Kimosa

HERE’S A take out of the Mimosa golf club members’ sadness and dismay over their exclusion from last week’s pre-bidding conference relative to the privatization of the estate as bannered in yesterday’s issue.

It’s a throwback to 2006 when a Korean firm did win the bidding for Mimosa and how the members reacted. From my column Free Zone in the long-defunct Pampanga News, June 15-21, 2006:

  

Prejudicial pride

KIMOSA. The playful pun says it all.
The invasion of the Mimosa Golf and Country Club by hordes upon hordes of Korean tourists – from south of the 38th Parallel we all presume – that began with the first flights of Aseana Airlines to Clark is finally over.
About to begin is the occupation of the Mimosa Golf and Country Club by citizens of the Land of the Morning Calm, NTM Jin Hung having won the bidding for Senor Don Jose Antonio Gonzales’ bank-pawned, CDC-sequestered crown jewels.
Ay caramba! Isn’t there an appeal of the Castilian to recoup his estate now pending before the Supreme Court? What if he wins? No, he won’t win?
Madre de Dios! The CDC Board of Directors has a gift of prophecy, manifest in their awarding Mimosa to NTM Jin Hung. That Antonio Ng and company did not even bother to wait it out shows that they are most certain that there is no sliver of a chance for the Don to reacquire his once enchanted fiefdom.
Sinverguenza! The paisano parian Antonio spiting the heredero Senor Don Antonio! Que pasa? Es verdad, malo esta nuevo orden del mundo.
Indeed, a new world order obtains at Mimosa, again Kimosa, to be more apt.
The lamentations of the Mimosa members suffering discrimination – more economic than racial – in their very own turf can make a case for violations of human rights.
A golfer who looks like Mabalacat Vice Mayor Crisostomo Garbo complains of being deprived the services of his favorite caddy girl. Why? She has reserved herself for Korean golfers. How come? A sober Ninoy Aquino makes a bogey to a smiling Benjamin Franklin on any day at the green. Yes, Garbito, Koreans tip in dollars not in won. As if you did not now.
Ah, this you know, as well as that other guy who is a spitting image of Bernie Cruz. The common request at the caddy shack by Korean golfers: “I want my caddy last night.” As I have yet to hear of night games in any of the three courses at Mimosa, I can only assume that that referred to a night-before short putt in a nineteenth hole. That is the caddy’s own, dummy.
Under CDC supervision, Mimosa has been ruled by Koreans. Rudely, claimed one local golfer whom I mistook for Tony Mamac. With NTM Jin Hung in full possession, greater discrimination at, if not a total shut out from the course is no baseless apprehension among the locals.
Thus, the Indios Bravos to the rescue of Filipino pride and honor. Senator Lito Lapid, Angeles Mayor Tarzan Lazatin and Mabalacat Mayor Boking Morales spearheading calls for a probe of allegations of rigging in the Mimosa deal.
The alleged disqualification on mere technicality – fifteen minutes late – of the other bidder, Avenue Asia, an American firm reportedly, smacked of pre-bid preference for the Korean bidder and prejudice against all others? The three officials believed so.
I don’t know how efficacious is Lapid’s proposal of a consortium of local businessmen-golfers to lease – not buy, for sheer lack of capital – Mimosa from CDC. I don’t know how the local golfers will take this.
What I do know, hearing it from a great number of them, is that Mimosa has to be taken out of the hands of CDC to save it from further ruination.
“For five years, we have been advocating for the privatization of Mimosa. This is to restore the course to its former glory as one of the best in the Asia-Pacific region, where even the likes of Tiger Woods came to play,” Mamac, the president of Mimosa members, stressed.
He lamented the mismanagement of the course by CDC after it took over from Gonzales owing to the latter’s financial woes with his creditor banks and Pagcor.
“Mimosa served as CDC’s milking cow. The sad thing is CDC did not take it to pasture, so to speak, failing miserably to maintain, much more upgrade it,” Mamac added.
Like other members, he believed that privatization will increase the value of Mimosa shares which at the time of Gonzales rose to as high as P1.5 million per share. Today, according to Mamac, it is down to a low of P200,000.
What if only the Koreans have the financial means to bail out Mimosa?
Pride takes the backseat then, Mamac said. “So long as our rights as members are upheld.” So there.
Still, the Senator wants his probe. While at it, may we suggest that His Honor expands his investigation to what we see as the creeping Koreanization of Angeles City.
While we have always welcomed foreign investors, there is something different with the Koreans. This is no racial prejudice. But a great many locals have observed that there is little benefit from the Korean invasion here.
Koreans patronize their own. They shop in Korean grocery stores, dine in Korean restaurants, wine in Korean nightclubs, stay in Korean hotels, relax in Korean spas, buy Korean cars. Very soon, they could be importing Korean GROs too. It won’t take long and we shall have a Korean mafia here too.
Ang maghahari-hari dito, kahit na sa krimen pa, dapat Pilipino. Ain’t we proud of ourselves?
xxxxx

POSTCRIPT. NTM Jin Hung won in the bidding for Mimosa with an offer of P1.6 billion, but the bid was withdrawn after the firm failed to comply with “upfront payments” according to CDC at that time.

Can’t help but feel some sense of déjà vu in the current bid to privatize Mimosa anew.

Can’t help but see the prescience of this column in the current of events at the Korean community in Clark and the city.    

Star-complexed

Candaba to see ‘Coco-Daniel’ tandem in 2016 elections

I had to do a double-take on Sun-Star Pampanga’s headline last Tuesday.

First persons that came to mind were Coco Austin, rapper-actor Ice-T’s bootylicious wife once arrested on a Florida beach for wearing a string bikini that left nothing to the imagination, and Daniel Craig, aka Bond, James Bond.

But reason dictated there was just no way for Hollywood going the route of avian migration to the wetlands of Pampanga.

On to the story then:    

CANDABA -- Mayor Rene Maglanque disclosed recently that his running mate for the 2016 polls is Councilor Michael Sagum.

"Inilalapit ko na po sa inyo ang gusto kong maging katulong sa mga darating ko pang proyekto para sa inyo, ang ‘Daniel Padilla’ ng ating munisipyo, Michael Sagum," said Maglanque, who uses the moniker "Coco Martin," in a recent event held here...

Ah, the reference pala is to the current matinee idols of local cinema. Okay. Let Maglanque indulge himself with his fantasies. No matter how freakingly wild.

But come to think of it, what’s in Candaba that makes its politicos arrogate to themselves screen monikers? No matter the littlest likeness the former have with the latter, indeed, the absolute absence of any resemblance between them.

If Maglanque is Coco Martin, then I am John Lennon – at least for the likeness of our steel-rimmed round eyeglasses. Maybe, even Russell Crowe as long-haired journalist Cal McAffrey in the political thriller State of Play.

The cineaste Ashley Manabat conceded though that Maglanque is a doppelganger to another Martin of old Tagalog movies – Marfil, the SkyFlakes-faced punching bag of FPJ and Erap in their heydays. 

Yes, Candaba mayors hold this distinction of impounding the names of famous actors as aliases in electoral campaigns.

Before “Coco” Maglanque, there was the loquacious John Lloyd – after Angelica Panganiban’s beau – in former Mayor Jerry Pelayo.

“John Lloyd is coming.” Many a tarpaulin announced all over Pampanga’s 4^th District in the 2013 election campaign. The electorate’s disappointment in seeing the balding Pelayo instead of the Biogesic-pushing Cruz, amply compensated though by the then House-seeker’s wit, his strong stage presence, and – not the least – the raffle prizes attendant to his sorties.  

“John Lloyd” was enough for Pelayo to win – in only one of the eight municipalities in the 4^th District. Not in his hometown at that, but in tiny Sto. Tomas.

The charisma of the reel John Lloyd failing to rub off on the real Jerry Pelayo, most evidently there.

To be imbued with the charisma oozing from those names in lights is the irresistible drive of local politicians who append these monikers to their persons. Believing their potency in getting the vote.

Which sadly is not the usual case.

The only politician in Pampanga I know who has parlayed the screen name to a series of poll victories is Marino “Boking” Morales, forever mayor of Mabalacat, starting with a 3^rd class-town now transformed into a bustling component city.  

Boking showbizzed himself as “Gabby Concepcion” after his first attempt at the mayorship miserably failed in 1992, despite the support of President Cory Aquino as well as rival presidential bets Fidel Ramos and Ramon Mitra, despite an enormous war chest, despite the INC bloc vote.

In 1995, the electorate took to Boking as Gabby, easily finding similarities in their being “pogi” with a string of lovelies, past and present, for trophies: as in Sharon, Grace and Jenny, for the latter…I invoke my right to be silent for the former.

It helped too that Boking as Gabby made the complete contrast, aye, the perfect protagonist, to his aesthetically-challenged perennial antagonist. Yes, he who never retreated from nor surrendered to Boking unto his death.

Yeah, it helps to be handsome to win elections. It is ridiculous though to tack a handsome name to an unhandsome face. I am not implying anything on “Coco” Maglanque here.

But even the iconic “face only his mother could love” can – and does – win elections too. No, I do not reference the BS in Malacanang here. Rather, I speak of the now dearly lamented Tirso G. Lacanilao, three term undefeated mayor of Apalit.

Tirso amassed immeasurable political stock out of ridiculing his self-professed, publicly-acknowledged ugliness. In his first run for the mayorship in 1998, his posters were defaced by his rivals with “PANGIT” in bold red/black scrawls. That inspired him to overhaul his campaign strategy with his unhandsomeness as core issue.

His spiels at the hustings:

Sinasabi po ng aking mga kalaban na ako ay mukhang kabayo. Mga sinungaling po ang mga iyan. Kayo na ang mismong nakakakita, hindi ako mukhang kabayo, ako ay mukhang tsonggo.” (My rivals say I look like a horse. They are liars. As you can well see, I don’t look like a horse. I look like a monkey)
Matatapang po ang aking mga kalaban at sila ay inyong kinatatakutan. Ako po ay hindi natatakot sa kanila, sa katunayan sila ay aking hinahamon. Kung talagang sila’y matatapang, sige nga magpalit kami ng mukha.” (People are terrified of my rivals, but I am not. If they are really that fearsome, I challenge them – to trade their faces with mine.)
“Ako po si Tirso G. Lacanilao. Ang ibig pong sabihin ng G ay guwapo. Ang spelling po nito ay g-a-g-o.” (I am Tirso G. Lacanilao. G stands for handsome. It is spelled stupid.)
“Y Tirso mayap ya, maganaka ya pa, andiyang matsura ya.” (To the tune of rap: Tirso is good, he is kind, even if ugly.)       

He never tasted defeat in Apalit.

But then there’s only one Tirso. Now there’s Maglanque assuming unto his person Coco.

Is it me, or did I hear someone whisper “Loco”?

  

  

Mabini on PNoy

"THE REVOLUTION failed because it was badly directed, because its leader won his post not with praiseworthy but with blameworthy acts, because instead of employing the most useful men of the nation he jealously discarded them. Believing that the advance of the people was no more than his own personal advance, he did not rate men according to their ability, character and patriotism but according to the degree of friendship or kinship binding him to them; and wanting to have favorites willing to sacrifice themselves for him, he showed himself lenient to their faults. Because he disdained the people, he could not but fall like an idol of wax melting in the heat of adversity. May we never forget such a terrible lesson learned at the cost of unspeakable sufferings!"

Apolinario Mabini’s reflection on Emilio Aguinaldo referenced from Mabini, A. (1935). The Philippine Revolution. Manila: National Library of the Philippines.

The tremor that was Heneral Luna continues to send strong aftershocks,  unearthing not only inconvenient but even damning truths long buried by those who hijacked history to ransom their tarnished image, to disinfect their blood-splattered likeness. To subvert, aye, to debase, history to personal hagiography.      

Aftershocks from the Filipino past – like this the Sublime Paralytic’s take on El Presidente – shaking the very foundations of his PNoy present.

As it is, Mabini here already makes a perfectly prescient statement on the current BS Aquino dispensation. Its paraphrase, with but the slightest substitutions, takes it to an in-your-face, if pedestrian, relevance. Thus:  

"The Daang Matuwid failed because it was badly directed, because its leader won his post not with praiseworthy deeds by himself but out of emotions rising from the death of his sainted mother, because instead of employing the most useful men of the nation he vented his vengeful rage against them, associated as they were with the predecessor he abominated. Believing that the advance of the people is subservient to his own personal advance, he did not rate men according to their ability, character and patriotism but according to the degree of friendship, read: kaklase and kabarilan, or kinship, read: kamag-anak, binding him to them; and wanting to have favorites willing to sacrifice themselves for him, read: Purisima, Abaya, Alcala and Torres, he showed himself lenient to their faults. Because he actually disdained those whom he flatteringly called his “boss,” he could not but fall like an idol of wax melting in the heat of adversity. May we never forget such a terrible lesson learned at the cost of unspeakable sufferings!"

Indeed, the horrific lessons of the Luneta massacre of Hong Kong tourists, Supertyphoon Yolanda and Mamasapano, of PDAF and DAP, of Customs’ preferential treatment of big-time smugglers and harassment of OFWs, of the daily Calvary that is the MRT, and the hourly hell that is EDSA. To cite only the top-of-mind issues of misgovernance, of misfeasance, if not malfeasance.     

Speaking of Aguinaldo over a century ago, Mabini verily defined the BS, Aquino. In real time.

There’s one more affirmation of that truism, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Of that obscure Irish saying denying the present and the future, attesting only to the past happening over and over, again and again.

Of the continuing applicability of Santayana’s caveat of doom to those who do not learn from the lessons of history.

Of the infallibility of that Marxist maxim of history repeating itself: first as tragedy, second as farce.

Reading Mabini after reliving Luna, albeit so shortly and cinematically, it makes total sense why we are a nation doomed, why we are a people damned.

So what?  

As long as we are the nation of AlDub.     

Sugat sa kasaysayan

ALIN DITO ang totoo? Alin ang kathang-isip lamang?

Ito ang katanungang palagiang iniuugnay sa anumang kathang kasaysayan, true-to-life story, o historical fiction.

Karamiha’y totoong mga kaganapan, may iilang kinatha atas ng poetic license para sa dramatic effect.

Ito naman ang karaniwang kaakibat na kasagutan.

Sa pelikulang Heneral Luna, alin ang alin?

Sa ganang akin, naging matapat ang pagkakalarawan sa heneral na ang tanging pagkakakilala na aking pinanghahawakan ay mula sa araling-pangkasaysayan sa mataas na paaralan at sa pamantasan, pati na rin sa iba pang mga aklat na aking nabasa tungkol sa himagsikan. Na liban sa pagiging nakababatang kapatid ng dakilang pintor na si Juan, si Antonio Luna ay isang duktor, mahusay na eskrimador, muntik pang maka-duelo ni Dr. Jose Rizal, likas na mainitin ang ulo, dakilang mangingibig. Natatanging heneral – ayon na rin sa mga nakalabang Amerikano – bunsod ng kanyang pagiging henyo sa larangan ng pakikidigma. Higit sa lahat, wagas ang pag-ibig sa tinubuang-bayan. Ang lahat ng yaon ay nabigyan ng akmang pagpapahalaga sa pelikula.

Datapwa’t, hindi ito isang movie review. Wala akong anumang pagkukunwari o ambisyon, lalo’t higit munting kaalaman man lamang, na maging isang manunuri sa pelikula. Ito ay isang paghahayag ng mga damdamin at kaisipang pinukaw sa akin ng Heneral Luna.

Una, ang muling pagnaknak ng di-maghilom na sugat ng kasaysayan sa “tunay” na katotohanan tungkol sa pagpatay – o pagkatay, gaya ng naisalarawan sa sine – kay Luna. Isama na rin dito ang kasing-lagim na sinapit ni Gat. Andres Bonifacio, na binigyan din ng flashback sa pelikula. Dalawang magkahiwalay at magka-ibang mga kaganapan na iisa ang pinag-usbungan – inggitan, magkakasalungat na interes, kataksilan, power struggle, internal conflict, o yaong matatawag ding “revolution in a revolution.” Na iisa ang pinanggalingang kautusan – si Emilio Aguinaldo, pangulo ng Pilipinas.

Burahin ang mukha ni Aguinaldo sa limang piso! Sigaw na nagmuntik-muntikang umaligwa sa lalamunang sinasakal ng magkahalong galit at dalamhati sa trahedya ni Bonifacio’t Luna.                       

Panahon na – kahit man lamang para sa kasalukuyan at sa susunod pang saling-lahi – upang itama’t ituwid ang pagkabusabos ng kasaysayan mula sa kamay ng mga bumitay sa tunay na mga bayani ng bayan.

Pangalawa, pinaglaro ang aking diwa ng tauhang si Isabel, ang love interest ni Luna sa pelikula. Sino sa kasaysayan si Isabel?

Dalawang babae mula dito sa ating rehiyon ang nagkaroon ng kaugnayan sa buhay ni Luna.

Una, si Nicolasa Dayrit ng San Fernando, ang nag-aruga sa mga sugatan at may-sakit na mga rebolusyunaryo sa digmaang Pilipino-Amerikano, at nanguna sa mga kababaihang namagitan sa alitan nina Luna at Heneral Tomas Mascardo.

Ito ay akmang naisalarawan sa Heneral Luna sa pamamagitan ng tauhang si Isabel.

Pangalawa, si Ysidra Cojuangco ng Paniqui, Tarlac, na sinasabing kasintahan ni Luna at umano’y pinag-iwanan niya ng pondo ng himagsikan bago siya tumungong Cabanatuan kung saan siya nga’y pinatay.

Sa isang eksena sa pelikula, nakapaniig ni Luna si Isabel isang gabing bilog at maliwanag ang buwan.

Si Isabel ba ay composite character halaw kina Nicolasa at Ysidra para lamang sa  dramatic effect?      

Anu’t ano pa man, mayroong mga hindi maitatatwang katotohanan ang Heneral Luna. Ito ay ang pagsasalarawan sa katauhang Pilipino mula sa mga pangungusap ng mga tauhan, bukod tangi ang heneral. Mga pangungusap na sumasalamin sa nakaraan ngunit kinababanaagan ng kasalukuyan.

“Nasa ibang ulo ang utak ng inyong kapitan…” Wari ko’y nakatuon ito sa nakaupo sa Malakanyang.

“Para kayong mga birheng naniniwala sa pag-ibig ng isang puta…” Tumatagos ito sa lahat ng antas ng mga Pilipino – mula sa mga sumasamba sa kapitalismo, sa mga biktima ng illegal recruitment, sa mga panatiko sa relihiyon, lalo’t higit sa mga bobotanteng bulag sa pandarambong ng itinataguyod na pulitiko.   

“Negosyo o kalayaan? Bayan o sarili? Pumili ka!” Una, sa una. Huli, sa huli. Ano pa nga ang pinipili?

“Wala ba tayong karapatang mabuhay ng malaya?” Panaghoy ng mga Lumad ngayon.

“Mas madali pang pagkasunduin ang langit at lupa kaysa dalawang Pilipino tungkol sa kahit na anong bagay.” Kanya-kanya. Watak-watak. Kaisipang-makasarili, kalakarang-tribo.

Ganito ba talaga ang tadhana natin? Kalaban ang kalaban. Kalaban ang kakampi, nakakapagod.” Higit sa isang siglo, ganito na sila noon, ganito pa rin tayo ngayon. 

Ito ang Pilipino.

“Handang magtapon ng dugo ang totoong makabayan. Hindi pagdurusa ang pagdaan sa napakatinding pasakit. Para kang tumanggap ng basbas, parang pag-ibig.”

Ito si Heneral Luna. Ito si Bonifacio.

Perfect timing

ON TIME. In fact, ahead of time. Exactly, 20 minutes before the expected time of arrival. That was Cebu Pacific flight 5J609 from Clark landing at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Thursday afternoon.   

That the very schedule of our media “lakbay-aral” flight was moved forward to 1:05 p.m. from 9:30 p.m. could have been a sign of this surprising, and most welcome, development, and could have set the tone for what turned out to be the fullness, aye fulsomeness, of time in our fully-packed itinerary.

A breeze from Mactan through Mandaue for on-time check-in at Radisson Blu Cebu which pampered us with the full measure of its 5-star status – from our rooms to the buffet breakfast of continental – cheese and bread, bacon and sausages, eggs galore; Chinese – dimsum, noodles and porridge, veritably Hong Kong’s; and Cebuano – crispy danggit, and surprisingly even crispier pusit.

Dinner buffet at the hotel’s Feria restaurant levels up to ambrosia – succulent fried duck, divine roast leg of lamb, juicy beefsteaks, and lechon Cebu but of course – for the main entrée.

Aye, timely tasting of the Radisson brand of hospitality which will soon be served  hereabouts via its Park Inn at the SM City Clark complex, virtually templated from the same hotel-mall synergy in Cebu.

Whirlwind sightseeing around the city made the time spiritually fulfilling with brief stops at the modern church of 100 walls dedicated to San Pedro Calungsod, the iconic Magellan’s Cross and the metropolitan cathedral with the shrine to the Sto. Nino.

It could not have been timelier: The media briefing on ongoing developments at the Mactan Cebu International Airport. That we automatically referenced from the announcements of a P15-billion fund for the development of the Clark International Airport, with P1.2 billion already earmarked by the NEDA Board only over a week or two ago.  

MCIA, now run by the GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp., is a work in progress worth some P35 billion until 2022, so I got – hopefully not mistakenly – from Chief Executive Adviser Andrew Acquaah-Harrison.

No, the government has not provided a single cent for the airport, GMR-Megawide winning the bid for some P14 billion.

Yes, on-going construction and renovations make the airport look like an evolving success story for the public-private partnership policy.        

Some lessons to be learned from there, Pampanga media duly noted, immediately volunteering to broker a meeting between Harrison and CIAC President-CEO Dino Tanjuatco. Better yet, award the Clark terminal project to GMR-Megawide with just one proviso: Andrew Acquaah-Harrison a sine qua non in the package.

No time. To swim at the Bluewater Maribago resort, distinctive with decades- if not centuries-old trees all around its property. There’s always a next time, of course.

On time. The departure of the Ocean Jet ferry from Cebu to Bohol. But wrong timing for touring, one of the guys – was it Ashley Manabat? – said of our Saturday sidetrip to Tarsierland. The heavy clouds that enveloped our crossing the Cebu Strait turned to pelting rain as we disembarked at the Tagbilaran port.

Intermittent downpour forced us to pass up on Napoleon Abueva’s commemorative monument to the blood compact of Datu Sikatuna and Miguel Lopez de Legaspi that sealed the first international treaty entered into by a Filipino.

Soft drizzle welcomed us to earthquake-devastated Baclayon church, the long, painful process of its reconstruction most manifest in the steel frames around the remains of its façade, buttresses and walls, and the stacks of reclaimed limestone blocks that once formed the same.

A revelation inside – the total absence of destruction from the crossing to the apse and the altar. The magnificence and majesty of the retablos – behind the main altar and at each of the north and south transepts – inspiring reverential awe over what could have been but – by the grace of God – did not. One is  moved to kneel in deep prayer of thanksgiving.

No time though for the museum at the convent, with Loboc still some distance away.

In time for lunch, on boats cruising the Loboc River with musicians on board and a short stop by a wooden pier where school kids perform folk dances to the accompaniment of a rondalla.

The rains, now slight, enhancing the verdancy of the forests lining the river banks, and at the far end of the river bend the mystic scene of fog descending on the thick green foliage. The spirit soars, in nature’s sweet embrace.        

More natural marvel in the furry, fragile tarsiers sheltered from the drizzle by leaves, clutching at the branches, keeping still, impassive to the rush of curious tourists, both foreign and domestic, clicking away with their cameras and mobiles.

Aware of the depressive disposition of these smallest of primates, it was time to leave with the slightest of disturbance to them, to their habitat as well.

Precision timing. The rains had stopped, the skies had cleared. The hills were alive with the sound of tourists. For a panoramic vista, huffed and puffed up the over-200 steps to the observation spot where ravages of the earthquake have remained extant – collapsed walls, broken posts, cracked markers.              

So why were they called Chocolate Hills when there’s nothing chocolaty in their greenness? Duh! It is in summer when the grass covering them dry up and turn brown. Duh, duh!

In time for the ferry back to Cebu, travel time: two hours.

A great time for all of us lakbay-aral mediamen – the best for Deng Pangilinan, two days short of being Boy Golden – at STK Ta Bai, the acronym for sinugba, tinola, kinilaw over grilled tuna. Food, glorious food! 

On time. In fact, ahead of time. Exactly, 20 minutes before the expected time of arrival. That was Cebu Pacific flight 5J608 from Mactan-Cebu International Airport landing at Clark early Sunday morning.

As we departed, so we arrived. Timing perfection. Courtesy of CebPac. And Clark.    

Ever again

IF WE accept life as struggle, and history as the continuing struggle for freedom, we realize the necessity of revolution, and from that, the imperative of the militant creed.

I believe, therefore, in the necessity of Revolution as an instrument of individual and social change, and that its end is the advancement of human freedom.

I believe that only a reactionary resistance to radical change will make a Jacobin, or armed, revolution inevitable, but that in a democratic society, revolution is of necessity, constitutional, peaceful and legal.

I believe that while we have utilized the Presidential powers to dismantle the violent revolution and its communist apparatus, we must not fail our people; we must replace the violent revolution with the authentic revolution – liberal, constitutional and peaceful.

I believe in democracy as the continuing revolution; that any other revolution is unjustified if it cannot meet the democratic criterion.

I believe that even if a society should be corrupted by an unjust economic or social system, this can be redressed by the people, directly or indirectly, for democracy has the powers of self-rejuvenation and self-correction.

I believe that in the troubled present, revolution is a fact, not merely a potential threat, and that if we value our sacred rights, our cherished freedoms, we must wrest the revolutionary leadership from those who would, in the end, turn the democratic revolution into a totalitarian regime.

I believe that in our precarious democracy which tends towards an oligarchy because of the power of the wealthy few over the impoverished many, there remains a bright hope for a radical and sweeping change without the risk of violence. I do not believe that violent revolution is either necessary or effective in an existing democracy.

I believe that our realization of the common peril, our complete understanding of our national condition, will unite us in a democratic revolution that will strengthen our democratic institutions and offer, finally, our citizens the opportunity of making the most and the best of themselves.

I believe that democracy is the revolution, that it is today’s revolution.

This is my fighting faith.

So concluded Today’s Revolution: Democracy penned by Ferdinand Edralin Marcos on Sept. 7, 1971.

One year and two weeks hence, Marcos applied his theory of the democratic revolution with Proclamation No. 1081, placing the whole Philippines under Martial Law.  

And the rest, as clichéd, is history? More its permutation, the very revolution Marcos idealized as people-liberating, he himself turned totalitarian.

Inevitably leading to another revolution romanticized as the people’s but itself turning into an oligarchy – the rich that Marcos banished returning home with impunity, getting back – and more – that which was, rightfully, if forcibly, taken from them.

Thus gone full circle – full vicious cycle – has Philippine society.  Thus, Marcos, this time in Revolution from the Center in 1978:      

NOW ANY society in which most of the people are poor is always in danger of having its political authority corrupted and dominated by the rich minority.
In the Philippines, the real power lay back of the shifting factions, in the hands of a few rich families strong enough to bend Government to their will. This oligarchy intervened in government to preserve the political privileges of its wealth, and to protect its right of property.
This intervention of wealth in politics unavoidably produced corruption. And when this practice seeped through the whole of society itself, the result was moral degeneration. So the Philippine political culture equated freedom with self-aggrandizement, and the politics of participation, so essential in a democracy, with the pursuit of privilege.
Oligarchic “values” permeated society all the more easily because the rich controlled the press and radio-TV. The press particularly became the weapon of a special class rather than a public forum. The newspapers would noisily and endlessly comment on the side issues of our society, but not on the basic ones: for example, the question of private property.
The oligarchic propaganda was that somehow, with the election of “good men” – good men who please the oligarchs – mass poverty would come to an end. The search for “better men in politics” and not institutional change; a “higher political morality,” and not the restructuring of society – this was the oligarch’s ready answer to the question of change. 
Verily prescient, if not prophetic, the exactness of Marcos’ words applying to BS Aquino III.

Aye, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Or as our favourite Irish saying puts it: “There is no present, there is no future. Only the past happening over and over, again and again.”

(A reprint of a past Martial Law anniversary article titled The Marcosian ideal finding final application, if not relevance, with the BS administration coming to an end.) 

Dynasties, duh, duh

THERE’S JUST no escaping it, especially when a member of the House is present. The Anti-Dynasty Bill, that is. Tracing its roots to the Cory Constitution but remaining unacted to the time of her son, the BS.

An impassioned, albeit telegraphic, discourse on the evils of political dynasties in the country dear friend Romy Dizon delivered before 1^st District Rep. Joseller “Yeng” Guiao at the Balitaan forum of the Capampangan in Media Inc. last Friday.

Sensing some uneasiness not only in the Coach but some others of our elder newsmen especially when Romy began a litany of Pampanga dynasts, I intervened with the half-joke that elsewhere in the country are human dynasties but Pampanga’s is divine.

The resulting guffaws defused the building tension and discussions quickly shifted to developments in Clark like the P15 billion allocated for the new airport terminal and some other issues that found recent print in the local media. With Cong Yeng as the messenger of the good news.

After the forum, Romy again was talking dynasties. Pressed for time, I told that I shall indulge him with a column on the subject. Well, what did I find? One written here in the immediate aftermath of the 2013 elections. As good as any on the subject, if not even better, what with it as some prism now through which to view the coming 2016 polls.        

Dynasties, duh!

NO TO Mag-INDA-Now.

Punning perfection from Pampanga’s moral minority provided the high definition, indeed, impacted the meanest meaning, to political dynasty in the province. Alas, it failed to catch the imagination, much less inflame the conviction of the electorate. Most miserably, at that.

Did I say minority? Minimality, more aptly, as suggested by their actual number, scoffed the suddenly semantically sensitive Ashley Manabat. But that makes yet another story. Anyways… 

The Pineda juggernaut an irresistible force. Panlilio’s spirited stand…well, all spirits, amounting to nothing but token resistance.

Not just mag-inda – mother Gov. Lilia G. Pineda and son vice governor-elect Dennis aka Delta winning by the widest margins, but really mi-inda-inda – daughter Mylyn and daughter-in-law Yolly also getting re-elected as mayors, unopposed – veritably for the former, virtually for the latter.

Mag-INDA-Now! A dynasty well-entrenched there. Appended insinuations of the Ampatuans notwithstanding, indeed, lost in the triumphant shouting. Across Central Luzon, reverberating.

Realpolitik now: Matriarchal in Pampanga becomes patriarchal in Bataan, conjugal in Bulacan and Nueva Ecija, and fraternal in Tarlac.

All four Garcias won in Bataan: the father, incumbent Gov. Tet Garcia traded places with son, 2^nd District Rep. Albert Garcia; son Jose Enrique Garcia was re-elected Balanga City mayor, and daughter Gila Garcia won the Dinalupihan mayorship.

Laid by the wayside of the Garcia blitz are the Payumos – ex-SBMA chair Tong Payumo losing anew in the first district congressional run; his Harvard-educated son Tonito failing in his bid for the provincial board; his nephew, incumbent Dinalupihan Mayor Joel Payumo, losing in his gubernatorial quest; Joel’s brother, ex-Mayor Jose Payumo III knocked out in his return bout for the mayorship.

In Bulacan, both husband Gov. Wilhelmino Alvarado and wife 1^st District Rep. Marivic Alvarado ran – and won, but of course – unopposed.

Though opposed, Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali and wife 3^rd District Rep. Cherry D. Umali managed to bury their rivals in landslides.

The once powerful Josons shut out in the races for governor, vice-governor and the first congressional district, managing wins only in their bailiwick of Quezon town and in the provincial board and Cabanatuan City council.

No sibling rivalry but mutuality in competency leading to victory was the case in Tarlac. Gov. Victor Yap lived up to his name anew, in avalanche win over Cojuangco kin Isa Suntay and incumbent Vice Gov. Pearl Pacada.

A walk in the park for incumbent 2^nd District Rep. Susan Yap with 120,822 votes to erstwhile Public Works director Pepe Rigor’s 34,696.

No contest too for San Jose Mayor Jose Yap, Jr. over the substitute candidate for his murdered rival, Rudy Abella.

All is not lost though for the anti-dynasts, taking heart in the fall – and how! – of the House of Gordon and the Clan of Magsaysay in Olongapo City and Zambales.

Incumbent Olongapo Mayor James Gordon, Jr., lost in his bid for the first congressional district seat. His wife, former Vice Gov. Anne Mary Gordon failed to succeed him in an internecine battle with their nephew Bugsy de los Reyes – both losing to Rolen Paulino. Brian Gordon, son of Dick, also lost in the vice mayoral contest.

Kin JC de los Reyes failed in his Senate bid. And with Dick himself finally excluded from the Magic 12, thorough becomes the Gordon debacle.  

Shut out of the Senate too were Ramon Magsaysay Jr. and niece-in-law Mitos Magsaysay. 

Mitos’ children Jobo and Vic-Vic shared her loss, failing in their respective bid for the first congressional district seat and the vice mayoralty post of Olongapo.

Back to Pampanga, all is not lost too for the moral minimality, with aspiring dynasties nipped in the bud this Monday past.

Come to think of it, voters in two towns took heed to calls of “No to Mag-INDA Now,” literally. In Bacolor, Mayor Jomar Hizon got his re-election but his mother Atching Lolet was frustrated in her vice mayoral aspiration. In Magalang, Koko Gonzales won a council seat even as his mother, LP official bet Elizabeth, came in third and last in the mayoral contest.   
No to mag-igpa too, apparently with the father, Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo failing to capitalize on his John Lloyd stock against comebacking Cong. Rimpy Bondoc for the fourth district congressional seat, and the son, Patrick losing in his own run to succeed him.

No conjugal rule in Sto. Tomas: the husband-and-wife tandem of former Mayor  Romy “Ninong” Ronquillo and incumbent Vice Mayor Gloria “Ninang” Ronquillo losing to history-making re-elected Mayor Lito Naguit – first three-termer ever, and running mate Mark Arceo.

It’s vote-one, take-out-one in Angeles City in the case of Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin, Jr. winning a council seat while his senior, Cong Tarzan losing his mayoralty bid. Ditto Atty. Brian Matthew Nepomuceno landing Number 2 in the council while uncle Blueboy losing to Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao in his congressional comeback run.

Though both Pamintuan father – Mayor EdPam, and son – councilor Edu made a successful return. Same thing in Mabalacat City with Mayor Boking Morales re-elected for the umpteenth time, and his son Dwight, now neophyte alderman. Minus, daughter Marjorie Morales-Sambo who got beaten in the vice mayoralty race.     

Now, what does this add up to?

Utterly lacking in the requisite socio-economic, political, even anthropological  and psychological background for an exegeses of the issue at hand, I can only guess: It is not that voters love some families less, but that they are mesmerized by others more. Duh?