. You might betray yourself by opening your mouth. You are there to gather data and learn insight of their departments and get an over all picture of the LGU. Right decision making is not far ahead. Give them a general idea of your work ethic. You must set an example.

FIX A MEETING WITH THE SANGGUNIAN

This is a ticklish part of your approach. A meeting with the presiding officer and the members of the Sanggunian is a test of wills. Remember that you are talking with elected representatives who do not owe you anything. Even if a Sanggunian member gets elected under your tutelage or support, still he has some exaggerated perception of himself. We are reminded of what Richard Nixon said “An iron rule exists in politics: A winning candidate believes that he won it on his own; a losing candidate will always feel a debt of gratitude for anyone who tries to help him when he is almost certain to lose“. To him his vote in the legislative board is crucial. As a general rule, a leader who personally persuades, prevails. Avoid, when necessary, tasking a go-between in hectoring a legislative agenda. The Sanggunian or the media interprets the appointment as designation of a bagman.

There is quite no problem if the presiding officer is your running mate. If the presiding officer comes from the rival party, he might put a distance from you because he is your prospective opponent next election. Or he is under advisement by your routed poll foe. He might give you trouble by delaying his attestation on some vital local legislation or mangle the weekly agenda. This is on the assumption that he also has a following in the Sanggunian. If he is by his lonesome, then he becomes your hostage by limiting his budget that makes him immovable and therefore politically ineffective. His threat ceases.

Project an intention of forging unity leadership.

Do not engage in small political talk that might offend some members. Protect the institution or your office. The mix of the Sanggunian is varied. Remember that the election fever has not totally subsided yet. The loss of their leader to you is a sensitive topic. Reach out to them. Court them with the 20% development fund. Entice them with the prospect of sharing the discretionary fund in exchange of their cooperation or loyalty. Tell them you are not buying them, just renting.

The Sanggunian holds the power of the purse. The member appears more powerful than the presiding officer. The former, if he has kindred souls in the council, can shift the course of the deliberative body for or against you, while the latter merely presides the meeting. Unless he relinquishes his post temporarily, the presiding officer can not dish out any comment, observation or argument on a pending incident while sitting as such. Be on the look out with lone rangers or loose cannons. This type of local solon has a bloated perception of himself. His take on his victory is instruction from the people to filibuster or obstruct.

Count your allies. Try to forge a majority. Appoint someone of their confidence to distribute the committee chairmanships and membership. There are sensitive committees that should be manned by your allies. Try to stack the finance, ways and means, health, education, public works, and good government committees with your own people. Otherwise, your legislative agenda gets aborted. If you find yourself without any sympathizers in the Sanggunian, do not despair. You have the resources of your office that you can dangle in exchange of their help. This is a test to your leadership pluck as well.

Assure them that this is not the first and last meeting with them. Leave a lasting impression. A regular fellowship with the Sanggunian is a must. It is an opportunity to lobby with them your urgent agenda.

Do not treat the Sanggunian patronizingly. The Board is a co-equal and coordinate office of the executive.

TALK TO THE OTHER LCEs UNDER YOU

If you are the governor we are talking about the Mayors. If you are the City or municipal mayor, you have the barangay captains under you.

By conferring with the local executives under your jurisdiction, you will get the big picture of the LGU. Each LGU under your territory presents peculiar problems and on positive note, possibilities. Expect from these local leaders incredible demands for funds. You will be faced with constant complaints of dearth of financial wherewithal, and failing to get prompt results, they say double entendres of withdrawing loyalty from you. Despair not. All you have to do is explain to them the financial condition of the bigger LGU. Tell them the sources of your revenue and the annual expenditures. Prioritizing local projects is an art in itself. Some LGUs under you are sitting on piles of cash. They have mining rights, industrial zones, tourist spots, or power plants. Convince them to review their tax codes or approach to outside investors. Make your LGU a haven for employment. Experiment on the extent of autonomy.

In not so many words ask your mayors or barangay captains to be imaginative in creating local revenues. The local code sets the parameters of the taxation and revenue powers of the respective LGUs. Periodic seminars are helpful in expanding their focal horizon. This is also a chance for camaraderie.

The mayors and barangay chiefs are your immediate allies in pushing the development in your LGU.

REACH OUT TO YOUR POLITICAL OPPONENTS

Make time to reach out to your erstwhile political rivals.

Be magnanimous in victory. Ask their assistance in running the affairs of the LGU without sounding triumphalistic. In 36 months he might be opposing you again. Our people are an intelligent lot. They wield the big stick by letting you eat humble pie the next time.

GO BACK TO THE PEOPLE

You go hunting where the ducks are.

After you have met all those who matter in decision making and setting your developmental goals, you have to go back from the source of your appointment: the people. Touch base with your supporters. There is no more satisfying meeting than with the simple folks who idolize you and look up to you as their hero.

In her memoirs, Katharine Graham, the Washington Post publisher, recounted the following story:

When, at last, (President) Lyndon B. Johnson did get up to leave and we were all standing, he told a final story, filled with friendly feeling. The story was about (House Speaker) Sam Rayburn, at the beginning of his political career and still an unknown young man, looking for a place to stay in a small Texas town. Everyone turned him down – all the important people, including the bankers, the newspaper editor, and the judge. Only an old blacksmith agreed to take him in for the night. Much later, now famous and powerful, Rayburn returned to the town, this time with everyone wanting him. He told them all no and asked for the old blacksmith. The two of them stayed up very late talking, and when Rayburn finally said he had to get to sleep, the blacksmith said, “Mr. Sam, I’d just like to talk to you all night.” (Personal History, pp. 438-439)

NO FINAL SONG FROM THE FAT WOMAN

2007-05-21T04:14:00.000-07:00

It has been 180 days ago since the road show began. And now after the day of vote casting, we begin the painful stage of counting. The wooing as journey was an event in itself, surpassing the destination of choosing. But in the counting we have the freebie of some catharsis. We root for some favorites and vicariously enjoy the uncertainties of the underdogs. Captain Trillanes gave us the surprise of our lives. He filled up and put some meaning to our quiet desperation and meandering conversations the day after.

After the courtship, the shift of the contest to the election agency and the courts.

This again is an eyeful spectacle. Electoral contests lag until the next elections. We see winners proclaimed on the wee hours of the term enough to change the portraits hanging on the walls. The whole yards of three years look just 100-meter dash, over and over again, until we realize we lost a generation. By next year, we celebrate the 22nd anniversary of People Power.

We get rid of a homegrown dictator, and we reap a thousand mini tyrants. One human rights lawyer said he despised martial law because of the physical presence of thousands of soldiers in various ranks mixed with the population. In other words, martial power is felt in the market, in public transport, in media, in practically the whole gamut of human activities. The dictator however is safely cordoned off in Malacanang, away from the line of vision of the public. Upon the dismantling of the autocracy, we see the mushrooming of petty autocrats, loaded with billions of local taxes, pork barrel, and internal revenue allotments. But we see them in the barangay halls, municipios, capitolios, and city halls.

People Power gave us a glimpse, however fleeting, of nationhood. Inexplicably, the horizon was replaced with the narrow tribal, clannish, familial vision. While we relish the security of the familiar like the family, it becomes an economic endeavor.

The ensuing elections were transformed into pompous family reunions. The biblical exhortation of the man (shorn of kinship) for the people is lost and replaced by the son/daughter/father/mother for the family. Broadsheets chronicle the saga of family struggles.

A sampler is the fight for supremacy in Davao del Norte between the Floirendos and the del Rosarios who are close relations. It looks like a Floirendo scion was playing coy in making his run for the governorship. On the other hand a scion of the del Rosarios made himself available for the position way ahead of the Floirendo’s feeler. As is typical in families speaking in gestures and assume that every member understood the message loud and clear, courtesies like preference or equity of seniority give way. It looks like the del Rosarios have to defer where the Floirendos, being matanda sa dugo, cast moist eyes: the governorship. A columnist took notice and hammered away at the family feud. Naturally, we become spectators to the kins’ squabbles. What is good for the family is good for Davao del Norte, and so on and so forth just like in Makati, San Juan, Quezon, Cavite, Cebu, the Ilocos.

The trouble with dynasties and this is lost to our people, is any challenge against the leadership or fresh ideas from outside the circle of the family, is an affront against the family. The inequity aggravates our national development because the family holds the public resources in trust. It becomes even more criminal when the family with strong belief in destiny appropriates the resources as part of the family heirloom.

Imperial Manila is now a myth. The 1987 Charter is nothing but the emasculation of the presidency. There are many provisions that limit the power of the Executive. With the local autonomy act local leaders are surprised by the magnitude of their prerogatives. There is more preference over local elective posts now than a congressional seat. Before congressmen were revered as local leaders. Now it’s the city mayors and governors. In 1992, two congressmen from Quezon, Benny Marquez and Oca Santos, went down to contest the governorship in Quezon. Local politicians fortify their grassroots organization for any eventuality. Bets for national posts woo these datus. The enviable organization acquires monetary equivalent in the Asset section of the Balance Sheet.

The morning after of May 14 we heard Edgardo Angara confidently telling the TV anchors that he is certain to land on the 3rd or 4th slot in the senatorial slate. He said that he owed this to his track record in the Senate, and went on ticking his legislative record. He was cut short by the male anchor on why he failed to back up the law on electoral computerization and avoid the same agony of tedious voting and exasperating physical count. If he commiserated with the teachers why not computerize and lighten the load of the tired, hungry, and sleepy mentors. Angara pretended to miss the question.

In 2004, the President declared that never the elections be done manually again and vowed the immediate use of current technology. That was three years ago. Angara was elected senator in 2001. He engineered the entry of FPJ in the 2004 elections to scare the bejeesus out of GMA.

In all likelihood it was all part of mending fences with an old friend. Angara saved some of his scalp from lawyering when he joined Gloria’s Team Unity. His winning again is a good preparation for his son, Sonny Angara, or give or take, Bella, Baler’s governor and deputy, respectively, to inherit his throne in 2010 banking on name recall.

On the other hand 45M of us for six long months get amused from the fiesta, waste a day agonizing in the oven-like precinct, dissipate another sixty days on who the next presidential wannabes are.

In the meanwhile, building the blocks of nationhood is put on hold. The sage was right when he said that “time goes you say? Nope, time stays, we go!”

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO VICTOR WOOD

2007-05-08T17:53:00.000-07:00

What purports to be the crème de la crème of Philippine media was there ready to clinically dissect the Senate pretenders.

It was the much ballyhooed ISANG TANONG, a brainchild of GMA 7, one of the two highly successful private TV behemoths, the other being ABS-CBN. While it looks like a painful social corporate project aimed at educating the voters, the magnitude of its commercial breaks betrays its philanthropic objective. The show runs a full two and a half hours, while its advertisement gaps eat up the whole yard of seven minutes. The TV station ambled all the way to the bank. A viewers’ survey reveals that ISANG TANONG surpassed by three points a highly successful soap of the top two media tubes.

We had the show for two Sundays, blazing at exactly 10:30 pm. All political activities come to a halt midnight of May twelve, hence, no more ISANG TANONG by May thirteen, the second Sunday of May.

Two sets of guests were invited on each Sunday beginning April 29. Each set comprises 15 Senate bets, broken down into three sets or five “teams”. The three members of the team were individually asked by a segment host, like Mel Tiangco or Jessica Sojo or Vicky Morales, with a standard question, while the two members were closeted in a soundproof carrel. The candidate has 90 seconds to share his thoughts. The segment host may interject and ask follow up questions so long as the time allotted is not exceeded. A buzzer takes care of that, and the microphone dies. After fielding the first question, the host then conveys the aspirant to the panel of investigative reporters, anchors, commentators, and columnists, with the likes of Manolo Quezon, Conrado de Quiroz, Malou Mangahas, for the second query, good for a 60-second response. After the three members have completed their first two questions, they are then called by Mike Enriquez, the main host, to sit on the centre stage for the third and last question, courtesy of the candidates themselves. The fifteen bets were asked to write down one question each and plunked it inside a ballot box. Enriquez then asks the applicant to pick one at random. The latter has another 60 seconds. After everybody has gone thru the route, they were then requested to sit side by side in a 3-row elevated gallery to answer for 30 seconds the last common question. And the show winds up.

There is more discipline in ISANG TANONG than in any Senate Committee hearing.

The most interesting part is the second question from the panel. Apparently each candidate submits a written personal profile or fills up a questionnaire provided by the show. Nonetheless, the interrogator is not limited by these materials. His journalistic license or his yen for the bizarre comes in. The second question proves to be the candidates’ nightmare. Each bet has his Achilles heel or skeletons somewhere. They wish the electorate look kindly at them or like tabula rasa or a babe in the woods. They wish the voters are in fiesta mode and not inclined in retribution or intelligent selection. Let the people enjoy their catchy jingles and the motherhood bluffs. That was the tried and tested recipe that elected the likes of Mar “Mr. Palengke” Roxas, Jamby “Juday” Madrigal, Lito “Ben Tumbling” Lapid, Richard “Wow Phils” Gordon, Juan “Let’s Doh It!” Flavier, Miriam “We need Brenda in the Senate!” Santiago, Ralph “Mr. Vilma” Recto, Kiko “MegaSha” Pangilinan, etc. Migz Zubiri confessed to getting hooked with this formula.

His blood left his face when Chiz Escudero was asked for his penchant for impeachment against GMA twice and Chief Justice Davide once, but never on Erap. On the Davide Impeachment, his stars were never noticed except the obvious biddings of his patron, the author of coco levy and President Marcos’ bagman, Danding Cojuangco. Returning to his chair, he was about to kick it. He never smiled since.

On the issue of dynasty, Edgardo Angara fumbles, stammers, and wanders and as an easy way out just campaigned for his kins who are right now also on the go by telling us that his governor-sister and congressman-son are high calibre Harvard–trained lawyers and the province of Aurora is in eternal gratitude.

Tessie Oreta was stumped in choosing the best president between Erap and GMA.

The tabloid publisher Gang of Four member Prospero Pichay morphed into a rambling moron on how to handle his extra-marital affairs where they, hypothetically, found print in his equivalent newspapers. Just like Joe Pidal, the scoundrel with a court-issued permanent protective order, sought refuge under the hazy “right to privacy”.

Richard Gomez can’t live in a minute. He hurries to put his brains in 60 seconds tops. He said, had GMA, Noly de Castro, and the rest of her gang run this country best, Richard and his showbiz kinds, he spoke for Cesar Montano, won’t be slugging it out. “Kaya nga kami tumatakbo dahil mali ang pagpapatakbo ng gobyerno.”

The unmerciful camera pans on the panel and show us the detailed studies of incredulity, condescension, indifference. Winnie Monsod, who lost in a Senate race once upon a time, got her comeuppance from those who bettered her. In these rare moments, the media felt like Nietzschean supermen. In ISANG TANONG, the press enjoyed the role of a surgeon, while the patients endured the unanaesthetized surgery.

But it was not entirely a ball for the patronizing panel and the show’s sponsors. They also got an unexpected beating from the most unexpected guest. They thought that they got him by the balls. His flamboyance was a give away, or so they supposed, and the show shall have its share of light moments.

Victor Wood came prepared. He was dapper in all-white and what passes off as a local dark 6-gallon. The interrogator let go an ordinary charitable question with punch line expectation: what is your legislative agenda once you get elected?

He had one full minute, he crossed his legs and drew a deep sigh. No matter how slow his delivery was he knew he could get across.

Wood said he was upset by the way we conduct our elections, especially the Senate contest. His brief campaign foray gave him a glimpse on the inanity of the exercise. He said as independents pitted against the well-oiled administration and opposition parties, they don’t stand a china man’s chance. Elections, according to him, are a regular democratic exercise that need nurturing. Without them, our democracy is a mockery. The state must insure that the people are well-informed for them to arrive at an intelligent choice. This spells good governance and may minimize corruption. A P200M campaign cost is disproportionate in the quest for a P350,000-a-year office. He said he does not understand why the government as owner of three TV (Channel 4, 11, and 13) together with their appurtenant AM/FM radio stations could not provide free air time to all the candidates. This way the people have access to their candidates without them being disrupted from their daily economic activities. Elections are no big deal. The so called fair-elections-act is a farce. By all indications the government intentionally deny the candidates of free air time with the tacit nod of the private TV stations. The loaded candidates queue up in ABS-CBN and GMA 7 and by adding up the commercial costs of the likes of Pichay amounts to billions of pesos. There is no sense to spending like mad.

A pall of bad news descended upon the panel. They realized that they didn’t have the smarts after all. It was the Gozon’s and the Jimenez’s bottom lines that went northward. Of course, Wood won’t go unpunished. The TV station mercilessly cut Wood’s opening spiels in its teaser before the 7-minute commercial break when asked about his take on the parliamentary system: “ah, hindi ko alam yan…” For a moment Wood appeared funny and clueless true to the plot of Channel 7 for having the gall of accusing them of profit motive.

The Wood’s homily puts on record that there are 12 Team Unity bets. One elections watch dog has placed the average expense of one aspirant at P97M on media exposure alone and we are not in the homestretch yet. We figure therefore that the President has at her disposal for the individual candidates alone some P1.2B. From the archives of the COMELEC we are taught that it spent for computerization some P1.2B in 2000 where the gizmos are now gradually in obsolescence in some warehouse costing the election agency monthly staggering storage fees.

With Wood’s surprising wisdom, it occurred to us why PAGCOR and PCSO are not into voter’s enlightenment as well. With Wood’s input it becomes increasingly expedient to allow the PAGCOR chairman himself to summon the resources of his agency to bankrolling a run for Makati mayorship. With PAGCOR’s annual billions plus the P7B yearly local taxes of Makati, the government’s gaming top honcho is near omnipotent. Wood is not suggesting that the tax returns of Chairman Genuino and his two sons be scrutinized. Running as congressman and councilor in the premier Philippine city is no walk in the park. Easily one needs P50M northward to keep decent sorties. That amount, it reminds us, is the benchmark for plunder prosecution. The Genuinos don’t impress as Makati’s top tax payers, do they?

At 18:00 GMT France closed its run-off presidential elections on May 5, 2007 between Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal. By 23:30 GMT on the same day, France proclaimed its new President. France has 44M voters, just like the Philippines. Our elections fall on May 14. With God’s grace we have a new set of Senators on July 30, 2007 after the COMELEC has settled the rightful twelfth senator. Whew!

With the Wood’s encounter, the participating media and the hosts of others hoped that those who watched, like the candidates with their skeletons, didn’t notice the glitch.

After the Ang Kapatiran, Victor Wood gets my vote.

Independents? We look at them as crazy men, like Don Quixote. Or comic reliefs like the 3 Stooges. But they allow us to think. They provide us the best, compact, perfect, near the area of truth answers.