Lapid con Panlilio
COMPARISONS are always odious. But they could not be helped. Especially with people of polar dissimilarities, as in the case of two governors at the extreme ends of the moral pole.
LITO LAPID rode his white horse to his 1995 gubernatorial inauguration symbolic of the hopes of the Kapampangan to be delivered from the lahar rampages of Mount Pinatubo and the flood of corruption that inundated the very interventions engineered to mitigate the effects of the devastation.
A knight in shining armor was the Bida ng Masa in the eyes of his constituency – no doubt induced by his movie persona, and hyped to the max from the campaign platform to the capitol.
There was the incorruptible Lapid raising indignation at the brazen attempt of the subsequently pipit-ized Don to buy him out of the election with P50 million.
“Oo nga’t ako’y dukha, subali’t hindi mabibili ang aking kaluluwa; hindi maisasanla ang aking paninindigang ipaglaban ang hanay ng naghihirap na masang Kapampangan.” So Lapid did a Leon Guerrero to the ecstatic delight of his people. I should know, I was there.
There was the intrepid Lapid, precariously hanging from a helicopter ladder, plucking out an elderly from a coconut tree he sought refuge in at the height of lahar flows. It happened in Lapid’s chop-chop, bang-bang movies, why could it not happen in real life? All it took was a little coaching of a geriatric gone back to his pre-pubescent fantasies. I should know, I was there.
There was Lapid bravely casting all caution and reason to the fates, plunging into lahar to get to a wheelchair-bound old woman abandoned on a tin rooftop about to be swallowed by the raging mud. I should know, I was there.
So, why was I there? Dummy, from the pre-planning of his 1995 campaign up to two days after his re-election in 1998, I was Lapid’s principal spinmeister.
So where did all these adulation of Lapid and his acts deliver the Kapampangan? To the waiting lap of his son. And the rest, as everyone knows, is quarry history.
AMONG ED defrocked himself of his habito, donned a white shirt as a symbol of the purity of his intention to provide the Kapampangan with the moral alternative to patronage politics powered by corruption and illegal gambling.
A living saint was Panlilio projected by his civil society to the eyes of the electorate: the image induced by his priestly persona, and hyped to the max from the campaign platform to the capitol.
Why, even Panlilio’s vitiligo – that’s his skin condition, dummy – assumed, nay, presumed the nature of stigmata a la Padre Pio’s borne of his closeness to God. Furthering his image of being the Chosen One to lead Pampanga out of moral decay.
Thus, the appropriation of the song Kapampangan Ku by the Panlilio campaign for itself, with extra forte on that line“…sese na ku ning Guinu.”
“Buhay ko man ay handa kong ialay sa pagtubos sa mga Kapampangan mula sa corruption, mula sa imoralidad, mula sa kahirapan.”
Thus declared Panlilio of his readiness for martyrdom, to the ecstatic delight of his faithful oblivious of the brazen fact that the priest-candidate already surrounded by a contingent of soldiers in full combat gear was yet clad in a blue bulletproof vest which thickness – so said an acolyte – “was not simply Kevlar but of material that can withstand most high caliber guns.”
There was Panlilio braving the sangguniang panlalawigan to save his beloved attorneys from non-confirmation, running the gauntlet of the mayors to insist on the purity of his cause.
So where has this adulation of Panlilio so far delivered the Kapampangan?
To the million-a-day collection from quarry. But the rest is not yet history.
So there is the money from quarry. So what has been delivered to the people from that money?
Lapid may have sinned against God and the people by what he (perceivably) did with the collection from quarry.
Panlilio may be sinning against God and the people by what he has not done with the collection from quarry.
Or have you forgotten, sin comes two ways: by commission, and by omission. Lapid and Panlilio, a Janus – after whom January is named – they indeed make.
LITO LAPID rode his white horse to his 1995 gubernatorial inauguration symbolic of the hopes of the Kapampangan to be delivered from the lahar rampages of Mount Pinatubo and the flood of corruption that inundated the very interventions engineered to mitigate the effects of the devastation.
A knight in shining armor was the Bida ng Masa in the eyes of his constituency – no doubt induced by his movie persona, and hyped to the max from the campaign platform to the capitol.
There was the incorruptible Lapid raising indignation at the brazen attempt of the subsequently pipit-ized Don to buy him out of the election with P50 million.
“Oo nga’t ako’y dukha, subali’t hindi mabibili ang aking kaluluwa; hindi maisasanla ang aking paninindigang ipaglaban ang hanay ng naghihirap na masang Kapampangan.” So Lapid did a Leon Guerrero to the ecstatic delight of his people. I should know, I was there.
There was the intrepid Lapid, precariously hanging from a helicopter ladder, plucking out an elderly from a coconut tree he sought refuge in at the height of lahar flows. It happened in Lapid’s chop-chop, bang-bang movies, why could it not happen in real life? All it took was a little coaching of a geriatric gone back to his pre-pubescent fantasies. I should know, I was there.
There was Lapid bravely casting all caution and reason to the fates, plunging into lahar to get to a wheelchair-bound old woman abandoned on a tin rooftop about to be swallowed by the raging mud. I should know, I was there.
So, why was I there? Dummy, from the pre-planning of his 1995 campaign up to two days after his re-election in 1998, I was Lapid’s principal spinmeister.
So where did all these adulation of Lapid and his acts deliver the Kapampangan? To the waiting lap of his son. And the rest, as everyone knows, is quarry history.
AMONG ED defrocked himself of his habito, donned a white shirt as a symbol of the purity of his intention to provide the Kapampangan with the moral alternative to patronage politics powered by corruption and illegal gambling.
A living saint was Panlilio projected by his civil society to the eyes of the electorate: the image induced by his priestly persona, and hyped to the max from the campaign platform to the capitol.
Why, even Panlilio’s vitiligo – that’s his skin condition, dummy – assumed, nay, presumed the nature of stigmata a la Padre Pio’s borne of his closeness to God. Furthering his image of being the Chosen One to lead Pampanga out of moral decay.
Thus, the appropriation of the song Kapampangan Ku by the Panlilio campaign for itself, with extra forte on that line“…sese na ku ning Guinu.”
“Buhay ko man ay handa kong ialay sa pagtubos sa mga Kapampangan mula sa corruption, mula sa imoralidad, mula sa kahirapan.”
Thus declared Panlilio of his readiness for martyrdom, to the ecstatic delight of his faithful oblivious of the brazen fact that the priest-candidate already surrounded by a contingent of soldiers in full combat gear was yet clad in a blue bulletproof vest which thickness – so said an acolyte – “was not simply Kevlar but of material that can withstand most high caliber guns.”
There was Panlilio braving the sangguniang panlalawigan to save his beloved attorneys from non-confirmation, running the gauntlet of the mayors to insist on the purity of his cause.
So where has this adulation of Panlilio so far delivered the Kapampangan?
To the million-a-day collection from quarry. But the rest is not yet history.
So there is the money from quarry. So what has been delivered to the people from that money?
Lapid may have sinned against God and the people by what he (perceivably) did with the collection from quarry.
Panlilio may be sinning against God and the people by what he has not done with the collection from quarry.
Or have you forgotten, sin comes two ways: by commission, and by omission. Lapid and Panlilio, a Janus – after whom January is named – they indeed make.
posted by A.Caesar Z. Lacson at 11:08 AM
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