Windfall

ITEM 1. Very Confidential Letter,
I am Mr.Lee hung Chan, a staff in the Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank) here in Malaysia . 
Here is a 100% profitable business proposal for you, In my department, I discovered an abandoned sum of $7.3 million USD( Seven million three hundred US dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his business colleagues in a plane crash on 26 March 2010 and there is No body to claim his fund, I want you and me to work together to transfer the fund into your account, Late Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, sheikh was an Emirati businessman and Managing Director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, below was a prove from the CNN news Website of his death:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/03/30/uae.body/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/world/middleeast/01ahmed.html
I am contacting you to assist me and transfer this fund into your account as the business partner and beneficiary to Late Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, I can fix your name as the business beneficiary of this fund with my position in this Bank so that the Bank will transferred the fund into your nominated bank account and you will get 40% of the fund and I will get 60%, I will come to meet you for us to share the fund according to the percentage above after the transfer and invest the money in Biomedical Engineering.
Please get back to me immediately and I will provide you with more details about the account information and how we can proceed to transfer the fund into your account.
Thank you
Lee hung Chan.
A staff of Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank).

Item 2. From a “Kevin Carey” 
YOU ARE A GRANT AWARD WINNER OF $500,000.00 USD WRITE EMAIL: e-ungrant@hotmail.com FOR VITAL DETAILS....


Item 3. From a “Euro Million Lottery”
Your E-mail Id account have won you the sum of 1,550,952.00 Euros From the Euro Millions Lottery. Award E-mail Draw 2013 Edition, Kindly contact the Claims Department Manager for your claims email: 
euromillionslottery943@rogers.com with your details: Your Full Name, Address, Tel No, State, Age, Occupation, Country.

In just a matter of minutes, I have become a multi-millionaire, three times over and in dollars and euros to boot! Miracle in the net!
Quick, go, buy that Ferrari F12 Berlinetta and Bugatti Veyron 16.4 for starters.
Buy that Lake Como villa…better yet, that island in Tahiti and that chalet with a view of the Swiss Alps. 
Go to Sotheby and Christie’s and get me a Matisse or a Picasso.
Forget the Rolex, get me a Breguet, a Patek, a Hublot, a Vacheron Constantin.  
Book me a flight to Chile, to La Sebastiana in Valparaiso to immerse myself in the air breathed by my poetry god, Pablo Neruda…
Wow! Heavy! As our generation of druggies would howl.
A sucker born every minute. Some people still think we are this. 

Classics in politics

“THAT’S VERY politics.”

A classic heard around Pampanga and beyond – as it was aired over dwRW – in the early 2000s. The sayer – a mayor known for his pugnacious ways and pugilistic means – reacting to the litany of perceived anomalies and corrupt practices he purportedly committed which his vice mayor was reciting in Perry Pangan’s radio show.

“No can do. Never say die.”

His yet another classical phrase, a corrupted take on the Kapampangan “E yu agawa yan. Mikamatayan tamu” and the Tagalog “Hindi n’yo puwedeng gawin yan. Magkakamatayan tayo.”

The hizzoner shouting at the onrushing wave of policemen led by the regional commander axing and smashing their way into his barricaded office where he holed himself in for two weeks to prevent the police from forcibly unseating him. This after the Comelec ruled it was not him that won the election in 1995.  

A case for Ripley’s: Our man landed third. The second-placer filed an election protest but before the case was resolved to his favour, he was incapacitated by a massive stroke. And third-placer took the mayoralty seat, which prompted the initial first-placer to protest too, and, after a rather long period of hearings, was declared winner.   

His outrageous murder of the King’s language notwithstanding, the mayor could rise to some rarefied air of eloquence when forced to defend some profitable enterprise, as when he was threatened with charges for illegal extraction of sand in his municipality, to wit – delivered in his unique way: “There is no quaaarrrying in (his town). There is ooonly the scrrrraping of the volcaaanic debrisss from our agricultural laaands, pursuant to our noooble oobjective to renew theiiir prrroductiiivity.”

For all his barako, some even say – lovingly – pusakal persona, this man had a pusong mamon to his friends and needy constituents.

Another mayor – Apalit’s Tirso G. Lacanilao, God bless his soul – was, by, of and in himself a classic.

Possessed of a mug he himself claimed not even his own mother could love, he was ridiculed for being – political correctness, now – aesthetically-challenged. His election posters were stamped “Pangit!” by his opponents.

Right there and then, he found the stock-in-trade with, and by, which he won his three terms, easily. He simply capitalized on his ugliness, to be blunt about it.

“Sinasabi po ng mga katunggali ko na ako ay pangit, na ako ay mukhang kabayo. Sinungaling po sila. Kayo na rin ang makakapagpatunay na hindi ako mukhang kabayo. Mukha akong tsonggo.” (My rivals say I am ugly, that I look like a horse. They are liars. You see for yourself that I don’t look like a horse. I look like a monkey.) So spake Tirso on the political stage, so the crowd roared in delight.

Then his segue to: “Alam ng buong bayan na matatapang at nakakatakot ang aking mga kalaban. Hindi po totoo yan. Hinahamon ko sila ngayon, kung sila’y talagang matapang at walang takot, sige nga, magpalit kami ng mukha!” (The whole town knows that my opponents are brave and fearsome. That is a lie. I challenge them now, if they are indeed brave and fearless, let us trade faces!)

A campaign rap was even composed for Tirso: “Y Tirso mayap ya / Maganaka ya pa / Andyang matsura ya” (Tirso is good / He is kind-hearted / Though very ugly). To the sound of which Tirso pranced on the stage like an ape. Again, to the paroxysms of delight of his audience.

A laughingstock, Tirso made of himself. An undefeated mayor, the people of Apalit made of Tirso.

Tirso could have served the very template for one other politician who never retreated, never surrendered, but never won the seat he coveted all his life.

Instead of making positive his un-aesthetics, he despised any mention of it.

The now-lamented Ody Fabian – God bless his soul – was slapped with a case for grave slander after he nonchalantly said in his radio commentary over dwGV-FM     “Masuwerte ka, mababait ang mga kababayan ko, at pinapayagan kang gumala man lang diyan. Hindi mo ba alam, bawal ang pangit sa bayang yan.” (You are lucky, my townmates are tolerant and they allow you to roam around. Don’t you know my town is off-limits to uglies?).

They don’t make politicians like these anymore. How I miss them!        

Mediamen in politics

PAMPANGA POLITICS and media do mix. But the taste is often acrid.

I asked Katoks Tayag once why he never ventured into politics after his successes in journalism, literature and business. His answer was that he did not have the temperament or the stomach for it.

A number of Pampanga Press Club members though have not merely tasted but even swallowed politics, all its sweetness, all its bitterness.

Joe Roman blazed the trail for mediamen-in-politics, winning a seat in the Angeles City council in the ‘60s.

Max Sangil aspired for the House in 1987. Coming in the aftermath of the EDSA Revolution, the elections were decided primarily by the Cory Magic. Max got steamrolled by Tarzan Lazatin.

In the 1988 local elections, by his own steam, Max was among the topnotchers in the Angeles City council. In 1992, he teamed up with Pacito Pabalan to contest the city vice-mayorship, with disastrous results. In 1995 though, Max emerged consejal numero uno in the slate of Mayor Ed Pamintuan.

Prior to the 1988 elections, Max – by operation of law – assumed the city mayorship, after Pamintuan and Vice Mayor Blueboy Nepomuceno resigned to contest the first congressional district seat. Max went on to run for mayor but lost anew to old nemesis, Tarzan Lazatin. (Fast forward to the present: Max is running for city councilor in Tarzan’s four-man ticket.)

Sonny Lopez ran for councilor in 1988, concurrently running the campaign plan of his mayoralty bet, Don Rafael Lazatin. They both lost. In 1992, Sonny topped the city council elections under the aegis of Pamintuan. In 1995, he challenged Pamintuan and failed. In 1998, he ran as Tarzan Lazatin’s vice mayoralty bet and lost.

Perry Pangan was number one councilor of Mabalacat in the 1988 elections. His team-up with Boking Morales in 1992 was a total disaster.

Rizal Policarpio had the longest streak of losing: for the Mabalacat council in 1971; for Mabalacat mayor in 1980; for Angeles City councilor in 1988, even after his campaign leaflet was adjudged the most creative – a blow-up of the P2 bill with the picture of Rizal, the national hero.

Lino Sanchez tried but failed in his first attempt for a city council seat in 1992. His brother Robling won as Pulungbulu councilman in 1991; lost – for city councilor – in 1992 and 1995 despite his campaign against graft and corruption under the teaser Anti-Buwaya, twisted by some wit into anti ya mong buwaya (he himself is like a croc).

Melchor Duenas won as barangay chair of San Nicolas in 1991 but was reduced to a protestant in the barangay elections of 1997.

Lito Pangilinan ran in two elections for the city council and lost.

Jay Sangil was a close Number 12 in the contest for the 10 seats in the city council in 1998. A fine showing for a first timer made even finer by the absence of the INC votes in his tally. He would have landed in the Top 3 with the INC. (Without the INC, Jay lost again in 2001 but won in 2004. He had the INC backing in his re-elections in 2007 and 2010 and hopes for it in his current quest for the city’s vice mayorship.)

Toy Soto won as Barangay Dau councilman in the ‘80s and sat as OIC-mayor of Mabalacat in 1987, immediately prior to the 1988 local elections.

In the ‘60s, Don Tomas San Pedro ran and lost for barangay captain of Sta. Teresita, Angeles City.

There were also a number of non-PPC members who have dipped their fingers in the political pie.

All these in Angeles City: Rudy Simeon, dwGV station manager won in his first try for the city council in 1998 where Jab Tolentino of The Voice lost (Rudy got re-elected twice but lost in his comeback try in 2010. He is again running, as independent); Bernie Chavit of Central Luzon Times ran and lost in his council try in 1992; Arnel Panganiban of dwGV won as councilman of Barangay Pandan in 1997 but was not as successful in his city council try; Frank Olingay of Pilipino Opinion was twice Barangay Amsic chairman.

How fared the PPC boys as elected officials?

Joe Roman was unarguably the quintessential oppositionist, if we go by the accounts in The Voice on Angeles City politics in the ‘60s.

There was Joe hitting at Mayor Rafael del Rosario for “playing political possum” and causing the delay in the construction of the city public market. There was Joe blasting at the Philippine Constabulary for human rights abuses as they took control of the city police force. There was Joe exposing an overprice by the princely sum of P82,000 at the resettlement bureau. There was Joe damning the “tyranny of the majority” at the city council.

From the city council, Joe took his causes to the other fora like the Rotary Club, the pages of the local papers, and the local airwaves. He was the perpetual gadfly that pestered the city executives.

At his office in the old Pamintuan Mansion, this sign was posted at his door: “Don’t knock. Just bust in.”

His killer did not bother to knock at the Magnolia Rendezvous kiosk in San Fernando, a spit away from the town hall. He just sprayed him with bullets. Joe was then in the process of organizing the League of Municipal Councilors of Pampanga, having come from Minalin for snacks in San Fernando on the way home to Angeles City.

Sonny Lopez practically took after Joe Roman, notwithstanding the gap of a full generation separating them, as the foremost fiscalizer at the city sangguniang panlungsod during his incumbency. He was the thorn on Mayor Ed Pamintuan’s side as he laid bare before the public anything perceived to pose a clear and present danger to the Angelenos, like the indiscriminate quarrying at the Abacan River.

Max Sangil was the erudite majority floor leader who helped steer the council deliberations on a rational course. He was among the councillors with the most number of resolutions and ordinances filed – and passed.

Perry Pangan was – in keeping with his loquacious persona – the life of the Mabalacat sangguniang bayan when not pursuing the local infra works as council committee chair.

Melchor Duenas’ turf was renamed “San Casinolas” during his incumbency. He was even remanded to jail for sometime after some arrested jueteng collectors he took custody of failed to appear in court.                 

What is there in politics that entices mediamen to wallow in it? The call of service is the standard clichéd answer of most. For the fun of it, some concur. For the funds in it, some others contend.

Mediamen get donors and sponsors for their election campaign far easier than other candidates. Thus, elections make an enriching experience to the enterprising among them. No names now, but who was that who was able to buy a motorcycle after his first loss, and a jeep after his second defeat? Wonder if it would be a car in his next failed try.

In local politics, mediamen appear to have the same chances as lawyers. Even par for the electoral course as good entertainers on the campaign stage.

At the council level, winning appears relatively less difficult for the mediaman than at the town or city executive level. Just look where mediamen have successfully landed in elections they participated in as candidates. Not one in Pampanga has risen above the post of councilor in an election. (PPC founding father Emerito de Jesus was long out of media when he won the Bacolor mayorship.)

This can be explained through the public perception of the press. The common citizen sees the general attributes of a mediaman – adversarial, analytical and articulate – as well as his temperament, as most appropriate for legislative work. With the collective belief that the sanggunian is no more than a forum for debates.

On a totally different plane is the mayorship where the man-profile of the holder covers statesmanship, sense of cool and collectedness, and sobriety appear unfit for the mediaman.

A good example here is Sonny Lopez. His bombast on the campaign stage so mesmerized the voters that they hoisted him to the city council’s topmost slot, earning more votes than his candidates for mayor and vice mayor. But the same banat style turned off the same voters, greatly contributing – arguably – to the less than respectable showing in his bid for the city mayorship in 1995.

It would look like the voters want their councilors “fighting” and their mayor quietly performing. Recognizing this, every newsman wanting to cast his luck in electoral contests will now know where to stand.

(Reprinted from the author’s book Of the Press, 1999)       

          

Current of events

STORIES – NOT necessarily true – behind the headlines and the stories spinning out of them.

EdPam lands 8^th in World Mayor Prize

Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan was ranked 8^th among the Top 10 city mayors of the world for 2012 by the City Mayors Foundation (CMF). At Numero Uno was Mayor Inaki Azcuna of Bilbao, Spain.
Reacted Punto’s resident wit – lay-out designer Dondie Ventura: “Clearly, the CMF judges preferred chorizo de Bilbao over sizzling sisig.”

Congratulatory messages and heart-rending testimonials have come EdPam’s way in the wake of his runner-up win.

“Another feather in the cap of Kapampangans and Filipinos.” So hailed City of San Fernando Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez, himself a runner up – 4^th place in 2005 – in the World Mayor Prize.

“His passion to public service has contributed to the betterment of our city. He knows the needs of his fellow men and he has never failed to provide for all these needs.” So goes a testimonial from one Gerald M. of Angeles City.
Still, EdPam can’t rest easy, mindful of the Bard’s caveat. “uneasy rests the head that wears the crown.”

Already we hear of tabloid correspondent Robling Sanchez and Barangay Claro M. Recto chief Val Lagman planning to ask the London-based CMF to strip EdPam of the runner-up honors. As they did with the Department of the Interior and Local Governments after the agency showered the mayor with awards for good governance and excellent fiscal administration.

Quarry revenues close at P650-M

Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda, in 30 months, succeeded where all other previous administrations in their full terms failed with the Capitol’s quarry collections reaching a total of P649,782,500 at the end of 2012.

Capitol records showed that from July to December 2010 – Pineda’s first six months in office – collections amounted to P119 million; for the whole of 2011, over P238 million; and for 2012, the breakthrough of P272 million.

If the increase in the quarry collections – totalling to P616 million in three years – under Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio was hailed as a “miracle”, then how shall we call the all-surpassing collections achieved by Gov. Pineda?

So what is greater than a miracle? Divine revelation? It sounds blasphemous. So “unprecedented” will just have to do.

Guv leads in ground-breaking of new birthing station

Gov. Pineda led the ground-breaking ceremony for a P4.9-million birthing station inside the municipal hall extension located in Barangay Bahay Pare, Candaba on Tuesday.

Ah, one more reason for DILG Secretary Mar Roxas to declare Pampanga a “hot spot” not only in relation to the coming elections but moreso in insurgency – the birthing station clearly a subversion to the Reproductive Health Act.

LBC New Year robbers charged

Suspects take P750-T, leaves (sic) huge amount behind  

Charged for robbery. To be convicted for sheer stupidity.  
Villar vows to empower Pampanga farmers, Aetas

In Floridablanca last Wednesday, former Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar, a senatorial aspirant, vowed to help fight poverty by empowering farmers and teaching livelihood to residents of Pampanga, including Aetas.

It was feared by militant farmers groups that Villa’s empowerment of farmers  translates to providing cash for their lands to be converted to Camella subdivisions. And empowering Aetas means hiring them as yardboys and menials in those subdivisions.

Clark airport posts 1.3M passengers

The Clark International Airport posted a record of 1.3 million international and domestic passengers for 2012.

This is a 71-percent increase from the previous year, making it the fastest growing airport of the country, said Clark International Airport Corporation president and chief executive officer Victor Jose I. Luciano.

Records showed that Clark airport attracted 1,312,979 passengers from January to December in 2012 surpassing the 767,109 passengers in 2011. This is a 71.16 percent increase from the previous year. International passengers alone accounted for 1,013,096 passengers or a 77 percent of total volume in 2012 compared to 725,023 in 2011.

CIAC records did not show the 1,013,096 international passengers damning the oooh-sooo-sloooow processing at the always-undermanned Bureau of Immigration booths.

CIAC records did not show too the 1,312,979 passengers cursing the Clark airport’s stinking toilets, the cramped terminal, and the plywood “tubes” to and from the planes.  

Impossibly dreaming

SUNDAY NIGHT. Coach Yeng Guiao’s Rain or Shine Elasto Painters just got clobbered by the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters, 89-80, shoving them down a deep hole – 0-3 – in the 2011-2012 PBA Philippine Cup Finals.  

A nightmare of a series Guiao is having here, shattering the very battlecry of his team “Dare 2 Dream.” The numeric there a not-so-subtly-expressed aspiration for a successive championship following RoS’ triumph in the PBA Governors Cup last August 5. 

Methinks though the slogan weak, if not totally misplaced.  You need not do some daring just to do some dreaming.

Hence, through the first three games of this best-of-seven duel, Guiao’s charges were caught sleepwalking.     

I don’t know if it’s just me and my prejudices, but Guiao’s run for Pampanga’s  first congressional district seat looks bedded too on some daring – to dream.

An impossible dream, so long ago smirked the double visionary Deng Pangilinan of Guiao’s wanting to be congressman.

“Unbeatable foe.” Not only Chairman Deng but corporate communications manager Arnel San Pedro, noted editor Ashley Manabat and hundreds of plain folk find comebacking Congressman Francis “Buleboy” Nepomuceno in his fight with Guiao.

“Unbearable sorrow.” So shall Angeles City – with its penchant to go for its own against any outsider – be made to bear on Guiao. The support of Mayor Ed Pamintuan – Blueboy’s nemesis – notwithstanding.

EdPam’s own campaign, ‘tis said, is being compromised by his going all-out for Guiao.

“The millstone on Mayor Pamintuan’s neck.” So said a city barangay chairman here of Guiao. “A heavy weight that would pull him down to defeat.”

The village chief, who asked for anonymity but identified himself as “pro-Pamintuan” said the mayor “should have stayed neutral” in the congressional contest.

“By openly siding and campaigning for Guiao, (Pamintuan) has isolated himself from a large sector of the Angeles City voters who preferred their own to represent them.” he said.

It is a political given here, according to the illustrious writer Ram Mercado, that “Angelenos rally to their own in contests against those from other places.”

A parallel predicament obtains in Guiao’s Magalang. By siding with EdPam, Guiao estranged that large chunk of the vote loyal to Congressman Tarzan Lazatin, who is deeply rooted, familially and politically, in Magalang.   

“Unbearable sorrow” too shall Mabalacat City serve Guiao. Blueboy having made inroads there in his three previous terms as representative. Again notwithstanding the support of Mayor Boking Morales, which, in the first place, seems unsteadily wavering. Given Guiao’s open dalliance with the fiercest rival in his umpteenth run for the mayorship, one Noli Castro.   

A dream team, Guiao though has that can make his fondest wish come true.

There is Philippine business’ MVP himself – mogul Manny V. Pangilinan who has long put all his marbles in Guiao’s hole, even at the time Cong Tarzan thought solely of re-electing.

Then there is Governor Lilia Pineda, virtual mother to Guiao and Mister Bong Pineda, virtual father to him. Virtually unopposed, Nanay can concentrate her energies, and Tatay his resources, on Guiao’s campaign. 

Still, for all their strong clout and impressive resources, Guiao’s patrons could only do so much for his election. The greater task, the harder work, the onerous toil lie in Guiao himself. Task, work, toil underscored there. Not dream.

In his championship series at the PBA as in his congressional run, it would serve Guiao well to dispense with this Dare to Dream blurb.

And instead for him to Dare to Struggle. And Dare to Win.     

Who knows, that unreachable star may yet come within his grasp.