Party dynamics

“PDP-LABAN will be soon gone. You see, at least 50 percent of the PDP-Laban members in the House chose Arroyo to be Speaker. What does it say about strength or lack of it by PDP-Laban — a party wherein Alvarez serves as the secretary general?”

Not so much a profound prognostication as a foregone conclusion is the statement of a party insider – quoted in the media – on the impending abandonment of the political party of choice for the past two years by its once chest-thumping loyal members.

So, what remains to hang onto a party that in the short shrift of 64 days lost the Senate presidency and the House speakership?

So, what else is new?

­Balimbingan, it is called in the local parlance. It permeates all political hues, notwithstanding the bright yellow color of the allegorized multi-sided sour fruit.
The game of musical chairs, or the dance of changing partners, transposed to politics. So, it is euphemized.
Butterflies flitting from one flower to the other, seeking the sweetest nectar. So, politicos engaged in it are metaphored. And, put in simile, like rats abandoning a sinking ship.
It cannot get any plainer than this: political opportunism – the very rule of thumb in the Philippine political praxis. 

So, has the time come to sing the swan song for PDP-Laban? And raise the first hurrah for Sarah Duterte’s Hugpong ng Pagbabago?

I think not. As I thought nearly six years ago, under different circumstances that came to the same head as now – a political party pronounced dead. Here’s Zona Libre, September 7, 2012 under the headline:

Premature obituary     

KAMPI NOW dead. Even Lakas is dying.

So was quoted Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan as saying in a story here yesterday.

Can’t argue with EdPam. He knows whereof he speaks, being – as the story noted – a stalwart of the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, founder of the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino in 1996 and its prime reviver and beneficiary in the 2004 national elections.

Indeed, with GMA a veritable pariah in the current administration of President Aquino, only the trapped rats have not abandoned her sunk Kampi ship.

Still, I guess the good city mayor may have made an advanced, and therefore premature, obituary for Kampi and Lakas there.

The fate of Kampi underscores the failings, aye the aberrations, of the party system as practiced in the Philippines.

Rather than grounded on ideologies or philosophies, policies or programs, the Filipino party system is popularity- and personality-based. Hence parties rise or fall with their human embodiment.

Thus, with the Great Ferdinand, the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan.

With Marcos’ New Society supplanting the old socio-economic and political order, the KBL devoured the Nacionalista Party and the Liberal Party, effectively ending the American-patterned two-party system and birthed the invincible, formidable monolith that in 1978 managed to elect the octogenarian Pablo Floro over the charismatic and then prisoner-of-conscience Ninoy Aquino.

EDSA Uno shattered all of Marcos, his beloved KBL reduced, nay, restored to its sacramental reference of kasal, binyag, libing – the life cycle of the nominal Catholic – not totally devoid of political bearing though with weddings, baptisms and wakes serving as fertile grounds for electioneering.

On the wings of the widow in yellow rode Doy Laurel’s United Nationalist Democratic Organization and the Laban ni Ninoy, morphing into the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino.

In Cory Aquino’s radiance wilted Laurel and his UNIDO, leaving LDP as dominant party, with renascent power broker presidential brother Peping Cojuangco at its helm, and Ninoy buddy Ramon Mitra, voted House Speaker.

With Cory’s acquiescence came the great schism of the LDP – Mitra winning as party presidential bet in the convention, but defeated rival Fidel V. Ramos, forming a ragtag aggrupation called Lakas-Tao, winning the 1992 elections.

Lak-Tao underwent a series of evolution in the Lakas-NUCD (for the National Union of Christian Democrats of Sen. Raul Manglapus) then Lakas-CMD (Christian-Muslim Democrats) till finally coalescing to Lakas-CMD-Kampi, the appendage being GMA’s Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino.

Lakas-CMD-Kampi assumed, for the 2004 presidential elections, the moniker Koalisyon ng Katapatan at Karanasan para sa Kinabukasan (Coalition of Truth and Experience for Tomorrow), shortened to K-4, that provided the stage for GMA’s elevation to the presidency through the ballot, more (in)appropriately – many folk contend – through “Hello, Garci.”    

The 2010 presidential elections saw the renaissance of the grand old parties – the NP with Manny Villar and the LP with Noynoy Aquino, the comeback of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino of ousted President Erap Estrada, the birthing of new parties Bagumbayan spearheaded by Sen. Dick Gordon, Ang Kapatiran of Olongapo City Councilor Juan Carlos de los Reyes, and Bangon Pilipinas of evangelist Eddie Villanueva. And of course, the trouncing of then-ruling Lakas-CMD-Kampi.

LP emerging victorious shoved to the sidelines NP and PMP and altogether doomed to early extinction the other wannabes.

Yes, parties rise and fall with the fortunes of their human faces.

Thus, Aksyon Demokratiko of Raul Roco, People’s Reform Party of Miriam Defensor Santiago, Promdi of Lito Osmena.

Not all political parties however can just be summarily dismissed as OPD – officially pronounced dead, just because the figurehead falls.

Look at the Nationalist People’s Coalition – losing with Danding Cojuangco in 1992, and falling short of getting Malacanang with FPJ in 2004. Those failings notwithstanding, the NPC remains a much-sought-after coalition partner of every ruling party.

Look at the PDP-Laban – losing with Nene Pimentel in 1992 – flexing its muscles anew in Vice President Jojo Binay, no matter the fall-out in the United Nationalist Opposition wrought by Sen. Koko Pimentel’s obstinacy vis-à-vis Miguel Zubiri in the same coalition. (Lest we forget in the swirl of recent events, it was the paltry PDP-Laban that Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte mounted in his drive to Malacanang  in 2016).

Look at the KBL – Bongbong Marcos in the Senate, Madame Imelda Marcos in the House, Imee Marcos in Ilocos Norte. 

As in the Origin of the Human Species, it is not the strongest that always survives, but that who can best adapt to the environment, blend with the situation. So, it is with political parties, being, after all, originated by humans.

Hence, for the issue at hand, we may as well appropriate Mark Twain: The reports of the death of Kampi and Lakas are greatly exaggerated. If not all too premature…  

THUS, CAME to pass the renascence of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to new heights of political power only last Monday.

On Thursday, House Deputy Speaker Rolando Andaya announced that some congressmen from PDP-Laban are jumping ship to Lakas-CMD, GMA’s very own party before she switched to PDP-Laban only last October 2017.  Andaya furthered that Lakas-CMD may possibly merge with Hugpong ng Pagbabago, with the President and the Speaker leading the coalition.
So, goes full spiral anew the dynamics of political parties.       

Paternity suit

“FATHER OF Mabalacat cityhood.”

So declared the city council of once forever Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales in Resolution No. 392 it approved last Monday.

Even as it hailed – rightfully – his “many years of dedicated public service as local chief executive,” the resolution topped Mayor Boking’s celebratory cake thus: “Foremost among his outstanding achievements is the passage into law of Republic 10164 in July 2012 which declared Mabalacat as component city of Pampanga.”

So – rightfully – earning the honor of being father of the city. The highly prolific Mayor Boking thereby adding yet another child, so to speak, in his multitude of 21, as of last count.

I don’t know if it was in the resolution’s whereases but the news story on this city fatherhood cited as backgrounder that:

On May 18, 2012, then President Benigno Aquino III approved House Bill 4736, an “Act Converting the Municipality of Mabalacat in the province of Pampanga into a Component City to be Known as Mabalacat City.
House Bill 4736 which became Republic Act 10164 was sponsored by Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Government…

No fake news, but there obtained one major lapse in the cityhood narrative. (Come to think of it: Whenever the Marcos name crops up, some historical rewriting pops out. Even if so unwittingly.)

No denying that Marcos Junior did indeed a yeoman’s job at the Senate for the passage of RA 10164. But what good was that, what cityhood would even befit Mabalacat, without the spadework that was House Bill 2509 sponsored by then Pampanga 1^st District Rep. Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin?

As we wrote here in July 2011 – a full year before the plebiscite that officially birthed Mabalacat City ---    
…And then there is consolidated House Bill 2509/4736 mandating cityhood for Mabalacat already nearing approval, so Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., committee on local governments chair, himself is said to have declared. 
Cong Tarzan, but of course, stands as the legitimate father of a Mabalacat City, having sown the very seed, incubated and nurtured the embryo which is soon a-borning. 
Yes, Tarzan…

No, I don’t mean to question, much less disparage, Mayor Boking’s fatherhood of Mabalacat City, officialized as it is by city council Resolution No. 392.

It is just that Cong Tarzan deserves his own rightful place in the cityhood history.

Indeed, in the euphoria that followed the plebiscite, Mayor Boking himself was profuse in his acclamation of Cong Tarzan as “father of Mabalacat City.”

“By the grace of God and the sovereign will of the people, we are now a city” proclaimed tarpaulins all around Mabalacat at that time. Modesty be damned, I minted that phrase over café americano at Starbucks SM Clark with Mayor Boking and his most loyal lieutenant, double visionary Deng Pangilinan.

Delighted as he was with it, I remember the mayor asking how Cong Tarzan’s name be incorporated in the tarps. Not wanting to disrupt the cadence in the phraseology, I suggested separate streamers thanking the Cong for his paternity of the city. Which, to my knowledge, were also posted.

As much a victory for the townspeople and Mayor Boking as a triumph for Cong Tarzan – given his being denigrated as chair of the comite de silencio at the House – was the cityhood of Mabalacat. 

Ain’t it long been clichéd that “Victory has many fathers…”?

So, why now make fatherhood of Mabalacat City exclusive to Mayor Boking?

It smacks of historical revisionism pursuant to vested interests towards a second coming. Political, what else.   

Advanced mag-isip

KOREAN BANK eyes $62-M waste to energy plant in Lubao.

Shouts the headline of a frontpage story in Sun-Star Pampanga Tuesday, that read:

The Korea Technology Bank (KTB) is eyeing to build a $62-million state-of-the-art solar power plant in Lubao town that is seen to help solve the province's environmental problems.
Waste Professional Engineer Youn Ku Lee said on Monday, July 23, that KTB is willing to develop the facility, which will convert waste into solar energy…
Uh-oh. Red flag instantly raised there --- “convert waste into solar energy.”

Okay, call me an idiot. But for the love of Apollo and Ra, pray tell, Einstein and Tesla, how can waste be converted into solar energy?

Not that Wikipedia is gospel truth but I subscribe to its reference to solar energy as “radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, solar architecture, molten salt power plants, and artificial photosynthesis.”

Where impacts waste there?

My average layman’s knowledge of waste-to-energy plants is that wastes – both industrial and domestic – undergo some kind of incineration to some extreme heat level which is then processed into some kind of energy. Plain, simple thinking there.

Now, with the Sun itself as source, what need is there for wastes to incinerate to produce solar energy. Plain, simple thinking there. 

Convert waste into solar energy? Way, way beyond my (un)intelligence to imagine whatever aspect of the project the Korean proponents presented to Gov. Lilia G. Pineda and Lubao Mayor Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab at Max's Villa del Sol on Monday, July 23.
Now, now, come to (un)think of it: Ain’t these Koreans only forward thinking, as in “advanced mag-isip”?

Look, even as they are yet eyeing to set up the plant in an as yet unknown location in Lubao, they have already a name for it: "Pampanga State Waste Energy Facility Construction and Management Project."
O, di ba advanced mag-isip yan?

Already a “Pampanga State” when federalism has not even gone beyond the rough draft presented to the President by the council he created for that purpose!

Already a “Pampanga State” when the federalism draft named only 18 regional states, of which the Province of Pampanga makes but a component of one -- the Central Luzon State!

State-ot-the-art thinking, aye, prescience, by the Koreans truly there, given the ascendancy of Pampanga’s favorite daughter GMA ascending to the House speakership hours after the Koreans made their presentation to Nanay and Mayora last Monday. 

Yeah, forward thinking these Koreans are, as proven in one more current news story this week.

In Angeles City, a South Korean company named PHICO Corp. is reported in media as “planning to develop a retirement village” in the city’s Koreatown.

Sun-Star Pampanga quoted Philippine Investors and Retirement Industry Council (PIRIC) chair Albert Dela Cruz as saying that “some 200 villas, 6,000-square meter swimming pool, 27-foot man-made falls, hot and cold spa, and other attractions will be built inside the facility.”

Further, De La Cruz said that “PHICO Corp. officials, including Vice President Yoon Si Hyeon, led the ground-breaking ceremonies for the construction of P300 million Water Park Resort and Hotel…” And has a scheduled completion by December this year by project developer and contractor Philippine Globe Ventures Realty and Construction Corp., also chaired by De la Cruz.

“Planning to develop” in the first paragraph of the published news story, “groundbreaking held” in the third, “scheduled completion” in the sixth – O, di ba advanced mag-isip yan?

Uh-oh. Red flags raised again there: 6,000-square meter swimming pool. 27-foot manmade falls. There’s a lot of water needed there.

Pardon my retarded thinking then: Is the City of Angeles LGU even aware of this mega project on its already heavily impacted prime land? Has the DENR conducted studies, moreso issued reglementary documents – environment impact assessment, environment clearance certificate, etc. – to greenlight construction?

Someone with an intelligence superior to mine thinks the reddest flag though may well be waved at De la Cruz.

He is “of the gravest consideration” that Sun-Star Pampanga’s various descriptions of De la Cruz -- chair, Philippine Investors and Retirement Industry Council; chair, Philippine Globe Ventures Realty and Construction Corp.; director, North Luzon Railways Corp. (Northrail); consultant, Sanggunian Tribung Aeta of CADT 025 in Mabalacat City, Pampanga and Bamban, Tarlac; and “an environmental and urban planner, realtor and real estate consultant, and a developer engaged in various development and housing projects” – “well constitute by themselves multiple conflicts of interest vis-avis PHICO Corp.’s retirement village project.”

O, di ba advanced mag-isip din ito?

 .

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Reaping the whirlwind

THE FULL brunt of the habagat brought about by Typhoon Henry may have largely spared Angeles City, but city hall – notably acting mayor VM Bryan Matthew Nepomuceno – found itself right at the eye of the storm of denunciation from its citizens.

July 18, 5:54 a.m. ADVISORY: Good morning po. Considering the 4 a.m. forecast of PAGASA that there will only be light to moderate rain showers in Angeles City, and the advice of our Disaster Risk Reduction Monitoring Team that there are no threats of flooding, classes in all levels have NOT been SUSPENDED. Please be advised to still bring umbrellas and rain coats to stay dry and safe. Thank you.

So, with a deep sense of duty, Nepomuceno posted on Facebook. Hands on as acting chief executive, if we may add. Unexpectedly --

Diluvial was the torrent of comments viciously unleashed upon Nepomuceno, running the full gamut of human emotions, social stratification, and political fallout. Hence:

Pitiful pleadings --    

Be human in times like this...hope you won’t regret not suspending classes kahit sa kinder to high school man lang sana.

Hindi lang naman baha ang iniintindi namin. Sana naman konsiderasyun lang. Nung di umuulan suspended, ngayong umuulan di suspended. Magbibiyahe pa kami. Di bali sana kung walking distance lang yung school.

Nasty nincompoopings --

Aydo gewa you lang waterproof ding tau king Angeles.

Murit kayu talaga! Yan mu ing asabi ku!

Kaya kayo naba-bash kasi tanga mag-announce. Pag umuulan, may pasok. Pag di umuulan, walang pasok. Ayaw niyo may nagrereklamo pero ganyan dapat ninyo.

Itatanong ko lang po kung immortal po ba ung mga taga-Angeles.

Tagal namin naghintay ng announcement. Hindi sa ayaw namin ng walang pasok pero ba’t gano’n? Kaka-iba ya talaga ing Angeles. #AgyuTamungMabasa

Tindi mo naman Vice. NOT SUSPENDED? Pero hayan, mga school principals na ang nagsuspend ng classes dahil sila ang nakakaalam na mahihirapan ang mga bata sa ulan o baha!

The great social divide --

Ipagmalaki pa na malakas ang Angeles City. Yan ang dahilan kung bakit maraming namamatay sa lower class ng social hierarchy. Iba talaga kapag may power eh. Social stratification nga naman.

Paano ba naman maiintindihan ng mga yan e rich kid sila e, di naman nababasa mga yan na nagko-commute kagaya ng karamihan. Laging naka-service, kulang nalang buhatin ng mga kasambahay nila.

Ano’ng sense po ng post nyo na to? It's a must for us to bring such things sa lakas ba naman ng ulan. What we need is the SUSPENSION. Because umbrellas and raincoats can't save us from sickness. Isipin nyo din po sana yung mga batang naglalakad lang. So, feeling nyo concerned na kayo nyan? Stop being apathetic.

Napaka-unfair nyo. Nakaka-inis kayo, palibhasa kase sarap ng buhay nyo! Mga anak nyo kasi nasa magandang paaralan! Kapag nag cancel kayo may araw! kapag bumabagyo na dun may pasok.

Palibhasa kasi pane yang makasake Vice Mayor ketang sports car ng BMW kaya eya mababasa keng uran.
Stay dry kanu! Di niyo kasi alam yung struggles namin pag umuulan, e kayo naka kotche kami naka-jeep o motor. Kahit naka-jeep nga tsaka motor nababasa e, tapos stay dry sasabihin?

Di naman lahat may kotse, may kapote, may bota at may pambili ng maayos na paying. Yung iba naglalakad nga lang, sira pa ang payong. Pag nagkasakit naman ang studyante yung check-up sa ONA pa Wala naman libreng gamot. Pipila ka pa ng bongga. Naiwas ba yung ulan sa Angeles at para sa inyo mahina? Nasaan ba kau ngayon? Nasa comfort ng condos or mansions or hotel? Napaka-inconsiderate nyo po ...

Inevitably, the political backlash --

Acting mayor ka pa lang di ka na marunong magdesisyon para sa mga safetiness ng mga estudyante. What more pa kapag naging mayor ka? Di ka naman siguro bingi at bulag, no? Nakikita mo naman lakas ng ulan

With this kind of stupidity from our government officials, alam na natin kung sinong HINDI natin iboboto sa susunod na election.

Next election, isa sa basis ko yan: yung may sariling judgement na sensible at inuuna ang constituents. Hindi yung puro pagpapapogi!

Magandang gawin niyan, lalo na sa mga taga Angeles: Kausapin nyo na mga magulang nyo, sabihin nyo huwag nang iboto yung mga namamalakad ngayon sa Angeles sa susunod na halalan, tutal sarili lang naman iniisip.

Will you expect us to vote you again Atty. Bryan, if ngayon pa lang you show na wala kang pakialam sa mga tao? You dwell so much sa forecast ng PAGASA na alam naman natin nagbabago any time, and opposite ang sinasabi ng PAGASA sa pangyayaring ulan ngayon. Kahit konsiderasyon nalang sana sa mga nakatira sa lugar na inuulan at binabaha. Tsk. Argg.

Eka karapatdapat.

Hay naku. Muli nakayu pu Mayor Edpam..ena pu balu ing panyaptan ning Vice yung magmamagaling.

Eka karapatdat. You are not worthy (of the mayorship). Come to think of it, this is not the first time that Nepomuceno seemingly failed – so miserably -- as acting city mayor.

Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan was in far-off Rome, advising the GRP panel in the third round of peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF, at the time the Jee Ick-Joo abduction and murder came to light and a pall of doom descended upon the Korean community in the city.

Here is a part of the Zona headlined “Mice of Men” published January 31, 2017:

Acting

AS [Mayor Pamintuan] was in Rome, it was Vice Mayor Bryan Matthew Nepomuceno that assumed the mayorship, per operation of law, di ba? Or did he?

Anyways, to be fair now, where was acting mayor Nepomuceno when Angeles was taking its Warholian 15 minutes of notoriety, internationally, as crime city?        

He did not act the mayor any in addressing the fears of the Korean community. Aye, Nepomuceno did not act at all.

As a matter of public record, in media that is, not a single word was read about him, not a single squeak was heard from him pertaining to Jee’s kidnapping and killing, to the shakedown of the Korean golfers, to the terror that gripped Koreatown, as we put it in this paper’s banner headline last week.

The famously articulate Nepomuceno suddenly losing his voice over the crisis that impacted the city spoke volumes of his leadership, nay, screamed deafeningly of his utter lack of it.

Scion of a political clan, a lawyer of substance, and aesthetically-unchallenged presentability – besides being already vice mayor to an end-terming mayor – Nepomuceno is already being billed as “the next mayor of Angeles City.”

That bright political promise that is Nepomuceno now may have been dulled, if not dashed, by his assumption of the silence of the dumb.

I can’t help but be reminded here anew of my seminary Latin readings, of Horace particularly: Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Translated: The mountains are in labor, a ridiculous mouse is born. Interpreted, freely: The promise of greatness fulfilled in mediocrity; the highest of expectations birthing absurdity…

INDEED, Eka karapatdapat.

Twice tested, twice failed. Miserably, your next mayor.  It does not augur well for the city of angels.

Taipei, differently

BEEN THERE, done that. Three times in Taiwan -- from Taipei to Tainan -- draw out the conceited indifference of the jaded tripper in yet another one.

Perfunctory, but for the company of friends, if not some sense of courtesy to the inviting company then that we joined Philippines AirAsia’s maiden Clark-Taipei flight Thursday last week. Expecting no more than the tried, tested and tired package of Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial, National Palace Museum, the night market, Dalongdong Baoan Temple, and Taipei 101. Fitting perfectly, if tightly, as it is in the one full day set for us in the city.

Landing at Taoyuan airport at 7:30 p.m., trudging through immigration and customs, getting bags at the carousel – all the usual, punctuated only by the free portable wifi from Unite Traveler. Not much to do but check in at the Suz & Catorze boutique hotel for the night.

And waking up to a most pleasant view of the Tamsui River meandering through the city, its reed banks teeming with birds – and not a bit of plastic waste as far as the eye can see. The skyline of Taipei – minus iconic Taipei 101 though – forming as backdrop. That spectacular panorama through the floor-to-ceiling glass panels of Room 10-C.

No buffet breakfast at Suz and Catorze’s 17th floor as-yet-unnamed restaurant, but fine dining at 7 in the morning – crisp green salads, pumpkin soup, omelet, sausage and bacon, sauteed veggies, croissant, coffee, the freshest apple juice, and a bowl of fruits.

For a hotel that just had its soft opening last June and yet to “officially function,” Suz & Catorze is already impacting its luxurious mark. If only for the Hermes amenities, down duvets and pillows, Simmons beautyrest mattress, Samsung 49” curved 4K UHD tv, Balmuda the Pot electric kettle, drip bag coffee and TWG teabags in all its superior-to-the ordinary guest rooms.

Same as before – to the Generalissimo memorial to watch the changing of the guard, walk through contemporary Chinese history, marvel at the Cadillac limo the Filipino Chinese community gifted Chiang that he used but once, do the reglementary selfie and we-fie.  

But a sense of the different-from-the-usual dawned upon me once our group of Pampanga, Pangasinan and Baguio mediamen, and Phil AirAsia brass led by CEO Capt. Dexter Comendador with his wife and daughter boarded the Benz Vito and VW Caravelle vans of Tripool Taxi, Taiwan’s fast-rising Uber-like transport company, to whisk us to Yilan, an hour from the capital city.

Lunch – most sumptuous – at The Westin Yilan Resort – of Peking duck, roasted pork in wine, myriad vegetable and chicken dishes, sea food galore, sushi and sashimi, fresh fruits, cakes of all kinds – triple yummy all, and ice cream to die for.

In food alone, The Westin already makes a resort destination of its own, and then some more – hot spring tubs and baths and Bulgari amenities in every well-appointed rooms and suites fully deserving of presidential status; onsen and massage spas, in an all-so-Zen setting. So tempted to sit on that sculpted rock bench by the sand garden off the hotel lobby to “om-ah-hum…”

The spiritual bended to the spirituous at the Kavalan Whisky Distillery – producer of the best single malt whiskey in the World Whiskies Awards of 2015 and 2016, beating Scotland and Ireland in their own invented concoctions, so to speak.

A walk through the distilling process – starting off with the recharring of the kegs – and ending at the distillery’s well-stocked bar and Business Mirror’s Ashley Manabat was like Count Vlad in his own blood bank, toasts after shots, shots after toasts, kampai!

A brief stop at the National Center of Traditional Arts is a travel in time to marvel at old Taiwanese crafts of dough figurines, glassmaking, woodwork, handmade soaps, papermaking.

Dinner at Guan Xing Century Resort Hotel with dizzying array of mouth-watering dishes and the black chicken soup as the piece de resistance.

The hotel is located right in the heart of the Jiaoxi Hot Springs, “unique in all of Taiwan’s hot springs for its geographical location on plain ground” where others are usually up in the mountains. And dubbed the “beauty hot springs” for its transparent and odorless qualities – more than enough attractions to draw both foreign and domestic tourists, alike.

At the nearby uniquely named Just Sleep hotel I… slept. Alas too tired to try the hot spring tub in my room.

Japanese-inspired and in modern industrial style, Just Sleep is a family destination with its own kid zones – where tots can give vent to their creative drives in art, in play. The hotel was practically a kid’s world that morning of Saturday we were there.

On the way back to Taipei, one more hotel to see – and feast in – Helong Faddism Hotel offering Balinese-style rooms and villas, with hot spring tubs too. The food is great, but the soup of whole chicken – crowned head, feet and all – is just too outre for my taste. He, he. 

    

Nonetheless, culinary delights and invigorating hot springs make the signature mark of all hotels in Yilan. As well as the core and context of our Taiwan story this time. Our last stop at Taipei 101 no more than its denouement.

Been there, done that? Fourth time in Taiwan, on a maiden tour. Yeah, this one’s different, pleasantly.

(Phil AirAsia’s Clark-Taipei flights are on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) 

 

Remembering our Bren

“E KO magmalun, mibangun ya ing Pampanga.”

The exhortation of Governor Bren Z. Guiao for his people to end their collective grief, rise from despair, and believe in a renascent Pampanga brought the first ray of hope in the wake of the Mount Pinatubo eruptions.
It was the faintest flicker of hope though, the Kapampangan trapped in the most desperate straits: damned in a wasteland of buried homes and broken dreams, doomed in a landscape of death and desolation.
Beyond PR savvy – of which Guiao was a guru – the slogan was founded on the governor’s unwavering faith in the Kapampangan character: of grit and resiliency, that have served him well in rising from every adversity, be it socio-politico-economic, as in the agrarian unrest, the Marcos dictatorship and the communist rebellion; or natural, as in the floods that perennially devastated the croplands and aqua farms of the province and damaged its infrastructure…
A faith well placed. A prophesy coming to pass. Pampanga indeed rising from the ashes Pinatubo to use that overwrought cliché. As Bren Zablan Guiao promised. As my foreword in the book Pinatubo: Triumph of the Kapampangan Spirit (2008) put it.
Leave those credit grabbers to their delusions, but it was Bren Z. Guiao – then already out of the governorship but chair of Kabisig, an NGO under the Office of the President – and his nemesis, Gov. Lito Lapid, that worked hardest for the FVR megadike systems that ultimately saved Pampanga. How and why did I know? I was Lapid’s senior consultant then, privy to practically even the lowest whispers in the corridors of power.
I covered Bren Z. Guiao long before he became governor, starting off in the post-Ninoy Aquino assassination rallies, going to the 1984 Batasan polls, onto EDSA 1.
It was during his watch at the Capitol that Pampanga saw frenzied infrastructure development concretized in the Paskuhan Village, the Pampanga Sports and Convention Center that hosted the 1990 Palarong Pambansa, the Ninoy Aquino By-Way and the Quezon Road.
The “Growth Center,” he dubbed Pampanga, most appropriately so as the province ranked Number One in investments immediately prior to the Pinatubo eruptions, and “easily” – to use his favourite expression – rebounding to Number Five three years after.
Of all the things I wrote about Bren Z. Guiao, I find this Zona Libre column published in the May 21-27, 1995 issue of The Voice the best.
Sense of history 
BREN Z. GUIAO lost the governorship of Pampanga. But he won the adulation of the whole nation.
His early concession of defeat is a total departure from the standard praxis of Philippine politics: File protest. Do not concede. Nobody loses. One only gets cheated.
From a politico, Bren Z. Guiao transfigured into a hombre de estado, the ultimo caballero.
We are reminded of a column we wrote here on Guiao’s Legacy a month before the elections which a Guiao lieutenant termed as an “advance obituary” for the governor.
Our piece proved – modesty be damned – prophetic, thus: “The three-term administration of the Honorable Bren Z. Guiao, governor of Pampanga, will be long remembered, nay, forever enshrined in the heart of the Kapampangan, not so much for its grand edifice complex but for its strong political will to uphold the sanctity of the ballot in May 1995.”
No, egocentric as we may seem, we have not yet the conceit to claim that the good governor heeded our word.
Bren Z. Guiao has a keen sense of history. Key player as he was in major epochs of contemporary Philippine politics: victor in the Constitutional Convention of 1971, victim of Martial Law and the 1984 Batasan polls, victor anew in the national epiphany of EDSA and its immediate aftermath. This was the factor most at work on the night of May 8.
Our column concluded: “A few years from now, people shall be misty eyed when they remember Bren Z. Guiao of having the courage, the supreme will to uphold the Kapampangan’s sacred democratic right, whatever the price. Even at the cost of losing that which he cherished most.”
No, we were not fully right. More than the governorship, Bren Z. Guiao cherishes his place in history.
Shame on us for forgetting his by-phrase oft-quoted early in his term but lost somewhere in the exhilaration the governor’s chair invariably brings: “Power is ephemeral. All this will pass. We just have to give our best to our people. And be the wiser for it.” Or something to that effect.
Godspeed, Sir. And thank you, if only for the memories.
(July 9 was Governor Guiao’s 84^th birth anniversary. He died on April 17, 1997.)

Bamboo lessons

ARASHIYAMA IT is not yet, but the Lubao Bamboo Hub has already developed a charm all its own to draw its share of visitors.

Started as erosion prevention measure, the bamboos have grown into groves inviting both man and birds to cool and coo under their shade. Indeed, while the hot air balloon festival is Lubao’s signature event, the bamboo hub is its all-year wonder.

Mayor Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab’s bamboo initiative has apparently inspired Apalit Mayor Peter Nocom to put up a bamboo park by the banks of the Pampanga River, launched as part of the Apung Iru fiesta celebrations last week.

It may not take long for the other local government units to take up their own bamboo advocacy, given the plants multi-role not only in flood mitigation but in everyday living as well.

Yes, I think of the bamboo as not only rivalling but surpassing the coconut as the very “tree of life” for its myriad use. Why, I would even go for the bamboo as national plant, not simply for its being the main component of the national house.   

But for its thatched roof of nipa fronds, everything else in the bahay kubo is made of bamboo – from rafters to posts, from ceilings to walls – of sawali, down to the slatted floor.

Which manifests the wisdom of the early Filipino home builders, cool bamboo as building material being most appropriate for the hot tropics; the bahay kubo on bamboo stilts best to survive the periodic inundations from the swollen rivers in the rainy season.

Bamboo went beyond building material in Filipino life, into the diet too -- as in the yummy labong or bamboo shoots cooked in coconut milk with shrimps or crabs. 

And for us – the 50 plus-plus generations – the bamboo took a central role in our community life

The defining spirit of Filipino communal unity and cooperation – the bayanihan – is bamboo-based. Here, the whole community helped a family relocate by carrying their whole house, with bamboo poles placed length-wise and cross-wise under the house floor, borne on the shoulders of men, the women following with pots of cool water and ladles for drinking.

The bamboo is celebrated in Filipino folk dances, from tinikling to singkil. And in song, the most famous being Lawiswis Kawayan – the sound produced by the bamboo leaves when blown by a soft breeze as backdrop to a lovers’ tryst. Originating from the Waray region, the song spread throughout the islands.  

In my youth in the somnolent town of Sto. Tomas, the bamboo played as great a role as the guitar in haranas or serenades. Once the serenaders were seated at the balconahe, the father of the girl ceremoniously accosted them with the cryptic: “Nanung mitulac quecayung mipadalan qng cacung hardin (What moved you to pass by my garden)?”

To which the guy a-courting replied: “Queni la pu macayungyung deng cuayan (It is here where the bamboos leaned to).”

In the absence of parks, much less motels, the bamboo groves did indeed make the perfect lovers’ lanes, the lawiswis of the leaves enhancing the romantic ambience.

The same bamboo groves though were made the source of children’s fears by our parents who wanted us not to loiter around during the night, the lagitic or crackling sound produced by bamboos hitting each other as they swayed to the wind said to be the voices of the patiyanac (dwarves) and other laman-labuad (enchanted creatures) who feasted on the innards of children.

Come to think of it, maybe our parents just did not want us to see forbidden things at the bamboo groves that could have abruptly ended our age of innocence.

Our elders made the bamboo as an object lesson in humility too: “Anti ca mong cuayan, cabang susucdul ca banwa qng quetasan lalu cang durucu qng gabun a quecang tatalacaran (Be like the bamboo, the higher you rise to the heavens, the more should you bow toward the earth upon which you stand).”

Keep yourself always grounded. That was what the maxim was all about.

More adages about the bamboo followed us through college – Bruce Lee revealing the bamboo as one principle of his jeet kune do: “Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”

The dragon there sharing a Buddhist teaching: "Be like bamboo. It is strong on the outside and soft and open on the inside. The stem stands freely in the wind and bends, it does not resist. What bends is harder to break." 

The bamboo well taken on a high philosophical plane there. A source of wisdom deserving indeed of the title national plant or tree.

So what words of wisdom have you heard of other trees and plants?

Uh-oh: “Oo, inaamin ko, saging lang kami. Pero maghanap ka ng puno sa buong Pilipinas, saging lang ang may puso! Saging lang ang may puso! (Yes, I admit, we are only bananas. But search all trees in the whole Philippines, only bananas have hearts! Only bananas have hearts!)”

Oh please, have a heart.

(Updated Zona column of July 16, 2012)  

Incredible SOCA

LAGI KONG sinasabi na kailangan natin ng mga superman at superwoman upang mabuo ang ating mga pangarap…

Kayo ang tunay na mga superheroes! At siyempre malaking bagay rin na makasama ko kayong mga bagong halal na barangay at SK officials sa okasyong  ito upang tayo ay magtulungan at sama-samang maglingkod ng tapat…

Ang pagsulong ng San Fernando ay nakabatay sa pagpapahalaga nito sa sariling kultura, kaugalian at kapaligiran.

This will be the new standard: pagmamahal sa kinagisnang yaman sa pagpapa-unlad ng kinabukasan. The new standard therefore is still the old standard.

As we enjoy the fruits of our progress, we will remain proud of our heritage and driven by our sense of pride of being a Fernandino…

SO, delivered – so eloquently – Mayor Edwin “EdSa” Santiago his state of the city address Saturday at the Laus Events Center, the thundering applause that punctuated it verily well deserved.

Proud of our heritage. Driven by our sense of pride of being Fernandino. Truly, what nobler articles of faith as foundations for city governance than these?

Why, not even the ardent student of history that is Oscar S. Rodriguez had as eloquent an articulation of governance as EdSa’s in any of his nine SOCAs! The 4^th World’s Best Mayor’s clarion call of Magsilbi Tamu! utterly paling, if not failing, in comparison to the intellectual depth, the patriotic evocation, the can-do fervor of EdSa’s pagmamahal sa kinagisnang yaman sa pagpapa-unlad ng kinabukasan.

Why, it even harks to one core Filipino value embodied in the maxim: Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.

And that reference to the local leaders as real superheroes! How it hews closely to Maoist paean to the masses – deeply conscienticized in his predecessor Rodriguez – Ang masa, ang masa lamang ang tunay na bayani.

Wow.

Incredibly, with but the introduction to his SOCA, the putative non-intellectual, no-sense-of-history EdSa effortlessly transformed himself from so-so politico to a social philosopher.

Aye, I have never held the Honorable Edwin Santiago in so high an esteem as at the opening of his SOCA. Hence, I can only bask in his glory as he power-pointed the heights of social, economic, and physical development to which he, along with his co-superheroes, has taken his city, monumentalized in – periods, instead of commas now for easier breathing – Presidential Award for Child Friendly Cities. Top Tourism Hub. Most Business Friendly City. Seal of Good Local Governance. ISO 9001:2015 Certification. PESO With the Highest Jobstart Placement Rate. Outstanding Local Civil Registry Office Award. Regional Gawad Kalasag Award. 

A total EdSa believer have I so become at that point that I could only grasp gospel truth in his exhortation: Let us not worry about the future. We can start to create it today.

Comic turn

And then, WTF! From the heights of the intro, the SOCA descending to the abyss at his extro. EdSa himself reducing the sublime to the ludicrous.  

Kung napanood nyo at naintindihan ang mensahe ng movie na Incredibles 2, we need superheroes to work with the government maging sa hanay nilang mga kabataan.

Jack-Jack represents the emerging Generation Z. Sila ang mga culture creators na may napakalaking potensyal na maging mgaling, mabuti at matino with conscious parenting and nurturing care of other adults.

Gaya sa pelikula ang magtataguyod ng ating kinabukasan ay ang mga kabataan tulad ni Jack-Jack na hiunubog sa pagmamahal at suporta ng kanyang mga magulang, kapatid at komunidad.

Proud of our heritage. Driven by our sense of pride of being Fernandino.

In one fell swoop, EdSa absolutely negated that he so exalted at the opening of his SOCA.   

Pray tell, EdSa, where obtains Jack-Jack or the Incredibles in the Fernandino heritage? Or even in Filipino culture?

Culture creators? Alien culture, yes. But neither Capampangan nor Filipino, definitely.

Impacting Jack-Jack to the Gen Z or I-Gen as their representative role model is as much a profound contempt for real heroes – Fernandino and Filipino – as an unwitting insult to the intelligence of the Fernandino youth.

What is there in the animated Jack-Jack’s potential for being “magaling, mabuti at matino” that has not been actualized in the heroism of Nicolasa Dayrit, of Don Pedro and Jose Abad Santos, aye, in the very martyrdom of the latter, as indeed in that of Rizal, Bonifacio, and Sacay? Or to an extent, in Ninoy Aquino?

Gaya sa pelikula ang magtataguyod ng ating kinabukasan ay ang mga kabataan tulad ni Jack-Jack…How EdSa could have made Rizal turn in his grave at this profanity!

The pride of the Malay race’s A la Juventud Filipina….bella esperanza de la patria mia long immortalized, fatuously arrogated to a comics creature!

Or is EdSa of the belief that the Gen Z lives and breathes in an altogether different universe of superheroes in the Incredibles, the Justice League of Superman and  Batman, the Avengers of Captain America, Thor, and Ironman? A world more alive, albeit cartooned, than that of the dead Rizal, Bonifacio, Abad Santos, et al?

Then, EdSa may do as well strip Philippine History off the curriculum of the City College of San Fernando; stop celebrating all heroes’ days in the city; scrap all  those monuments to national and Capampangan greats at Heroes Hall or anywhere else in the city, and put up in their stead those of the Incredibles, with Jack-Jack taking that pedestal where now stands Jose Rizal.

EdSa grounding the Fernandino heritage on alien culture, on a cartoon character at that!. Truly, shamelessly incredible!