Class war

“THERE WILL be no political alliance. That’s for sure as of the moment."

So Sun-Star Pampanga quoted in its banner story Monday Irish Calaguas, senior political adviser to 1^st District Rep. Carmelo "Tarzan" Lazatin, in the wake of reports of a brewing coalition between the sitting congressman aspiring to be city mayor and the former city mayor and once and future Congressman Francis "Blueboy" Nepomuceno.

Calaguas was quick to note though: "But we have our supporters in the Nepomuceno camp and theirs on our side.”

In an interview over a week back, Nepomuceno expressed, albeit cryptically, his support of Lazatin thus: "Of course, I would support the mayoralty candidate who will not support my congressional opponent." Or something to that effect if the interviewer got it right.

Yeah, as the friend of my enemy is also my enemy, so the enemy of my enemy is my friend too. 

Re-electing Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan has virtually put all his eggs in Vice Gov. Joseller "Yeng" Guiao's basket -- taking all 28 of the city's 33 village chiefs to Guiao, making Guiao ever-present in his Partido Abe Kapampangan's barangay bingo binges.

With the battle cry "Rain or Shine, Agyu Tamu," Pamintuan has indeed forged a united front with Guiao.

So Nepomuceno has nowhere to go but to Lazatin.

Besides, it won't do any good for the Nepomuceno ego to side with Pamintuan, the bitterness of his 2010 trouncing in the latter's hand still too much, too painful to swallow.  

“Thank you! We appreciate that gesture of Blueboy.” So Calaguas said simply of the proffered Nepomuceno support.

Still, no formal alliance. Not for the moment. Not as yet?

May as well be never.

The best thing that can happen to Pamintuan's re-election efforts is a Lazatin-Nepomuceno alliance.

Conversely then, the worst thing that can happen to Lazatin's run for the mayorship is an alliance with Nepomuceno.

For one, the "double cross" charge that Lazatin hurled against Pamintuan will bounce back at him.

"I was the victim, not the perpetrator, in 1998, junked at the last moment by my ally." So the then Lazatin-allied Pamintuan maintained of his defeat in the congressional contest against his then-vice mayor Nepomuceno.

An alliance therefore between Lazatin and Nepomuceno will give most credence to the double-crossed Pamintuan, and the lie to a double-crossing Pamintuan, having put on record his support for Guiao came only after Lazatin's mindshift to the mayorship.

A short trip down memory lane now: In 1995, when Pamintuan took Nepomuceno for his running mate, Lazatin was quoted as telling the mayor: "O'bat bibyayan mo pa reng mete. Datang ing panaun ila pang makamate keka ren.(Why are you resurrecting the (politically) dead? Time will come when they will (politically) slay you)."             

After their doble-pusoy defeat in 1988 -- the patriarch Mang Kitong losing his mayoralty seat, firstborn son Robin avalanched in the gubernatorial race -- the Nepomucenos by 1995 were already consigned to the dustbin of political history.  

Credit Pamintuan then for their resurrection through the then "non-political" Blueboy. 

Prophetic, indeed, was Lazatin. With Nepomuceno besting Pamintuan in the 1998 congressional contest.

Phlegmatic, might Lazatin now seem. In an alliance with Nepomuceno, virtually swallowing that he vomited to Pamintuan in 1995. More rightly than wrongly, 'tis said that Nepomuceno can come back to political life only without Lazatin or Pamintuan as opponent.

Pathetic, could Lazatin also look. An alliance with Nepomuceno (mis)construed as  clutching at straws -- ever the metaphor for a desperate move. Unless he is not anymore the political kingpin he has long been pictured to be, Lazatin would have no need for Nepomuceno just to fight the upstart Pamintuan.  

Best -- or worst, depending from where you look -- of all, a Lazatin-Nepomuceno alliance hews perfectly to the age-old struggle of classes -- the "history of all hitherto existing society…"

On one hand: the landed gentry, the feudal lords, the political dynasties embodied as the immovable object -- preserving the status quo, keeping their socio-economic and political stranglehold of the nation.

On the other: the working classes, the intelligentsia, the greater mass of Filipino society -- banded as the irresistible force to crush bourgeois domination.

All it takes is some romanticism from the anti-dictatorship struggle, some grassroots pedagogy on the imperative of the rebellion of the poor towards their ultimate liberation, some activist steeped in dialectics…Alexander Cauguiran, is that you?

Lazatin. Nepomuceno. No formal alliance. Not for the moment. Not ever. Only for their own sakes.

   

Family heirloom

PRESIDENT DIOSDADO P. Macapagal, himself a former congressman and vice president, sired Vice Gov. Cielo Macapagal Salgado and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, herself a former senator and vice president and current congresswoman, who birthed Mickey Macapagal-Arroyo elected "regular" congressman and party list representative, and Dato Macapagal-Arroyo, congressman.

A sibling of Apung Dadong, Angel P. Macapagal, also served as congressman.

Gov. Francisco G. Nepomuceno and Rep. Juanita L. Nepomuceno served contemporaneously and then alternately, the husband as Angeles mayor and the wife as governor and assemblywoman. Sons Robin was vice governor and then Barangay Cutcut chairman, and Francis aka Blueboy was city vice mayor, congressman, and mayor. Grandson Bryan is city councilor.

Once -- and still -- rivals to the Nepomucenos, the Lazatins have the lesser numbers: the patriarch Don Rafael was governor, Angeles mayor and assemblyman; son Carmelo, better known as Tarzan, was congressman, mayor, and congressman again; Carmelo II aka Jonjon, managed one term as city councilor. 

Nepomuceno nemesis in 2010, Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan, the son of former city vice mayor Alberto, has started his own political lineage with his own son Edu as city councilor.

Gov. Bren Z. Guiao had brother Pastor as Magalang mayor and son Joseller, aka Yeng, as board member and vice governor.

Senator Lito Lapid was vice governor and then governor, succeeded at the Capitol by his son Mark who also served as barangay chairman and board member. The senior Lapid's brother Rey was Porac vice mayor.

From Porac Mayor Roy David and Board Member Edna de Ausen-David emerged Board Member Fritzie David-Dizon and Vice Mayor Dexter David.

Perennial Macabebe Mayor Leonardo "Bobong" Flores had sister Annette Flores-Balgan as successor while brother Peter ruled nearby Masantol. The patriarch, Domingo was undefeated in Macabebe.  

Masantol was, for a time, the domain of Epifanio Lacap and wife Corazon who held the mayorship one after the other.

Emigdio Bondoc. Juan Pablo "Rimpy" Bondoc. Anna York Bondoc-Sagum. Successively, made the fourth district a virtual family inheritance.

Lilia "Nanay Baby" Pineda rose from Lubao councilor to mayor, then board member, and now governor. Her son Dennis, aka Delta, succeeded her at the mayorship and was in turn succeeded by his sister Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab.

Delta's wife Yolly is mayor of Sta. Rita.

Family succession of a different kind was tried and tested but failed in Mabalacat in 2010 with forever Mayor Marino "Boking" Morales challenged by daughter Marjorie Morales-Sambo. Notwithstanding the frustrated political parricide, Boking for a time toyed with the idea of having Morales-Sambo as running-mate next year.

Boking's other kid -- Atlas -- remains his father's loyalist and stays sitting as Barangay Dau chief.

Setting his sights on a seat in the House, Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo has anointed his firstborn Patrick to continue the family line in the bird town.

Outgoing Mexico Mayor Teddy Tumang has chosen his successor in brother Alex, a contractor.

Sto. Tomas Vice Mayor Gloria "Ninang" Ronquillo will gun for the the mayorship once held by husband Romy, everybody's Ninong.

Back in Masantol, term-limited Mayor Peter Flores is said to be passing the mantle to his brother Paul.  

In Bacolor, the Hizon matriarch, Dona Lolita, has all but officially announced her determination to backstop her son Mayor Jomar as vice mayor. Daughter Angie meanwhile is already in campaign mode for a council seat in the City of San Fernando.

For so long, political posts have been valued as family heirloom to be passed on from one generation to the next, or collectively shared among the clan. It's the way of life hereabouts. So who's complaining?

Cry "Dynasts!" then and let slip the booty in the vote.  

Tough luck

IT WAS not sheer luck that gave Coach Yeng Guiao the championship in the recent Governors Cup of the Philippine Basketball Association.

It was more of talent and tenacity, grit and determination of the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters and of Guiao, plus his superiority as strategist and savvy as tactician, that set his team to its date with destiny.

So too, it is not sheer luck, not even “lots of luck,” as he himself deemed in last Sunday’s endorsement of him by 28 of Angeles City’s barangay chairs, that is now irreversibly moving Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao to his own date with his political destiny.

Luck – Guiao sees in the sudden turn-about of sitting 1^st District Rep. Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin from sure re-election to unsure comeback to the Angeles City hall.      

Luck may really have favoured Guiao there. For against Tarzan’s doctorate in first district politics, Guiao’s Pampanga vice governorship is kindergartenish, at best prep-schoolish. I won’t give though a definitive “No Contest” there. Rather, I would go the way of difficult winning chances in the PBA – “bilog ang bola” and pray really hard for a miracle.

But luck has little, if anything, to do with the corporate titan Manny V. Pangilinan investing his total faith in Guiao.

“The only candidate who could make things greater in Angeles City, Mabalacat, and Magalang.” Said MVP of Guiao on his birthday bash in his hometown Apalit only last month.

And upped his ante further, thus: “There could be no other leader to lead Pampanga’s first district but Yeng Guiao. He is a statesman and I strongly believe he will push more for the development of the area much that he is young, brilliant, and steadfast.”  

As early as December last year, MVP had already taken to calling Guiao privately and publicly “Congressman.” This, even in front of the then still-keen-in-re-electing Cong. Tarzan Lazatin, as happened at the Most Outstanding Kapampangan Awards rites where MVP was guest of honor and Tarzan MOKA for government service.

Rather than luck too, it was – still is – Guiao’s strong sense of loyalty that endeared him to the Pinedas, unarguably Pampanga’s foremost and most formidable political powerbase – the patriarch is renowned kingmaker, the matriarch is…well, not queen, but governor.

Guiao not only provides the legislative ground to Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda’s development agenda, but even serves as the vanguard  in the implementation of impact programs and projects, foremost of which is the quarry industry where the so-called “miracle” wielded by former Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio proved but a flash in the current administration’s consistently constant million-peso-per-day collection.

‘Tis often heard, whoever gets endeared to the Nanay, the Tatay loves as much – for Guiao, maybe even more.       

Businessman-philanthropist Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda has apparently shed his shy, always-in-the-background ways – he was barely seen in Nanay Baby’s gubernatorial runs – if only to impact his support for Guiao.

At the Fortune Seafood Restaurant in Barangay Balibago last Sunday, Mister Pineda made a quiet but compelling presence during the presentation of the manifesto of support to Guiao by the 28 village chiefs of the city.

There was as long a line, if not longer, to Mister Pineda’s table as to Guiao’s of  barangay chairmen and their kagawads taking turns to have their pictures taken with the beneficent lord and his chosen.

The Pinedas and MVP make an already formidably massive support base for Guiao’s congressional run.

This notwithstanding, there is Angeles City that – only last month I wrote here – is a hard nut to crack for Guiao, given the possibility of its opting for its own in a contest against an outsider.

With Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan going gung-ho for Guiao and the manifesto of support of his 28 village chiefs that possibility comes – at least on paper – to nought.     

And then, there is Mabalacat City Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales pledging himself and his people to “support Guiao 100 percent of the way, less than that is not accepted.”  

“Llamado.”  Indeed, Guiao has become the man to beat in the first district congressional race.      

It’s still a long way though to May 2013. And it will not be that easy as it looks now for Guiao.

Pound-for-pound, inch-for-inch, to give Guiao the fight of his life is the man I have always rooted for in any and all elections he entered – presidential, congressional, mayoral – Luisito Bacani!

Political stock may have been stacked heavily in Guiao’s favour.

Still I am telling you now: It will take more than MVP, more than the Pinedas, more than Mayors EdPam and Boking, plus all the 28 city village chiefs for Guiao to take the fight out of Bacani, his only worthy rival.

That’s just tough luck for Guiao.

       

   

Pattaya, soul and sense

PATTAYA, Thailand – But for the beach, it’s Angeles City’s Fields Avenue, down to its Walking Street of gaudy bars and red-lit clubs.

So is this city in Chonburi province, 165 kilometers southeast of Bangkok, instantly imaged.

As it’s not all decadence at Fields, so it’s not all debauchery in Pattaya too. Where prostitution thrives, piety can well reside. 

Monumentally majestic, there’s no missing out – along the main road to the city – the giant Buddha etched in gold out of the face of a cliff, some 130 meters high.

Beholding the largest Buddha image in the world triggers some spiritual awakening, okay, in the context of the milieu, the mind assuming metta bhavana – the cultivation of loving kindness.

Below the mountain is a well-tended garden, a sprawl of trees and rocks, perfect  for meditation, which started me going om ah hum vajra guru padma siddhi hum…

The stirrings of the soul burst forth at the Sanctuary of Truth, an all-wood  temple which exterior – up to its roof, down to its walls – and interiors lavishly and exquisitely carved with the deities, images, and events in the sacred texts of the great eastern religions – think Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads and the Vedas, the Dhammapada too. A showcase of ancient knowledge finding manifest in the present.

There, on the shore of Rachvate Cape opens heaven’s very gate, presaging the ultimate liberation of the soul from the illusion and suffering of an endless cycle of reincarnation, finding reunion with the spirit of the Universe. Moksha, mukti or Nirvana, however it is called, it spells the total awakening of the soul. Om ah hum…

Abruptly, from the spiritual to the cultural – originally, if not uniquely, Thai is the floating market. Somewhat somnolent though, Pattaya’s man-made version falls short of the better known Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, in authenticity, in vibrancy, in popularity. Where the latter is a destination unto itself, the former is no more than an add-on to Pattaya’s myriad tourism spots. Still, some good finds there.

No Thai, not even Asian, is the totally different world of Silverlake, the first and only vineyard in Pattaya.

It is Tuscany in its rows upon rows of trellised grapevines, its orange-hued villas, its gazebos, and the hills at a distance.

It is Amsterdam in its bed of multi-colored blooms frontyarding a windmill by a silvery lake.

Still, it can only be Thailand, with the nearby Khao Chee Chan Buddha image making its majestic presence felt from its mountain perch. 

So what’s Pattaya without the beach? A lot more.

No dip in the sea? No feeling of deprivation. The nearest we got to the shore was for sumptuous lunches, seafood, but of course – at The View on our first day, at The Glass House on our second, and last, day. More than enough to make any by-the-sea day.

There’s no escaping the sea in Pattaya, really.

Up the verdant cliffs where home-for-a-night, Sheraton Pattaya, roosts, wafts the sea’s calming presence. The very orientation of the resort-hotel is to the sea – its every room with a balcony, its restaurants, even its lagoon swimming pools all looking out to the sea. A morning view of serene blue, a whiff of the salty air, a Sheraton breakfast to die, er, to always crave, for.

Nearer the shore is Hilton Pattaya, stylish with its clean lines and earth tones, its Flare resto serves the best buffet seafood dinner in Pattaya, arguably; its Drift bar, the largest Margarita drink in the world, unarguably.

Pattaya’s nightscape is best viewed from Hilton too.

Capping the Pattaya night terrific is the sensational Tiffany’s Show, a transgender cabaret show. Music, dance, costumes and the unbelievably beautiful “all-woman” performers make it truly spectacular. It’s just stupendous, take my word for it. And I am far from being s homophile.

And then there’s Nong Nooch Garden, a microcosm of all that is Thailand – from exotic orchids, rare palms and trees to pagodas and shrines, from traditional dances to muay thai matches, from playful elephants to terrifying tigers.

Prized photograph: Me leaning on the back of a man-eater, right palm on its head. Aye, one more item in the bucket list scratched. Such thrill, the fear factor be damned.

Soul nourished. The senses filled. CebPac, Tourism Authority of Thailand, wai.  Pattaya, I will be back. – traveloggers: features&fotos     

Bangkok: Same difference

BANGKOK, Thailand – Third time here, first-time excitement still. This city never runs out of thrills. Frequent flyer feeling philosophized in a night market T-shirt – “Same, same but different.” Really amazing.

Cebu Pacific flight 5J941 is all-too-smooth from Clark, feathertouching right on the dot – 2300HRS, August 4 – at Suvarnabhumi, setting the all-too enjoyable four-day, four-night Thai experience, courtesy of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Novotel Bangkok Platinum, opened only last December, makes a most pleasant home for the traveller – located right at the very heart of the commercial district;  a veritable wonderland for shoppers – right on top of the Platinum Shopping Mall, reputed to be Bangkok’s largest fashion mall for one-stop wholesale shopping.

But a few easy paces from Novotel are Siam Square, Siam Paragon, Gaysorn Plaza, Amarin Plaza and Central World – enough to give the most inveterate shopaholic his/her frenzied fix.     

Bangkok is shopping mecca, indeed.

There’s a la Tutuban JJ Mall amid Chatachuk, the world’s largest weekend market, unarguably, a favourite Pinoy destination with its bargain basement prices and endless haggling.

Then there’s newly opened upscale Terminal 21 where sunny, rhummy Caribbean, imperial Rome, gay Paris, exotic Istanbul, terrific Tokyo, snooty London, wind-swept San Francisco – streets, port, cable cars, and Golden Gate Bridge, and glittering Hollywood all gathered under one roof.

The escalators made up airport departure gates to each destination. Defining landmarks evoked city scenes: – coconuts and Bob Marley music, ancient statuary and the bocca della verita, the collone morris cylindrical outdoor advertising columns, multi-colored lamps and paper lanterns, double-decker bus and red telephone booths. The city themes extending to the rest rooms. And that begs for a separate story.

Another novelty for shopping, food and entertainment is Asiatique – no connection whatsoever to Delfin Lee’s Globe – living up to its billing as “the most romantic and longest Chao Phraya riverfront promenade in Thailand.”

Divided into four districts of fashion boutiques, crafts and souvenir shops, international restaurants, coffeeshops, beer gardens and wine bars, Asiatique is most opulent night market in Bangkok, if not in the whole of Thailand. Maybe in all of Asia even.    

Tripping the night fantastic is best done at Asiatique. More touché than cliché there.

A culinary delight is Bangkok too.

Tom yum goong, the spicy lemongrass and shrimp soup that makes the quintessential Thai dish has become a favourite since the first visit in 2009, be it served in the flashiest restaurants, at the street curb eateries, or in the night market stalls.

A great find this time around is fried curry crab, best served at Somboon Seafood where hangs a picture of then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi celebrating his partaking of “the original” dish that built the restaurant.           

And then there’s Thai massage.

Nowhere near, even remotely, its corruption in its Philippine variant, Thai massage is all clean, no wet-flesh-to-wet-flesh rubbing, no leg scissoring, no “bushy” scrubbing.

Neither is Thai massage plain rub-a-dub-dub, knead and pat. It stimulates the chakra points in the body where energy resides, hence its therapeutic and invigorating effect.

Thus on the last night emerged from RariJinda wellness spa at Grande Centre Point Hotel the refreshed, re-energized, renewed self. Ready to take the rigors of the worsened weather and the rising floodwaters back home.

Sleep. Drink. Shop. Eat. Novotel Bangkok Platinum’s tote bag left nothing unsaid of this take of the Thai capital.

So what did that loot bag hold?

Two Buddha prints worth THB260, a Buddha oil on canvas for THB300, a Buddha cast iron bust for THB2,100 with Buddhist prayer beads thrown in as freebie. All of P3,458 at the exchange of PHP1 to THB1.30. Miserly? 

Shoestring budget traveller, in expenses only.  Lived it up in five-star amenities and coach-like transport services. Luxuriated in the warmth of companionship with JG Summit Holding’s Viveca Singson, CebPac’s Michelle Eve de Guzman and Selrahco’s Charles Lim. Renewed ties of friendship with Kosol Boonma, managing director of KBS Travel and Intertrade Co., and tour guide Tun. Found a new friend in Inthira Vuttisomboon, assistant director of Tourism Authority of Thailand, who stayed with the group throughout, looking after all our needs and wishes.

There is this travel maxim so celebrated in that cartoon movie Happy Worldland: “Don’t overdo it the first time, there’s nothing to look forward to the second time around.”

With these guys, with Bangkok, there’s always something to look forward to every time. Sawasdee! --  Traveloggers:features&fotos

Best airport, aww c'mon

BEST, WE just cannot be.

So we make out the best even for just also-ran finishes.

Hence, the Filipino nation going gaga over Shamcey Supsup’s 3^rd runner-up finish in the 2011 Miss Universe pageant.

Hence, finding major, major accomplishment in Venus Raj’s placing 4^th runner-up  in the 2010  edition of the same contest.

Closer home, the 4^th place ranking of City of San Fernando Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez is more than enough reason to append to his name the honorific “world class.”

Worst, we have the penchant to be.

Topping the corruption and impunity indices in this part of the globe, year after year.

Worst as worst can only be.

Setting the record for the most number of journalists killed in a single incident, in all the world, in all of history.  

Worst even in aviation facility.

The Ninoy Aquino International Airport voted the world’s worst airport for 2011 in a global poll conducted by The Guide to Sleeping in Airports, a site that reviews the quality and facilities of the world’s airports.     

Mired in the worst-to-be, 4^th    and 3^rd finishes are indeed enough cause for revelry.

It takes no surprise thus for the salutatory and congratulatory paroxysm that greeted the news of the Clark International Airport ranking 3^rd in the "World's Best Airport Freezone" list of fDi Magazine contained in its "Global Free Zones of the Future 2012/13" report.   

Published by the Financial Times Business Group of London, fDi Magazine is a bi-monthly news and foreign direct investment publication.

Also cited in the same report was the Clark Freeport Zone as the 8^th best freeport zone in the world, with Dubai Airport Free Zone being named the best.

This is no denigration of the recognition given the CIA. Nor is it to demean the giver. It is just to put the citation in context.

By its very nomenclature – best airport freezones – the recognition has little, if anything, to do with infrastructure and facilities or services. It has everything to do with location, location, location.

And location is Clark’s best asset, its expanse, its accessibility, aye, its equidistance to and from major regional destinations, its being at the very pith of a freeport. By accident of geography therefore, the Clark International Airport is already “it” when it comes to airport freezones.

So, what is there to celebrate in the recognition of what has always been there?

If any, this is a cause for another barrage of tirades against the Clark International Airport Corp. for failing to tap the full potential of the Clark airport to be not only the nation’s premier international gateway, but among the Asia-Pacific region’s best. That potential all obvious in the aforecited accident of geography.

No other airport in the region is as centrally located as Clark, spanning distances within 1.5 hours to 3.5 hours max, from Kota Kinabalu, Hong Kong and Macau, to Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

Indeed, what is there to celebrate in the recognition of what has always been a given fact?

If any, the only consolation we can get out of this “World’s Best Airport Freezone” citation is the public acknowledgment coming from Malacanang that government is working to improve the airport’s facilities.

"We welcome the assessment made by the London Financial Times Group. Certainly, we are in the process of improving our airport facilities... That has been the commitment made by Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas to the President and, therefore, the said agency will exert all its best efforts to improve the facilities of not only Clark but also the other airports." So Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said.

On second thought, no consolation with Roxas mentioned there.

So what is Roxas concretely showing at the Clark International Airport for that “commitment made to the President”?

So sorry to sound grouchy, but with Roxas, there simply is no way for the Clark International Airport to ever become what it is destined to be – the Philippines’ premier international gateway.

Why, for over a year now as chairman of the board of CIAC, has Roxas even attended just one board meeting?

That just shows how (un)committed this loser is when it comes to anything Clark.

As anything and everything good at the Clark International Airport happen despite Roxas, so anything and everything bad happen because of Roxas.    

Roxas is the albatross around the President’s neck.

The earlier PNoy takes cognizance of this, the better for the people of Central and Northern Luzon.

The later PNoy realizes this, the better for Jejomar Binay. You’re a dummy if you still ask why.

Bought votes

AN HONEST politician is one who, when bought, stays bought.

So a wag once said and the witticism spun on a life of its own, all types of careers, all kinds of humans readily substituting for the politician, thus

An honest judge is one who when bought, stays bought.

An honest cop is one who when bought, stays bought.

An honest journalist is one who when bought, stays bought.

Ad nauseam. More apt, nauseous ad infinitum.

An honest voter though – in the above mold – is one who, when bought, won’t stay but can still be bought. 

Selling not only to the highest bidder but to any and all bidders.

This is the lesson said of the 2010 elections in Bacolor, Pampanga.

That is if all the loose talks around the once capital of the Philippines, the once capital of Pampanga and the all-time most lahar-ravaged town are to be taken as seriously as the multi-million peso quarry industry.

That is if former two-time mayor and current Vice Mayor Ananias “Junior” Canlas and former board member and third congressional district also-ran Ferdinand “Dinan” Labung are to be believed.

Last Sunday, at the latter’s towering building near the public works and highways regional office, the duo – a lose-win tandem in 2010 – did not only express fears over what they claimed were existent 7,000 “flying voters” in the town’s electorate roster but exposed how they could have been used most decisively to tip the outcome of the elections.

‘Illegal registrants as well as some legitimate voters,” said Junior, the lawyer, were herded like some domesticated beasts of burden in some big pens, provided with basic necessities and prevented from leaving one to two days before election day.

This was to prevent them from re-selling their votes to the rivals of the candidate that corralled them.

In the dark of dawn, hours before precinct opening, the pack formed lines leading to the polling places, under the watchful eye of cowherds to ensure that they cast their votes as dictated.  

“The long lines of unfamiliar faces so early in the morning discouraged in some ways real Bacolor residents from voting altogether,” Junior says with the conviction of an evangelizing bible-toter.
The once gubernatorial candidate holds that it was these “illegal voters” that could have diminished his winning margin in 2010 to a diminutive nine votes.

“The good people of Bacolor, not strangers, deserve to choose their own leaders.” So declared Dinan, the former village chief of Barangay San Antonio, the former board member, the former congressional and mayoral candidate, and foremost engineer-contractor.
“I am not a sore loser. But I want a fair fight. Anybody, including myself, could have won in the 2010 elections if the list of voters was purged.” So said the second runner-up in the Bacolor mayoralty contest.

“It’s so rewarding and peaceful to win in a fair and clean fight. I raised not just my two arms but two feet to winners in 2010. But our people deserve an honest and orderly election next time,” furthered Dinan as he enjoined the residents and local officials – Mayor Jose Maria “Jomar” Hizon foremost – to cleanse the town’s voters’ list of illegal registrants. Truly, an act as daunting as cleaning the Augean stables of myth.

What sayeth Jomar, the mayor, of this?

“My political enemies are resorting to old and customary tactics and it appears that they are bankrupt of ideas.” So disdainfully dismissed hizzoner, in text messages, of the plaint raised by Junior and Dinan. “Matagal nang kumita ang ganyan style. Modern technology na ngayon.”

Less mayoral, lessr ministerial, least magisterial, most propagandistically political was Jomar’s response.

Nobody but nobody has been accused yet of any hand in this flying voters issue. Its very veracity yet to be established. And already he consigned it to his rivals’ bankruptcy of ideas.

Rather too rash for someone said to have had some studies in law. Methinks, the least the mayor could have done was to join in calling for a no-nonsense investigation. If only to purify the right of suffrage of his people.

By drawing the partisan line, diametrically in contradiction to that of whistleblowers Junior and Dinan – unwittingly, I supposed – Jomar assumed the antagonist, if not  accused, stand.

The burden of proof – that there indeed are 7,000 flying voters extant in Bacolor – while now in Junior and Dinan’s backs, would most weigh down, mayhaps even crush Jomar’s re-election bid when – not if – established as fact. No unwitting beneficiary would he be deemed then.

Fairly easy job. There’s the Commission on Elections. All you have to do is ask.       

Idiots, still

THOSE IMMIGRATION agents in Clark are at it again.

My compadre, dwRW manager and broadcaster par excellence Perry Pangan, greeted me as I was getting out of my truck at the parking lot of SM City Clark, late Sunday afternoon.

What? I asked him as I greeted cumareng Myrna and their son.

My daughter’s flight to Singapore got delayed for over an hour because of the undermanned immigration counters. The same things you’ve written about a number of times.

Yeah, I remembered, it was what I called the general policy of idiocy ruling the Bureau of Immigration at the Clark International Airport which made its aka – for also known as – the DMIA, mean  Damned Moronic Immigration Agents.

As one editorial here exposed: At the CIA departure area, there are six immigration counters but only two are regularly manned, no matter the volume of passengers.
Which on most occasion result to delayed flights out of CIA. And thus delayed arrival at the destination points, ever prompting the captain to go over the airliner’s public address system: “Stringent checking at immigration has caused our delay.” 
We beg your pardon, Sir. It is not stringent checking but plain idiocy that delayed the flight. Immigration – with all the stringent checking – could have easily moved the passengers with but the rest of their counters manned.
A month or so after our critical articles, we received a letter from Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David, Jr. narrating the action his office has taken to improve the situation at the immigration desks of the CIA.

Within that period we were told by CIA staff that there was a mass replacement of immigration agents at Clark.

To be fair, in my travels to Kuala Lumpur in June and to Hong Kong-Macau this June and July, I noticed a marked improvement in the facility of immigration procedures both at the departure and arrival areas.

Just last week, immigration at CIA was a breeze to and from Bangkok.

Maybe, I told Perry, it was a case of natiyempo with his daughter, with tight flight schedules, high volume of passengers.

Anyways, I said I was keeping my fingers crossed as I also came from the CIA, dropping off my son Jonathan there for his 19:15 flight back to Hong Kong.

Malas! At 18:10, I got a text from Jonathan messaging he was being held at immigration.

I tried to call some friends with immigration connections to help out. But nothing came out of it. Jonathan was offloaded       

So what happened I asked my son soon as he got in my truck for the trip back home.

The immigration agents asked him the purpose of his travel.

Jonathan said he worked in Hong Kong and just had a vacation here.

Proof of employment?

Jonathan presented 1) his contract with Manulife Financial (Hongkong) as actuarial specialist “on loan” from Manulife Philippines, his principal employer, and 2) his Hong Kong resident ID card.

In a previous vacation, only last April, those documents were enough for immigration to stamp his passport, allowing him to fly.

But not this time. The immigration agent asked him to produce his Manulife Philippines ID which Jonathan had to retrieve from his checked-in luggage.

So, that ID was presented. Only for Jonathan to be told that he needed some “OEC” from the POEA. This, as some positive confirmation of his work contract kuno.

End result: No flight.     

So, since when was this OEC from POEA made a requisite for travel abroad?

So why didn’t the immigration agents just tell my son of that requirement at the onset?

If this is not harassment, it could only be idiocy.

And this is the government service I get for the hundreds of thousands of pesos  deducted as taxes from my paycheck yearly, lamented my son.

Morons. Idiocy inheres in the Bureau of Immigration. No amount of replacements of immigration agents at the CIA could ever cure this.