It's Lapid, stupid

IGNORANCE THAT we, being good Christians, should readily forgive.
That was one Born-Again fellow who had the misfortune of sharing my table at Starbucks, SM City Pampanga this weekend. It was a retort to my ribbing him of Senator Lito Lapid’s statement, translated to English now: “They say that the Capitol has so much money now, but where are their projects that should be benefitting the people? The people are in misery and not even a single sack of rice has come their way out of the Capitol.”
The B-A guy, of course, is an ardent supporter of Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio. And, true to his calling, he would not just let pass anything negative said of his governor.
Even as we forgive Lapid, as Christians too, we are duty-bound to take him out of his ignorance. So let me tell you this, with the hope of passing it on to Lapid and to his advisers for their enlightenment.
I will write it in my column, I told him. And this is it.
Yes, we have the money at the Capitol, thanks to the moral integrity and uprightness of Among Ed – all P413 million in quarry collections the past two years. For the first semester of this year alone, a total of P143,919,500 has been collected. From these sums, the rightful shares of both barangays and municipalities in the quarry areas have been religiously distributed.
So how much did Lapid and his son bring into the Capitol coffers in their 12 years of misrule in Pampanga?P155,626,000, which Among Ed could easily collect in seven months!
Wow, all those statistics at your fingertips?
As good Christian soldiers, we are ever ready with our arms for battle.
Yeah, I can almost hear the boom, the marching cadence --
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
Forward into battle see His banners go!
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
At the sign of triumph Satan’s host doth flee;
On then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Victory over ignorance – not only of Lapid but of a number of the Kapampangans – is indeed the noble cause of Among Ed. The Kapampangan is in dire need of enlightenment. As you yourself said over both Infomax 8 and CLTV-36 not too long ago: E mu tatasan ing kamulalan da ring Kapampangan (Do not underestimate the gullibility of the Kapampangan).
Yeah, I said that in the context of Lapid getting elected governor three times by landslides of votes despite his own admission of being unschooled, in spite of the cases of graft and corruption filed against him and his suspension from office by the Ombudsman, plus the perceived wealth of his family even as the quarry income of the province suffered.
So, who are we now talking about? It’s Lapid, stupid!
Ouch! Ain’t we as good Christians supposed to refrain from uttering words that could hurt our brothers’ feelings?
No harm meant there, brother, just emphasizing a point a la Bill Clinton: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Remember? Anyway, Lapid asked about the projects of Among Ed? So I will indulge him:
In infrastructure development, the Capitol has invested P232 million for the construction and repair of roads, canals, government facilities, public schools, hospitals and covered courts.
In social development, Among Ed has allocated P31.5 million for health programs, P26.5 million for supplemental feeding and P92.7 million for the marginalized sectors, including the senior citizens and persons with disabilities. Another P22 million was spent for the Philhealth cards of over 10,700 indigent Kapampangans.
In the field of education, P3 million worth of assistance has been given to summer student workers and funded 7,940 government scholars.
The agriculture and aquaculture sectors got P41.9 million. While entrepreneurs were extended P6.15 million in micro-financing and livelihood loans.
There are the projects. You can assume from there the number of Kapampangans benefited. And alll these in just over two years of Among Ed’s administration. Now, for their 12 years at the Capitol, what have the Lapids to show the Kapampangan other than the Palaces in Porac and their fleet of sports utility and luxury vehicles?
That is not for me to answer. Ask Bernie Cruz, Lapid’s self-proclaimed spokesman. Ay, you won’t get anything there. I remember him being quoted in the media as saying the Lapid camp would not answer accusations of wrongdoing by the returning governor. Better ask Deng Pangilinan. He is more open, if not more rational. Meanwhile --
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Hell’s foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
Brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise…

Cinematic

THE RETURN of the comeback. That was an inane blurb for an asinine movie starred in by Redford – not Hollywood’s Robert but the Filipino White – sometime in the nearly forgotten past.
The return of the comeback. That instantly flashed in my mind at Tuesday’s media conference dubbed Ang Pagbabalik 2010 heralding Sen. Lito Lapid’s comeback to Pampanga politics.
No, not for any inanity in the Bida’s bid to reclaim the governorship he held from 1995 to 2004, and bequeathed to his son Mark until 2007, but for the cinematic sense that pervaded the mediacon.
Yes, the very tarpaulin poster of Ang Pagbabalik – with the silhouette of a horseman about to gallop against a backdrop of mountain ranges – not so subtly impressed into the mind Lapid’s signature movie persona, the gunslinger Leon Guerrero.
Politics indeed seemed to have been but an afterthought that day. As the discerning Ding Cervantes noted in our banner story here yesterday: “Lapid’s press conference initially turned out to be one for his forthcoming movie, together with movie actor Ronnie Rickets and director Baldo Maro, even as local media who were told to proceed to the restaurant venue here as early as 9 a.m. awaited for Lapid’s political declaration. By noon, however, movie reporters were still tackling Lapid’s movie project.”
Yes, both the Kapuso and Kapamilya channels were there, but with their entertainment, not political, reporters. Ang Probinsiyano 3, that is supposed to be the title of Lapid’s movie with Rickets, the earlier Parts 1 and 2 having starred in by the late action king and presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr.
Shut out of the interviews by the entertainment press, the local media contented themselves with the chicken-leg-cum-noodle lunch. Though some of the young local TV reporters reduced themselves to being movie fans, having their pictures taken with Rickets.
To the point was Ding: “This presages another possible Lapid administration based on script and acting.” So he quoted “one of the local journalists who asked not to be named.” To disabuse some malicious minds, it was not this writer that said it.
The movie mindset extended to the political part of the mediacon.
Lapid introduced his vice gubernatorial candidate, Lea Dizon, as his “leading lady in politics.” The aesthetic value of Dizon, even primed over her intellectual assets honed at the University of Asia and the Pacific and the Universidad de Barcelona.
Lapid made use of flashbacks too – just like in the movies – for dramatic effect: How it was during his first term, fighting the lahar rampages, wading waist-deep in floodwaters, battling starvation in the evacuation centers, standing up to the national government when it was deemed that “nature should take its own course” to the utter destruction of the towns of Porac and Bacolor. The drama here lent authenticity by Lapid invoking living witnesses to it: the names Perry Pangan, Deng Pangilinan and Bong Lacson, duly called out.
Up close and personal with Lapid in the past – I served as his spinmeister in his 1995 and 1998 gubernatorial runs and as senior consultant on his first term – I discovered that he had (still has?) greater penchant for drama than action. Notwithstanding his patented stunts and somersaults.
Consider his challenge to the then Vice Gov. Cielo Macapagal-Salgado and other critics on the so-called P104-million Maimpis landscam: “Sabay-sabay kaming lumuhod sa harap ng altar at bulagin sana ng Diyos ang nagsisinungaling sa amin. (We all kneel in front of the altar and may God blind whoever is lying).”
Or his campaign spiel: “Hindi ko kailan man dudungisan ang puting lampin na ikinumot sa akin ng aking nanay nang ako ay isilang. (I will never soil the white blanket (of purity) that my mother covered me with when I was born).”
True to dramatic form, Lapid now: “Wala kaming sinaktan na sinuman. Tanging hangad namin ay makapaglingkod sa aming mga kababayan. (We (he and son Mark) did not hurt anyone. Our only wish is to be left alone to serve our people).”
Wish that may be ungranted there.
Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio has challenged Lapid father and son to explain to Kapampangans the “missing” P568-million lahar quarry funds during their 12 years at the helm of the Capitol.
Reported Ding: “Panlilio also vowed to pursue the plunder charges he filed earlier this year against Lapid and his son Mark who had been Pampanga governor from 2004 to 2007. The charges were based on allegations that they enriched themselves from the provincial government’s lahar quarrying operations.”
“I will definitely pursue the case either as a public official or a private citizen,” Panlilio vowed.
With the protagonists already cast even as the script is still evolving, Ang Pagbabalik 2010 is one movie worth watching.

Discernment

THE OPERATIVE word among the presidentiables in this pre-election season.
Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio went into a long period of discernment and came out of it saying “God is telling me to run for the presidency.”
The opinion polls said otherwise: 0.4 percent acceptance is in no way reflective of a voice from God. Hence, Panlilio – salvaging whatever remained saveable in his reputation – gave way to Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.
The reluctant Noynoy is now in turn into a spiritual retreat down South to seek “discernment and spiritual guidance” as he considers whether to run for president under the Liberal Party.
Not to be outdone, Vice President Noli de Castro, albeit still remaining coyly undecided about his presidential ambitions, is doing his own discernment.
Said Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs Gabriel Claudio: “We’re hoping before the first half of this month that there would be a clear resolution of what would be (De Castro’s) decision.”
Claudio added that Kabayan is “doing his own careful consideration of the entire situation and we’re giving him time.”
Discernment being religious, nay, spiritual in nature, it is valid to assume that Jesus is Lord (JIL) chieftain Bro. Eddie Villanueva had had his own discernment as he firmed up his decision to run for president anew. I just don’t know if El Shaddai’s Bro. Mike Velarde is still into it, having not heard any definite statements from him.
Discernment. What is it really?
The basic dictionary definition is that it is a faculty of the human mind to discriminate among sets of options what is apprehensible, relevant or worthwhile. Beyond that, I posted some research on the term in my April 3, 2009 piece here titled The omen, that warned of Panlilio’s run for the presidency. Thus:
A quick referral to Scripture on discernment leads to 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, to wit: “7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.”
Finding full complement there is Psalm 119:66, “Teach me knowledge and good judgment.” Clearly indicative here, as an evangelical group puts it, is discernment as “the ability to make discriminating judgments, to distinguish between, and recognize the moral implications of, different situations and courses of action. It includes, apparently, the ability to “weigh up” and assess the moral and spiritual status of individuals, groups and even movements.”Comes here St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Yeah, the order of the Jesuits.
St. Ignatius became a master of spiritual discernment, only after a long period of practice and prayer, going through the temptations and experiences of “movements” in his soul.
It is not just God that moves us in periods of discernment. There could be Satan too, ever trying to mislead us. And our own inner voices that can work for interests other than God’s.
Hence, as a Catholic charismatic group posted: “If we are concerned to do God’s will, then we are only interested to discern whether God is the source of the leading…We must work at discerning God’s voice. Discernment is the art of knowing when it is God acting upon or speaking to us, and when it is not. This art can only be learned by trial and error. The voices we experience are quite subtle, and discernment requires us to become sensitive to subtle differences between the different movements upon our soul. Yet we will never recognize the voice of God with absolute clarity, and anyone who claims to hear God clearly and with certainty should be avoided — they have not even begun to know spiritual realities if they make such a claim.”
Thus Panlilio declared: “God is calling me to run for the presidency.”
Thus it came to pass: Panlilio getting 0.4 percent in the opinion survey of presidential pretenders.
A lesson to those undergoing discernment: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord in vain. (Exodus 20:7)