On “maligning” The Class of ‘78

Reader Herbie sent me through e-mail his comments to “Your Article of June 10 on PMA Class ‘78”. It actually came out on June 11 in this paper. Be that as it may, I have taken the liberty of printing excerpts of his letter, and my brief reply to him.

But first, it just crossed my mind that today is the birthday of Jose Rizal. And I guess the benighted land will hardly remember. Often I have wondered why we honour our heroes more in their death than on the date of their birth. Why do we recall Rizal on December 30, when soldiers of colonial Spain shot him at Bagumbayan? Why do we honour Ninoy Aquino on August 21, when he was assassinated in the tarmac of the airport that now bears his name? How many except family and friends know that Ninoy was born on November 27?

Historians of course will say that it is their martyrdom at the altars of freedom and democracy that we celebrate. And we Christians are also taught that death is glorious because it finally re-unites us with our Divine Maker.

I guess this reasoning also explains why Lupang Hinirang ends with the line, “Ang mamatay ng dahil sa iyo” instead of “Ang pumatay ng dahil sa iyo”, or even the more realistic and positive “Ang mabuhay ng dahil sa iyo”. Except that all are basically untrue these days. Who would die for country? Who would kill for country? And worse, who among us truly live by the ideals upon which our forefathers built a country?

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So let me now get to Herbie’s letter (he gave his full name, but as I did not seek his permission to print, I shall protect his full identity. He begins by describing my article as “lopsided”, then states that he “knows these fine officers that you mentioned in your article”. They have “sterling track records in their careers and are very qualified to be in their positions”. (Perhaps they have. I never said they are not qualified, and I am certainly not in a position to swear by sterling records, neither to judge dross from 99.99% pure.)

Herbie has fulsome praises for Chief Superintendent Boysie Rosales, and cites one or two major accomplishments. (A good friend of mine tells me that Rosales is indeed good, but I never said he is not. All I stated is that he and his subordinates as the new NCRPO Chief overdid the handling of the investigation of the suicide of Trina Etong, to the point where ordinary mortals like me wondered if he was following directives from his Dona, his “honorary” mistah in the Class of 1978. In full gore on television, ordinary mortals like me saw how Boysie’s boys harassed and even manhandled Ted Failon’s relatives, and to this day I shudder at the thought of how Boysie’s boys will handle other “oppositionists” and “critics” should Dona Gloria unleash her fury against us.)

Herbie accuses me that “since you have maligned this class, you were not thorough in listing all the generals in the class”. (I did not malign this class. Maybe I was not thorough in listing all the generals in the class. Maybe I forgot some of them. But did I malign the class? Unless associating them with their honorary “mistah” is maligning them.)

He twits me for not mentioning Marine Lt. Gen. Juancho Sabban. Forgive me for the oversight. A friend passed on the list to me, and I did not research any further because of deadline pressures. Nor did I mention that several members of the class were instrumental in catching terrorists and other such criminals. Well, I am certain that as this is the task of all who swear by the noble profession of arms in the service of country and people, there are also other fine soldiers and policemen who have done their utmost, not necessarily confined to those who belong to the Class of ’78.

“If this class is truly blessed and favoured, then all of them should be generals right now. But that isn’t the case as the merit system in the AFP promotions program still remains as the reference for promoting any officer to the next rank regardless of whether he is a peemayer or not.”, Herbie states.

Oh yeah? There is no politicization in the promotions system, in this most political of all administrations? Without referring to any PMA class, or any non-PMA class for that matter, shouldn’t I respond to Herbie by saying “Tell that to the Marines”? Just a case in point --- Jonathan Martir has been AWOL for a year and a half, staying in the US of A for such a protracted period. But even a co-layperson in military affairs like Ellen Tordesillas wonders why he is so favoured despite clear impediment, and even touted to be the next commanding general of the Marines.

Then Herbie segues into the “honorary” status of PGMA. He twits me further by stating that “even your ex-boss Erap…along with his sons” are honorary members of other classes.

Now I have always wondered why the Academy has perpetuated this practice of “adopting” politicians and other “honorables” as classmates. Now pray ask, isn’t this akin to the oh so Filipino practice of getting politicians to be “ninongs” and “ninangs” so that, per the “damaged” culture, he or she will be of future help, in promotions and other things?

“And so, sir, please check your facts first before you make your scathing accusations and innuendoes about the PMA Makatarungan Class of 1978”, Herbie tells me. Then he adds, “…I hope you will leave this group alone because they do not deserve this harsh criticism”.

Whatever was so harsh about what I wrote Thursday last week? Unless of course, association with GMA is harsh criticism? Pardon me, but I thought all along they are proud of such association. But then again, the decency in their hearts, probably chafes at the association with one so politically and morally indecent, and for that, assuming it be so, I truly apologize.

Which makes me wonder of course, if PMA Makatarungan Class of 1978 will in the end be “makatarungan” to the people, and not to their honorary class member. All they have to do is remember what they have been taught as cardinal principle in the Academy, “that a cadet does not lie, does not cheat, and does not steal, and will not tolerate the same”. The fundamental basis of “katarungan” after all, is truth. And “truth”, my grade school teacher taught me, is the opposite of “lie”.

And we hapless civilians who live, along with the soldiers and their families in this land benighted by Gloria, can only pray and hope that that principle taught in the Academy will be in their minds before they accept and follow patently illegal and immoral orders that shall come from their “PGMA” (not mine).

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Let me end this weekend article on a happy note.

My good friend and komadre, Adelaida Villaraza Mayo, “Lady” to all of us who count her as one of our dearest friends, was recently installed as Dean of the College of Home Economics of the University of the Philippines.

Lady has a bachelor’s degree in Interior Design, followed by a masters’ degree in Philippine Studies, majoring in Society and Culture, and in 2004, she was awarded a doctorate in Philippine Studies, all from that premier center of academic excellence in the country, the UP.

My warmest congratulations to Lady, and of course, to the husband she has lovingly and patiently “put up with”, my school chum Boy, and their only daughter Kyla, now a college student also in the best school in the land.

Disaster waiting to happen

The candidates are warming up for the starting gun. Others are yet on the way to the stadia, and there will be some 240,000 of these voting precincts spread throughout the country come May 10, 2010. It will be the first time we shall have automated elections on a nationwide scale. A gaggle of commissioners in charge of the political Olympics in this benighted land pin their hopes on some 80,000 machines which shall receive the accomplished ballots, issue a paper record similar to the cash register receipt we get when we buy goods at the supermarket. The voter shall then deposit this paper record in the ballot box. After the polling closes at seven in the evening, the machine tallies the votes cast, and transmit the same to the municipio, the capitolio, and the Comelec main office. In less than 48 hours, or so they aver, the Comelec in Intramuros shall have received the totals, and the winners of the country’s premier sporting event shall be known. Great.

Great? Let’s take a more than cursory look. Most everyone in this country presumes that once the voting is automated, the ghosts of Garci will be expunged from the system, and the phone pals of Garci will not be able to operationalize their evil designs. I am afraid the so-called automated elections of May 10, 2010 is a disaster waiting to happen.

Nowhere in the globe, except perhaps in this benighted land, do we have synchronized elections with choices for as many as 300 names of candidates and parties in the party-list system. Let me enumerate---a voter has to choose one out of 6 or 7 presidential candidates, with perhaps as many vice-presidential candidates. In manual elections, the voter sees a single underlined space for president and another for vice-president, the names of his choice for him to write down. With automated elections, he will be given paper on which is printed, in small font, the names of the dozen or so presidential and vice-presidential wannabes and beside them, small oval spaces which they are supposed to shade. Those shaded spots are what the machine would tally.

But there will also be the names of some 48 or more senatorial candidates, listed alphabetically. Each major candidate for president will need to present 12 candidates, many of them absolute un-worthies. And perhaps five candidates for representative. Plus five or six candidates for governor, and as many vice-governors. Plus five or six names for mayor and likewise their vice-mayor. Plus fifteen or more names for “bokales” or members of the provincial board. Plus maybe thirty candidates for six municipal council posts. How many names are these?

Bueno…7 plus 7 (president and VP) plus 48 (senators), plus 5 (congressman), plus 6 plus 6 (governor and his vice) plus 6 plus 6 (mayor and vice), plus 15 (bokales), plus 30 (councillors) makes a total of 136. Now add to that the list of parties in our party-list system, now around 160. That’s a total of 296, probably more.

Remember, in manual voting, each of these positions are simply printed, with an underlined space on which the voter writes his choices. In the automated system, where both voting and canvass is done through a printed ballot fed into a machine, voters will need to shade an oval space beside the printed names of each of the candidates of each of these positions. So the ballot will contain some 300 names of persons or parties. Go figure how this can be done.

In the manual system official ballot, the fonts used are probably 24. In the automated system, will they use font 8? That will make it extremely difficult for senior citizens with poor eyesight, and worse for those who have not been properly initiated into the new system, as in the country’s hinterlands and islands where the Comelec’s “massive” information program may not connect. The ridiculous alternative is to use large font, but that would make the ballot as long as two meters.

How will it be in the voting centers? The voter goes to his precinct, gets his official ballot, proceeds to the school desk, and shades in the provided ovals his choices for these positions, scanning with his eyes the list of some 300 printed names in small font. Will that take more time than in the manual elections? Has Comelec done a time and motion simulation, using, not James Vergara or some disciple of Garcillano in Intramuros, but Juan de la Cruz from Isla Puting Bato and Petra Dalosig from Lakewood in Zamboanga del Sur?

Then, after accomplishing his ballot, he proceeds to the voting machine, where the votes of four or five precincts will be fed into a single machine for the clustered precincts. Anywhere from 700 to a thousand people will line up to personally feed their ballots into that machine. Try figuring how these will impede the flow of people still lining up to check their names on the voter registry, getting their ballots, having their forefingers blotted with ink, fingerprinting, and other such requisites. Has the Comelec simulated this in a typical voting center? The flow of humans to and from voting machine to the ballot box in the particular precinct where he got his ballot? That printed “receipt” is the only paper trail that Comelec and the courts can use in case there is an electoral protest.

But prior to May 10, the nightmare is really in the printing of the official ballots. There will be specific ballots for each of the 1500 municipalities and 100 or so cities in the country, because the names of candidates are pre-printed. In the past, about the only difference in the ballot for Tandag and the ballot for Barobo in Surigao del Sur is the name of the municipality. Now Comelec has to supply the National Printing Office and all its sub-contractors (NPO can’t handle this by itself), the names of each of the candidates in each of the municipalities and cities of this benighted land. Between the submission of lists and the printing of these names, you will have a monumental headache, and errors, intentional or not. And only on Election Day will the voters and the candidates discover the errors. Too late.

Imagine if the name of Adel Tamano is missed out in the list of senators for some 70 or 80 municipalities in the country? Imagine if it is Prospero Pichay’s name that is omitted? Now think of the governors, the congressmen, the mayors. What if mayoralty candidate Angelo Reyes is not printed in the official ballots for Taguig, and instead finds his in the ballots for San Pedro, Laguna? He, he, he. This has happened in the matter of the LDP sample ballots in the 1992 elections. One man in charge of the logistics of sample ballots for Monching Mitra decided to monkey around with the distribution. Sample ballots of Chavit Singson in Ilocos Sur were found elsewhere in Mindanao, and those of Mindanao were found in Luzon. He switched the distribution, and created consternation on election day. Later they discovered that he had secretly switched his loyalty to FVR.

There are other fears. What if a losing mayoralty candidate instructs his supporters to line up early in the voting precinct, then either delays the process, or even tries to monkey around the machine, by say, putting some kind of glue or adhesive at the bottom of the two-side printed ballot, and “accidentally” jams the machine? Surely there are ways to prevent these, but how and who will foil these nefarious schemes in a land of political cheats?

That is why Gus Lagman and other well-meaning fellows suggested the Open Election System, where voting is manual and only the canvass is computerized. But then, the law wants full automation, and the Comelec shut their ears to Lagman’s fears of a disaster waiting to happen. Besides, Lagman’s proposal would have cost only 4 to 5 billion for PC’s and other paraphernalia, while the budget allotted by Congress is 11.3 billion. The operating rule in government, as we all know is, whatever is appropriated must be spent. Ano ang Comelec, tanga? Magmamalinis? Magtitipid? Hindi uso kay Garci at kay Abalos ang ganyan.

For where is the cheating done? Not so much in the voting process (vote-buying, cadena de amor…one is accepted as a given; the other is something alert watchers for a candidate should be able to foil), but in the canvass, where election return is transferred into a statement of votes and a certificate of canvass which shall be the basis for proclamation of winners. So Gus Lagman says, speed up the canvass through computerized recording and transmission of the election returns as base document. Melo would not listen.

And so, after what seemed like a fairly transparent bidding process, we have Smartmatic, whose machines were used previously in Hugo Chavez’ Venezuela. Do the Venezuelans have synchronized elections too? Do they have as many as 300 candidates and parties to choose from? In the US of A, for instance, there is block voting. A vote for Obama is automatically a vote for Biden. Ditto for governors and mayors, who are elected separately from the president two years after. They elect only two senators for each of their 50 states, who would proceed to Capitol Hill fronting the Mall and Washington’s obelisk. Philippine elections, and its multiplicity of posts stupidly synchronized by a myopically-written Constitution whose appointed members did not bother about systems or plain arithmetic are, well…onli in da Pilipins.

Will Smartmatic, Comelec, the Namfrel, the PPCRV, and the teachers deputized as board of election inspectors be able to operationalize the new system using these newfangled automated innovations smoothly come May 10,2010? Go figure.

Now let me propose this to our Congress:

The Constitution mandates synchronized elections, but the procedures to implement this mandate have been left to Congress, through an Omnibus Election Law and the Automated Elections Law passed in 2008. The implementing rules and regulations were drafted by Comelec and approved by Congress as well.

Why not amend these laws to provide for two separate ballots --- one ballot for President, Vice-President, and Senators, perhaps also the party-list congressmen, A second ballot will be for Congressman, Governor and Vice-Governor, Provincial Board Members, Mayor and Vice-Mayor, as well as Councilors.

The local government ballots, including the district congressman, which is strictly speaking a national office, shall be dropped in a ballot box, to be counted in the manual way, as per previous elections, in full view of the watchers and the voters, after the precinct closes. There will still be an election return, with its manual “taras”, and a certificate of canvass. For 2010, the same old way, because local candidates have the capacity to monitor and watch closely their canvass. They don’t really care what happens to the national candidates beyond distributing their sample ballots.

Only the ballots for national officials will be brought by the voter to the counting machine provided for the clustered precincts. Thus, there will be an automated canvass for the national officials, and a manual canvass for the local officials. The PPCRV and Namfrel should deputize their volunteers to watch the flow from precinct to automated machine, and thereafter, the deposit of the machine-generated paper receipt to a separate ballot box.

After all, the cheating for national officials always happens in the canvass. That is what we have to guard against. Speed in canvass and speed in proclamation thwarts the nefarious schemes of Garci and his generals. That is where automation should be effected.

Higher costs? For the additional ballot box, the paper, the printing of two separate ballots, and the printing of COC’s and ER’s --- yes. But then again, the Smartmatic bid was only some 7 billion pesos right? What happens to the savings of 4 billion pesos? That’s too much money for a massive information campaign. Surely this proposal will not eat up 4 billion pesos more, probably not even half a billion pesos more, minus the tongpats, of course.

Otherwise, prepare for disaster on E-Day. And the consequences of failure of elections.

FPJ at Ping, balik-tanaw

Nagkaroon pa ng tatlong one-on-one na miting sina FPJ at Ping noong buwan ng Marso at Abril. Nguni’t walang pag-usad ang pakikipagkasundo liban lang sa kamustahan. Gaya ng naisulat ko kahapon, parehong ayaw manguna.

Nguni’t isa sa mga miting na ito ay dapat malaman ng taong-bayan. Ito’y inisyatibo ng isang mayamang negosyanteng sumusuporta kay FPJ, nguni’t kaibigan din naman ni Ping. Pareho silang mabutinting sa sasakyan, at malimit magkita sa talyer maski noong martial law pa. Tinawagan nito ang isang mataas na executive sa Makati na kaibigang matalik ni Ping, at nagkasundo sila na anyayahan ang dalawang kandidato sa bahay ng executive.

Nagkamali nang pag-basa sa ugali ni Ping ang negosyante, pagka’t sinabi niya sa executive na paaatrasin nila si Ping, kapalit ng: Una, pagbalik ng mga nagastos na ni Ping sa kanyang pangangampanya (ibig sabihin may kabayaran ang pag-withdraw); pangalawa, pag-usapan na raw ang mga pwesto sa pamahalaan na nais ni Ping at ng kanyang mga ka-alyado; at pangatlo, magbibitaw sila ng pangako na si Ping ang siyang ie-endorso ni Pangulong FPJ bilang kandidato niya sa 2010.

Hindi naging maganda ang pagtanggap ni Ping sa panukala, dahil parang nasaring ang kanyang “self-respect”. Sinabi niya ito sa kaibigang executive, at dahilan doon ay hindi na nagpakita sa miting ang mayamang negosyante. Sa one-on-one na pulong ni FPJ at Ping, binanggit ni Ping ang ukol sa alok ng negosyanteng nasa likod ni FPJ. “Huwag namang tinatanggalan ako ng self-respect. Hindi dapat na parang transaksyunal ang usapan”, wika nito kay FPJ, na agad namang dumistansya at sinabing, “Hindi ko alam iyan”.

Samantala, payabang ng mga taga-taguyod ni FPJ na mananalo ang kanilang kandidato maski pa tumuloy si Lacson. Sobra daw ang lakas ni FPJ sa masa.

Nagkaroon ng “breakthrough” ang patuloy na pagtangkang pag-isahin ang dalawang kandidato nang lumabas ang huling survey noong dalawang linggo bago sa araw ng halalan. Dikit na dikit na si GMA at FPJ, samantalang si Ping ay lumamang ng malaki-laki kay Roco at Eddie Villanueva. Ninerbiyos ang mga supporter ng bawa’t kandidato. Nagtawag ng mabilisang miting ng hating-gabi sa bahay ni Mayor JV Ejercito sa San Juan. Dalawang linggo at tatlong araw na lang ay Araw ng Halalan na.

Naunang dumating si Ping, kasama si Ronnie Zamora, Butz Aquino at ako. Maya-maya ay dumating si Mayor Jojo Binay, at sinabing nasa airport na si FPJ, kasama ni Tito Sotto, at tutungo na rin sa miting.

Bago dumating sa bahay ni Mayor Ejercito si FPJ, nagpulong kami nina Mayor Binay, Ronnie Zamora, Butz Aquino at Ping. May inilatag na “formula” si Zamora upang pagkasunduin ang dalawa. Payag si Ping. Ayos naman ito kay Binay, at imumungkahi kay FPJ pagdating.

Noong dumating na si FPJ, minabuti namin ni Butz na lumabas sa silid, at hayaang si Ping at Ronnie, FPJ at Jojo ang siyang mag-usap. Nasa hapag kainan kami ni Mayor JV, Tito, at Butz, na matamang hinintay kung ano ang mangyayari sa loob ng kulay berdeng music room ni JV at kanyang ina. Matapos ang siguro’y kalahating oras ay lumabas ang apat, at pumayag pala si FPJ sa “formula” na maaga pang napagkasunduan ni Ping at Jojo. Sa usapin ng vice-president, sinabi ni Ping na ipagpatuloy na lang ni Loren ang kandidatura, dahil malaki na raw ang pagod nito sa pagkandidato. Kung baga, sakaling si FPJ ang siyang mapili batay sa “formula” ni Zamora, e di silang dalawa pa rin ang kandidato ng oposisyon. At kung si Ping naman ang itanghal na kandidato ayon sa “formula”, e si Loren ang siya pa ring bise-presidente. Susuportahan na lang nila sinuman ang mapagkasunduang pangulo. Walang pinag-usapang pera, o posisyon --- walang anumang transaksyon. Malinaw ang usapang “under wraps” ang pinag-usapan, at walang maglalabas kaninuman, lalo na sa media.

Sa madaling salita, kung natuloy ang “formula”, magiging Ping-Loren o di kaya’y FPJ-Loren pa rin. Hindi magiging FPJ-Ping o Ping-FPJ. Kaya’t yung mga nagsasabing kung pumayag si Ping na mag-bise kay FPJ, disin sana’y humalili siya sa yumaong “pangulo” ay hindi nalalamn ang kanilang pinagsasasabi.

Kinabukasan ay nagsipagkilos na si Mayor Jojo at Congressman Ronny upang umpisahan ang “formula” sa pakikipagka-isa. Nung gabing iyon ay may konsyerto si Andrea Boccelli sa Araneta Coliseum, at kay daming nagsipagtanong sa akin kung kamusta na ang usapan ng dalawa. Tikom-bibig ako.

Ano pa’t kinabukasan ay lumabas sa nag-iisang pahayagan ang pagpulong sa bahay ni Mayor JV. Malinaw na sinabotahe ang pagpapatuloy ng kasunduan. At alam naming hindi galing sa amin ang pagbubunyag. Batay sa sumulat ng “scoop”, may duda kami kung sino sa kampo ni FPJ ang naglabas.

Bakit malinaw na sinabotahe ang disin sana’y pakikipagkasundo ni FPJ at Ping? Ang ating teoriya ay ilalabas natin sa isang aklat na isusulat sa darating pang panahon.

Si FPJ at si Ping: balik-tanaw

Matagal-tagal ko nang nais isulat ang tungkol sa mga one-on-one na mga miting na naganap sa pagitan ng ngayon ay sumakabilang-buhay nang si FPJ at si Ping Lacson, na parehong tumakbo sa panguluhan ng 2004. Ngayong umatras na si Ping ng kanyang kandidatura sa panguluhan ng 2010, siguro’y panahon nang ihayag ito sa sambayanan sa pamamagitan ng pitak na ito.

Noong kalagitnaaan ng Nobyembre, 2003, napagsabihan ako ni Senador Ping Lacson na magpupulong sila ng noon ay hindi pa lumalantad na kandidatong si FPJ. Nasa Amerika ako noon, at hindi ko mapalitan ang petsa ng biyahe ko. Natuloy ang miting, at matapos ang dalawang araw ay nakabalik na ako sa Pinas. Doon ay sinabi ni FPJ na siya’y may balak ngang tumakbo sa panguluhan, nguni’t nais sana niyang magkaroon ng proseso nang pagpili. Minungkahi ni Ping ang kumbensyon. Nagkasundo silang mag-uusap na muli ukol sa pamamaraan ng pagpili, pero may proseso, wika ni FPJ.

Nguni’t minaniobra ng mga kasamahan sa hanay ng oposisyon na hindi magkaroon ng proseso ng pilian. Matapos mag-press conference si FPJ sa Manila Hotel nung sumunod na linggo kng saan isinaad ang kanyang hangaring lumahok sa pulitika, nagkaroon kami ng “unification” meeting sa Shangrila Hotel sa Makati. Wala ang mga kandidato pero nandoon ang mga lider ng oposisyon, maging mga malalapit kay Pangulong Erap. Matapos ang mahaba at mainit na diskusyon, iminungkahi ko na “ikulong” na lang ang dalawa, si FPJ at si Ping, sa isang silid, at lahat kami ay nasa labas. “Hayaan natin silang mag-desisyon, at huwag nating pakialaman”. Kapag lumabas sila doon ay tiyak na may desisyon na. Tumanggi si Sen. Tito Sotto at maging si noon ay Alkalde Jinggoy Estrada. Mangha ako kung bakit ayaw nilang mapag-isa ang dalawang kandidato.

Dahil hindi nga magkaroon ng pagkakasundo, nagpatuloy ang dalawa, sina FPJ at Ping. Itinakwil si Ping ng kanyang lapiang LDP, sa pamumuno ni Sen. Edgardo Angara. Nagpunta kami nina Ping sa Tanay, sa “kulungan” ni Pangulong Estrada, nguni’t tumanggi si Ping na umatras kung walang maayos na proseso. “Masyado naman akong minamaliit”, nabigkas niya kay Erap. “Kung talaga namang siya ang mapipili, susuporta naman ako, pero daanin natin sa wastong proseso, at hindi yung para ka na lang sinabihang – tsupi”, tanda kong sinabi ni Lacson.

Hanggang sa magsimula ang kampanya – Pebrero 10, 2004, wala pa ring kasunduan. Samantala, pinili ng mga kasamahan niya si Senadora Loren Legarda na siyang maging katambal ni FPJ. Minabuti naming huwag nang magkaroon ng kandidato para sa bise-presidente si Ping. Iisa an gaming kandidato sa pagka-senador, si Rep. Carlos Padilla ng Nueva Vizcaya. Noong Enero ay nagpulong muli si Ping at FPJ, kung saan ihinahabilin ni Ping si Padilla na angkinin na niyang “common candidate”. Sa ganoong paraan, magkakaroon ng 11 na kandidato ang kampo ni FPJ at isa sa 12 ay kay Ping. Pumayag si FPJ sa pulungang iyon, na sinaksihan ni Rep. Butz Aquino ng Makati. “Done!”, kagyat na sagot ni FPJ.

Ngunit pumalag ang mga ka-alyado ni FPJ, particular sina Senador Angara at Sotto. Walang nagawa si FPJ. Hitsa-pwera pa rin si Padilla. Minasama ito ni Ping at namin sa kanyang kampo. Bakit nagsalita na siya, e binabawi ng kanyang mga kasamahan, samantalang siya ang kandidato at siya ang magiging pangulo?

Nung nag-umpisa na ang kampanya, nagkaroon na naman ng isang one-on-one miting buwan ng Pebrero. Sabi agad ni FPJ kay Ping, “tumuloy na lang tayo at tignan kung paano ang takbo ng kanya-kantang kampanya”. Walang pinag-usapang “mag-bise ka na lang sa akin”, o anupaman. Tingin naming ay nahihiya si FPJ nab aka nga naman akalain ni Ping ay mini-menos agad ang kanyang tsansa e kauumpisa pa lamang ng kampanya. Binabanggit ko ito dahil sa palaging sinasabi ng marami na sana raw ay tinanggap na lamang ni Ping na maging bise siya ni FPJ.

Hindi ito personal na ini-alok ni FPJ. Media lang ang nagpalawig ng ganitong haka-haka, at sa sapul simula, ang mga nakapalibot kay FPJ na mga tradisyunal na pulitiko ay away na si Ping ang maging bise-presidente ni FPJ.

Iba marahil ang nangyari kung mismong si FPJ ang siyang nag-alok kay Ping. Hindi naman sila ang mga kandidato, nguni’t naging mapag-imbot ang mga nakapaligid kay FPJ. Gayunpaman, hindi tumigil ang dalawa sa pagmimiting ng one-on-one. Ang problema, parehong mahiyain, parehong, kung baga sa psychology, ay “introvert” si FPJ at si Ping. Hindi mangunguna, hindi mangangahas.

Gloria’s “men”

It’s not a case of scrambling for the nearest exit. It’s not panic time. It’s just ensuring there is life after the Dona, assuming, and that’s still a big IF --- the Dona decides to go quietly into the night.

Clearly she won’t, and in another article in this space, soon, we will try to describe Gloria’s options unlimited. But for now, let us assume that the only harm she wants to further inflict upon the nation is running for, and winning, a seat in western Pampanga. There she will be with Mikey (who plans to transfer to the first district of the “holy” land), Dato of the railroad towns of Camarines Sur, Iggy of Hacienda Bacan in Negros perdida, Lulu of the party list whatever (even my friend Jun Lesaca won’t tell me what it represents truly), and why, perhaps even Don Jose Miguel, if some party-list whatever again would adopt him, and earn big bucks in the process. The whole hog in the swine corral that her Speaker Nograles calls “The House of the People”.

Who among her “men”, her boys and girls in the cabinet, will join her? Who will prefer to be in the upper House?

Until the AH1N1 flu has come to epidemic proportions in these islands, Pingkoy Duque of Health seriously thought he could be senator of the realm. But surveys show that despite daily press cons and singing Happy Birthday while washing hands, his numbers remain low. Only 5.1% of the miserable population would vote for him if elections were held in May 2009. Now Pingkoy is being pushed to run for the House, in the district where the town of Aguilar, his father’s own, is located. But against Victor Agbayani? Simple. Ask Victor to go back to the presidencia en Lingayen. Ah, the problems of Lakas-Kampi, er, PaLaKa, or Nagkaisang Kawatan, which Pingkoy, to his credit, is not. He could also run in the district of Rachel Arenas, as Rachel will flip into NPC, but then Gene Tulagan is also there. Sakit ng ulo, but the doctor should know best.

The most tele-genic, well-accomplished in her cabinet at that, Tourism’s Ace Durano of Cebu, scores a relatively high 12.1%, just a shred above Prospero Pichay Jr. at 11.3% voter preference. But that puts Durano’s chances still slim at 20-31 in a Senate where only 12 will be proclaimed. Which makes Ace a bit antsy, except there’s another Durano in the 5th district of Cebu who took over his seat --- papa mismo. Cebuanos are pushing him to run against Gwen the governor, sister to Winston con mucho dinero, daughter of Pabling el Viejo, and incumbent with the most-est to boot. Tell you what, friend Ace. Go for the Senate, but not in the ticket of the humongous party of Claudio and Roquero. Never, never get your hands raised by La Donna, or so Pepe Miranda and Mahar and RJ will advise. If Chiz runs, run under his ticket. You can win.

Ralph Recto of NEDA, because of name recall, and high awareness (96%) with 36.2% conversion to votes, could make it. But he lost in 2007, also with similar chances, because he preferred to sleep with the Dona, as did Tito Sotto, who last I heard is thinking of a re-run in Quezon City (vice-mayor otra vez?), afraid of running for senator because a somersault might be risky. Recto and Sotto are the only cabinet rank officials who one year before the polls figure in the top 12. They can run, and perhaps be welcomed by Manny Villar’s NP. Recto can always say his lolo was once a Nacionalista, and he is after all a fellow in the Wednesday fine dining club whose bills Villar paid.

Edu Manzano who does not possess cabinet rank, unlike his fellow Ilonggo, Buboy Syjuco whose TESDA was queerly elevated to cabinet status (just like Sotto’s Dangerous Drugs Board), might follow in the footsteps of Sen. Bong Revilla, if Pinky Webb will agree. But again, Pinky is too smart to know that my friend Edu, who is as conscientious in his job as he is intelligent, would best be somewhere far from La Donna on proclamation day. Buboy Syjuco though is serious about going for the Senate, even if “Mr. TESDA” and “Tito Buboy” gets voting preference of a measly 2.5%. Dream on!

Ed Ermita will get his dynastic seat back from his daughter Elenita Buhain, the family’s kingdom by the sea in Western Batangas. DPWH’s Hermogenes Ebdane will run for congressman in native Zambales. And the other Hermogenes, Esperon of Garci fame, now PMS Chief, will run in the 5th district of Pangasinan, there to inherit my friend Conrad Estrella’s seat, hopefully with the blessings of El Tabako of Asingan. Conrad is being pushed to run for governor of the huge province likewise. Back to the Agbayani-Estrella political wars their forebears fought, East versus West, but what happens to incumbent first-termer Amado Espino, also PaLaKa?

Leandro Mendoza’s Mark is already the congressman of the fourth district of Batangas, and Papa is not likely to push him out. But the DOTC secretary would prefer to retire in Cebu. (Don’t ask me why Cebu.) Energy’s Angie Reyes will go for city mayor of Taguig, against the wife of incumbent Freddie Tinga, and the wife of Alan Cayetano, Lani, who inherited the congressional seat for a term, but has to run because the dynasty must fight on, with Mr. Itik’s mega-bucks, but naturally.

Hardworking Art Yap of Agriculture will contest PaLaKa’s Eladio Jala in the third district of Bohol, where Art’s wife Carol is from. Both Jala and Yap’s wife are natives of beautiful Loboc. Jala is likely to move to Villar’s NP anyway, which will welcome him with open arms, along with three-term governor Erico Aumentado, who will be speaker of the House if Villar wins. And Nasser Pangandaman of Agrarian Reform will run in Lanao del Sur, after announcing that his Dona Gloria will be Pampanga’s “best” bet for Speaker, and then, Prime Minister.

Gary Teves of Finance wants to be senator, but Pepe Miranda’s Ulat gives him a 42-60 cluster ranking, which is something even my friend Dennis Garcia, with unlimited advertising funds, and my friend Rey David will find difficult to turn into victory. He couldn’t go back to Papa’s district in southern Negros Oriental, because Papa Minyong has already bequeathed that to his apo, Henry Pryde. DTI’s Peter Favila is from Pangasinan, but to contest his tita, Manay Gina de V is unthinkable. Where in the metropolis do you vote, friend Peter?

DSWD’s Dr. Esperanza Cabral is one lady I would wholeheartedly support for senator, but she has no political plans. Selfless service after all is its own reward. And surely DOST’s Estrella Alabastro will just quietly retire into the folds of the academe.

Tukayo Lito Atienza wants to reclaim the City of Manila against the incumbent Fred Lim, but another president’s man, former PNP Chief Sonny Razon, now the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, wants to be the third man in the ring. Who could bring back Manila’s lost glory?

Education’s Jesli Lapus will not get back Tarlac’s first district from his younger brother Bong, and would likely run for senator under the NPC. His vote conversion as of May 2009 is a measly 6% out of an awareness level of 75%, which again means that with an assumed network of teachers, plenty of money for advertising, and a safe distance from GMA, he just might make it.

Raul Gonzalez will go back to native Iloilo, to take over City Hall from Jerry Trenas. To ensure that his son Raulito and Jerry will not fight each other, they divided erstwhile lone district in two --- one for him, one for me, says the 77-year old crusty politico whose wife Pacita used to practice Vicky Belo and Calayan’s craft, sans celebrity airs. Agnes Devanadera, his replacement at DOJ, hopes to be rewarded with a seat in the Supreme Court, and she has till November this year to realize her fondest dream, but what’s this I hear Ombudswoman Mercy also wants to join the legal “venerables”?

Of course SND Gilbert Teodoro wants to be president of the land, in tandem with DILG’s Ronnie Puno as his vice-president, and proudly shall they bear the colours of the PaLaKa.

Have I missed out on any?

My old friend Bert Romulo is old, I suppose. And Lovely would rather travel around the world with him to old haunts like the Plaza del Sol in Madrid, or look at the treasures of the Prado, and sit in the Jardin de Rosas. Two for the road.

And oh yes, there’s Nonoy Andaya who disburses the funds of the people, a.k.a. Dona Gloria’s purse. They’re still trying to add two more districts to Camarines Sur, so that Principe Dato and Nonoy will not fight over hegemony in the railroad towns of Louie Villafuerte’s kingdom. Nonoy wisely knows he cannot run for senator, recalling how his dad, the friendly Rolly, lost in 1998 pursuing that quest. And there are no cities in his district that he will find worthy of his presence, nor can he contest El Ray for governor.

And Norbert of Dona Gloria’s insecurity? What is he and his boss, Jesuit Archie Intengan, plotting next?

But who will run for senator in Gibo and Ronnie’s PaLaKa ticket? Nagkaubusan na ba ng mga matatapang at malalakas ang loob sa umbrella ng Nagkaisang Kawatan?

Well, there’s Butch Pichay. And incumbents Bong Revilla and Miriam Defensor Santiago. And Butch Pichay, otra vez. What about the Senate President, Juan Ponce Enrile? Don’t bet on him running under the PaLaKa, not even as a guest candidate.. And what about Lito Lapid? He will run for governor of the “holy” land, unless Mikey decides he wants to control quarry collections on top of jueteng. But not to worry, Mikey prefers the company in the house of pork. Miguelito el Defensor will not run for the Senate. He will replace Lito Atienza at DENR --- take two for Mike at mines and public lands.

So who will run for senator in the PaLaKa ticket? Ah … there is always Butch Pichay. And who will take over those cabinet portfolios when Gloria’s “men” go to the hustings from National Heroes Day (November 30) to Liberation Day (June 30, 2010)? Should be their undersecretaries. Except, don’t look now, they too are running … for congress, for mayor, for governor, like Jocjoc Bolante.

So when Dona Gloria convenes her Parliament, wouldn’t they all be one big happy family? As Ate Glow, that comedienne who apes the Dona would exclaim---“Kita-kits tayo…ang saya-saya!”

Forget about Liberation Day. Hallelujah!

Pera-pera on TV

It is perhaps most apt that this article should appear on the 111th anniversary of the Republic. It shows the state of the polity, more than a century and a decade since the dreams of our forefathers have been prostituted by their unworthy successors.

It all began on September last year. Manuel Villar started a television 30-seconder which pictured him as having a “bleeding heart” for poor OFW’s. That blurb ran for some two to three months. Then, after he had been dislodged as Senate President in the wake of revelations about unseemly conduct and self-dealing as a senator of the realm, the billionaire politician poured more money on the boob tube in order to neutralize the then yet unrevealed story of his shenanigans.

What followed was the “Itik” ad, where this time, Villar’s assistance to “small” entrepreneurs was touted. The story line has a small “mag-iitik” losing his fortune until Manny Villar came to the rescue and loaned him money to rebuild his “itik” stocks. Manny next holds an itik, then wipes the mud on his flaming orange T-shirt. In the next clip, voila, like the man in the Tide commercial, he was laying his arms upon the shoulders of the mag-iitik with the mud miraculously gone. Ah, the ethics of Mr. Itik!

Then, another OFW ad was run, this time with a helpless domestic tearfully saying that her “buwa” was ravished by her “amo”, and she went home, back to her family, only because Villar came to the rescue.

Then there was a commercial where Manny Villar claimed that his grandmother also
worked as a household help, which is why his heart bleeds at their plight, and he will always help them. These days, the “poor boy” image (this always sells…Monching Magsaysay was just a “mechanic” even if his wife’s family owned a bus company; Dadong Macapagal was “the poor boy from Lubao” who retired in Forbes Park) is taken to atrocious heights. Manny visits a barong-barong somewhere in Tondo, where he points to a leaking roof and a small wooden floor where “eleven of them cramped up to sleep”. The spiel starts by claiming “This is a true story”. That barong-barong must have been made of hardwood (yakal, narra, kamagong, maybe even sendora supa?), for Villar is almost 60 years old, and for a barong-barong to miraculously last half a century is stretching truth a bit too far.

In any case, the tagline always catches the “masa”. “Pag galing sa mahirap; tumutulong sa mahirap”. Or so the tale of the surveys show. From 6% in August of 2007 to the seventeen’s and eighteen’s in the second quarter of 2009, depending on whether it is Pulse Asia or SWS.

The cost of all these television ads, without radio, without tele-radyo, without collaterals that announce Manny Villar is “in town” wherever, without “free” media that does not come cheap, especially when they are tasked to “kill” stories about that pesky C-5 brouhaha, the tab, from September 2008 till May 2009, has come out to P321.4 million, not including production costs, which should be about 12 to 15 percent of the broadcast price. So add 38 to 45 million more.

Loren Legarda came up with some television blurbs about the environment on Earth Day last year. Then she segued into twice-repeated 15-seconders about the need to fight corruption, with something like the hovels of Payatas in the background, and her in trademark white blouse delivering a short spiel about how poverty sucks because corruption sucks more. Those ads have been out for some time now, and her survey ratings seem to have dropped from almost 20 to single digit, according to the latest Pulse Asia Ulat. Still and all, those sparse ads cost all of 42 million in air time payments alone.

There is her bête noire, Noli de Castro, poster boy for Pag-ibig, which he chairs as Dona Gloria’s housing czar. Here, the veep advertises “murang pabahay”, enticing people to start using their savings (if any) to buy their dream home somewhere in the boondocks of Laguna or Bulacan (and make his Wednesday dining buddy Manny Villar even richer). Those ads, or so the advertising industry rating agencies tell us, cost all of 45.8 million pesos, courtesy of the taxpayer.

Again that’s for television airtime alone, not to include production costs, and more --- not including radio and tele-radyo, where the ubiquitous baritone of Mr. Kabayan saturates the audio waves all over the benighted islands. Add that all and 45.8 million should by now be in the vicinity of 70 million, thanks to the Pag-ibig fund.

Mar Roxas comes second to Manny Villar in the TV spending department. Nielsen says he has plunked in a total of 256 million, for ads about “murang gamot”, his pet bill, ran on January and February 2009, then the “padyak” ads where his heart bleeds at the plight of a brother-and-sister lumpen tale about shattered dreams.

But it seems the spending has worked wonders on his survey ratings. From 6% in the latter part of 2007, within which single-digit movements he stayed for all of 2008, he has now broken into the magic circle of winnables, dislodging Ping and Loren, and Pulse Asia rated him with a 13% as of May 2009.

During the survey period, Mar also effectively exposed the lechery and larceny of one Celso de los Angeles, whose Legacy Group plundered small people, in much the same manner that this government plunders every Filipino, day in and day out.

And of course, his much-ballyhoed romance with Korina Sanchez, with wedding bells soon to ring, and announced over Wowowee at that, must have taken the breath out of many a “masa” voter.

But surprisingly, next to Mar in the TV spending department, even if his “infomercials” on “pride of (his) place” started appearing only in the month of May, but with amazing regularity, and even a 60-seconder version which is double the air time used by almost every other ad, is Makati city mayor Jojo Binay.

His city’s “foundation” has spent 115.1 million in all of one month alone, touting health care, senior citizen care, education standards, etc., in the country’s center of finance and big business, and where the richest of the rich live, shop, dine, and play. Unlike Villar’s ads though, you could not question Makati’s credentials in the provision of basic services to its citizens.

You wish though, as the ad ends, that what Binay’s fabulously wealthy Makati could provide its citizens, could likewise be replicated among the 90 million other citizens of this republic. That’s a tall order, considering that Binay presides over a city of some 750,000 residents, less than one percent of the rest of the benighted. But the “masa” were not taught good arithmetic, anyway.

Mayor Jojo of course says that they have been advertising their proud wares before, and does so perhaps even more now, because it is the city’s 337th founding anniversary. That doesn’t sound like it’s the 350th milestone, or the 400th, but heck, what would Jojo’s next spiel say, after the May anniversary has elapsed, which it has? Abangan ang susunod na survey period.

Gibo Teodoro, soon to be drafted into a Teodoro-Puno tandem of the humongous Lakas-Kampi-CMD (PaLaKa to some, as in the unimaginative Partido Lakas Kampi with the catchy and croaking acronym, or NaKaw to others, as in Nagkaisang Kawatan, more aptly descriptive, and more universally appealing, because kawatan is understood for the filth that it connotes in all of the Visayas and all of Mindanao), has blown, from the date Pacquiao beat the lights out of Hatton on May 3, a total of 30.7 million on TV.

The money comes from “well-meaning friends”, Gibo avers, and not from government coffers, as if to jab at Noli, who admits to being the paid poster boy of Pag-ibig. That’s 30.7 million for TV alone, in less than 30 days, enough however for Gibo to overtake the long-running BF and his omnipresent tarpaulins about “Kaayusan” a run for his small bucks. Gibo was given 1% by Pulse in May, while BF, the original and loyal Lakas party member, rated less than a percentage point.
Chiz Escudero is a wonder, one must admit. He has not ran TV ads on nationwide broadcast, although he has some radio advertising in the provinces. But his articulate ability, dismissed as “glibness” by his non-believers, which almost always pop out of the news programs, seems to have caught the fancy of the young and the “yuppies” (I know, that description is no longer “in”, but hey, I do not pretend to be young).

Chiz is Numero Dos in the latest Pulse Ulat, edging out the megabucks-driven Manny Villar from his perch, and threateningly close to “masa” darling Kabayan Noli himself. He is of course the youngest, not yet quite 40, which is the constitutionally prescribed age before one can qualify for the presidency, in the field of many. He could call Mar, Manny, Gibo and Ping “kuya”, and Loren his “ate”, Erap his “tito”, almost his “lolo”.

Ping Lacson started his “Patas na Laban” 30-seconder in late March, sparsely ran on Wowowee and Eat Bulaga noontime, and then TV Patrol and 24 Oras early in the evening. That was all his money could afford. The ad did not talk about his truly humble beginnings, as the son of a jeepney driver and a market vendor in Imus, Cavite, but how corruption has made “equal opportunity” a bygone in the lives of every struggling Filipino.

The TV spiels ran until before Holy Week, resumed two weeks after, then sputtered by May because the resources weren’t coming in. At about the same time, Raul Gonzalez and his coven consisting of Reynaldo Berroya and jesters in media danced their striptease about the so-called “latest” Mancao affidavit. What little goodwill Lacson’s rare ads may have generated in the hearts of the voting public may have been negated by Raul’s striptease, or so opinion researchers say.

He bowed out of the race last week, to end a slow burn that he felt in the marrow of his bones, and after spending a measly 22 million. But in so doing, Lacson has also started the “winnowing” process.

As early as January of 2008, I suggested in this space that the many presidentiables should be invited that early to media-sponsored debates and fora, all over the land, in order to test their character and competence. That, in the absence of party conventions, I suggested, should “winnow the chaff from the grain”, the fit from the un-fit. Nobody took it seriously, and the tale of the ads, fuelled by pera-pera, and lots of it, became the marketplace of political debate. Contrived and paid-for soundbytes took the better of original, extemporaneous position and vision.

The winnowing process has become a function of resources, or the lack of it, one year before the elections itself, nine months before the official campaign begins. Matira ang mayaman.

And so we are where we are, once more in this benighted country, about to choose our next leader, if Gloria and her coven “back off” from their intimations of madness, on the basis of mis-information, dis-information, and paid media. Impressions rather than solid information.

Pera-pera in the land where all the pera is being greedily amassed by “la perra” (I am just translating Gov. Joey Salceda’s description “bitch” into lenguaje mas urbana) y su conjunto de ladrones.

Que pais! What a country!

The Class of ‘78

“It ain’t over till the fat lady sings”, is a wit’s description of how “boring” operas end. Those who do not appreciate the long arias and have ears only for the operatic highlights often wonder when it would all end.

What this country has had to suffer through the years has been a long and badly sung, badly-scripted, badly-acted opera. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has inflicted her unworthy presence in the life of the nation far too long. First she pushed off the popular troubadour, Joseph Estrada, off the stage, even before the half-way intermission. Then she connived with Garci and Abalos and “her” generals in both the military and the police, in order to keep the klieg lights focused on her bad act for six more years.

It has thus been eight years, four months, and eleven days since she mounted the stage as our prima donna. Before her, no other don or donna except Ferdinand Marcos stayed in power as long. The latter had been president by genuine election for two legal terms. But on his seventh year in office, he declared martial law, and proceeded to rule for another 13 years and 5 months until a mutiny in the ranks of his praetorians, supported by people power, got him and his family packing into Hawaii, courtesy of the United States military.

In all, Ferdinand Marcos was president since December 30, 1965 until February 25, 1986, a total of 20 years, one month and 25 days. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo served out the remaining three years and five months of Erap’s duly-elected term. On December 30, 2002, after a tumultuous reign where even Malacanang Palace was besieged like the Bastille by thousands of the “masa” on May 1, 2001, this daughter of a former president declared before the nation, with the national hero’s monument as mute witness, that she would not seek election for a legal term. Ten months later, in the heartland of her father’s province, in an auditorium built to commemorate a hundred years of inglorious independence, she took back her words.

What followed was not just the infidelity of her spoken word, but worse, the shameless manner by which she ensured her election. All bets were on her table, from government resources to include immoderate proceeds from the allocation of fake fertilizers to unsuspecting farmers (and some suspect, even the conversion of military funds to add to her campaign kitty, cared of the longest-serving military comptroller, Carlos F. Garcia), all the way to the use of military personnel to guarantee the success of the evil plan she and Virgilio Garcillano had conspired to undertake with the concupiscence of Benjamin Abalos.

The last five years of illegitimate power have been as tumultuous as the first three years of usurped reign. Reeling from suspicions that she had tampered with election returns, and nonetheless proclaimed by “noted” cohorts in Congress, Raul Gonzalez for the lower House, and Francis Pangilinan for the upper, her first “elected” term wobbled unsteadily. Then Hello Garci was discovered, clumsily pre-empted by her bumbling press secretary no less (“I have two discs, the left and the right…”), and the veneer of legitimacy was peeled off, despite layers and layers of lying. Lying which even ten of her closest confidantes in the cabinet could not withstand.

She survived the crisis by buying off with tons of money the lower House where impeachment was almost certain, and her governance was hostage ever since to these ever-hungry lacoste’s and every other official with his share of knowledge of other terrible secrets, including l’affaire NBN with ZTE done in stealth “like a thief in the night”. Secrets of stealing and cheating and the lying that covered up for all these became the staple of her political longevity.

When conscientious generals and officers of the uniformed services could stand her evil no longer, they decided to “save the Republic” and “protect the people”, on the 20th anniversary of people power even, but their noble ends were thwarted because of the clumsy mistake of believing that their superiors in the chain of command had similar regard for the virtues taught them in the Academy where they were schooled. Now these officers languish in her jails, and those who thwarted their noble ends are rewarded no end by a grateful prima donna to the highest posts in the military service, and beyond, to cabinet rank in the civilian bureaucracy.

To consolidate her power over the uniformed ranks, she got her chief bodyguard, one “highly” regarded by Garci because of his willingness to “follow” orders no matter if unlawful in the elections of 2004, to become her operational commander of the soldiers of the Republic. But age and tradition caught up on Hermogenes Esperon, now the Chief of the Presidential Management Staff where all papers that lead to the sanctum sanctorum of Malacanang undergo what former President FVR called “complete staff work”. Soon he will be the Secretary of National Defense, after a gullible Gilbert Teodoro is inveigled into running for a presidency where defeat is certain.

But retiring Esperon did not come easy. There were the Classes of ’75, and ’76, and ’77, cavaliers in the Academy, of whose utmost and unquestioning loyalty she was uncertain. So, with Esperon always on the watch, she reluctantly gave way to the appointment of Alexander Yano of the Class of ’76. But as ’78 was closest to her heart, being their honorary classmate, their idol, their patroness, she quietly placed them in strategic positions in the interstices of the military echelon. Likely because Yano showed signs of being “independent”, a quality anathema in the bowels of the stinking palace beside the stinking river, she cut short his term, and sent him packing to the holy wilds of Brunei where his favourite cognac could not publicly be imbibed, as an insignificant ambassador. Insulting him to the last, she rewarded his deputy, Cardozo Luna of ’75, with the more glamorous retirement job of ambassador to The Hague, an hour away from the sinful pleasures of Amsterdam.

That gave her opportunity to make her other classmate, once her favourite bodyguard as well, Delfin Bangit, to be the chief of staff. But Esperon cautioned her from jumping that fast, and bade her to appoint Army chief Victor Ibrado of the Class of ’76, lest she roil the troubled waters of the military any further than it should. Yet, appointing Ibrado as chief of staff made the appointment of Del Bangit seamlessly pass. The Army, after all, is 75% of all the armed forces.

Recall likewise that I wrote in this space months ago about a meeting where Jess Versoza, PNP Chief by the grace of Herr Ronaldo Puno, was ushered into the regal presence at the stinking palace. To his surprise, with the prima donna was Roberto Rosales of the favourite Class of ’78, then WPD Chief. Right then and there, Versoza was directed to yank out Leopoldo Bataoil and replace him with her Boysie Rosales as Chief of the NCR Police. Versoza had to invent an effete position for the accomplished Bataoil somewhere in the wilds of the North, just to please the dona and install Boysie. And Boysie showed his unswerving loyalty right off, with the highhanded tactics against “enemy” Ted Failon in the recent crisis of his life.

Versoza, it is certain, will be made to retire early, a year or so before his 56th birthday on Christmas of 2010, and if he accepts, be posted in where else but the wilds of euro-Russia, as ambassador in charge of its freezing steppes. By then too, likely before the appointed date, Ibrado shall be on the exit, and Bangit shall be “emperor” of the Armed Forces, with Boysie Rosales his ‘rasputin” in the PNP. Over and above them all, of course will be the Tsarina, la Prima Donna de Lubao y Binalonan, Iligan y Kabankalan, their classmate in the Class of ‘78.

But what if the Class of ’76, and the remnants of ’75, as well as the hold-outs of ’77, feel they had been shafted from the behind?

Well, they have been royally screwed already, because as I wrote earlier in this piece, the Class of ’78 is all over the woodwork, and how!

The following are 22 Class ’78 members occupying sensitive posts within the AFP:

In GHQ, Camp Aguinaldo:

J2 (Inteligence) – Rear Adm. Victor Martir (PN – Philippine Navy)
Deputy J2 – Commodore EfrenTedor (PN)
J3 (Operations)- Maj. Gen. Carlos Holganza (PA – Philippine Army)
J6 (Commel) – Maj. Gen. Jonathan Martir (PM – Philippine Marines)
J7 (Civil-Military Relations) – Maj. Gen. Sealana (PA)
DND-BAC Chairman – Brig. Gen. Gregorio Paduganan (PAF – Philippine Air Force)
Chief of Engineers – Maj. Gen. Rudyval Cabading (PA)
ISAFP – Maj. Gen. Romeo Prestoza (PAF)
Presidential Security Group – Brig. Gen. Celedonio Boquiren (PAF)

In the Army, six out of 10 infantry divisions are under the control of the Class of ’78 members), namely:

Lt. Gen. Delfin Bangit – Commanding General of the Philippine Army
Maj. Gen. Roland Detabali – CG, Southern Luzon Command
Maj. Gen. Romeo Lustecteca – CG, 1st Infantry Division (Zamboanga del Norte)
Brig. Gen Florante Martinez – OIC, 2nd Infantry Division (Tanay, Rizal)
Maj. Gen. Vic Porto – CG, 3rd Infantry Division (Panay Island)
Maj. Gen. Ralph Villanueva – CG, 7th Infantry Division (Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija)
Maj. Gen. Manuel Tabaquero – CG, 8th Infantry Division (Catbalogan, Samar)
Maj. Gen. Reynaldo Mapagu – CG, 10th Infantry Division (Caraga Region)

In the Air Force, there is Maj. Gen. Oscar Rabena as Commanding General, and Brig. Gen Jesus Fajardo – CG, 710th Special Operations Wing as well as Col. Carlix Donila – Commander, 530th Air Base Wing (Zamboanga).

And in the Navy, the chief of the Naval Staff, Commodore Feliciano Angue, as well as heading the most strategically-located naval station in Cavite is Commodore Nestor Los Banes.

Go figure. The little lady has carefully chosen every actor, every extra, even the props, the lights and the sound system (J-6, Commel).

The “fat” little lady will never croak her last song. Like Marcos, she “does not intend to die”.

Get your long stored disc, even phonograph, of Handel’s Messiah. “For (she) shall reign, forever and ever…Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Halleluyah! Haaa-lehhhh-lu-yaaahhh!

* * *

Postscript from history: In 1972, Ferdinand Marcos assembled twelve of his loyalists, mostly generals, but including a crony-politician and a cabinet member. He gave them copies of his “Oplan” to declare martial rule. One of them got Oplan Sagittarius, and he supposedly leaked the same to a rising political star who happened to be the cousin-in-law of the crony politician. But Sagittarius was coded, and the infidel general soon died. Soon after, the rising political star was incarcerated.

Fast-forward to 1985, by which time Marcos had consolidated his hold over the entire polity through his KBL, the entire military through his Fabian Ver, and society even, through cronies who had parcelled out the nation’s wealth among themselves. Like a bolt from out of the blue, the dictator called for snap elections, and the frail widow of the by now-assassinated political star challenged his might. After Congress proclaimed Marcos notwithstanding cheating, stealing and lying, two of his original 1972 apostles declared a mutiny on February 22, 1986. The apparatus of hegemony broke like Humpty Dumpty. Sooner than later, the long-laid plans of mice and men unravelled, and Marcos boarded a helicopter for Hawaii.

There are no military bases now that the US of A then held dear, and the man at the White House is no longer a friendly like Ronald Reagan but a distant Barack Obama. But then again, these benighted islands are just specks in the Pacific, as far as Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon are now concerned.

Will Ferdinand’s reincarnation in little Gloria succeed? Will history be allowed to repeat itself in this “patria adorada”? Go figure.

Kakaibang “pulitiko”

Noon ay lagging bukang bibig ni Senador at matapos ay Pangalawang Pangulong Erap Estrada, na siya raw ay “hindi pulitiko; siya ay public servant”. Mariin niyang sinasabing paninilbihan sa mahihirap ang kanyang hangad, at hindi ang makipag-kompromiso sa mga nais ng mga pulitiko. Kanya nga raw ang ngalan ng kanyang lapian sy Partido ng Masang Pilipino, at hindi siya nakikilahok sa mga naglalakihang lapian, tulad ng LDP, NPC, o maging Lakas.

Nguni’t taliwas sa inaasahan, naging “praktikal” at “tradisyunal” din si Pangulong Erap matapos maluklok sa Malakanyang. Bagama’t hindi naman niya pinabayaan ang mga masa sa kanyang mga adhikain, malimit rin siyang nakipag-transaksyon sa mga naghaharing uri sa lipunan, lalo na sa malalaking negosyante.

Si Ping Lacson ay tunay na kakaiba. Ilang beses siyang kinausap ng kampo ni GMA, mga sadyang malalapit dito, at sa dalawang pagkakataon, isang mahabang usapan at isang maikli lamang, mismong ni GMA. “reconciliation, pagkakaisa, magtulungan”, ito ang mga sambit ng rehimen kay Ping. Nguni’t palaging ang sagot ni Ping ay iisa: “Handa akong tumulong at makipagkaisa basta’t alang-alang sa interes ng sambayanan, basta’t itigil na ang mga katiwalian”.

Subali’t wala namang habas ang pangungurakot sa pamahalaang Arroyo. Kaya’t hindi makipagkasundo si Ping, at patuloy na nilalabanan ang mag-asawang Arroyo at kanilang mga alipores na nasasangkot sa katiwalian. Jose Pidal. Pic Marcelo at kaso ng prangkisa sa telecoms. Hello Garci. ZTE-NBN project. Talamak na jueteng sa buong Luzon, na kinasasangkutan ng mga kapamilya ni GMA. At marami pang iba. Walang sinumang senador na walang humpay na nakikipaglaban sa katiwalian sa pamahalaan.

At upang ipakita na siya ay walang personal o pansariling interes, at hindi mabahiran ng korapsyon bilang senador, katangi-tangi si Lacson na umayaw sa 200 milyong piso kada taon na “pork barrel” na tinatanggap ng bawa’t senador.

Nguni’t kung ano ang lakas ni Ping bilang katunggali ng kurakot, ito rin ang siyang “kahinaan” niya sa mga pulitkong tradisyunal. Maging sa mga malalaking negosyante na sa pagbibigay ng pinansyal na tulong, ay may pagnanais na maka-tabla, o di kaya’y makakuha ng higit pa, sa pamamagitan ng mga pabor o proteksyon sakaling mayroon silang hindi legal na gawain.

At dahil hindi nakikipag-kompromiso si Lacson, at hindi “transaksyunal” basta’t ang isinasatabi ay batas, at ang interes ng sambayanan ang siyang naaagrabyado o naaabuso, ayaw siyang “batain” ng mga ito.

Ito ang tila malungkot na realidad ng pulitika sa Pilipinas ngayon. Una, dahil sa walang malalakas na institusyon tulad ng partido pulitikal. Ang pagpili ng mga kandidato ay dinadaan sa “surveys”, batay sa popularidad at hindi sa kakayahan. Batay sa “damdamin” ng mamamayan na madali namang maimpluwensyahan ng daan-daang milyung piso na ginugugol sa mga advertisements na hindi

makatotohanan kundi kathang-isip lamang. At dahil mahalaga ang advertisements upang umangat sa surveys, nagiging lalong mahalaga ang salapi upang makapagbayad ng milyun-milyong gastusin sa advertisements, maging sa pagikut-ikot sa bansa bagama’t hindi pa panahon ng kampanya.

Sumuko si Ping sa realidad na iyan ng pera-perang pamumulitika. Subali’t ayon na rin sa kanya, ipagpapatuloy niya ang laban sa katiwalian, at itataguyod ang adhikain ng malinis at maayos na pamahalaan, sa pamamagitan ng paghahanap ng isang lider na magiging marangal, may kakayahan, at malinis ang hangarin.

Valedictory

Sunday, May 31, I received a call from Senator Ping Lacson. He intimated that he had made up his mind to withdraw from the presidential race. I did not ask for reasons. His campaign had been wobbling along principally due to a paucity of resources that the other so-called presidentiables seemed to have without limit.

As I had written in March this year, “the atypical Ping” is not your regular politician. In fact, he is not a politician at all in ways and in character, and “handling” him, or attempting to handle him, is a most difficult task. He will not do the “usual” things, and not go through the “usual routine” that politicians typically do. He will not try to please someone he does not regard highly. He will not be interviewed just to spew neither-here-nor-there positions. While he is at ease with common folk, he does not “socialize” for the sake of socializing.

After he won re-election to the Senate, making it to third spot despite campaign expenditures that probably approximated only one-seventh of what Manny Villar, the Numero Cuatro spent, we had lunch, just five of us --- Ping, me and three other close friends. “Where do you go from here?”. I asked.

“You know I want to serve as president. But, we have to be more realistic now”, he said. “In 2004, we were treated like dirt by those we thought were our allies in the opposition, and we stood defiant to the end. This time, let’s test the waters, and see how we pick up.”

The first round of surveys taken the third quarter of 2007 placed Ping at Number 2, behind Loren Legarda. But as much as we asked Ping to move around the country, he refused, saying that it was inappropriate to campaign early. Ping can be as hard-headed as a bull when it comes to his sense of propriety, and more so, his convictions.

2007 passed, and so did 2008. The surveys slipped. In early 2009, we started to assemble a core team, and did a team-building endeavor. It was all systems go, but as survey ratings are the end-all of pre-campaign activity, I saw chances slipping. While other candidates had broadcast audio-visuals in every prime-time show nationwide, we could only afford a pitiful few. And the problem with short messages is, unless you can afford a blast, the effort to communicate fails. The situation was worsened by the government striptease in March regarding the Dacer-Corbito case.

After Holy Week this year, we did a serious reality check. And after a slow thaw, Ping decided to withdraw. Though the timing was off, considering that Cezar Mancao, who has re-invented himself as a state witness to the Dacer-Corbito abduction in the late hours of Erap’s reign, had just returned to the country, (giving Ping’s enemies in the administration reason to ululate and wet their pants for a giddy kill) Lacson decided to go through with his announcement, which he requested Ricky Carandang to read at the start of the ANC Leadership Forum, where he was invited to present his views on national leadership. “No timing will ever be right if we consider every situation, every obstacle”, Ping reasoned. What follows in this article is his statement:
“Thank you for this invitation to the second ANC Leadership Forum. Up until I made a decision last Sunday to retire myself from a race that would matter most in the lives of our beloved countrymen, I had every intention to share with our people my vision of what the Philippines ought to be in a Ping Lacson presidency.

“Marahil sa huling pagkakataon, sa isang pagpupulong na tulad nito, nais kong ipabatid sa aking mga minamahal na kababayan na ang kahirapan at kawalan ng mga serbisyong pangkalusugan, edukasyon at seguridad ng mamamayan ay hindi mabibigyang lunas ng pamumudmod ng tulong mula sa mga pulitiko tuwing papalapit ang halalan; tulong na magaan at madaling ipamigay dahil madaling kinikita sa pamamagitan ng pagsasamantala sa kaban ng bayan.

“My vision is clear as it is simple - the country's problem is government - bad government. The solution stares us right in the face of the problem itself. I believe that we need to discipline 1.5 million members of the civilian and military bureaucracy and imbue them with the right motivation and a sense of genuine public service. In short, if we hope to solve the problems of most of the 90 million Filipinos, we must set government right. This is the only way we can move forward as a country, and as a people.

“But correcting government will not come easy if it does not start with the leader himself. One cannot discipline if one is unable to discipline oneself. One cannot preach clean government if one is himself on the take, or his relatives and cronies are themselves the thieves. If a president cannot lead by the power of good example, then governance will always be bad.

“My vision for the Philippines is one where basic services are guaranteed, where health and education and public safety are prioritized, and no-nonsense government is instituted in all levels of the polity.

“Sadly, what we have today is a feudal set-up foolishly labeled as democracy, where transactional politics is entrenched both in the bureaucracy and local government units; and where the poor are deluded into believing that throwing candies or giving instant noodles or occasional help in distress is the be-all and end-all of public service. In the grind for survival, the poor forget all too often that the occasional goodies they get are mere scraps from the tables of the immoderately greedy powerful who plunder public coffers, or abuse power for self-profit.

“I have always maintained that if we doggedly and purposively set government right, the rest will follow. When people respect government, they pay the correct taxes and follow even the simplest of traffic rules.

“Equal opportunity. Level playing field. To each a fair, fighting chance.

“Patas na laban, para sa lahat.

”But reaching out to the voters, particularly those in the D and E income levels, which altogether comprise some four-fifths of the population, does not come easy. It is most expensive in a political system which has neither strong institutions nor correct procedures.

“Minsan ay sumagi na rin sa aking isipan na tanggapin na ang 200 milyong pisong pork barrel bawat taon para sa isang senador upang magamit at makasabay man lang sa isang magastos na pangangampanya. Nguni't, at mabuti na lamang, nanaig pa rin sa aking isipan na ipagpatuloy ang isang adhikain at paniniwala na higit sa ano pa mang bagay, mas mahalaga ang integridad sa isang tulad kong inihalal ng bayan upang maglingkod nang tapat at walang halong pag-iimbot.

“The great Charles de Gaulle of France, who put order back in a land wracked by anarchy, once remarked that “in order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant”. Like his forebear Nostradamus, he might have foreseen the Philippine political scene of this generation.
“But I refuse to lie. And I refuse to purvey make-believe storyboards and saturate the airwaves with fairy tales.

“Even if I tried to communicate the truth to our people given the extremely limited resources that I could raise from well-meaning friends who have kept the faith, and believe as I do in my central advocacy of good governance and national discipline, the time has come to face the reality that the intent to lead in this land in order to do good, has become an enterprise only for those who have access to unlimited funds.

“I bow to that reality, which is why I have chosen not to participate any more in this laudable forum of those who seek the presidency of the land. And I beg your favor that you read this message that springs from my heart.

“To my loyal supporters and those who appreciated the kind of work ethic and purposive leadership I have demonstrated as a soldier, as the Chief of the Philippine National Police, and share the advocacies I have been fighting for as senator of the Republic --- beyond expression of my undying gratitude, I now pledge that in time, we will all join together to support a leader who could best deliver our people from the bondage they now suffer. That leader must have both the competence and character that are the preconditions to purposive leadership so imperative in these crossroads of the nation’s life.

“And I appeal to the learned and the well- educated in our society to share their thoughts and help guide the vulnerable 80% of the Filipino electorate to vote wisely and conscientiously, not for their day to day personal needs, but for a country that we all love and care for.

”Magkaisa po tayong tumulong sa isang taong batay sa karanasan at sa ugali, ay alam nating hindi magnanakaw at hindi gagamitin ang kapangyarihang hiram para magpasasa sa sariling interes.

“Maraming salamat po. Mabuhay ang sambayanang Pilipino!”

* * *

Right after lunch last Friday, June 5, Dr. Minguita Padilla, Gerry de Belen and I met with ANC’s Ricky Carandang, to give him the Lacson statement written and addressed to him in letter form. He was requested to read it in the Forum at the UP School of Economics auditorium, but he thought it best to have Ping taped live just before the show began.

ABS-CBN’s Linda Jumilla went to a meeting which we called that afternoon so Ping could break the news to his core team before the Forum started. It would have been a shocker to them if they had learned about it only in the news.

Pag-atras ni Ping

Noong Linggo, ika-31 ng Mayo, bisperas ng kanyang ika-61 kaarawan, tinawagan ako ni Senador Ping Lacson. Nagdesisyon na raw siyang itigil ang kanyang paghangad na maging ika-labinlimang pangulo ng bansa sa halalan ng 2010.

Sa totoo lang, hindi ako gaanong nabigla. Pinag-usapan na namin ang mga suliranin ng kanyang pagtakbo noong dakong Semana Santa ng taong ito. Mahirap mangalap ng pondo, at kay gastos naman nang pagpapa-abot ng mensahe sa sambayanan. Kung anu-ano pang kasinungalingan ang ibinibintang sa kanya ng mga alipores ni Donya Gloria at iba pa niyang mga katunggali sa pulitika. Kapag naglibot ka naman sa bansa, walang bungang bibig ang marami kundi “proyekto at tulong” , na tila baga’y hindi plataporma o adhikain ang mahalaga, kundi paghingi ng material na tulong.

Noong nagdaang Martes ay sinabi ko sa kanyang medyo asiwa ako sa “timing” dahil paparating na si Cezar Mancao na diumano’y titestigo sa pagbubukas ng Dacer-Corbito case kung saan idadawit daw si Lacson. Nguni’t sinabi ni Ping na “bahala sila sa gagawin nila, haharapin ko iyan at malinis ang konsensiya ko. Kung iisipin natin ang kung anu-anong balakid, wala tayong desisyong magagawa.”

Mayroong ANC Leadership Forum na gaganapin sa Biyernes, ika-05 ng Hunyo sa UP School of Economics. Naisip naming doon na isiwalat ang kanyang desisyon, dahil mahalagang mabigkas ang buong mensahe niya sa bayan. Kaya’t noong Biyernes ng hapon, ilang oras bago magsimula ang talakayan ng ilang mga pumupustura sa pagka-pangulo sa 2010, sinabi naming kay Ricky Carandang ng ANC ang desisyon, sabay bigay ng mensahe. Iminungkahi naman niyang ite-tape na lang nila si Senador Lacson para sa alas-siyeteng forum.

Daglian naman kaming nagtawag ng mga kasamahan sa “core team” ng kanyang mga pre-campaign workers, para naman masabi sa kanila ni Ping bago nila marinig sa telebisyon. Halos isang oras na lamang bago mag-umpisa ang ANC Leadership Forum nang ma-tape ang pasiya ni Lacson. At tinampok nga nila sa pag-umpisa ng Forum kung saan kabilang rin sina Erap, Loren, Binay at Bayani.

Sa isang banda ay malungkot kami, nguni’t sa isa namang banda ay parang nabunutan ng tinik sa lalamunan. Nagkaroon ng pagkakataong ganito noong 2004, kung kailan lima ang naglalaban para sa panguluhan --- si GMA, FPJ, Raul Roco, Eddie Villanueva, at si Ping. Malinaw sa mga survey na ang labanan ay sa pagitan na nina GMA at FPJ. Nguni’t dahil sa adhikaing ipinaglalaban, at dahil sa masamang pagkaka-trato kay Ping ng mga nasa likod ni FPJ, naging palaban kami hanggang sa dulo. Nanindigan kami, at dahil doon ay tumanggap ng katakut-takot na batikos si Ping matapos ngang matalo si FPJ ni GMA. Anim na buwan matapos ang halalan, biglang yumao si FPJ. Anim na buwan matapos ang kanyang pagkakahimlay, pumutok ang Hello Garci na siya palang dahilan ng kanyang pagkatalo noong halalan.

Sinisi na muli ng mga kapwa-taga-oposisyon si Ping kung bakit hindi pa niya pinagbigyan si FPJ noong 2004. Disin sana raw ay hindi nakayang dayain ni GMA si FPJ. Tumanggap si Ping ng 3.5 milyong boto, kontra sa 11 milyon ni GMA at 10 milyon ni FPJ. Si Roco ay 1.6 milyon, si Villanueva ay 1.2 milyon. Marami pang nagsabing kung umatras si Ping noon, at “pumayag” na mag-bise kay FPJ, e di sana raw ay siya na ang pangulo, dahil nga sa yumao si FPJ noong Disyembre ng 2004.

Hindi naman masagot ng katotohanan ni Ping, alang-alang na rin sa alaala ng yumaong FPJ, kung ano talaga ang nangyari sa mga one-on-one na pagpulong nila ni FPJ, mga pagpulong na ang layunin ay magkaisa sila.

Ngayong hindi na niya hinahanagad ang mag-pangulo sa darating na halalan, siguro’y panahon nang ilahad sa bayan ang tunay na mga pangyayari. Sa ganang akin, dahil kasama ako ni Ping sa yugtong iyon ng kanyang buhay, at ako ang unang nakaaalam sa kanyang kampo ng mga pinag-usapan nila, panahon na rin upang ilahad ang mga detalye sa bayan. Abangan…

Like thieves in the night

I told you so.

Several times in this space, I have been telling our readers why there will be no elections the way we understand our elections to be. I detailed months ago Gloria’s options. And these options go all the way until way past May 10, 2010, when elections for a “new” president are supposed to take place. This is one little lady that will never sing, and, like Ferdinand Marcos once said he “does not intend to die” (but did, eventually), Dona Gloria is not likely to croak her swan song (croak is “kokak”, according to Mar Roxas, and is the way “PaLaKa” sing).

Remember when she flew to Hainan in China, ostensibly for the Boao conference sometime ago? In the wee hours of early morning, she witnessed the signing of the national broadband deal between the ZTE Corporation and her DOTC. Then, as quietly as she slipped away while esposo Jose Miguel was in extremis at the St. Luke’s Hospital, she came back to the country, and the Malacanang Press Office issued a press release saying that Dona Gloria brought home the bacon, “investments” kuno from Cathay.

That press release is a classic. It read --- “Like a thief in the night, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo…bringing investments worth billions of pesos…”

The other night, almost till midnight, an unusual sight in the House of Thieves (huwag magalit ang hindi kawatan) happened. It was jam-packed with representatives of the benighted, almost like a State of the Nation Address, but without senators of the realm in attendance.

You could see on the television screen how some unknown congressmen would inflict their sordid presence in the boob tube, hovering beside or at the back of members of the opposition, as if telling Tito Iggy and Brod Mikey, or Brod Dato, or perhaps the monitors of Malacanang, that they were present and accounted for. (Hindi pa ba binibigay?)

They were about to railroad House Resolution 1109, a resolution similar to an eulogy of condolence for a deceased member, or a profusion of felicitations upon Manny Pacquiao, which was on surface, all verbiage with neither substance nor form. No less than Didagen Dilangalen, proclaimed congressman of the lone district of non-existent Sharif Kabungsuwan, in his usual shrill staccato, demanded that the period of debate be cut short. Railroad na! Oye, ladrones --- vamos a bailar la cha-cha, pronto!

(A reader sent me an e-mail wondering how Digs could do such a do. “Hindi ba Erap loyalist siya?”, he asked. Don’t ask me, I replied. Ask Erap.)

And just before the stroke of midnight, by acclamation, the representatives of the benighted passed HR 1109. And therefore, by their act, create what lawyers call a “justiciable issue” that would merit the attention of the High Tribunal, which would be called upon to rule whether a constituent assembly could be called by the House of Representatives divorced from the other house, the Senate. A unilateral act done by one house upon the orders of Malacanang, obviously. To precipitate what could be a constitutional crisis, with the levers all controlled by Byzantium upon the Pasig.

That’s how thieves push the envelope. Conveniently, Dona Gloria, tsarina-to-be, was looking at the treasures of The Hermitage in St. Petersburg by the River Neva, perhaps even the Summer Palace of the Tsars of Russia facing the Gulf of Finland. Feeling like Catherine the Great, eh?

“She had nothing to do with it. It’s an independent act of a co-equal body. We cannot dictate upon the representatives of the people…” and all that balderdash would next be heard from the stinking palace beside the stinking Pasig. The Dona, after all, was away.

Last week, she presided over the formal merger of Lakas and Kampi, with CMD as an after-thought, saling-pusa, kung baga. And she told the benighted land that the ménage-a-trois, the merger, was indubitable proof that elections will push through in 2010, contrary to the doomsday scenarios of critics and nay-sayers. Look at her face, as she fidgeted in the dais. Yes, zoom in on the body english, the facial expressions, the look. Further comment I reserve.

Days before, Herr Puno, the DILG secretary, announced that he would seek the vice-presidency of the “republic”, and many were fooled into believing that election fever had began.

And even before that, Kampi chair (or whatever he is) Luis Villafuerte announced that he was withdrawing his signature from the resolution 1109 he himself authored, signatures upon which were pushed by no less than the “primera familia” members in the lower House no less. Cha-cha is dead, for now, many thought.

I had a sinking feeling in the gut that all these were make-believe. That all these were feigned, subterfuge for a political golpe. I told some friends in the FSGO that something just seemed unreal. That a fast break could yet happen just before the bell would signal a recess for the house of thieves.

She will be back this weekend, after Seoul and Jeju and St. Petersburg. She would be beaming, I expect. Once again, “like a thief in the night”, but this time, in Her House, in the land of the benighted.

* * *

Well, a century or so after Peter the Great and after Catherine of the boudoir (oh, if only Hayden Kho had been alive then, and if videograms were available), and years after the Romanovs Nicholas and Alexandra consulted Rasputin the monk on statecraft and other affairs, soldiers loyal to Lenin executed the entire family of royals at Ekaterinaburg). What lies in store for the people of the benighted land, as Dona Gloria y su familia attempt to rule, forever and ever?

* * *

Meanwhile, Fidel Valdez Ramos is fuming at reports that “over a bottle of cognac”, he had been mollified by his once-loyal Eduardo Ermita and his once-loyal Gabriel Claudio, now acolytes of Tsarina Gloria.

“Don’ take it hook, line and sinker. That is their version. Hindi naman porque uminom na kami ng cognac ay okay na at may kasunduan na”, El Tabako demurred, after Gabby Claudio announced to media that all’s well that end well in the PaLaKa coral. “I know how to be a good host, even if I don’t drink ultra-expensive Chateau Petrus”, the Ilokano from Asingan told a common friend. “Abangan…”, the former president said with a wink.

Then, someone who claims to have been so authorized, Ed Malay, announced before some kapihan somewhere that FVR and Erap are due to meet in the days to come. He even specified that it would be before this week is over, as Erap will sashay into Middle Eastern sands staring Monday.

Well, FVR said again that the same is untrue. “Whatever for? What is the agenda?”, he asked. The “sphinx” remains inscrutable.

Meantime, El Erap, in Pinky and Ricky’s “Opinyon” says that even Noli is welcome into the crowded opposition. Does this guy think at all? Everybody and his mother claims to be opposition, dadagdagan pa niya?

And the people? “They just lie there, and they die there”, as the song entitled Mona Lisa intones, for a people whose present and future are toyed upon by the immoderately greedy in the altar of unbridled power.

Sinasabi na nga ba

Noong Lunes, minadali ng Komite ng Constitutional Amendments sa Kamara de Representantes na aprubahan ang resolusyon patungkol sa HR 1109, na ang pangunahing kumatha ay si Rep. Luis Villafuerte ng Camarines Sur. Matatandaang higit isang linggo pa lamang nang ideklara ng akda na hindi na niya itutuloy ang pag-awtor sa resolusyon nagmumungkahing magkaroon ng Constituent Assembly maski na hindi sumali rito ang Senado. Ang pakay ni Villafuerte ay magkaroon ng isang “justiciable issue”, at hingin sa Korte Suprema na ideklara kung angkop sa Saligang Batas ang panukalang maaring ma-amyendahan ang Saligang Batas na ito sa pamamagitan ng boto ng tatlong ika-apat ng kabuuan ng mga miyembro ng pinagsamang Kamara at Senado.

At kapag ito’y napunta sa Korte Suprema, ang pag-asa nina Villafuerte at iba pang ka-alyado ni Donya Gloria, ay makuha ang sapat na boto mula sa Korte kung saan ang higit na nakararaming miyembro ay hinirang ni Donya Gloria. Samantala, maya’t mayan kung magpunta si Donya sa kanyang distrito sa Pampanga, para magpamudmod ng mga proyekto at tulong. Sapagka’t patapos na raw ang kanyang panguluhan, nais naman niyang mabiyayahan ang kanyang mga kababayan ng “pamana”. Mientras tanto, maari ding maagang pangangampanya ito para maging “miyembro ng parliyamento” (MP) sa maaring itanghal na pagbabago ng porma ng ating pamahalaan.

Sinasabi na nga ba! Hindi pa rin patay ang buktot na planong cha-cha. Talagang ayaw mawala sa kapangyarihan. Bagama’t sinabi ni Donya Gloria sa harap ng nagsamang mga kawatan sa Lakas-Kampi-CMD, na tinaguriang “Pa-La-Ka” ng ating senador at kapwa-manunulat sa pahayagang ito na si Mar Roxas, na “wala nang duda --- tuloy ang halalan sa 2010”, hindi nga naman niya tinukoy kung anong uri ng halalan ang pinag-uusapan. Hahalal din naman ang taong-bayan kung mag-cha-cha. At hahalal pa rin sila ng mga kinatawan na ngayon ay tatawaging MP, na siya namang pipili ng punong ministro (Prime Minister), na siyang tunay na mamumuno sa pagpapalakad ng pamahalaan.

At sakaling hindi nila mabili ang kaukulang dami ng mga mambabatas (ang bulungan ay tig-20 milyon daw ang bayad sa bawa’t boboto sa HR 1109), hindi pa rin diyan natatapos ang kwento. Kasi, sakaling hindi maipasa ang cha-cha sa pamamagitan ng constituent assembly ngayong linggong ito, pagbalik ng mga mambabatas sa Kongreso sa Hulyo 27, asahang iaanunsyo naman ang bagong panukala --- alin sa dalawa: na ang mahahalal na mambabatas sa 2010 ay awtomatikong magiging miyembro ng Constituent Assembly, o di kaya’y tumawag ng isang Constitutional Convention na ang mga miyembro ay ihahalal alinsabay sa halalan ng 2010.

At sino naman ang mananaig sa Con-Con na ipatatawag? E di sila-sila rin --- ang mga miyembro ngayon ng Kamara at maski Senado na tapos na sa termino, tatakbong delegado sa Con-Con, habang ipamamana ang kanilang upuan sa Kongreso sa kanilang mga anak, asawa, kapatid, maging kabit. O di kaya, baligtad --- anak, asawa, kapatid o kabit ang siyang patakbuhing delegado para sa mga mambabatas na hindi pa tapos ang tatlong termino.

Sinuman ang luku-lukong magpapatuloy tumakbong pangulo sa ganitong sistema, makakatamasa ng ilang buwan, sabihin na nating isang taong singkad, bilang “tunay” na pangulo, at pagkatapos --- tabi d’yan, balik na si Donya Gloria bilang Punong Ministro. Galing-galing, ‘di ba?

Sinasabi na nga ba!

Walang kapagapag-asa ang tunay na mga reporma sa sistemang bulok at sa ilalim ng mga namumunong bulok. Ang kamalasan ni Juan de la Cruz, palagi na lamang mga maling tao ang inihahalal nila. Kasi, gamit ay puso, at hindi utak. Nadadala ng emosyon; salat sa wastong impormasyon. Sinumang makapagparaos ng kanilang gutom, o di kaya’y makatulong maidaos sila sa karamdaman o sa pagpapalibing ng kaanak, tiyak na gagantihan ng boto. Kesehodang ang itinutulong sa kanila ay nakaw sa kaban ng bayan, o galing sa mga transaksyon sa pamahalaan gamit ang kapangyarihan at impluwensya. Saksakan ng babaw.

* * *

Bistadong-bistadong “guilty” itong si Manny Villar. Kahapon, matapos ilahad ni Jamby Madrigal ang kanyang mga ebidensyang pagpapatunay na may mga nagawang kasalanan sa bayan si Villar, agad-agad na pinasinungalingan ni Villa rang mga ebidensya. “Kuryente na naman”, wika ni Villar, sabay “mukhasim”.

Inilaiham nga ni G. Socrates Punay sa atin: “Kung naisanla ang lupa ng Adelfa Properties sa Capitol Bank na pag-aari rin ni Villar, e hindi ba bawal ito sa alituntunin ng Bangko Sentral, ang tawag na DOSRI loans (pautang sa mga kumpanyang pag-aari ng mga nagmamay-ari ng bangko)”.

E bakit nga hindi humarap sa Senado si Villar, at pasinungalingan ang mga bintang ni Madrigal, at imbes ay ngawa siya ng ngawa sa media (bayad man o hindi)! Tutal, wika niya noong isang linggo, sigurado siyang hindi makakauha ng sapat na numero o bilang ng senador sa buong kapulungan para siya’y mahusgahan.

E anong kinatatakot mo, kung gayon? Wika nga ng kanyang taga-bunganga na si Alan Peter Cayetano, noong masugid pa itong oposisyunista sa Kamara, patungkol naman kay GMA at FG --- “mukhang guilty!”

Simple questions for Manuel B. Villar

We write this article hours before the Senate, acting as a Committee of the Whole, begins its adjudicatory proceedings in a complaint filed by Sen. Jamby Madrigal before the Senate Ethics Committee against Sen. Manuel B. Villar Jr.

The facts of the case, as Madrigal alleges in her accusations, are: One, that Sen. Villar violated Article VI Sec. 14 of the Philippine Constitution, which states that “No Senator or member of the House of Representatives…shall, directly or indirectly, be interested financially in any contract with, or in any franchise or special privilege granted by the Government, or any subdivision, agency or instrumentality thereof, including any government-owned or controlled corporation, or its subsidiary, during his term of office. He shall not intervene in any matter before any office of the Government for his pecuniary benefit or where he may be called upon to act on account of his office”.

Villar was elected senator of the Republic in 2001. He was once more elected to the same office in 2007, and he should remain in said office until 2013, unless he is elected by the sovereign will to any other position in government. He has been chair of the Finance Committee, which has power over the General Appropriations Act, where annually the national expenditure program is scrutinized. Clearly, when he (directly) or through corporations owned and/or controlled by him and his family (indirectly), transacts with a government agency, in this case, the DPWH, or is “interested financially in any contract” with it, questions of impropriety arise. Nay, more significantly, the Constitution may have been violated.

Now Madrigal accuses Villar of having benefited financially from the sale of some 16 parcels of land belonging to Adelfa Properties and Golden Haven corporations, which are, per her documentary evidence, owned and controlled by the spouses Manuel and Cynthia Villar.

Madrigal must therefore prove that indeed, Villar has not divested himself of ownership in these corporations when he was congressman for three terms, and when he has been senator since 2001. She must likewise prove through deeds of absolute or conditional sale, that these two corporations sold part of their landholdings, to grant the Government road right-of-way in order to construct the Las Pinas-Paranaque Link Road.

According to her lawyer, Atty. Ernesto Francisco, from the year 2000 up to 2006, the DPWH had spent 710.7 million pesos for the construction of this road, out of which 350 million went into the payment of road right-of-way. Of this 350 million, 220 million would be to the account of Villar’s Adelfa and Golden Haven properties. Of these 220 million pesos, 136.774 million had already been paid Villar’s corporations, leaving a balance payable by the DPWH of 84.57 million pesos.

In the 2008 national expenditure program, the DPWH and the DBM proposed a 200 million peso allocation for the Carlos P. Garcia Extension Road from SLEX to Sucat Road. Then Senate President Villar made an additional 200 million peso insertion for the C-5 Extension Road from SLEX to Sucat Road, “including road right-of-way payments”. At the time the 2008 budget was being deliberated upon for approval by Congress (2007), Sen. Villar’s corporations had accounts receivable amounting to 84.57 million pesos in “road right-of-way payments”. Are there, as per Constitutional edict, “pecuniary benefits” to be derived from Villar’s “intervention” by congressional insertion?

Villar says these two similar amounts are for two different projects, in fact, “fly-overs” in the Coastal Road and over Sucat Road. Why did he not so specify when he made the “insertion”? And why should the DPWH construct fly-overs for a Coastal Road extension that has not been constructed yet? Not even to begin expropriation proceedings over private lands to be traversed by said Coastal Road Extension to Sucat?

Yet as early as 1998, when Manuel Villar was Speaker of the House, his Adelfa Properties, along with Amvel Property Corp. of Bro. Mike Velarde, and SM Corporation, wrote the DPWH, asking the government to “move” or “re-locate” the South Slip Road which forms part of the post-war designed fifth circumferential road, or C-5, to another location which would hit their properties, giving the same higher commercial value than their present state (as of 1998). Pres. FVR approved this. Amvel properties got paid 1.2 billion pesos in road-right-of-way payments by the administration of Pres. Estrada. And Villar’s Brittany Corporation was also paid 189 million pesos. The mouth of the re-aligned C-5 would be right in front of the SM Las Pinas Mall. And later, Villar’s Brittany Corporation or some other corporate holdings sold land to Ayala Corporation, at now highly-inflated prices, which the latter has since developed into a residential and commercial condominium project known as the Avida Towers.

Therfore, by the re-location of the construction of the South Link Road which forms part of the C-5, and the Las Pinas-Paranaque Road Link between Sucat and Quirino Avenue, Villar’s corporations derived “pecuniary benefits” amounting to 189 million plus 220 million or 409 million pesos, out of which, as of 2008, 84.65 million was yet to be paid. Unpaid, one surmises, because the 200 million peso congressional insertion of Sen. Villar was exposed, and has since been withheld by DBM from release to the DPWH.

Next, at what price or prices, did Adelfa and Golden Haven sell their properties to the DPWH for road right-of-way? Anywhere from 13,000 to 15,000 pesos, per Madrigal and the deeds of absolute sale officially given to the Senate by the DPWH. Adelfa owns 50 hectares in San Dionisio, Paranaque, out of which the new road traversed and cut. Adelfa was paid 13,000 to 15,000 for the lot parcels it sold to DPWH, but an adjoining property owned by the Heirs of Democrito Plaza, as represented by its attorney-in-fact, Rep. Rodolfo Plaza, was paid only 4,000 pesos by DPWH! Why the discrimination?

Sen. Villar claims before media, and not before his peers in the Senate whom he accuses before the Supreme Court of prejudice and bias, that DPWH bases its acquisition price on “zonal values”, which the local BIR prepares. He had nothing to do with zonal valuation, he tells the media. But why, if you look at the table of zonal values, is his properties given the higher value of 13,000 per square meter, when the said zonal value is attributable to commercial Las Pinas, around the vicinity of old Real St., past Pulang Lupa where Francisco Motors is located? And not dumpsites and old salt beds that were heretofore un-opened to residence or commerce, such as the Plaza property that was paid only 4,000 pesos, and the adjacent Villar properties? The BIR, more specifically the BIR Las Pinas-Paranaque districts, will have to explain.

Now here is something too weird, and if I might add, too criminal if true.

Of the 16 lots sold by the Villar corporations, four lots were covered by Transfer of Certificates of Title (titulo torrens) that had annotations at its back, saying that the same were already foreclosed by Capital Development Bank (also owned by the Villars), which have since been foreclosed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in partial payment of Capital’s loans to the BSP. Hindi pala “malinis ang titulo”, as buyers of property first ask the seller.

Simple questions once again --- Did the Villar corporations sell property no longer owned by them? Did the Villar corporations defraud Government (in this case DPWH) by selling them land that was already owned by Government (in this case the Bangko Sentral no less)? Isn’t this estafa of the vilest kind? Selling land that is no longer yours? And selling land foreclosed by government to another government agency?

These and many more Manuel B. Villar Jr., by sovereign will and the grace of the Almighty, senator of the Republic, ought answer his peers in the realm. And not through prevarications and sophistry and pa-martir effect before a gullible media that does not bother to look at the documentary evidence, and for inducements or personal bias, advance the lame reasoning that all these accusations are “political noise” in the run-up to 2010.

No. This is about corruption most gross. This is about plunder if proven. This is about the ethics of Sen. Villar.

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Postscript: Appearing before the editorial board of a national broadsheet last week, Senator Manuel B. Villar rehashed his “pa-martir” effect, crying persecution by a hanging jury of his peers, because some of them are “presidentiables” like himself. As I keep asking in this corner, does being a declared or presumed presidentiable exempt anybody from the scrutiny of the nation, let alone, one’s peers in an institution imbued with, nay, dedicated to --- the public interest?

But not to worry, says Villar. It takes numbers, not the evidence, to convict a senator. Sixteen votes is what they need, Villar’s arithmetic expounds, and he has, of course, a completely beholden 6 out of 22 (the detained Sen. Trillanes is not yet allowed to vote, let alone participate). “They won’t get that number”, Villar kept repeating.

Despite a preponderance of evidence, Senator Villar states, despite even absolute proof that he violated the Constitution, let alone the norms of public propriety, the “numbers” are on his side.

Looking back to 2001, and then Speaker Villar’s sleight-of-hand impeachment of President Estrada in the House of Representatives on 12 November 2000, Estrada also made sure he had the numbers in the Senate where he was on trial. Despite the evidence, Estrada counted 11 votes. If he had eight, the Senate could not convict, because 16 votes were also required. Impeachment, after all is a political trial, and Villar is right --- even on questions of disciplinary action against a co-equal member, peers need two-thirds of the chamber’s vote.

There are exactly 16 in a chamber of 22 voting members who have as yet refused to be classified as among Villar’s land-locked partisans, namely, himself, the Cayetano sister and brother, Nene Pimentel, Joker Arroyo and Kiko Pangilinan.

By saying that the Senate acting as a Committee of the Whole cannot muster the magic 16, assuming Madrigal proves her point by a preponderance of evidence and convincing arguments, Manuel B. Villar Jr., the man who wants to be president of the republic come June 30, 2010, is practically telling the nation that “pera-pera lang iyan”. “In politics, who has the gold --- rules”.

What a “leader”! If Villar is right in his esteem of his peers, what a Senate! And yes, what a country.