Chiz Escudero? Think again
By Herbie Gomez / March 23, 2007
SILVER-TONGUED Chiz Escudero appears to have a seat in the Senate
in the bag.
I just watched him give two other senatorial candidates––lawyer
Oliver Lozano and Ed Angara––a run for their money during a candidates’ forum broadcast by ANC. Lozano,
I can understand, but Angara, a former president of the Senate and the University of the Philippines? Funny, but Escudero
made Angara look like a newbie in politics on television.
Wherever he goes, Escudero does nothing but impress people with his
skillfulness in using powerful and effective language be it in Pilipino or in English. I guess the boyish looks of this young
gentleman from the 1st District of Sorsogon makes him more mesmerizing. Like, how can someone who looks like a boy speak the
way he does? Simply amazing.
But something is wrong with Escudero. Too bad because he has the potentials
of becoming the country’s answer to Barack Obama.
Asked if he thought that ‘‘Edsa Dos’’ was
a mistake, Escudero answered in the affirmative. He presented an intelligent argument; he raised good points. Yet Escudero’s
contention is revolting, to say the least. Then an only then did I realize that something is not right about Escudero.
I was among the millions of Filipinos who watched as then-senator
Tessie Oreta staged her infamous dance on the Senate floor after the impeachment court voted to suppress an ‘‘evidence’’
against the then sitting president. That the ‘‘second envelop’’ was later found to allegedly contain
nothing against Erap is beside the point. Fact is, the Craven Eleven’s vote to stop that envelop from being opened merely
sparked the 2001 revolt.
Edsa Dos was not about the second envelop. It was a protest against
the megascopic absense of scruples in a government. It was a cry against the Boracay and other mansions built for mistresses,
and a protest against the ‘‘Midnight Cabinet’’ that told a Johnny Walker Blue-intoxicated president
what to do with his country during mahjong sessions. It was a protest against a president’s lavish lifestyle while many
Filipino breadwinners were unable to provide their starving families with at least one
decent meal a day. It was a protest against the government’s
callousness, and the protection it gave to organized crime. It was a protest against bribery, cronyism and everything that
‘‘Jose Velarde’’ and his secret bank accounts represented.
Innocent until proven guilty my foot! That only applies when the crime
was not committed harapharapan. And because it was harapharapan, the man didn’t deserve another day in
office. (I know, I know––the legal minds would disagree; I’m glad I’m not a lawyer.)
That is not to say that the present administration is better. It is
evil. If the Estrada administration was a banana, Arroyo’s is of another variety yet it is a banana just the same. But
that is another matter.
For Escudero, Edsa Dos was a mistake. And ‘‘Edsa Tres’’
wasn’t?
Mind you, there is no such thing as ‘‘Edsa Tres.’’
In the absence of a name, I will refer to it as ‘‘Edsa Tres.’’ But it cannot be another ‘‘Edsa’’
because it foundered. It failed because it did not have the people’s support. (By ‘‘people,’’
I mean people from all walks of life and not just the masa as defined by Erap and which he claims to champion.)
This country only has two Edsas. The first was in 1986 and the second
was in 2001. Anything below the 1986 and 2001 standards is not an Edsa. The so-called ‘‘Edsa Tres’’
was nothing more than the Oakwood Mutiny or Alexander Noble’s 1990 pocket rebellion in Northern Mindanao.
‘‘Edsa Tres’’ reeked of partisan politics.
Hatred was clearly the main motivation and patriotism was clearly absent unlike in the 1986 and 2001 People Power revolts.
It was a fake Edsa in that the people who rose up did it not for the
country but in hopes of avenging the 2001 ouster of Erap. In other words, a genuine Edsa can take place when people have the
country––and only the country––in mind. ‘‘Edsa Tres’’ fell through
because it was for Erap, not for the country.
Gloria Arroyo, being the vice president, was, needless to say, the
beneficiary. Yet Arroyo was only incidental; she was lucky. The people’s cause at that time was about booting Jose Velarde
from Malacanang. It was not about making Arroyo president. There is a big difference.
Arroyo may have conspired to oust Erap but history tells us that no
amount of conspiracy can oust a Philippine leader without the people’s go-ahead. Call it a coup d'état if you want but
from where I am sitting, it was plain and simple ‘‘citizens’ arrest.’’
To paraphrase Christ, the law was made for man, and not the other
way around. Similarly, Filipinos were not made for the Constitution; the Constitution was made for Filipinos. And when people
see that a corrupt leader is prostituting constitutional guarantees for a coverup, expect ‘‘People Power.’’
Mob rule occurs when there is a loose affiliation of gangsters in
charge of organized criminal activities. But Philippine-style ‘‘People Power’’ is, simply put, swift
justice that is a by-product of the people’s ‘‘righteous indignation.’’ Here lies the difference
between ‘‘People Power’’ and ‘‘mob rule’’ under the Philippine context.
Edsa is a phenomenon. It is a Filipino thing. It is something very
difficult to explain to foreigners. Which is why we have been criticized by the world when we staged it in 2001. Yet deep
inside, we know that it was the right thing to do at that time, and no amount of argument and rhetoric from people like Escudero
can make us think that we made a mistake six years ago.
It’s like the wind. We can’t see it but we can feel it
when it blows. There are no clear-cut rules for an Edsa but history has taught us that we, as a people, know when and when
not to stage it.
Escudero’s position is a turnoff, and I now suspect that he
is not a patriot or his patriotism is misplaced.
His stand also reminds me that he is an Estrada boy and that he has
been consistent in taking the cudgels for one of the biggest plunder suspects this country has ever known since Ferdinand
Marcos. Escudero is the mouthpiece of the enemy of Edsa Dos.
The fact alone that Escudero is closely associated with Estrada does
not speak well of his values and makes his motives suspect. Therefore, I cannot trust him.
To hell with his eloquence! With people like Escudero in the upper
house, who needs a senate?
Pastilan.
•
The Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC) celebrates as its pillars and
members witness their new set of officers and directors formally sworn into office at the grand ballroom of Philtown Hotel
tonight.
Cheers to Ka Jerry Orcullo who won the presidency for the third time.
Congratulations, too, to the members of the COPC board: past president
Allan Mediante, executive vice president; past president Ed Montalvan, vice president for print; Vic Cabanag, vice president
for broadcast; Gil Banaag, treasurer; Mike Banos, auditor; and directors Tony Albania, Bingo Alcordo, Liza Amarga, Ben Balce,
Rudy Balangiao, Bobby Goking, Joey Nacalaban, Maricel Casino-Rivera and Uriel Quilinguing. Uriel Q. sits as ex officio member
of the board by reason of his being the immediate past president.
Me? I am beginning to enjoy my work as the new corporate secretary
of the 56-year-old Club. I never appreciated this position until last Feb. 10 when they voted to make me one.
Easy on the lechon and alcohol tonight, guys.
Of tips and good friends
By Herbie Gomez / November
18, 2006
IF you travel to the US, make sure you have plenty
of one-dollar bills in your pocket. Journalist Lina Sagaral-Reyes once warned me about the mandatory tipping as she told me
stories about how waiters in the US would run after you if you forget to leave some gratuity in return for services beyond
the agreed-on compensation.
I had thought Lina was exaggerating, but I found out
that she wasn't. Well, no one actually chased me outside a restaurant (because I always made it a point to tip even if it
was against my will). But the thing about tipping just made a month of my life a bit complicated but amusing in a sense.
If there's something I really hate, it's computing. But
when you're in the US, you just need to deal with figures and face the fact that you need to do some mathematical calculation
every time you eat in a restaurant. The tips range from 15 to 20 percent on top of the price of the food and drinks you order.
It's 10 percent for taxi drivers, and a dollar with a "thank you" note each day for the one who cleans your hotel room.
Even at Burger King, McDonald's or Starbucks where people
aren't expected to tip, enterprising workers have thought of a way to guilt customers into leaving behind some gratuity. Transparent
containers that look more like piggy banks greet you at the counter once you are ready to pay.
My buddies Sergei Stepanov of Estonia, Ingus Berzins of
Latvia, Katarina Mescanova of Slovakia, Robert Hart of Jamaica and Ranu Abhelakh of Suriname probably think that the mandatory
tipping is silly. But Americans have a perfectly good explanation for this: workers who are into services aren't paid well
and have to rely on tips to survive. Well, I think tipping is not tipping if it's not voluntary, which is why, I think, they
have to invent a better word for it.
In Washington D.C., I staged a one-man boycott against
Indian-looking waiters of M Street Hotel because I heard them insulting my friends from Sudan, Rwanda and Papua New Guinea
apparently because we all stopped giving them tips. The group shouldn't have stopped giving tips but one of our American friends
told us we were not required to tip because there was already a service charge included in our bills. Later, our friend told
us he made a mistake. It was a mistake, all right, but an honest one. Yet that mistake was not enough reason for one of the
waiters to "teach" my friends table manners. In disgust, I looked the waiter in the eye and told him to show me his credentials
on etiquette before lecturing my friends. I walked out and vowed never to step inside that restaurant again despite the free
breakfasts.
Some of the recipients deserved tips, some didn't. Yet
everyday, I tipped, tipped and tipped from Washington D.C., California, South Dakota, Missouri to New York.
The mandatory tippings didn't spoil the trip, though. I
was there to learn more and enjoy at the same time. And it was a chance for me to take a much-needed break from the work I
have been doing for almost two decades.
Three countries in 2006. Not bad. I got so lucky this year.
I mean, how many people get the chance to be in another country and get paid at the same time? I was briefly an "overseas
contract worker" to help my friend Dr. Chona Echaves in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, for two weeks early this
year. We were there for a UNESCO-funded project for the Solomon Island media. After two weeks, I had to leave Chona behind
because she still had some unfinished business. The trip to and from Honiara gave me the chance to briefly live the life of
a backpacker in Brisbane and Melbourne, cities that I missed when our group from the press club visited Australia in 2002
(we only got the chance then to see Sydney and Canberra). And then last month, we were privileged to go from one American
state to another, from East, Midwest to West, not as "tourists" but as "international visitors."
Not only did I get to see and feel the American way of
life and the nation's landmarks firsthand, I was also given the privilege to get a glimpse of over a dozen countries which
my newfound journalist-friends represented. In many ways, my new friends from Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Jamaica, Iraq, Lebanon,
Pakistan, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Laos, East Timor, Cameroon, Suriname, Sudan, Rwanda and Angola painted beautiful
pictures of their countries through their words and actions. I hope I was able to succeed in doing the same thing for my country
being the only Filipino in that group.
When you spend time with a group after working hours, and
walk and go sightseeing from morning till night on weekends, you bond. You can't help but bond and there's no way that you
won't. My friend Sergei said the kind of ties we had made exchanging "goodbyes" at the lobby of our New York hotel "kinda
painful."
All of us will miss our "language officers" and American
friends--the very cool lawyer Ronn Francis, the motherly Barbara Greadington and the very accommodating Mitchell Polman. The
group will also miss "Big Brother" Irvin Hicks of the State Department who made sure the program was carried out as planned.
All throughout the program, Irvin proved to be a true diplomat.
Our American friends were very patient with our group that
can be loud at times. Americans like them are the ones who give the US a good name. They are the kind who will make anyone
want to go back to the US again and again.
If only these guys wait on tables, I won't mind giving
them tips. But these good people definitely deserve much more than tips. I wish them well. May their tribes increase!
Not perfect
By Herbie Gomez / November 22, 2006
NEW YORK -- I hate to admit this, but there’s a
reason for citizens of Planet Earth who are living outside the US to “envy” those who are living in America. I’m
not talking about the obvious reasons for envy, such as the Americans’ penchant for football and baseball, although
I could. As I write this, all eyes here are probably still glued on a “crucial” baseball game -- in bars, hotel
rooms, living rooms and probably, just about anywhere. Just an hour ago, a young American who was finishing his cigarette
outside the bar tried his best to start a conversation with me on the subject of baseball. He failed not because I knew nothing
about baseball but because I would rather talk about my kind of game -- basketball, that is.
Nor am I talking about
whether America works. Theoretically, no country works if minority groups are fast becoming the majority because that could
translate into a large population of jobless people and subsequently, into a large welfare population. Yet somehow, the US
has been coping with this or so it seems. The last time I checked, this nation of about 300 million people still works.
No,
the reason we should “envy” the US is because the weather here is big news. Which means many people here are carefree
in a sense that there isn’t much anxiety in regard to matters beyond the US borders. In Sioux Falls, South Dakota for
instance, many residents don’t even give a heck about what’s happening in the nearest Native American reservation;
there, I was told people are simply uninterested.
Now, imagine a world where people only care to watch or listen to
the news so they would know whether or not to put on heavier clothes or bring umbrellas when they step outside their homes.
No bad news and no good news, so to speak. Wouldn’t that be terrific?
I could be wrong but methinks that many
Americans are more concerned about what the day’s weather would be like rather than on George W. Bush’s double-standard
policy on WMDs (weapons of mass destruction). Don’t get me wrong. Of course, there are many Americans who are raising
serious questions. For instance, I overheard two Americans at a hotel lobby trying to figure out why Bush hasn’t been
talking much about North Korea’s antics (read: WMD) with the same intensity as he did when he mobilized his “Coalition
of the Willing” against Saddam Hussein because of WMDs that never were.
One thing I really like about America
is that its people are free to say what’s in their mind. By “free,” I mean “really free” unlike
in my country where people are “free” to get themselves killed for exercising their freedom to speak out. It’s
amazing because there’s an abundant supply of Bush bashers in Washington D.C. alone. Outside the White House sat an
elderly woman who has been there for months just to make a political statement against the Bush administration. A few meters
from her was a group that used mascots to mock Bush and Condoleezza Rice. At the nearby Union Station, one can buy t-shirts
and stickers with anti-Bush one-liners such as “Don’t blame me, I voted for Kerry” and “Bring back
Monica Lewinsky,” among others.
Americans are lucky and I hope that they are taking this freedom seriously.
Since the fingerprints of the US are all over the world, I hope that its citizens would realize that they could help in pressuring
their government into doing what is right abroad. But this can’t be done if people are interested only in knowing the
latest weather forecast. The downside is that people who live like this would never know what hit them until the s@#t hits
the fan. The resulting devil-may-care attitude is probably the reason why many Americans had no idea why Osama bin Laden and
his followers did what they did on Sept. 11, 2001. The attacks were dastardly, all right, but it took 9/11 to make America
ponder on the question: Why do they hate us so much?
Take the Philippines for example. It became very clear
to me that a lot of Americans have no idea about how Washington D.C., with Manila as its witting tool, has been circumventing
a Philippine law that bars foreign troops from establishing military bases on our shores in the guise of never-ending war
games or as they like to call it, “joint military exercises.” Despite the 1991 rejection of the renewal of the
treaty on US military bases in the country by the Philippine Senate, US troops have continued to strategically position themselves
on Filipino soil for years.
A journalism student at the South Dakota State University where a forum was organized
in time for our brief visit there had this to say: “Oh, but your countries are too far from us.” This probably
explains why the CNN that America watches is so different from the CNN that the rest of the world is seeing. Imagine my surprise
when the “local” CNN broadcast a “breaking news” about a 15-year old student who was struggling for
life in a hospital after being knifed by a still unknown assailant. Nothing wrong with that, but it really came as a big surprise
to me that the network called the story “breaking news” because from where I come from, it would be far from being
a major story. (People get stabbed in my country everyday; many have been murdered in dingy karaoke bars for singing “My
Way.”)
Then and only then did it occur to me that the value of the commodity we call news is subjective -- that
what is big news in one country may not necessarily be news in another. In the Philippine media, the story of a man who bites
a dog can be news, but a dog that bites a man can never become news.
This isn’t an exaggeration but in the US,
big television networks actually spend much time, effort and money for stories that may be considered less significant if
not, meaningless in other countries. There was a time, so I was told, when a battery of distinguished American reporters from
various TV networks stood side by side in front of the cameras outside a building just to air a blow-by-blow account of a
“breaking news” about how rescuers were trying to save a cute cat that was trapped between the walls. Knowing
the way many people here pet their pets, it’s not unthinkable why American TV networks turned a story like that -- a
story that can only pass off as a sidebar in other countries -- into a major story.
Journalism is supposedly the art
of making the important interesting. In the pussycat’s case, what the American media audience saw was the mastery of
the art of making what appeals to people’s senses important. Or it could probably have been a lesson on how to commercialize
journalism?
Thanks to CNN and Co., Hollywood included, the world knows a great deal about America. The irony of ironies
is that many people in this great nation know too little about us or about how their government’s policies have been
affecting the lives of people around the world.
On second thought, I think there’s not enough good reason for
us, the non-American media audience, to be envious of their weather reports. Certainly, the American media are not lacking
in strengths but just like ours, they’re imperfect.
It’s like a roller coaster ride in the US, the Philippines
and anywhere in the world, really. One moment, the media audience sees the best journalism; the next, all they get is garbage.
Nene tells stories behind the story
By Herbie Gomez / August
18, 2006
I’M more than halfway reading through Sen. Nene Pimentel’s
Martial Law in the Philippines: My Story. In the book that was launched in June, the senator from Cagayan de Oro tells
about how martial law changed his life and about all the difficulties he and his family had to endure because of Ferdinand
Marcos’s authoritarian rule.
He gave the nation’s sufferings during martial law
a human face. Sen. Joker Arroyo puts it this way: Pimentel became ‘‘the poster boy of defiance to dictatorship.’’
And in the foreword, former president Cory Aquino says Nene Pimentel, at that time, became a ‘‘household name
synonymous with the national cry for freedom, justice and democracy.’’
After Marcos, Pimentel created a lot of political and,
perhaps, even personal enemies in and out of Cagayan de Oro. Aquino knows this and so she writes: ‘‘I appreciate
his willingness as my first Secretary of Local Government, to absorb the political blows from our massive purge of entrenched
local officials identified with the Marcos regime with our appointment of officers in charge when we took over the government
after the dictator fled in 1986.’’
What happened after Marcos is outside the range of interest
of the book. Yet the fact alone that it was written by someone who not only saw martial law but fought it––and
was deeply scarred by it––makes this over 500-page book a must-read.
He may not have been imprisoned for 27 years for fighting
a government that had an apartheid policy, but by God, Pimentel is one of the closest things this nation of some 83 million
Filipinos has to Nelson Mandela. Which is why I recommend that all the schools in this country, especially in Mindanao, buy
copies of Pimentel’s book for their libraries because it can be used to inculcate the right values into the young generation––our
leaders of tomorrow who, years from now, may find themselves needing guidance if and when they take the road less traveled.
A few years from now, when they’ve grown a bit bigger, there is no way I’d allow my children to miss this book.
I had thought I have had enough of the written accounts
of the infamous martial law. I had never have believed that this was my kind of book, but let me say now without batting an
eyelash that the more I read, the more I had to read.
He spent two years writing Martial Law in the Philippines:
My Story. Yes, for two years, Nene Pimentel reconstructed the Marcos years with rich and fascinating detail, and now,
I couldn’t get enough of it. It’s not exactly a Dan Brown but just like The Da Vinci Code, Nene Pimentel’s
masterpiece is page-turning as it is eye-opening. Let me just say here that it deprived me of enough sleep; this book is unputdownable.
Cagayanons and Misamisnons who have seen Nene Pimentel
at close distance and whose lives were touched by the man will find the book most interesting in that it provides a first-person
account of numerous events that took place in the city and province during the Marcos years.
The book tells revealing and damning stories behind the
martial law story. In it, Pimentel writes about very interesting things that could never have been written as news, and thus
the matters were unreported in the mainstream media.
I have never read an excellently written book with references
to people I personally know or who I’ve rubbed elbows with or whose stories I have covered as a journalist. For us,
Cagayanons and Misamisnons, this is a book that tells stories about the people-next-door.
In the book, Pimentel mentions the names of many Cagayanons
and Misamisnons or names that would ring a bell insofar as people in this part of the country are concerned. Some are dead,
some are living.
In the long list are Maning Pelaez, Lino Abrio, Pepe Abbu,
Claudio Aguilar, Berchmans Abejuela;
Henry Bacal, Rene Barrientos, Enriquito Beja, Mordino Cua,
Jun Damasing;
Dongkoy Emano, Ben Emata, Fred Gapuz, Tinnex Jaraula, Inday
la Vina;
Dodong Lugod, Alex Magbag, Miguel Paderanga, Jun Pepito,
Oloy Roa;
Dante Sarraga, Rody Villaroya, Jun Calub, Rosalinda Caragos,
Ramon Yap;
Bono, Cecilio and Gerry Adaza; Ambing and Anita Magtajas,
Reuben and Solona Canoy, Camilo and Concordio Diel, Tito and Ruth Guingona;
Ed and Lili Marfori, Jacob and Philip Montesa, Ronnie and
Luz Sabanal, and many others.
Virgilio Garcillano a.k.a. ‘‘Hello, Garci’’
didn’t escape the pages of the book. At least nine pages speak of Pimentel’s sad experience with Garci, then a
Comelec director here, long before Gloria Arroyo’s best friend’s 2004 shit hit the fan.
For those who were scarred by martial law and who participated
in the fight against Marcos here, Pimentel’s book will evoke nostalgia. For those who were not yet around or who witnessed
martial law but were too young to understand what was really happening, the book will provide a context on why those who were
ahead had to do what they did.
The wonder is that the book is chockablock with historical
detail and yet, that doesn’t slow the action but draws the reader deeper into the story. Nene Pimentel masterfully concocts
an intelligent and lucid story that marries the gusto of Pinoy politics with historical facts and fascinating firsthand information
culled from 1972 to 1986. Interweaving all these––and crisp writing––is an art only a few writers
can carry off.
History writing doesn’t get any better than
this. This is pure genius. The book is absorbing and perfect for Philippine history buffs and anyone who appreciates a riveting
read. A dazzling performance by Nene Pimentel, I should say. Even to those who hate Pimentel or have become his political
enemies, this masterpiece should be mandatory reading.
Half-truth
By Herbie Gomez / July 26,
2006
ARE Cagayanons supposed to party over Gloria Arroyo’s
announcement that reports on corruption in the city nosedived from 65 percent in 2005 to 38 percent this year?
Arroyo’s exact words: ‘‘On top of peace
and investment, progress also demands good governance. I congratulate Dongkoy Emano for the drop in reports of corruption
for public contracts in Cagayan de Oro from 65 percent of firms last year to 38 this year.’’
The statement was a bit hazy when I first heard it on Monday
afternoon. Citizen Rudy Ladao hit the nail on the head with this question: ‘‘What’s the basis?’’
‘‘Sona-magun!’’ exclaimed ex-vice
president Tito Guingona of the President’s State-of-the-Nation-Address (Sona).
Arroyo was French kissing everyone from Aparri to Jolo,
figuratively. She thanked and sang praises to local political kingpins who collectively beefed up her staying power. Note
that the names of local executives who did not support or were frigid to the Palace’s recent signature campaign for
Charter change were left out in the Arroyo speech. But that was what Arroyo’s 2006 Sona was all about: it was a time
for the President to scratch the back of the very people who scratched hers during her trying times.
I guess the statement about the corruption in Cagayan de
Oro was based on a survey made by the Social Weather Stations (SWS). I came across the SWS’ survey released this month
and the result showed that the number of managers in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan who say that "most" or "almost all" the companies
in their line of business give bribes to win public-sector contracts in the two cities declined from 65 percent in 2005 to
38 percent this year.
Note that the SWS survey involved business executives in
Cagayan de Oro and Iligan. Which is why it makes me wonder why Arroyo didn’t mention Iligan city and Mayor Lawrence
Cruz in her Sona. Or was the omission deliberate?
It’s half-truth. Arroyo’s omission was a distortion
of the truth about the SWS survey. The figures would have changed––the ratings would have gone higher or lower
than 38 percent––if the survey did not include Iligan city. Because the survey covered two cities, the Cagayan
de Oro government cannot claim that the perception of business executives in the city has really changed for the better. But
Iligan included, it would be safe for it to say, based on the SWS survey and compared to the 2005 figures, that there are
less business executives in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan who think that they need to bribe officials just to bag government contracts.
Still, I doubt if the Arroyo announcement or the SWS survey
is a cause for celebration in Cagayan de Oro––and Iligan. Whether or not it’s 65 percent or 38 percent,
the SWS survey shows that many executives still think that officials in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan can be bribed or are corrupt,
or have firsthand stories about local corruption.
To rejoice over it would be like throwing a party
because a politician collected a 38-percent commission for a road, bridge or market project instead of 65 percent which was
the asking price a year or two ago. Kawat ra gihapon.
It doesn’t make any difference, really. A thief who
steals one peso and a thief who steals one hundred million pesos are thieves.
City hall should investigate the official who asked
the owner of a retail store to give him money in exchange for a project somewhere in Puerto. Not contented, the corrupt official
even asked the poor businessman to send him a safe. Balibohon ang kamot, di kapugong.
Thirty-eight percent?
Pastilan.
Gulat factor
By Herbie Gomez / July 19, 2006
THE opposition in Cagayan de Oro has lost momentum––or
its momentum has carried it off the road.
Too bad for them because I have never seen Dongkoy Emano this vulnerable.
Ninety-nine percent of Dongkoy’s strength is imaginary. The remaining one percent is also all in the mind, blown up
beyond proportions by the Emano media.
Dongkoy Emano has reached a point in his political career where the
only way to keep his crown is to run for congressman. But although this would be the most logical move for him next year,
Dongkoy wants everyone to talk about him planning on fielding a pawn who would deliver the mayoral post to ‘‘Vice
Mayor’’ Vicente Emano on a silver platter a year after the 2007 elections. He also likes political pundits to
talk about his likely comeback in Misamis Oriental––that he would run for governor again.
What Emano observers don’t talk about is that retaking the city’s
mayoral post by way of automatic succession or Misamis Oriental’s gubernatorial post would prove to be a tall order
for the aging Dongkoy. Doable, but neither of the two would be a walk in the park, and Emano knows this.
The pawn-for-mayor-and-Dongkoy-for-vice-mayor scenario raises too
many questions. Like, why would a mayor give up city hall to his/her vice mayor? I mean, what assurance would Dongkoy have
that he won’t be given the old double cross by the pawn who, by then, would have tasted executive powers? And what if
the pawn loses next year? That would mean Emano would be stuck on the city council’s presiding officer’s seat
until 2010. Question is, can ‘‘Vice Mayor’’ Dongkoy hold up to the torture of listening and presiding
over sessions if Cagayan de Oro elects councilors like Ian Acenas who speaks English like a carabao and whose ideas can sometimes
be meatless?
Neither is the capitol an easy option for Dongkoy. While many of Misamis
Oriental’s mayors are murmuring and grumbling over the way the capitol has been implementing infrastructure projects
through Jimmy ‘‘The Contractor’’ Caina, and more and more mayors like Boboy Acain are feeling insulted,
Dongkoy knows that his Cuadro de Alas is no longer that solid. By Cuadro de Alas, I mean the collective force
of the vote-rich towns of Tagoloan, Villanueva, Jasaan and Claveria that once delivered the goods to Emano. Tagoloan and Villanueva
remain to be Dongkoy’s but Jasaan and Claveria?
Another thing worth noting is that Oca Moreno defeated an incumbent
governor by over 100 thousand votes in the 2004 elections, and Dongkoy knows the feat is no laughing matter.
What could complicate things for Dongkoy is Jun Baculio who is serving
his 3rd and final term as congressman of the vote-rich 2nd District. Jun is said to be bent on spending a huge portion of
the wealth he you-supply-the-word just to stay in power. My ever reliable source quoted Jun as saying that he would
run for governor even if Dongkoy stages a comeback in Misamis Oriental. Besides, my source adds, Jun knows that Dongkoy never
liked him nor considered him a part of the Emano group.
So if Dongkoy throws his hat again in Misamis Oriental, chances are
that it’s going to be a three-way fight. Or Oca can opt to run for congressman in the 1st District again to give way
to Dongkoy or Jun. Whichever, the gubernatorial race won’t be that easy for Dongkoy to hurdle, not to mention that a
legal question on his residency would surely give him migraines.
From where Dongkoy is sitting, a run for Cagayan de Oro’s congressional
post would be a breeze but he would rather that people don’t talk about it because once they do, he would lose the gulat
factor which is the most important ingredient in the Emano psy-war operations. It’s sindak in Tagalog.
There lies the imaginary strength of Emano. Despite his being a lame
duck, he has succeeded in making both critics and allies, including the Emano media, believe that he has remained the force
to reckon with.
Come to think of it, how many of his allies in the city council can
still run for reelection in 2007? This means that theoretically, there’s a 50/50 chance––or even a bigger
chance––that it won’t be business as usual for the Emano group after May 2007. In fact, city hall will have
a new set of officials next year. New faces or old faces, what is certain is that it won’t be the present faces, except
for a few, perhaps.
And how many of the ‘‘graduating’’ councilors
would want to be mayor, vice mayor or congressman? The ‘‘neighborhood association’’ PaDayon Pilipino
is a party waiting to break apart but somehow, Emano has managed to keep his councilors from quarreling in full public view,
creating a semblance of solidarity. The reason for this is because Dongkoy, the illusionist, is so good at what he does even
his councilors believe when he says he is not a lame duck and that he will call the shots for life.
And the opposition? They’re busy arguing if Dongkoy would be
his pawn’s running mate or run for governor next year. Apparently, they are convinced that Dongkoy is not a lame duck
and that he remains strong.
The clock is ticking and chances are, by the time they figure out
that Dongkoy is not what they think he is, time would have ran out on them.
Make up your mind, gentlemen. Otherwise, Dongkoy at his weakest would
clobber you again.
Pastilan.
Magician
By Herbie Gomez / June 26,
2006
JUN Baculio, our good friend, would likely wake up one
morning to find out that no journalist worth his salt is interested on being in any of his news conferences or in attending
a presscon, a launch or any activity for that matter where the Misamis Oriental congressman guests in.
Ask Cresencio ‘‘Jun’’ Barros, the
congressman’s chief of staff.
I’m glad I’ve been shunning press conferences
and similar activities, and I’m glad I didn’t attend that recent Sunriva affair where officials forged a memorandum
of agreement for the 2nd phase of a relocation program for villagers that would be displaced by the ambitious Laguindingan
International Airport project. If I did, I would be pissed off just like Jonas Bustamante and the other media figures who
were there. Barros is fortunate he didn’t find himself running with lightning speed to the nearest police station or
hospital that day.
Bustamante and Co., including Misamis Oriental’s
mayors, have long been griping over the way Barros has been treating them. Since the day Baculio became congressman, Barros
has been behaving like the congressman’s bodyguard, adviser, secretary, errandboy, waterboy, spin doctor, etc., all
at the same time. In other words, Barros is behaving like an absolute Baculio bootlicker. That, I guess, people don’t
and won’t mind. But what people mind is when Barros acts like Baculio’s cordon sanitaire single-handedly.
All Bustamante and the rest of the group wanted was to
ask Baculio a few questions for their stories but Barros, for the nth time, stood there like the Great Wall of China.
Why? Because Barros’ understanding of media’s
role and functions is twisted. Later, he was overheard as calling the reporters ‘‘mercenaries.’’
In a way, I can’t blame Barros. For quite a time,
he has been dealing only with people who are like him, including shadowy media figures in Manila and Cagayan de Oro with distorted
values. He thinks all of them are the same––like him. Because birds of the same feather flock together, Barros
only deals with rotten eggs in the media. To him, the only time a politician should be interviewed by journalists is when
there is a demolition job to be carried out or when a thief needs to tell the world that he is honorable and that he is not
a thief. That’s sick.
What Barros doesn’t know is that there are many journalists
out there who cannot be bought.
Baculio may not know it but he is already suffering his
worst public relations nightmare because of this kenkoy named Jun Barros.
•
The ombudsman has just opened an extension office in Cagayan
de Oro. Barros and the other chiefs of staffs of politicians here can be a test case.
On air, Bustamante claimed to have interviewed Barros’
neighbor who spoke of the Baculio chief of staff’s mind-boggling wealth that supposedly includes a P3-million residential
property in Bayabas, farms or a ranch in Claveria and a public transport business. Many say this is unthinkable for a man
who was only slightly better than a bum and who wasn’t officially listed as a member of the working force before the
1998 elections.
‘‘Gihubag na gyud si Jun Barros’’ since the day he became Baculio’s chief of staff, Bustamante quoted Barros’ neighbor
as saying. Not bad for someone who has been licking a politician’s boots for a living in less than a decade.
Will the ombudsman please look into Barros’ source
of wealth?
‘‘Barros is a magician,’’ says
Bustamante. ‘‘Every time he moves his mustache and eyebrows, expect magic.’’
Pastilan.
No match
By Herbie Gomez / June 19, 2006
If double his strength, divide him. If equally matched,
you may engage him. If weaker numerically, be capable of withdrawing; and if in all respects unequal, be capable of eluding
him... - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
OUR good friend, Councilor Nanding Advincula, did the right
thing in avoiding a direct confrontation with former Emano lawyer Fred Gapuz. All the years Nanding spent in the city council
are not enough for him to match the legal mind of Gapuz who warned that the councilor could be slapped any time by any tax-paying
Cagayanon with graft and with violation of the code of conduct and ethical standards for public officials and employees.
Councilor Nanding however blundered big time when he dared
his critics to sue him in connection with his market-based business. It was obvious that Nanding’s challenge was only
for Councilor Zaldy Ocon whose understanding and interpretation of the law are that of a layman’s. Yes, pretty much
just like Nanding’s.
But problem is, lawyer Manolo Tagarda Sr. announced he
and a group of market vendors would take on the challenge.
After Gapuz came ex-vice mayor Tony Soriano, another lawyer,
with his whatever-happened-to-delicadeza attack against Advincula. And now, we hear former mayor Ambing Magtajas, also a lawyer,
accusing Councilor Nanding of using his position in city hall to do business not only at Cogon but also in at least three
other city-owned public markets since the ’80s. According to Ambing, Nanding has always been stubborn and proof to this,
the councilor even expanded his business outside Cogon.
I don’t want to point an accusing finger at Councilor
Nanding knowing full well that he started from the markets. But I want Councilor Nanding to ponder on this question: Do you
really think and feel that it’s perfectly all right for you, your relatives, friends and/or business partners to be
leasing city hall-owned market stalls when many vendors without strong political connection found themselves displaced after
the redevelopment of Cogon market?
I think that’s the main issue here, not whether or
not Councilor Nanding has a business license or a clearance or whether the lease contracts are with city hall or UKC Builders.
That question, the way I see it, is what’s troubling Cagayan de Oro today.
And what’s probably troubling Councilor Nanding is
that in all these, no one in city hall has lifted a finger to his defense. Yes, not even Councilor Ian Mark Nacaya, his son-in-law.
Reason: only Nanding thinks his case is defensible.
Here’s an unsolicited advice to Councilor Nanding,
my good friend: Listen to Sun Tzu. Do not engage. Elude if you can. If you can’t elude, withdraw.
Chang Yu: ‘‘If the enemy is strong and I am
weak, I temporarily withdraw and do not engage.... The small certainly cannot equal the large, nor can the weak match the
strong, nor the few the many.’’
•
A doctor, Robert Lambino, reportedly admitted during a
hearing of the city council’s public utilities committee that he has been issuing medical certificates to driving-license
applicants without checking if applicants are fit to drive or not.
In other words, just pay and you’ll get a medical
certificate.
It’s like councilors approving an ordinance without
thinking.
Mike Banos would put it this way: Ah, na, na,
na, na, daghan mamatay niana.
Dr. Lambino’s reason for issuing pre-signed medical
certificates: He’s too busy to be waiting for ‘‘customers’’ in his clinic.
That doesn’t make any sense.
How did this fellow become a doctor? I hope this Lambino
took the exam for doctors. If he just paid his way to become a doctor, I’m afraid a lot of people will die.
Who’s your teacher, Dr. Lambino?
•
Of course, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) would deny
that it allowed Lambino to stage this unusual exhibition of medical practice, but the doctor’s claim that he was given
the go-ahead is not unbelievable.
Why? Because until now, there remains an oversupply of
thieves in the LTO.
Pastilan.
Touch me not
By Herbie Gomez / April 24, 2006
THE word is out, there is nothing people who profess to be followers
of the man from Galilee can do about it.
Dan Brown’s wallet, obviously, is becoming fatter and fatter
these days as the noise over his novel––and its film version––continues to be amplified by people
who think the way Councilor Johnny Sia does.
Brown’s book is a good read, and that’s an understatement.
The book is one hell of a roller coaster ride, it’s simply unputdownable. Da Vinci’s prequel, Angels
and Demons, is also a must-read. In both works of fiction, Brown proves to be a master of cliffhangers.
Crisp writing and a penchant for thrill-a-minute adventure fused with
massive amounts of research work makes Da Vinci a classic example of how a thriller should be written. Brown’s
references to secret codes, anagrams, elaborate technology, pagan sex orgies, sudden reversals of fortune, age-old conspiracies,
pre-Christian fertility cults, the Knights Templar, Gnostic Gospels, corrupt cops and brutal murders, among others, would
make anyone ponder.
The Vatican’s apologists have been very vocal against the novel.
It’s understandable given that the Church now finds itself on the witness stand.
Needless to say, Brown expected compensation for his Da Vinci
work but he probably did not expect this kind of reaction––and the windfall as a result of how the Vatican guys,
referred to as ‘‘old farts’’ in his other novel, reacted.
Brown’s controversial book is feeding on the reactions of the
so-called Faith Defenders. There lies the secret of the astronomical success of The Da Vinci Code, I guess. Wittingly
or unwittingly, Brown touched a sensitive chord among Christians––especially among Roman Catholics and specifically,
the Opus Dei––around the world. So they made a noise and continue to do so much to Brown’s advantage.
According to Councilor Sia, Brown’s masterpiece is damaging
to Christianity and ought to be banned in this predominantly Catholic nation. A group in Manila calls the book and the film
subsequently produced by Sony Pictures––hold your breath!–– ‘‘pornography.’’
Holy cow! Can you believe that? Unli in da Pilipins.
Whatever happened to if God is with us who can be against us?
As it’s turning out, it only takes one fiction writer armed with some facts and a fertile imagination to shake the foundations
of a centuries-old religion.
I doubt if the Christ Christians know would react the way we
see the Faith Defenders are reacting. I imagine him warning his followers: No, lest you gather up the tares, you root up
also the wheat with them... Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers,
‘‘Gather the tares first, and bind them in bundles to burn them, and then gather the wheat into my barn.’’
Perhaps it’s high time for the Church to draw the line. How
many of the over billion Catholics, for instance, became Catholics without being consulted?
They were babies, for crissakes!
And when they become grownups, we blame them and call them ‘‘bad
Catholics’’ because they don’t go to confession or take communion or go to church on Sundays or buy all
the religious crap rammed down their throats at a time when they were still asking questions about the birds and the bees––or
were even too young to ask.
The problem with the ‘‘old farts’’ and those
who renounced the ‘‘old farts’’ to become ‘‘old farts’’ themselves is that
they commercialized Christianity and became interested in quantity rather than quality. They turned Christianity into a numbers
game. The more the members, the merrier. That is to say, the more uto-uto there are, the more the Sunday collections
will be.
Money is the root of all evil. Brown made money, lots of it. So The Da Vinci Code is evil?
What about the Sunday collections?
Oh, that’s different, that’s for God... Ye of little faith.
Ah, okay.
Ye of little faith
can be translated as Stop asking questions, just follow what we say because God says so.
And because The Da Vinci Code raises a lot of questions
and makes people think, the ‘‘old farts’’––and their blind followers (represented by the
albino Silas in Da Vinci)––are angry.
Come to think of it, if it is really true that the ‘‘Kingdom’’
(Church) was built on a rock and the ‘‘gates of Hades’’ will never overcome it, what is there to fear
about Brown’s bestseller?
In the name of everything that is holy, let those who want to read
Da Vinci read it, and don’t prevent people from watching the film. That way, people will start asking questions
which, come to think of it again, isn’t really bad.
Is it wrong to ask questions? If Brown got his facts wrong, then it
becomes the Church’s obligation to straighten the record and prove why he is wrong.
The Mother Cult and the smaller cults that sprang from it should encourage
people to ask questions if they don’t want Christianity, as we know it today, to become obsolete. I mean questions like:
• Tell me, Father, why the Church is against death penalty when
the God referred to in the Old Testament ordered ‘‘evildoers’’ stoned to death. Why did God, portrayed
as loving in the New Testament, strike Ananias and Sapphira dead when their only ‘‘sin’’ was to keep
some of the money they raised out of the sale of their own land and lie about it? Did the poor couple commit a heinous crime?
(Read the Acts of the Apostles, it should be found after the Gospel of John.)
• Tell me, Pastor, how Adam and Eve ‘‘multiplied’’
when their children, Cain and Abel, were males. Incest, perhaps? Then that would make us descendants of incestuous people.
If you say that there were other people at that time, that would make the Creation story a farce and Genesis a work
of fiction just like the The Da Vinci Code.
• Tell me, Reverend, how it was possible for Noah to lump elephants,
giraffes, hippopotamuses, lions, tigers and all those animals into a wooden boat. Was the Ark bigger than the Titanic?
• Did Judas have a choice, Monsignor? If he chose not to betray
Jesus with a kiss, would Peter be Plan B? If Judas, supposing he had free will, opted not to sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver,
wouldn’t that make the Master’s prediction false? But if it was really Judas’ ‘‘destiny’’
to be The Traitor and there was nothing he can do about it because it was part of a Divine Plan, why blame him?
To some, these may sound like kids’ questions––even
‘‘blasphemous’’––but these are very valid questions.
Using the ye-of-little-faith line would be a big copout.
Ban any of Dan Brown’s books and we won’t be any different
from the friars who tried to stop people from reading Rizal’s Noli me Tangere (Touch me not) which, like
the The Da Vinci Code, is a work of fiction.
It is not wrong to ask questions.
Pastilan.
P.S. Thank you, Joe Pallugna, for giving me a copy of Da Vinci
a few years back. I enjoyed it.
'Enough
resources' line not enough
By Herbie Gomez / March 13, 2006
TAIWAN is a success story; yes, to some extent. But it would be too
simplistic for Dongkoy Emano to use the Taiwan case as an argument for his call for Mindanao secession.
Just because Taiwan made it doesn’t mean Mindanao can. While
it’s probably true that Mindanao’s resources are more than enough to make it stand on its own, there are other
factors––very serious matters––to consider.
Reuben Canoy and Nur Misuari failed because of their motherhood statements
on Mindanao independence. And now, lo and behold, two mayors are parroting the same motherhood statements. What we have right
before our eyes today is intellectual property theft. But what’s really disgusting is the exploitation of Canoy’s
and Misuari’s intellectual property for an agenda other than empowering Mindanao.
Here’s an unsolicited advice to the mayors of Cagayan de Oro
and Davao: if you plagiarize, make sure you improve at the least. Don’t just say ‘‘Mindanao can’’
and mindlessly repeat similar motherhood statements. Say exactly why Mindanao can, and give us hard data. Or do they really
understand the words they are parroting?
It occurred to me that it is possible they don’t even realize
that their call for a ‘‘Mindanao Republic’’ is a call for secession. Now, isn’t secession worse
than a coup d'etat?
A coup is just a sudden and decisive change of government through
a forceful takeover, but secession is separation, a ‘‘divorce,’’ so to speak. Now tell me if the ‘‘Mindanao
Republic’’ call isn’t inciting to sedition, a crime punishable under our present laws? Doesn’t that
make its proponents threats to national security?
The difference lies on who’s making the call. If the ‘‘Mindanao
Republic’’ call was made by representatives Crispin Beltran, Joel Virador, Lisa Maza, Teddy Casino or Rissa Baraquel,
Malacanang would waste no time in having them arrested and charged by the justice department. But since the call was made
by Arroyo bootlickers, it’s not sedition but ‘‘freedom of expression.’’ Ako’y iyong
iyo na, ‘‘what is’’! Ahh, such double standard.
The Palace’s silence on the latest Emano-Duterte caper is really
deafening. A lot of people are passive. In fact, no one’s really taking the two politicians seriously for the simple
reason that they are Arroyo’s apologists. They used the same ‘‘Mindanao Republic’’ antic to
briefly divert public attention from the ‘‘Hello Garci’’ controversy last year and therefore, made
Gloria very happy. At the same time, they got some publicity which they think made them ‘‘sikat.’’
Sikat sa imong mata. Jokers, not sikat.
Yes, they became jokers just like that lawyer surnamed Pamatong who
rose to national prominence because he said it was his destiny to become president in 2004, and because of his suyak.
So the ‘‘Mindanao Republic’’ call is nothing
but a big joke because the pronouncements come from people who can never dissociate themselves from Malacanang’s agenda.
Simply put, Emano and Duterte’s call reeks of ugly politics.
But just for the sake of argument, even if there are figures and other
hard facts to back up the argument for a ‘‘Mindanao Republic,’’ the question of whether or not it
would be wise for Mindanao to attempt to do a Taiwan remains.
Taiwan is Taiwan, Mindanao is Mindanao.
Who would lead this ‘‘Mindanao Republic’’?
Emano? Duterte? Or the likes of Emano and Duterte? Forget it.
Why? So there will be more vigilante killings and other human rights
violations? So the financial statements of the ‘‘Republic of Mindanao’’ would be kept from public
view?
Put officials like them there and, chances are, they’d get impeached––or
Mindanao will have its first ‘‘People Power’’ revolution even before it could celebrate its first
independence day.
I tell you, it would be much better if we forget the Emano-Duterte
prank and just try to think that the two grandstanding politicians made the call at a time when they were having a bad hair
day.
Make any of them president or prime minister and Mindanao will be
in deeper shit.
Dongkoy and Rody simply don’t get it. Their enough-resources-argument
is simply not enough.
Pastilan.
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