As we promised, we are going back to our godforsaken congressional districts, all the more made destitute by our honorable congressmen.

We are not simply talking the talk as most of our armchair intelligentsias do within the confines of the academe or our bedfellows from Makati Business District breaking bread with their comrades in one cozy café in Greenbelt.

We let loose one simple letter to the provincial council where we grew up, Quezon Province.

We demanded some plain answers from the two of our honorable congressmen why they voted favourably on House Bill 1109.

Browsing thru the voluminous House Records of Proceedings, it looked like a desert as we failed to see on record some oases bearing the sagacious justifications from our local solons on the reasons of their championing the notorious Constituent Assembly Resolution. There were no interpellations coming from these two Quezon congressmen whom we have already named.

Their non-participation in the proceedings is too mute to ignore. Have we really elected our deputies to the lower chamber? This is the time now to tell our people that “we do not live by house pork alone”. Given a P75M pork barrel annually does not make a district representative a genius in its distribution. Any one with an IQ at par with these two congressmen can boast of some achievement in, say, constructing a multi-purpose pavement in Bgy. Ibas or Bgy. Ulong Tao. And that is not to say how much was pocketed from the much-ballyhooed government project. But there are ghost projects as well or over-priced medical equipment or medicine. Not only have they been sated with pork. These two low lives wanted more: a piece of the Palace Pig Out. Of course we are generous in acknowledgement that they need funds for keeping them in office. How can they afford their daily bacchanals and the life lines to their local choirs? What they are saying is that it is us who should understand them. They are spending the best years of their lives in the service of the people.

Hasn’t it occurred to us just how many presidents have come and gone and yet we are still mired in the same political quagmire? We massed at EDSA twice and drove the corrupt and the incompetent. Yet, deep down our collective guts, there still is something major that has to be done.

It’s our local leaders (congressmen, governors, mayors, etc.), stupid. For the last 25 years, these local leaders taught our young people that there’s money in politics. They fortified their local bastions. Look at the Aguilars and the Villars in Las Pinas, and the rest ad nauseam. And the City Mayor of Makati wants to be president.

These congressmen muscled out the Constitutional Initiative in FVR time. In Erap time two spectacular bills of impeachments were tabled, that of Chief Justice Hilario Davide and Erap’s Impeachment complaint no less. The bright boys of Danding Cojuangco shepherded the suit against Davide from the committee to the plenary.

Who are these bight boys? Two of them want to be president, Chiz Escudero, now senator, and Gilbert Teodoro, now Defense secretary. Without wasting any saliva, one Aleta Suarez of the 3^rd District of Quezon, lent out her Aye on the impeachment of the Chief Justice. When it was Erap’s turn to be impeached, the same better half of the now sitting congressman of the 3^rd District withheld her vote as a show of loyalty to her benefactor. Why she did not support the impeachment of Erap, nothing was seen on the records. The silence of these so called people’s representatives makes our historians and posterity impoverished for lack of accounts or memorials to rely on.

But how about the products of their pork? 20 years, give or take, our unforgiving Mother Nature has already pulverized them and their names consigned to oblivion.

Our young people should see at arms length the right leader that should govern them, flesh and blood.

The City of Naga and a few others have led us the way. They are not freaks. That’s the general rule. Our two low lives Quezon congressmen are the exceptions, who, from the words of Justice JBL Reyes are an abomination that, “(they) may be said to be a lawless thing which can be treated as an outlaw and slain at sight, or ignored wherever and whenever (they) exhibit (their) heads.”

Walking the walk, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Quezon has already acknowledged our simple request that they ask these two low lives for an explanation on their Con-Ass votes.

Failing which, we do not know where or how this dynamics would go. What we know is that talking the talk is over. It’s now walking the walk.

No related posts.

In May, 2010, make no room for these low lives who approved the Con-Ass. Poll automation or not, be sure not to tick any of the names we provided here. Of course, these low lives are local supermen who feel they have the stranglehold on their constituencies. They (the congressmen or the constituencies?) go hungry when they’re gone. Ironically, the Constitution that they want changed is the same blueprint that gave them what they have right now.

First off, in Quezon Province where we cast our vote, two low lives made it to the list: Mark Enverga of the First District and Danilo Suarez of the Third District.

This is the time for retribution. Not in Ayala or in some comfy enclave somewhere in Makati City. But right there where these low lives call the shots. That, Mr. Protester, is the real challenge. So if you’re an Ilonggo, paddle  up to Panay. If you’re an Ilocano, hop in a bus to Ilocandia. If you know who exactly who you are, spend time from where your tongue spews with incredible facility the fire from your belly.

As our contribution to nation-building and fostering intelligent electorate as one sine qua non in good governance, we tar-feather two of our congressmen who unashamedly cast their support to con-ass.

There is no belabouring the drift that con-ass is nothing but a ploy to term extension of their patron, GMA. Her tenure saw the worst prostitution of political power. Conversion to parliamentary thru con-ass gives the sitting president a shot at the Prime Ministership knowing the facility of getting elected in a gerrymandered district. With billions of intelligence and PCSO/Pagcor funds, easily she could brook no opposition to her running as congresswoman.

An Aye vote to con-ass means assurance to campaign funds in May, 2010. These two Quezon congressmen have in the past made the same beeline in Malacanang several millions richer thereafter. Gloria is not the problem, it’s Enverga and Suarez, and the rest of their species. But from a long view, we are at fault for having lost the energy to get het up. The time for the mea culpas is over.

So we’re going local.

We’re going back to basics by actually campaigning against Enverga and Suarez for selling us to the devil. By campaigning against these two low lives by means fair or unfair is better than cursing the con-ass tonight and the many nights thereafter, and getting back to our normal lives tomorrow. These two low lives made our future unquestionably vague. We are not sitting down or be felled by rage fatigue one minute longer.

“Tut! tut!” cried Sherlock Holmes. “You must act, man, or you are lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for despair.” Sir Conan Doyle (The Five Orange Pips)

ABANTE, BIENVENIDO M. “BENNY” 6TH District Pandacan

ABLAN, ROQUE R. JR, Ilocos Norte, 1st District

AGBAYANI, VICTOR AGUEDO E. Pangasinan, 2nd District

AGYAO, MANUEL, S Kalinga Province

ALBANO (III), RODOLFO T. Isabela, 1st District

ALFELOR, FELIX R. JR. 4th District, Camarines Sur

ALMARIO, THELMA Z. Davao Oriental, 2nd District

ALVAREZ, ANTONIO C. Palawan 1st District

ALVAREZ, GENARO RAFAEL M. JR. Negros Occidental, 6th District

AMANTE, EDELMIRO A. Agusan Del Norte, 2nd District

AMATONG, ROMMEL C. Compostela Valley, 2nd District

ANGPING, MARIA ZENAIDA B. Manila, 3rd District

ANTONINO, RODOLFO W. Nueva Ecija, 4th District

APOSTOL, TRINIDAD G. Leyte, 2nd District

AQUINO, JOSE S. (II) 1st District Agusan del Norte

ARAGO, MARIA EVITA R. 3rd district, Laguna

ARBISON, A MUNIR M. Sulu 2nd District

ARENAS, MA. RACHEL J. Pangasinan, 3rd District

ARROYO, DIOSDADO M. Camarines Sur, 1st District

ARROYO, IGNACIO T. 5th district Negros Occidental

ARROYO, JUAN MIGUEL M. 2nd District of Pampanga

BAGATSING, AMADO S. Manila 5th district

BALINDONG, PANGALIAN M. Lanao del Sur, 2nd District

BARZAGA, ELPIDIO F. JR. Cavite, 2nd District

BAUTISTA, FRANKLIN P. Davao Del Sur, 2nd District

BELMONTE, VICENTE F. JR. Lanao del Norte, 1st District

BICHARA, AL FRANCIS C. Albay, 2nd District

BIRON, FERJENEL G. Iloilo, 4th District

BONDOC, ANNA YORK P. Pampanga 4th District

BONOAN-DAVID, MA. THERESA B. Manila, 4th District

BRAVO, NARCISO R. JR. Masbate, 1st District

BRIONES, NICANOR M. AGAP Party list

BUHAIN, EILEEN ERMITA Batangas, 1st District

BULUT, ELIAS C. JR. Apayao Lone District

CAGAS (IV), MARC DOUGLAS C. Davao Del Sur, 1st District

CAJAYON, MARY MITZI L. Caloocan, 2nd District

CAJES, ROBERTO C. Bohol, 2nd District

CARI, CARMEN L. Leyte, 5th District

CASTRO, FREDENIL H. Capiz, 2nd District

CELESTE, ARTHUR F. Pangasinan, 1st District

CERILLES, ANTONIO H. Zamboanga Del Sur, 2nd District

CHATTO, EDGARDO M. Bohol, 1st District

CHONG, GLENN A. Biliran, Lone District

CHUNG-LAO, SOLOMON R. Ifugao, Lone District

CLARETE, MARINA C. Misamis Occidental, 1st District

CODILLA, EUFROCINO M. SR. Leyte, 4th District

COJUANCO, MARK O. Pangasinan, 5th District

COQUILA, TEODULO M. Eastern Samar, Lone District

CRISOLOGO, VINCENT P. Quezon City, 1st District

CUA, JUNIE E. Quirino, Lone District

CUENCO, ANTONIO V. Cebu City, 2nd District

DANGWA, SAMUEL M. Benguet, Lone District

DATUMANONG, SIMEON A. Maguindanao, Lone District

DAYANGHIRANG, Nelson L. Davao Oriental, 1st District

DAZA, NANETTE C. Quezon City, 4th District

DAZA, PAUL R. Northern Samar, 1st District

DE GUZMAN, DEL R. Marikina City, 2nd District

DEFENSOR, ARTHUR D. SR. Iloilo, 3rd District

DEFENSOR, MATIAS V. JR. Quezon City, 3rd District

DEL MAR, RAUL V. Cebu City, 1st District

DIASNES, CARLO OLIVER D. (MD) Batanes, Lone District

DIMAPORO, ABDULLAH D. Lanao Del Norte, 2nd District

DOMOGAN, MAURICIO G. Baguio, Lone District

DUAVIT, MICHAEL JOHN R. Rizal, 1st District

DUENAS, HENRY M. JR. Taguig, 2nd District (2nd Councilor District)

DUMARPA, FAYSAH MRP. Lanao del Sur, 1st District

DUMPIT, THOMAS L. JR. La Union, 2nd District

DURANO (IV), RAMON H. 5th District, Cebu

ECLEO, GLENDA B. Dinagat Islands, Lone District

EMANO, YEVGENY VICENTE B. Misamis Oriental, 2nd District

ENVERGA, WILFRIDO MARK M. Quezon, 1st District

ESTRELLA, CONRADO M. (III) Pangasinan, 6th District

ESTRELLA, ROBERT RAYMUND M. ABONO Party List

FERRER, JEFFREY P. Negros Occidental, 4th District

GARAY, FLORENCIO C. Surigao Del Sur, 2nd District

GARCIA, ALBERT S. Bataan, 2nd District.

GARCIA, PABLO JOHN F. Cebu, 3rd District

GARCIA, PABLO P. Cebu, 2nd District

GARCIA, VINCENT J. Davao City, 2nd District

GARIN, JANETTE L. Iloilo, 1st District

GATCHALIAN, REXLON T. Valenzuela City, 1st District

GATLABAYAN, ANGELITO C. Antipolo City, 2nd District

GO, ARNULFO F. Sultan Kudarat, 2nd District

GONZALES, AURELIO D. JR. Pampanga 3rd District

GONZALES, RAUL T. JR. Ilo ilo City

GULLAS, EDUARDO R. Cebu, 1st District

GUNIGUNDO, MAGTANGGOL T. Valenzuela City 2nd District

HOFER, DULCE ANN K. Zamboanga Sibugay, 2nd District

JAAFAR, NUR G. Tawi-Tawi, Lone District

JALA, ADAM RELSON L. Bohol, 3rd District

JALOSJOS, CESAR G. Zamboanga del Norte, 3rd District

JALOSJOS-CARREON, CECILIA G. Zamboanga del Norte, 1st District

JIKIRI, YUSOP H. Sulu, 1st District

KHO, ANTONIO T. Masbate, 2nd District

LABADLABAD, ROSENDO S. Zamboanga del Norte, 2nd District

LACSON, JOSE CARLOS V. Negros Occidental, 3rd District

LAGDAMEO, ANTONIO F. JR. Davao del Norte, 2nd District

LAPUS, JECI A. Tarlac, 3rd District

LAZATIN, CARMELO F. Pampanga, 1st District

LIM, RENO G. Albay, 3rd District

LOPEZ, JAIME C. Manila, 2nd District

MADRONA, ELEANORA JESUS F. Romblon, Lone District

MAGSAYSAY, MARIA MILAGROS H. Zambales, 1st District

MALAPITAN, OSCAR G. Caloocan, 1st District

MAMBA, MANUEL N. Cagayan, 3rd District

MANGUDADATU, DATU PAKUNG S. Sultan Kudarat

MARANON, ALFREDO D. III Negros Occidental, 2nd District

MATUGAS, FRANCISCO T. Surigao del Norte, 1st District

MENDOZA, MARK LEANDRO L. Batangas, 4th District

MERCADO, ROGER G. Southern Leyte, Lone District

MIRAFLORES, FLORENCIO T. Aklan, Lone District

NAVA, JOAQUIN CARLOS RAHMAN A. (MD) Guimaras, Lone District

NICOLAS, REYLINA G. Bulacan, 4th District

NOGRALES, PROSPERO C. Davao City, 1st District

OLAÑO, ARREL R. Davao Del Norte, 1st District

ONG, EMIL L. Northern Samar, 2nd District

ORTEGA, VICTOR FRANCISCO C. La Union, 1st District

PABLO, ERNESTO C. APEC Party List

PANCHO, PEDRO M. Bulacan, 2nd District

PANCRUDO, CANDIDO P. JR. Bukidnon, 1st District

PICHAY, PHILIP A. Surigao Del Sur, 1st District

PIÑOL, BERNARDO F. JR. North Cotabato, 2nd District

PUNO, ROBERTO V. Antipolo City, 1st District

RAMIRO, HERMINIA M. Misamis Occidental, 2nd District

REMULLA, JESUS CRISPIN C. Cavite, 3rd District

REYES, CARMELITA O. Marinduque, Lone District

REYES, VICTORIA H. Batangas, 3rd District

ROBES, ARTURO G. San Jose Del Monte City, Lone District

RODRIGUEZ-ZALDARRIAGA, Adelina Rizal, 2nd District

ROMAN, HERMINIA B. Bataan, 1st District

ROMARATE, GUILLERMO A. JR. Surigao del Norte, 2nd District

ROMUALDEZ, FERDINAND MARTIN G. Leyte, 1st District

ROMUALDO, PEDRO Camiguin, Lone District

ROMULO, ROMAN T. Pasig City, Lone District

ROXAS, JOSE ANTONIO F. Pasay City

SALIMBANGON, BENHUR L. Cebu, 4th District

SALVACION JR., ANDRES D. Leyte, 3rd District

SAN LUIS, EDGAR S. Laguna, 4th District

SANDOVAL, ALVIN S. Malabon-Navotas, Lone District

SANTIAGO, JOSEPH A. Catanduanes, Lone District

SANTIAGO, NARCISO D. (III) ARC Party List

SEACHON-LANETE, RIZALINA L. 3rd district of Masbate

SEARES-LUNA, CECILIA M. Abra, Lone District

SILVERIO, LORNA C. Bulacan, 3rd District

SINGSON, ERIC D. Ilocos Sur, 2nd District

SINGSON, RONALD V. Ilocos Sur, 1st District

SOLIS, JOSE G. Sorsogon, 2nd District

SOON-RUIZ, NERISSA CORAZON Cebu, 6th District

SUAREZ, DANILO E. Quezon, 3rd District

SUSANO, MARY ANN L. Quezon City, 2nd District

SY-ALVARADO, MA. VICTORIA R. Bulacan, 1st District

SYJUCO, JUDY J. 2nd Dsitrict, Iloilo

TALINO-MENDOZA, EMMYLOU J. North Cotabato, 1st District

TAN, SHAREE ANN T. Samar, 2nd District

TEODORO, MARCELINO R. Marikina City, 1st District

TEODORO, MONICA LOUISSE PRIETO Tarlac, 1st District

TEVES, PRYDE HENRY A. Negros Oriental, 3rd District

TUPAS, NEIL C. JR. Iloilo, 5th District

UNGAB, ISIDRO T. Davao City, 3rd District

UY, EDWIN C. Isabela, 2nd District

UY, REYNALDO S. Samar, 1st District

UY, ROLANDO A. Cagayan De Oro City, Lone District

VALDEZ, EDGAR L. APEC Party List

VALENCIA, RODOLFO G. Oriental Mindoro, 1st District

VARGAS, FLORENCIO L. Cagayan, 2nd District

VILLAFUERTE, LUIS R. Camarines Sur, 2nd District

VILLAROSA, MA. AMELITA C. Occidental Mindoro, Lone District

VIOLAGO, JOSEPH GILBERT F. Nueva Ecija, 2nd District

YAP, JOSE V. Tarlac, 2nd District

YU, VICTOR J. Zamboanga Del Sur, 1st District

ZAMORA, MANUEL E. 1st District, Compostela Valley

ZIALCITA, EDUARDO C. Parañaque, 1st District

No related posts.

Here’s a letter from Aila Lenard of Bayanihan Times

from Down Under she sent to my sister, Judge Chona Pulgar-Navarro. Aila said

“Dear Chona and Daprosa –

I knew I had to write this letter in order to purge the sadness I feel for a young woman who could have been a friend, a sister, a daughter….

Your friend –
Aila”:

Dear Dr Reyes -

If the latest news item about you is true, then it is a relief to know that you have gone back to your daily routine as a doctor and resumed work on your other commitments. For a while, when nothing was heard from you, I couldn’t help but picture sad scenarios in my mind.

In my mind, I can see your mother and father consoling their daughter. Your parents, devastated  by the release of sex videos with you in them, are more hurt seeing you broken down by shame. You have been a dutiful and kind daughter to them. Not once have you caused them dishonour. You almost always gave them something to be proud of. They are proud of your achievements. You have studied well and graduated as a  doctor. Every time they see you on TV endorsing popular skin and women’s products, they knew that they have raised you well. But now that a sex video of you has been going around on the net, your image has been tarnished. They feel your sorrow and pain.

But what really concerns you are your parent’s feelings. It is the effect these events have on them that saddens you. You felt that you have marred your family’s reputation and this you couldn’t bear. As I close my eyes at night, I see you on the verge of despair and contemplating to end your young and productive life.

At other times I also imagine a scenario with you escaping to a foreign land. You leave behind a medical career that holds so much promise, a lucrative modelling job and a budding acting career. It will not be easy for you to start anew in a foreign land. I sigh at the prospect of you in self-imposed exile and losing everything you have worked hard for.

Some people might think that I am too imaginative but I have seen people go to pieces faced with a lesser problem. What happened although no fault of yours carries far-reaching consequences to yourself and your family. Only the toughest can survive it.

Your naked body was flaunted in public. It is a custom in our society that naked bodies are not to be displayed. In our country, women self consciously cover their cleavage or legs as they board a jeepney. (Ours is also a society that will go crazy over movies with nudity and sex scenes. People will line up to watch Ina Raymundo dance naked in Burlesque Queen, but we cringe at her nerve to do so.) Yet the whole nation has seen your naked body without your permission. What a blow this must be to your conservative parents!

But it is not only your naked body that was exposed, you were shown in the act of copulation. This exposure by far exceeded the furor caused by seeing a naked woman. Never has there been a sex video featuring a woman from a decent background, with above average beauty and intelligence, a graduate from one of the best schools around and above all, a professional doctor. There has never been one like this. This is not the norm. Beautiful and successful women from decent and well-to-do families are not supposed to sin. And this is what saddens you. You have given yourself in an act of passion to only one person. Yet this intimate moment became a public spectacle. People of all sorts have feasted their eyes on your naked body and some perhaps now harbour lewd desires towards you. People who are not supposed to be privy to that moment have dared to view it. What is more disturbing is that these same people, who were never supposed to witness that moment in the first place, are freely passing their judgment on you.

Such is the woeful situation you now confront. Many people have judged you unkindly. What they saw on the tape challenged their long-held values. They come from a culture that sets impossible standards for women, who when unable to attain  these standards are given cruel sanctions.

But if we analyse this incident carefully, what you did is defensible. You have done what any healthy and normal woman would do. You were in a private room with your partner. You are both young and at the peak of your sexuality. For you to satisfy a physiological need in a socially appropriate way is  in no way reprehensible. What two consenting unattached adults do in the privacy of their room is nobody’s business but their own. You can explore the various potentials of your desire wherever it may lead you.  So long as you act within bounds and no one is hurt or offended in the process, then you are free to express your sexuality with your partner. In your case, it is irrelevant to consider if people might think your private pursuit is distasteful or immoral.  This is not a matter for their moral consideration. Moral incorrectness does not arise in this case as you were both in love, free and consensually submitting to your sexual needs. What is immoral is  when people barge into a closed room and feel privileged to watch your intimate moments and then condemn what they have seen. This is what happened in exposing that tape. Your privacy was interfered with. You were judged unfairly.

So why should you be given a life sentence when you are the person aggrieved?  Those in the wrong should suffer and not you. The man who took this video without your knowledge should be punished. The brains who orchestrated the release of these videos out of jealousy or revenge should be punished even more. The person who capitalised on the distribution of these tapes should be sanctioned. These people may not have exposed their naked bodies but they have exposed their cruel and evil hearts.

But through all this injustice, you have decided to remain silent about the whole thing. Perhaps you do not wish for this controversy to escalate even more than it did. You do not want to be a spectacle once more in the senate. You have no desire for retribution. All you want is to put this nightmare behind you and move on.  Although it is a struggle, you are slowly reclaiming your life. Such an attitude is worthy of everyone’s respect.

Needless to say, everything with a negative effect has a concomitant positive reaction. One positive thing that has come out of your experience is that it has catapulted your name to soaring popularity. You have, without knowing it, somehow helped broaden people’s attitude about sex. Sex is a part of our lives regardless of our background and our looks. It should have a proper place in our existence, but it should not be the cornerstone of our values. We should free ourselves from the lingering guilt that sex is an expression of our lower selves and that yielding to our biological nature is vulgar. We should not allow sex to be more than what it is. It is simply a dimension of our lives and should be accepted as such and nothing more. Customary beliefs can no longer be accepted without question.

Although a number of people are easy to condemn you, some are more understanding. I have noticed this from people’s reaction on the internet. They view what happened with open minds. Some women identify with what you did. They do not see premarital sex as reprehensible. It is a choice an individual has to make. Some men admire you because you have shown that women can be a more active partner in the sex act and not simply a passive recipient of tenderness.  The sex tapes  have added scores to the number of your fans and admirers.

What you should focus on now is to take advantage of your increasing popularity by accepting more product endorsements and movie projects. The way things are, I am sure business companies are already lining up to get your endorsements. If companies have keen business sense, they should know that having you as an endorser of their product, automatically makes that product popular and ensures a market for it. Just make sure to get the services of a good business manager.

Concentrate on furthering your medical career. We need doctors who embody intelligence and humanity. We need doctors who are in touch with their own bodies and feelings; not simply diagnosticians. I foresee a future with you having your own TV show.  It wouldn’t surprise me if your show will have a “Doctor in the House’ format, an informative show with people asking you questions about health and beauty and perhaps, sex issues.

In ending this letter, let me give you my support for you are a woman of indomitable spirit. You did not allow yourself to be swallowed by the events that happened to you. You have remained resolute in the face of an insurmountable hurdle. You did not allow yourself to be a victim for long. Victims, after all, will only remain victims if they continue to act like one.

With time people will get to know you better. They will admire and respect you for what you do.  They will realise that what they saw in your sex video is just one aspect of yourself. It does not define who you are.

Yours in prayer –

Aila Lenard

Bayanihan Times

Related posts:

1. PUBLIC BEDROOM You can
2. WOMEN AT WAR There seem

You can’t remember sex. You can remember the fact of it, and recall the setting, and even the details, but the sex of the sex cannot be remembered, the substantive truth of it, it is by nature self-erasing, you can remember its anatomy and be left with a judgment as to the degree of your liking of it, but whatever it is as a splurge of being, as a loss, as a charge of the conviction of love stopping your heart like your execution, there is no memory of it in the brain, only the deduction that it happened and that time passed, leaving you with a silhouette that you want to fill in again. (E.L. Doctorow)

What made the cosmetic surgeon’s and the budding actress’ affair nonpareil was its currency with the use of instant computer propagation.

Spreading like wildfire, the rumor was soon validated by the crisp copies of the acts that made all of us privy to the architectural configuration of the couple’s bedroom.

Familiarity with the bed, the furniture, the crumpled bedding and their color, the texture of the light, what looks like a closet’s door ajar enabling a concealed camera its concentrated dedication, and of course the familiar mute fixture, the wall air-conditioning unit on the upper right side of the partition, brought us inside the skin of the dramatis personae. Not only were we taken within the inner sanctum, they allowed us to eavesdrop to their groans and passionate carnal conversations. It was the swiftness of the duplication where the viewer enjoys a copy right inside one’s privacy, reminiscent of the actors’ tryst or in vicarious participation with the protagonists that made the breaking controversy relentlessly appealing. The viewing convenience is transferred to one’s handphone thru Bluetooth and the ubiquitous CDs.

Of course we are all familiar with the participants. Katrina Halili is a commercial model and a movie bitplayer. Maricar Reyes is touted to be a medical doctor as well and a commercial model having graced an advertisement of a feminine hygiene product. The unnamed Brazilian is also into commercial modelling and a beauty titlist who has long left the country once the whiff of scandal permeated the air.

The 29-year old cosmetic surgeon has everything it takes to be a successful lothario. He has the unmistakeable physical attributes and on the intellect department, has formidable armament. He was generous and allowed his lovers to come. And we knew it. From foreplay to cuddling.

One wisecrack has said that the brain is the finest sexual organ. In which case, the good doctor is equipped with a double barrelled boner enough to skewer his partner into unimaginable heights of rapture. While into it, the voyeur in us failed to figure out what was whispered while the couple on the screen was in rhapsodic congress.

When asked how he recorded the trysts, the good doctor simply said all he has was a user friendly Sony video cam. It is self-focusing, he said. All he has to do is to activate the video-cam and align it towards the direction of the act of fornication. Uploading the representation, all he had was a UBS or a flash drive in transferring the image to his computer. Trying to be in the know, an idiot for a Senator asked the doctor, “what software did you use?” The doctor’s lawyer, Lorna Kapunan, whispered to his client that “no software was used, it was a hard drive.” Jinggoy Estrada agreed. He tried to be funny when he said in the midst of the investigation, “sa totoo lang hindi ko pa napapanood yong CDng yan.” It fell flat. He thought nobody heard it right, and it was pathetic of him when he repeated it.

For all his faults, the young doctor made the 3-hour Senate spectacle worth one’s while. It was one event good enough to kill your time.

But he has his worthy predecessors who had no luxury of his gadgetry. His predecessors before him held their people (and the world) in awe of their amazing equivalent exploits that lent to their immortality.

What sets apart the good doctor from the Don Juans of the past is that their legions of fans made do with their unbounded imagination absent any graphic representations of their exploits of the most beautiful women of their time. It was gossips, rumors, distant recollections of actual observers or witnesses, and some confessions.

There were no hidden cameras or similar explicit recording contraptions yet. The public was consumed by reports, official and unofficial, innuendos and anecdotes.

Who are these idols of yore that approximate the feats of the good doctor?

The international Diplomat and Playboy Porfirio Rubirosa, John Profumo, and the most recent, the verboten liaisons of Bill Clinton, and the disgraced Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer come to mind.

Rubirosa squired women known for their beauty, fame and fortune: Zsa Zsa Gabor, Eartha Kitt, Ava Gardner, Kim Novak, Rita Hayworth, the Empress Soraya of Iran, Doris Duke, and a host of curvaceous others. “One woman is not enough for him,” his second wife Danielle Darrieux, complained to the press.  “A man like him needs a harem.”

Asked about his most memorable encounter during a 50-year career as a musician, world-famous Dominican salsa bandleader Johnny Pacheco replied that it had been, unquestionably, his meeting fellow Dominican playboy Porfirio Rubirosa at the old Palladium Club in New York. Realizing that Rubirosa was in the audience as he was going up on the stage, he could only gasp: “ese tipo es un barbarazo.” A truly Dominican phrase that can be translated perhaps “that is quite a guy” or “he is a man’s man,” but which conveys a certain type of über maleness greatly admired on the island-a sort of macho’s macho.

Pacheco’s comments add one more grain of stardust to the myth of Rubirosa, reminding us of a figure that could only have materialized out of the excesses of the “era de Trujillo.” Describing his memorable encounter, Pacheco adds, that Rubirosa was “impeccably dressed,” without a single flaw in his appearance, “he was exquisitely groomed, from his nails to his hair, and he was accompanied by two well-known personalities, Kim Novak and Doris Duke.”

Rubirosa, Pacheco comments, was “very elegant and looked like a real man”-he was “impressive and loved” despite the fact that he “beat and later abandoned Trujillo’s daughter” (Flor de Oro, his first wife).

Conversations about Rubirosa tend to get slightly bawdy. Truman Capote famously wrote in his unfinished novel Answered Prayers, that Rubirosa’s principal attribute was “an 11-inch cafe au lait sinker as thick as a man’s wrist” while his state of permanent erection won him the nickname of “ever ready.” Trujillo, who continued to be loyal to Rubirosa even after his daughter divorced him, called him “an excellent diplomat because women adored him and he’s a liar.”

Asked if Rubirosa was his idol, Pacheco replied: “Anyone would like to be Rubirosa.”

Pacheco’s comments were made during a recent interview to mark his having been awarded the “Soberano,” the most important of the Casandra Awards of 2009.

As Shawn Levy amply documents in “The Last Playboy,” his bubbly, breathless and appropriately inconsequential biography, Rubirosa worked hard at having fun.  Well into his 50’s, when he crossed paths with the Rat Pack, he set a pace that few could match.  Sammy Davis Jr., wrecked and staggering after a night on the town with Rubi, ran into his host the next day at lunch.  Rubirosa, none the worse for wear, was leaning against the bar, elegantly turned out and casually sipping a Ramos gin fizz.  Davis asked him how he did it. “Your profession is being an entertainer,” Rubirosa said. “Mine is being a playboy.”

Rubirosa died in a car crash in 1965 after a nightlong binge in a night club in Paris.

Profumo is Britain’s Secretary of State for War during the watch of Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1963.

What was touted to be the Profumo scandal brought down a government during his time.

Profumo, in dinner-jacket, first met Christine Keeler, wearing nothing but a dripping towel, at the swimming pool of Cliveden, the country home of Lord Astor, in whose grounds Stephen Ward rented a cottage. Keeler was Ward’s guest, Profumo was Astor’s up at the “big house”. On the sultry evening of July 8, 1961, he had gone down to the pool with his host, and their wives, for a cooling after-dinner stroll. There, Keeler was frolicking naked and had hastily to cover herself. The impact of her partially draped charms was not lost on the minister. The next day at a swimming party at the pool, at which the Soviet naval attaché was also present, Profumo asked her for her telephone number.

Profumo and Captain Yevgeny Ivanov fought for Christine’s attention with boisterous water games. Keeler liked Ivanov, thinking he was a real mans man. By the end of the weekend Profumo had gotten Keelers phone number from Ward, but she went home with Ivanov. Ward heard all the details the following day, remarking “Goodness, with your friend Eugene one hand and your new friend (Profumo) you could start a war!”

A month earlier Ward had been approached by MI5 about his friendship with Ivanov, and the Wednesday following the weekend at Cliveden he mentioned that the war minister, Christine and Ivanove had spent the weekend in each others company…..

The first ‘date’ between Keeler and Profumo was a drive around London in the ministerial limousine. Although the young woman did not find John Profumo handsome, his aura of power both impressed Keeler and appealed to her. Profumo began to visit Keeler at Ward’s Wimpole Mews flat. He would usually take her for a drive until the coast was clear. She recalls, ‘Jack and I became lovers the third time he came around…We started laughing and talking as usual, then there was one of those electric potent silences…without a word we were embracing and he was kissing me.’

Despite possible worry about his wife, Profumo once took Keeler home, a grand Nash house in Regents Park. ‘It was late,’ said Keeler. ‘The butler and the rest of the staff were in bed…We crept around the lovely rooms. And then we got into their bedroom…’The couple made love, said Keeler, on the Profumos’ bed. The Minister exuded power. Sleeping with Profumo was, she reflected later, the way other people might feel about making love to a film star such as Marlon Brando.

The couple also made love in his car, and, once, in Regents Park. His presents to her included a Flaminaire cigarette lighter and £20 ‘for her mother’ – a polite way of paying for her services. Keeler later summed up the liaison as ‘a very well mannered screw of convenience; only in other people’s minds, much later, was it “An Affair”.’

As to Spitzer, he was a promising politician of the Democratic Party, once hyped as the next president. He fell from grace owing to an extended expensive liaison with a high-priced NY hooker, a $1,000-an-hour call girl New York City singer going by the name Ashley Alexandra Dupré (legal name Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro, born Ashley Youmans). As impeachment loomed, he resigned on March 12, 2008 as Governor effective at noon of March 17, 2008.

“I cannot allow for my private failings to disrupt the people’s work,” Spitzer said at a news conference in New York City. “Over the course of my public life, I have insisted – I believe correctly – that people take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself. For this reason, I am resigning from the office of governor.”

And Clinton? Well, a second look at Monica Lewinski paved to his public contrition and the eternal damnation of Hillary.

Fifty years from now long after you and I are gone, this good doctor of Vicky Belo will be talked over and over and his graphic appendage compared with the anecdotal dimensions of Rubirosa, Profumo, Clinton or Spitzer or his equally worthy successor.

In these consuming steamy encounters, we were singularly allowed to peek into the hows of the contra-puntal force of  convulsive physiques contrasting them with the hues of the stolid bedroom accouterments. The flat abdomens, the firm derrières, the sheen of the dermis, the unrest of the breasts, the faith of the thrusts. These were denied us in l’affairs Profumo, the conquests of Rubirosa, and the downfall of Spitzer.

Pacheco was right. “Anyone wants to be a Rubirosa.”

Henry Miller said, “Sex is one of the nine reasons for reincarnation. The other eight are unimportant.”

No related posts.

Philstar.com reported the following news item:

OSG asks court to stop audit of ‘Big 3′ oil firms

By Sandy Araneta Updated May 23, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines – The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) urged a Manila regional trial court (RTC) yesterday to reconsider its decision ordering an audit of the “books of account” of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Chevron Corp. and Petron Corp., the country’s three largest oil firms.

In two orders dated April 27 and May 5, Manila Judge Silvino Pampilo Jr. directed the Commission on Audit (COA), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to form a panel of examiners to conduct the audit and find out whether the firms committed cartelization and predatory pricing under the Oil Deregulation Act (Republic Act 8479) and monopoly and combination in restraint of trade prohibited under the Revised Penal Code.

Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera, in a motion for reconsideration, said the government agencies would be exceeding their own mandate if they are compelled to conduct the audit.

The OSG branded the court’s order as “unwarranted,” saying “it would be improper and unjust to demand compliance with what is not sanctioned by law.”

“Consequently, since the examination of the books of accounts of the respondents are beyond the mandate and jurisdictions of the COA, BIR and BOC, it would be legally impossible for said government agencies to comply with the order,” the OSG said.

The OSG cited the case of “Cui v. Cui,” which provides that “one can do lawfully only those things and can do them only in the manner prescribed by the law of its charter and of the state, and whatever may be the purpose of its creation.”

The order stemmed from a petition for declaratory relief filed by civil society group Social Justice Society (SJS), requesting the opening and examination of the three oil firms’ books of account. The group contended that their request is necessitated by a strong public interest and the need to uncover the mystery surrounding the frequent increases in the prices of petroleum products.

The three oil firms have filed separate motions to dismiss the petition.

Devanadera said the COA, BIR, and BOC can only examine the oil firms’ books if it is for the purpose of determining tax liabilities, franchise taxes, customs and tariff duties as well as for the fixing of rates of public utilities.

The OSG argued the ordered examination is not sanctioned by the Rules of Court or by RA 8479. The OSG lawyers said the rules cover only the production and inspection of the books or documents being requested by the other party.

The OSG cited Black’s Law Dictionary in contending that inspection and audit “are two different matters.”

The OSG said inspection involves an examination by a private person of public records and documents, or the books and papers of his opponent in an action, for the purpose of better preparing his own case for trial.

An audit is defined as an official investigation and examination of accounts and vouchers.

The OSG also said RA 8479 grants jurisdiction to the court in cases involving cartelization and predatory pricing, but only after the Department of Justice-Department of Energy Task Force deems there has been such a violation and directed the prosecutor to file the appropriate complaint.

The OSG also said “the audit of the respondents, which are private corporations, is not within the jurisdiction and mandate of the COA, BIR and BOC.”

The COA is limited to auditing the government or any of its subdivisions, agencies, or instrumentalities, including government-owned or controlled bodies with original charters.

“Not being public utilities, the COA does not have the power and authority to examined respondents’ books of account in connection with the fixing of rates of regulatory bodies and prices of petroleum products and for the purpose of fixing the franchise taxes,” the OSG said.

The OSG said the BOC can only examine the oil companies’ books of account only for the purpose of determining proper payment of duties and taxes by an importer.

Solicitor Agnes Devanadera showed her legal ineptitude by filing what looks like a pleading urging Manila Judge Silvino Pampilo Jr. to reconsider his earlier ruling directing concerned government agencies to conduct meticulous audit to determine whether the giant oil firms “committed cartelization and predatory pricing under the Oil Deregulation Act (Republic Act 8479) and monopoly and combination in restraint of trade prohibited under the Revised Penal Code.”

The OSG, as the government’s or for that matter, the people’s counsel, failed to champion the latter’s interest. Devanadera exhibited myopia in her unthinking defense of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Chevron Corp. and Petron Corp., the country’s three largest oil firms.

By submitting an MR short of foresight and intensity, it reveals a questionable competence of the Solicitor General who happens to be applying as Justice of the Supreme Court in the forthcoming avalanche of vacancies. While the venerable Jovito Salonga and his Kilosbayan are busied up in the impeachment of another Palace protégé who played her role like no other, Devanadera’s patron is ready to bushwhack us again by the latter’s sly High Court designation.

Devanadera fails to grasp her role as defender of the people’s interest. The OSG was helmed in the past by men (Devanadera is the first woman SolGen) with unquestionable patriotism. To name a few: Ramon Avanceña, Quintin Paredes, Lorenzo Tanada, Ambrosio Padilla, and Sedfrey A. Ordoñez.  The presidents who appointed these giants knew that the OSG is the first rampart in the defense of the people’s interest. Appointment to this office is usually attended with bipartisanship or multi- partisanship, if you will, and not a spoil to be parlayed to a loyal gofer.

Devanadera, with her credentials, and now her pending MR, betrays her diminished stature against the firmament that adorns her predecessors.

By banking on Cui v. Cui, the OSG glosses over the greater significance of the public interest case filed by the civil society group Social Justice Society (SJS). It should have joined the petitioners in cajoling the Big 3 into exposing their books.

We don’t have oil like Venezuela. But Hugo Chavez is wise enough to channel his profit from the nationalized oil companies to addressing poverty in his country. As a third world country gas guzzler, the OSG instead should have initiated the inquiry.

Aren’t we conditioned to the idea that the president is a top-notch economist and has gained accolade for allegedly managing well our moribund economy? The price of oil if interpolated in every aspect of production spells the destiny of our economy. Hence, the OSG has the bounden duty to compel the Big 3 to open up their journals.

But Devanadera misses the point. Over and above what Devanadera says “one can do lawfully only those things and can do them only in the manner prescribed by the law of its charter and of the state, and whatever may be the purpose of its creation,” she hasn’t heard of the principle of parens patriae.

PARENS PATRIAE – Lat. “parent of his country.” Used when the government acts on behalf of a child or mentally ill person. Refers to the “state” as the guardian of minors and incompetent people.

[Latin, Parent of the country.] A doctrine that grants the inherent power and authority of the state to protect persons who are legally unable to act on their own behalf.

The parens patriae doctrine has its roots in English Common Law. In feudal times various obligations and powers, collectively referred to as the “royal prerogative,” were reserved to the king. The king exercised these functions in his role of father of the country.

In the United States, the parens patriae doctrine has had its greatest application in the treatment of children, mentally ill persons, and other individuals who are legally incompetent to manage their affairs. The state is the supreme guardian of all children within its jurisdiction, and state courts have the inherent power to intervene to protect the best interests of children whose welfare is jeopardized by controversies between parents. This inherent power is generally supplemented by legislative acts that define the scope of child protection in a state.

The state, acting as parens patriae, can make decisions regarding mental health treatment on behalf of one who is mentally incompetent to make the decision on his or her own behalf, but the extent of the state’s intrusion is limited to reasonable and necessary treatment.

The doctrine of parens patriae has been expanded in the United States to permit the attorney general of a state to commence litigation for the benefit of state residents for federal antitrust violations (15 U.S.C.A. § 15c). This authority is intended to further the public trust, safeguard the general and economic welfare of a state’s residents, protect residents from illegal practices, and assure that the benefits of federal law are not denied to the general population.

States may also invoke parens patriae to protect interests such as the health, comfort, and welfare of the people, interstate Water Rights, and the general economy of the state. For a state to have standing to sue under the doctrine, it must be more than a nominal party without a real interest of its own and must articulate an interest apart from the interests of particular private parties.

[Latin, Parent of the country.] A doctrine that grants the inherent power and authority of the state to protect persons who are legally unable to act on their own behalf.

The parens patriae doctrine has its roots in English COMMON LAW. In feudal times various obligations and powers, collectively referred to as the “royal prerogative,” were reserved to the king. The king exercised these functions in his role of father of the country.

In the United States, the parens patriae doctrine has had its greatest application in the treatment of children, mentally ill persons, and other individuals who are legally incompetent to manage their affairs. The state is the supreme guardian of all children within its jurisdiction, and state courts have the inherent power to intervene to protect the best interests of children whose welfare is jeopardized by controversies between parents. This inherent power is generally supplemented by legislative acts that define the scope of child protection in a state.

The state, acting as parens patriae, can make decisions regarding mental health treatment on behalf of one who is mentally incompetent to make the decision on his or her own behalf, but the extent of the state’s intrusion is limited to reasonable and necessary treatment.

The doctrine of parens patriae has been expanded in the United States to permit the attorney general of a state to commence litigation for the benefit of state residents for federal antitrust violations (15 U.S.C.A. § 15c). This authority is intended to further the public trust, safeguard the general and economic welfare of a state’s residents, protect residents from illegal practices, and assure that the benefits of federal law are not denied to the general population.

States may also invoke parens patriae to protect interests such as the health, comfort, and welfare of the people, interstate WATER RIGHTS, and the general economy of the state. For a state to have standing to sue under the doctrine, it must be more than a nominal party without a real interest of its own and must articulate an interest apart from the interests of particular private parties (courtesy of Atty. Arturo Achacoso).

In U.S. litigation, parens patriae can be invoked by the state to create its standing to sue; the state declares itself to be suing on behalf of its people. For example, the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act of 1976 (15 USC 15(c)), through Section 4C of the Clayton Act, permits state attorneys general to bring parens patriae suits on behalf of those injured by violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

The OSG has a slew of legal armaments in bulldozing what appears to be stonewalling by the Big 3 oil dealers. Among them are police power, taxing power, eminent domain, the general welfare clause, and in this case, we need the tender loving care of the government by its exercise of parens patriae which regrettably Devanadera sloppily missed.

While she’s at it, this SC justice wannabe went along with the recommendation of a former SolGen, Estelito Mendoza, in firing a fine and competent litigator from the PCGG in charge of running after the questionable wealth of El Kapitan, Lucio Tan. This takes the cake because Titong Medoza, a vaunted trial lawyer hereabouts represents the owner of Fortune Tobacco. Atty. Catalino Generillo was doing an absolutely novel, yet effective, legal strategy in ferreting out the truth from the more than of a quarter of a century old sequestration cases against Tan. From all indications, the falling out of the brothers Tan and Mariano Tanenglian is divine intervention, not to mention the determination of Imelda Marcos to spill what she heard between her husband and Tan while the duo was talking shop. Perhaps this is the closure that we as a people have been waiting for, courtesy of Atty. Generillo. The Sandiganbayan is a trial court. The business of a trial court is to find out what happened by laying out the facts straight from the witnesses’ mouths. It has no business yet to rule on the finer points of the law. Substantial justice permeates the Rules of Court.

Still and all, regrettably, Devanadera approved the sacking of Generillo, assisting in the process her adversary. And we praise to high heavens the trial skills of Titong Mendoza.

No related posts.

Rummaging thru files, we came across news clippings on the complete bar results in 1963. There’s not much difference on how the announcement was made from how the media do it today. Breaking the bar results is a big event then and now.

It looks like from whence the Supreme Court has handled the bar examinations in obedience to the 1935 Constitution, it made public not only the successful examinees, but their grades as well.

From the Class of 1962 from the University of the Philippines, Ateneo, San Beda, University of Santo Tomas and other law schools, familiar names made it in what was touted as a tough barrister’s gauntlet: Chief Justice Reynato Puno, Justices Minita Chico-Nazario, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Ma. Alicia Austria-Martinez, Ruben Reyes, Adolf Azcuna, Fr. Joaquin Bernas, and the late Haydee Yorac.

The last three managed to land among the top ten in that year’s bar examinations, whereas the rest just managed to pass.

No related posts.

“ASUNCION, PARAGUAY-A third woman came forward Wednesday claiming Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, a former bishop, is the father of her child-this one a 16-month-old boy she named after late Pope John Paul II.

The growing number of paternity claims against Lugo less than a year into his presidency has embarrassed the government and put the opposition on the attack. But in Paraguay’s macho culture, political analysts say the idea that the former bishop has fathered multiple children may even help him, by making him appear to be a strong leader.

The latest woman to claim a child with Lugo is a 39-year-old divorcee with two adult children who said she met Lugo three years ago, after he gave up his church leadership position. And while the two other women are pursuing paternity claims, she says she has no plans to sue the president.

Damiana Hortensia Moran Amarilla told the newspaper ABC that her son Juan Pablo (John Paul) “is the fruit of a relationship that came out of a great love, total surrender.”

Paraguayan newspaper Ultima Hora reported that the first woman to come forward, his former parishioner Viviana Carrillo, now 26, moved into the president’s home along with her 2-year-old boy.

Lugo, known as the “bishop of the poor” before he quit the church, has recognized Carillo’s boy as his son and even remarked that they looked alike. He acknowledged fathering the child “with honesty, as a Paraguayan, as a Christian” and in homage to the people who elected him president.”(Paraguay leader dogged by paternity claims Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 13:05:00 04/24/2009)

After 8 years of Bill Clinton’s Lewinski, the American people thought ’twas time to regain their moral compass by electing a monogamous George Bush (he’s in bed @ 9pm, shuns alcohol and nicotine, a physical fitness buff. In other words, a fine specimen of a mortal angel).

We don’t know if Bush’s and Dick Cheney’s 8 years was the direction they really wanted to take, with thousands of GI’s death and a-no-end-sight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a host of other “moral” issues (like the Halliburton fixed billion-dollar deals in Iraq, Cheney’s previous connection with it is well known. As a certified lame duck Vice President, he has reason to rejoice for economic resurrection upon retirement. The Democrats didn’t give a hoot.)

Closer to home, we’ve seen in full circle the whole gamut of history repeating itself.

As Arnold Toynbee famously said, “Of the twenty-two civilizations that have appeared in history, nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is in now.”

We kicked out the thieving Marcos conjugal partnership. In its place, we installed a saint who led us to inaction and prayers.

Erap and his nocturnal Malacanang pirates were shoved in the calaboose. Immediately we mounted a moral pygmy onto our own pedestal pining for a “gentler, and better presidency.” We were soon disillusioned when we were introduced rudely to her incredibly rapacious estranged espouse. (Erap in hindsight was nanghihinayang with the unbeatable team up of Erap with Lito Lapid in May, 1998. He harassed Lito with myriad Ombudsman cases that led to the latter’s suspension early on the former’s presidency. Had Lito been Erap’s Vice President, Ramos and company could have thought a million times before undermining Erap’s helm).

Asked why he had not replaced Spiro Agnew on the 1972 ticket, Richard Nixon replied, that Agnew was his “insurance policy” because “no assassin in his right mind would kill me.”

So, let’s cease pontificating about morals. As Vittorio De Sica remarked, “moral indignation in most cases is, 2% moral, 48% indignation, and 50% envy.”

An amorous bishop? Well, maybe Bishop Lugo found himself deluded finally by Rules he found romantic in his youth.

Let’s not deny him his happiness per his Rules at last.

No related posts.

Revolutions are periods of history where individuals count most…..Norman Mailer

We are always reminded about the man who rode the tiger and ended up mortally afraid getting off. Ferdinand Marcos toyed with it and became a hostage to his creation. General Ver and company was a tough pack to mollify. Marcos ended up monkey-grooming the then voracious tiger.

GMA, from day one, has her own club of cubs. She has Leandro Mendoza, Reynaldo Berroya, Hermogenes Ebdane, Angelo Reyes, and Hermogenes Esperon. With these retired generals on board, that includes their mistahs from the Philippine Military Academy. GMA gladly accommodated them in low-key agencies whose top honchos don’t require confirmation from the brokerage called the Commission on Appointments.

Balancing these testosterone-laden PMA alumni with no combat experience, GMA recruited Jovito Palparan as a consultant, an outsider with a reputation that precedes him. Palparan was the first military general openly acknowledged by the President in her speech before Congress, congratulating him about his administering the local communists of their own brand of medicine. His watch saw the disappearances of hundreds of suspected enemies of the state.

Soon thereafter, Justice Jose Melo submitted to the Office of the President an embarrassing report pinpointing Palparan to having a hand in the disappearances of  activists critical of the government. The Melo Report was downplayed. Her unabashed admiration of Palparan, a virtual acquiescence to his search and destroy tactic against the insurgents,  expressed in no less than the halls of Congress made the President anti-revolutionary in the eyes of the local communists. She was the only President who made her quarrel with the NPA and its aboveground fronts a personal one. By siccing Palparan on the leftists, it was tactical error on GMA. Her latest effort on appeasement with Joma Sison does not mean anything. By her failure to substantiate the Murder charges against Sison in the Netherlands in the assassination of his erstwhile comrades, preliminary to extradition, she thought was enough to placate the local insurgents. With less than 12 months in office, the lame duck Chief Executive wants an assurance from her Cabalen Sison that all’s well in her retirement.

Then came the UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston Report implicating the Philippine police and military as responsible for the crimes. Alston charged in his report that Arroyo’s propaganda and counter-insurgency strategy “encourage or facilitate the extra-judicial killings of activists and other enemies” of the state and that “the AFP remains in a state of almost total denial… of its need to respond effectively and authentically to the significant number of killings which have been convincingly attributed to them.”

It looks like the President is surrounded with military morons who are only interested in the continuity of their privileges. In the dying hours of the Arroyo regime, these useful idiots are up to another mischief: the Charter Change. But this too has been scuttled.

How about an Autogolpe?

The next viable option is staging a self-coup (autogolpe), a la Alberto Fujimori of Peru. But this was made possible only because of a hostile Peruvian Congress controlled by the opposition. The ensuing gridlocks made Congress more unpopular than the newly minted Presidency of Fujimori who campaigned under the banner Cambio ‘90 (Change, very much like Barack Obama’s). GMA got what she wants from her mendicant Congress assured of crumbs from project costs cuts.

Unlike Fujimori’s Peru, GMA suffers subterranean dissatisfaction ratings. But a majority of her ex-military factotums are one in saying that an autogolpe would not trigger a new EDSA. From her Garci confession, they chorused, and the series of her husband’s interference in government contracts that made her family exponentially rich, the people allowed her to rule undisturbed. Cory Aquino is sick, the Cardinal is dead, the CBCP has been bought, and the opposition are peopled with clowns.

Finally, the Pinoys suffer from rage fatigue. What prevents GMA and her military minions from embarking on autogolpe is the fear of international condemnation. With her reeking corruption reputation, Barack Obama refuses to meet his Philippine counterpart. Obama’s telephone call delay to GMA speaks of volume. This was compounded by his virtual snub on her in one American conference, the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC attended by US allies.

Remember, it was the Democrats who gave us moral support when Ronald Reagan commented that “cheating was reported on both sides” during the 1986 snap elections. Stephen Solarz, a dyed-in-the-wool NY Democrat, stood by Cory in the aftermath of what was described by the CBCP as an “election unequalled in fraudulence.” With their sad experience in the 2000 presidential elections which went down in US history as the “election decided by the Courts,” the Democrats have enough of election cheats.

GMA as House Speaker

GMA toys with other options. If Hillary Clinton can run for a Senate seat right after her husband’s tenure, why can’t Gloria be a congressman in 2010 and enjoy parliamentary immunity? Her bayaw Iggy Arroyo escaped a Senate inquisition when he wrangled a congressional seat from their Negros hometown district. The senators were stymied when the presidential brother-in-law dropped his “right to privacy” and was never bothered again.

As Pampanga congressman, GMA may represent her party in the powerful Commission on Appointments and use her influence as leverage in the appointment of Supreme Court justices. With immunity from arrest, she can manoeuvre in the selection of the Ombusman’s replacement. She can even be the Speaker of the House, holding the purse of the Republic. As member of Congress, she recasts her awesome presence there enough to soften a recalcitrant President out to satisfy the cry for blood from his allies who were wronged when GMA was President. Up her sleeve is another Ace, the power of impeachment that only the House of Representatives can exercise. Any attempt to railroad a forest of criminal cases against her right after her term would be derailed once she marshal her aging lieutenants in the House with the likes of Louie Villafuerte, Edcel Lagman, Girlie Villarosa, and Danny Suarez.

In other words, what we’re saying is that nothing much could be achieved by the new President, after GMA. Whatever he promised in the campaign would just go for naught and again we are mired in endless politics where impeachment cases are filed year after year disconcerting the incumbent. With the new President busy warding off imminent impeachments while simultaneously prosecuting another ex-president, the affairs of government are relegated in the backburners. We achieve nothing but stagnation. While the rest of our Asian neighbours gallop outside the paralyzing economic burnout. Why allow another six years of stand-off? Is there no alternative other than predictable elections? Something has to be done or we’re done.

Military Intervention

It happened in Thailand. Under the pretext that the popular Thaksin Shinawatra was out undermining the monarchy, the Thai military ousted him in a sweeping coup.

In the evening of 19 September 2006, while Thaksin was visiting New York City, USA to attend a United Nations summit and speak at the Council on Foreign Relations, the army took control of Bangkok. At Government House, some 50 soldiers ordered approximately 220 policemen in the complex to lay down their weapons. Troops also surrounded the Thaicom satellite receiving station and state-run television station Channel 11. By the morning of 20 September, tanks and military vehicles armed with machine guns were stationed at Government House, the Royal Plaza and government units along Rajdamnoen Avenue.

This was met with widespread protest among the people who have found comfort in a democratic system. TIME reported:

Protests against Thailand’s ruling junta spilled onto Bangkok streets over the weekend, with an estimated 13,000 demonstrators calling for the resignation of the military leaders who masterminded a bloodless coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last September. The marches were the largest show of dissatisfaction to date against coup architect Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin and junta-appointed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont. While the bulk of the protesters came from within Thaksin’s followers, they also included a wide range of other interest groups, a worrisome sign for a government already under scrutiny from overseas investors and businessmen worried about the kingdom’s stability. The fear is that the tensions between civilian protesters and the military government could explode in violence and even further damage Thailand’s image and prosperity.

Martial law was partially revoked in January 2007. The ban on political activities was lifted in July 2007, following the 30 May dissolution of the Thai Rak Thai party. The new constitution has been approved by a referendum on 19 August, which led to a return to democratic elections on 23 December 2007.

The People’s Power Party (Thailand), led by Samak Sundaravej formed a government with five smaller parties. Following several court rulings against him in a variety of scandals, and surviving a vote of no confidence, and protesters blockading government buildings and airports, in September 2008, Sundaravej was removed from office by the Constitutional Court of Thailand. He was replaced by PPP member Somchai Wongsawat. As of October 2008, Wongsawat was unable to access his offices, which were occupied by protesters from the People’s Alliance for Democracy. On December 2, 2008, Thailand’s Constitutional Court banned the ruling Peoples Power Party.[20]After defections from smaller parties the opposition Democrats Party was able to form a government, a first for the party since 2001. The leader of the Democrat party, and former Leader of the Opposition, Abhisit Vejjajiva was appointed and sworn-in as the 27th Prime Minister, together with the new Cabinet on the 17 December 2008.

It was a brief flirting with martial power. The military top brass who engineered the coup graciously relinquished power by calling new democratic elections. Asian military have learned from the lessons of history. By holding on to power, they might turn into a Myanmar. The past has given them a glimpse of what it was like under martial law. Park Chung Hee, Chang Kai Chek, and Ferdinand Marcos did it and toyed with it, and failed.

Today, notwithstanding civil unrest, Thailand is in the hands of a civilian government.

The Pakistan Experience

In 1999, General Pervez Musharraf, the head of Pakistan Military staged a coup d’ etat against the civilian government of Nawaz Sharif. Mujsharraf assumed executive powers. In 2001, Musharraf became President after the controversial resignation of Rafiq Tarar. After the 2002 parliamentary elections, Musharraf transferred executive powers to newly-elected Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who was succeeded in the 2004 prime-ministerial election by Shaukat Aziz. On 15 November 2007 the National Assembly completed its tenure and new elections were called.

The exiled political leaders Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were permitted to return to Pakistan. However, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December during election campaign led to postponement of elections and nationwide riots. Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) won the most number of seats in the elections held in February 2008 and its member Yousaf Raza Gillani was sworn in as Prime Minister. On 18 August 2008, Pervez Musharaff resigned from the presidency when faced with impeachment.

The threat of impeachment against Musharraf was a neat subterfuge to give the General a graceful, yet honourable exit of which he was never denied. With the ascension of Benazir Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, as President, Pakistan tiptoes on political, social, and religious eggshells.

Applying the Thai and Pakistani Experience

Nonetheless, these two countries not too distant from the Philippines in temperament and history (we have approximately the same number of population) survived the stigma of recent military adventurism all in the spirit of ironing out their democratic kinks.

Certainly, “democracy is imperfect but it has room for improvement”, and going thru the crisis of military involvement to fast track vital reforms in nationhood is not too bitter a medicine to take.

The military in the region has found a new role: that of a catalyst in the immediate untangling of paralysing impasse. And that becomes a welcome development.

If it can happen to the Thais and the Pakistanis, a military ironing out becomes a strong possibility here. Perhaps it is the ultimate if not the perfect solution to our rambunctious democracy pejoratively described by Lee Kuan Yew as “Philippine type-democracy”.

True, much of our system is copied verbatim from the American mold. Our press is the freeiest in the world if not in Asia. Our Rule of Law, a fundamental American concept is a myth. Our idea of Due Process of Law is skewed as it meant delay in our queer judicial system, manned by personnel steeped in cultural quirks of the Filipinos.

A Philippine Coup

With the likes of Prospero Nograles and Luis Villafuerte trying to make a fast one on us, will just set us back in the dark ages. Their formula of transition from presidential form to parliamentary just won’t stick. Their corrupt mucus is all over their gluey agenda. Let us not leave our salvation to the politicians alone.

What we need is a short-lived coup or a Pronunciamento managed by credible current and former military figures tempered with respected civilian counterparts. A Pronunciamento is the Spanish and Hispano American analogue of coup d’état; golpe de estado (coup d’état) is the usual, Spanish phrase. The Pronunciamento is the formal explanation for deposing the regnant government, justifying the installation of the new government that was effected with the golpe de estado). Edward Luttwak explains how a coup d’état and a pronunciamento are different; in the former, a military faction deposes the civilian government and assumes power, in the latter, the military depose the civil government and install another civil government.

Coup Sparkplugs

The sitting Army Chief of Staff, General Alexander Yano comes across as an acceptable counterpart of Thailand’s General Surayud Chulanont and Pakistan’s General Pervez Mussharaf. His sterling military record is enough to give him the credentials to initiating a Pronunciamento. Yano’s overall ascendancy in the Army is the main component of the Pronunciamento.

From 2001, we have seen the quick carousel of army chiefs barely warming up the post. After their tour of duty, they were promptly appointed to some high-profile government agency with opportunity to feather nest. Look at Narciso Abaya, Generoso Senga, Hermogenes Esperon and a host of others who opted to tread the conventional route and faded into oblivion.

Given our familiarity with People Power, Yano shall be backstopped by FVR, Jovito Salonga, Bishop Oscar Cruz, and Frank Drilon (or Justice Antonio Carpio). FVR shall give direction and leadership to the putsch. While Salonga and Drilon or Carpio shall clothe it with legal documentation or facade. Drilon and Carpio have enviable background in government. Drilon initially worked in the Executive department and transitioned to the legislature. Carpio on the other hand started in the Office of the President and currently a justice of the High Court. He was the ponente of the Supreme Court decision scuttling a nascent Charter Initiative bankrolled by the Palace tenant. In trashing the amendment move via People’s Initiative, Carpio said, “an initiative that gathers signatures from the people without first showing to them the full text of the proposed amendments is most likely a deception, and can operate as a gigantic fraud on the people.” Justice, now Chief Justice, Reynato Puno, in a quid pro quo,  vigorously dissented in that case. The good Bishop, a soft and gentle texture of the coup. With these statesmen, the international community will go easy on the coup leaders. The US might even be immediately in the background given the reputation of Ramos as an American Boy, to fortify the ranks of the putschists. With US sympathy, this coup gains international recognition.

A New Constitution or Amendments to Existing One

The New Order shall of course have to suspend the Constitution, and naturally the basic freedoms under the Bill of Rights. Congress is dissolved and the dyed-in-the-wool clique of GMA incarcerated pronto and shamed in public. This will give the people some kind of catharsis denied us during the previous couple of People Power. Whether the New Order allows the first family to escape or sent in exile is a business decision for them to wrestle on.

In the mean time, and faithful to a Time and Motion Study, an FVR forte, the new government should start convening a constitutional convention. Whether assembled thru appointment or election is again a business decision dependent on the ground temperament. A 6-month contract time is enough for this assembly to draft a new constitution whose centrepiece is a parliament. In it, Anti-Dynasty is defined and is self-implementing without need of legislative refinements. After ratification, a general election is announced. We’ve been thru this, with a difference however.

With a new constitution in place the Pronunciamento calls for simultaneous general elections attended and observed by United Nations representatives. With the results out, a new civilian government is formed and inaugurated. The Pronunciamento transfers power without reservation to the new civilian government.

What to do before elections?

Cruz should by then has barnstormed the countryside and marketed the new government’s agenda. Using the network of the parishes would make the job of Cruz a breeze. His approach is on reconciliation and ecumenism. His previous media exposure as a crusading religious makes his persona a familiar one.

FVR, with the help of his former public works secretaries, embarks in a frenzy of public works. We tap his experience in solving our energy problem in just twelve months in 1992. Perhaps by this time he has already learned his lessons by avoiding the equivalent of “take or pay” escape valve adverse to the national interest.

The North and South Rails are laid down and made operational without delay. The South and North Expressways are extended to Gumaca, Quezon and Baguio, respectively, reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s Autobahn. A new Pacific Highway is inaugurated connecting Manila to Infanta and Atimonan, Quezon as the new gateway to Bicolandia and the rest of the country. The water resources of General Nakar are tapped for National Capital Region’s water requirements. The Visayas is crisscrossed with state-of-the arts maritime vessels cum international-standard ports. Mindanao gets its new circumferential railway system.

Doubting Thomases will question the likelihood of these impact projects done in so short a time. On the contrary, with the advent of civil engineering marvels and globalization, we can avail ourselves of technology transfer and the latest equipment to initiate these impact projects. It now takes a little shy of 3 years to build a city. China has taught us that it can erect cities after cities in its vast territory in just a wink of an eye.

Does this sound ambitious? Marcos did this before on commission basis regretfully. But Cruz and Salonga at the helm, project grafts are avoided. Gear up on mining and stimulate job creation. Blunt the atavistic obstruction of the religious and the communists on the mining industry. Or initiate state take over of all mining companies and stockpile on metals anticipatory of increasing world demand.

Prior to handing over power to a civilian government, issue a Pronunciamento decree banning turncoatism and imposing stern penalty with perpetual disqualification to hold public office. Approaching 40 years after Martial Law, we have in our archives sound and wiser presidential decrees issued by Marcos which we find useful today. The short-lived Junta should attempt to regulate our behavior, like no-smoking in public, car color coding, and loading/unloading in designated bus stops. These regulatory policies were unheard of 50 years ago.

Land reform is zealously implemented by breaking century-old landed estates like the Hacienda Luisita, a bitter-taste medicine indeed. Squatters are uprooted and relocated in self-sustaining relocation communities with convenient access to the cities. Sidewalks are restored to pedestrian use.

In just a wink of an eye, we transport ourselves to a less stressful form of government where consensus is zealously sought, the parliament. By merging the executive and lawmaking, we make the art of government smooth and productive. All this becomes possible when our military truly performs its role as protector of the people.

The new civilian government picks up from where the Pronunciamento left whose members showed extraordinary patriotism shall forever be in the hearts of a grateful people.

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By lowering the passing grade from 75% (fixed by the Rules) to 72.5%, the Supreme Court unbelievably jacked up the numbers of unemployed lawyers. It failed to see the economic and social cost of more lawyers into the mainstream in the face of the now sobering economic downturn.

Who needs a litigation or a legal fix in these days of want? With the unreined in judicial process that we have, throwing in affray a thousand more lawyers betrays insensibility and ignorance in social engineering. What we need are nuclear engineers. We need lawyers like a hole in the temple. In Japan, an increase of 100 lawyers annually is a cause of concern. And they have a population double that of this third world country!

Only in the Philippines do we have an average of 20 years to terminate a court case. Delay is endemic and the exercise of discretion becomes a commercial endeavour.

The Office of the Ombudsman, for instance, is notorious in the delay department. Not only that. Its officials openly peddle the desired results among the protagonists of pending cases before it. Talk about life style checks, who is the agency in charge of checking the financials of these so-called graft busters? Asked by the Supreme Court to expedite the indictment of those responsible for the poll automation ruckus under the unlamented Ben Abalos, the Ombudsman thumbed the nose of the High Court by dismissing the criminal cases and yawned that it found no evidence of criminal irregularity.

The production of annual barristers should be a concern to the High Court. While it pays lip service to requiring lawyers the mandatory tithing for indigent litigants in the form of new rules in this direction in order to keep bar good standing, the Supreme Court chastised lawyer Leonard de Vera for spearheading a move to oppose the withdrawal of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ petition before the Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of hiked filing fees (as an indirect tax to sourcing salary adjustments of members of the judiciary) under RA 9227.

With 1,310 more lawyers in circulation, these “heat-seeking missiles” as Max Soliven famously called them, need more high paying cases rather than do an Atty. Leonard de Vera.

Public interest lawyers are an endangered species. As the Supreme Court can not act on its own, it needs citizen lawyers as its antennae in bringing ripe and justiciable controversies with social, legal, etcetera ramifications, or we allow petty social architects in reinventing our lives as we know them. But faced with prohibitive court costs, and without viable cases for subsidy, these new lawyers might as well resort to puerile editorial or blog writing just to bring home their point.

In just 3 years, the SC has piled up new 3,000 lawyers into the mainstream.

While we wallow with glut of lawyers, the New York Times reported:

The economic downturn is hitting the legal world hard. American Lawyer is calling it “the fire this time” and warning that big firms may be hurtling toward “a paradigm-shifting, blood-in-the-suites” future. The Law Shucks blog has a “layoff tracker,” and it is grim reading. Top firms are rapidly thinning their ranks, and several – including Heller Ehrman, a venerable 500-plus-lawyer firm founded in 1890 – have closed.

The employment pains of the legal elite may not elicit a lot of sympathy in the broader context of the recession, but a lot of hard-working lawyers have been blindsided, including young associates who are suddenly finding themselves with six-figure student-loan debts and no source of income.

Leading firms have historically avoided mass layoffs, concerned that their reputations would take a hit. But some have been putting those inhibitions aside, perhaps calculating that the stigma of pushing out their colleagues has faded. Law firm managers and bar associations should be looking for more creative ways to deal with the hard times – like reducing pay for both partners and associates to save jobs, as a few firms have begun doing.

The silver lining, if there is one, is that the legal world may be inspired to draw blueprints for the 21st century.

The changes are likely to begin with compensation. Years ago, law firm starting salaries were not that different from government or public-interest jobs. But the gap has become a chasm. First-year salaries at top firms are around $160,000, compared with $48,000 to start for state and local prosecutors and $40,000 for legal-services lawyers. New associates often earn more than the judges they appear before.

The downturn will probably rein in salaries at the high end. Top firms are already under pressure to lower the $160,000 starting salary; one industry-watcher says it could fall as low as $100,000. And fewer firms will feel the need to pay the top salary.

Lower pay should mean that associates will not need to work the grueling hours many have been forced to. And it will mean less pressure to go into private practice for law graduates who would rather do something else.

Clients are also likely to benefit – and consumers, since legal fees are built into the cost of almost everything. Even before the downturn, big-firm clients, led by the Association of Corporate Counsel, were pushing to phase out the billable hour – which can go as high as $1,000. Tight corporate budgets will give clients more leverage to push to pay by the project or for successful outcomes.

For years, law school tuition rose along with big-firm salaries. Between 1990 and 2003, the cost of private law schools rose at nearly three times the rate of consumer prices. The average graduate now leaves with more than $80,000 in debt. In one survey, 66 percent of students said debt prevented them from considering government or public-interest jobs.

If the downturn is prolonged, law schools will need to keep tuition and other costs in check so students do not graduate with unmanageable debt. More schools may follow the lead of Northwestern, the first top-tier law school to offer a two-year program.

Law schools may also become more serious about curriculum reform. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching released an influential report that, among other things, urged law schools to make better use of the sometimes-aimless second and third years. If law jobs are scarce, there will be more pressure on schools to make the changes Carnegie suggested, including more focus on practical skills.

They may also need to pay more attention to preparing students for nonlegal careers. Law graduates have always ended up in business, government, journalism and other fields. Law schools could do more to build these subjects into their coursework. (ADAM COHEN, With the Downturn, It’s Time to Rethink the Legal Profession, Published: April 1, 2009)

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In the latest issue (April, 2009) of Joann Maglipon’s Yes Magazine, she listed the most influential or powerful personalities in Showbiz for 2008.

This was picked up by the two giant networks’, ABS-CBN and GMA 7, entertainment reporters owing to the inclusion of their own talents and mainstays and TV executives. Of course it’s news worthy because anything about exceptional or pedestrian comparison between the two networks deserves headline attention.

In Channel 2, the news item was read by the trio Julius Babao, Karen Davila, and Ted Failon. It was Mel Tiangco, in GMA 7, who broke the news. While on the item, Mel’s face morphed as if encased in hardened lead.

The news readers’ reaction to the amusing research was a study in contrast. Yes Magazine is not a stranger no longer in the disclosure of top entertainers’ bottom lines.

In January this year, it featured Willie Revillame in one issue, regaling us readers the extent of the material possessions of the Wowwowee host (rounded off in cheap Philippine pesos). In short, the magazine found a goldmine in journalistic voyeurism. Talks fly on who is the undisputed richest entertainer in the country today. Kris Aquino comes to mind, the indefatigable lady of network games and showbiz intrigues. She rewrote the format of a talk show by the inclusion of her idiosyncrasies in the day’s agenda at the expense of her guests.

We kept tab on the The Pacman’s purse, making mental multiplication on the percentage of his take in each slug out. That of course includes all the product patches sewn on his shorts.

We take our hats off to a homegrown hotshot awash with cash. We saluted Ferdinand Marcos when he upended the legend of Yamashita treasures.

However one gets his assets is not for us to find out. It is the green monster that gobbles our spleen in a painful way. That perhaps made Mel Tiangco bristled when she read that piece of news. The trio in the rival channel was put in their proper place.

It would have been Mel in the slot of Charo Santos or Wilma Galvante, both daintily laughing all the way to the banks after all these years. The research of Maglipon certainly has some impeccability in it. Mel was blindsided. “Ako pala ang nagpapayaman sa kanila.” Mel is a prized possession of GMA. In legal history, her tiff with her erstwhile network, ABS-CBN, reached all the way to the High Court. Being in the midst of controversy made Mel a hot stuff on TV, especially in public affairs program. She exudes that aura of authority approximating that of Katie Couric’s saga from NBC to CBS. She thought she had the goods and the eyes of the network gods. How much does she earn from 24 Oras and “Mel and the other fellow”, both top earners of GMA? Maybe short of a half a million pesos a month. But she puts in 20 hours of work in that network by the end of Timog, daily. With billions in bottomline annually, her take home pay is pathetically paltry. Of course management is generous on holidays with a million bucks in red envelop. But this amount does not pull her up in the celestial world of TV zillionaires.

Now she understands the peculiar smile of Charo and the condescension of Wilma. Charo and Wilma hold the proverbial remote control on the beasts of burden. Mel is painfully one of them. When the contract expires, Mel dances at the palm of Felipe Gozon’s hands. His daughter-lawyer Anna Teresa G. Abrogar seconds him in the million capers department.

Does Mel have some leverage in restructuring her contract? She complained openly with Mike Enriquez. But he too is in the club being a management guru in the network of Uncle Bob. Mel is just a talent, and her battery life is ticking low. Was she put one over? She has no doubt now.

Now she understands her partner’s almost sick nitpicking on Willie. It’s envy, one of the deadly sins as old as the serpent engaged in the first manipulation of public opinion, or is it.

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