Ceboom sidebar - Cacao Mix: Art, passion, sustainability

                             

A DANCE: The graceful, sinuous movement of the hands, as though of apsaras; the cadence at each pound of a wooden pestle on a stone mortar, its musical accompaniment. Whence rises sweet, sweet aroma tantalizing the olfactory sense.

Art, passion, and sensation blended in – would you believe? – the making of tablea. Aye, that ball of roasted, ground-up cacao beans which, mixed with hot water, makes the all-too Filipino sikwate chocolate drink. But only in the hands of Cebu’s Chocolate Queen – Ms. Raquel T. Choa.

The Chocolate Chamber (TCC) Café at Robinsons Galleria, Cebu City makes the perfect stage for Ms. Choa’s magnificent rendition of the making of tablea, performed al fresco before visiting VIPs, dignitaries, business groups, media – as in the case of Clark- and Pampanga-based journos last June 4 – and every mallgoer who happens to be by.     

The sampling of the end product – sikwate – in dainty cups is pure ambrosia.   

“The chocolate journey of a thousand miles begins with one cacao step.” So, the TCC blurb imparts. Modesty, mayhaps, held it back from saying: Raquel Choa is the face that launched that journey. Putting Cebu cacao in the world’s chocolate map.  

Beyond that established name, Ms. Choa has moved further with her founding of the Cacao de Filipinas Fellowship toward that singular mission to sustain the cacao value chain in Cebu – all “for the love of Creator, Country, Cacao.”

Ms. Choa explains the non-profit organization’s goal as embodied in a simple statement that has the making of an article of faith: “It’s all in the B-E-A-N-S.”   

Bridging cacao stakeholders. Empowering farmers. Achieving excellence in cacao production. Nurturing nature and the community. Sustaining cacao value chain.

To which we all raised a toast of tasty sikwate – Cheers!  -- Bong Z. Lacson

Ceboom, anew

 

PANORAMA OF DEVELOPMENT. SM Seaside City-Cebu (left) gets direct access to Mactan Island via the city’s newest icon, the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (right). Photo by Bong Lacson  

ALMOST THREE years of pandemic grounding – last flight to Kaohsiung in December 2019 yet – turned me into a travel tyro all over again. You know that “promdi” feel upon setting foot on an airport for the first time: of excitement and trepidation, of awe at the swirl of the surrounding – this time all the more magnified by the magnificence of the CRK New Terminal. Truly, awed.

Only, to be jolted to the harsh reality that we – passengers of Cebu Pacific’s flight 5J157 to Cebu that early morning of June 3 – could not avail ourselves of the “welcoming and inclusive spaces…at the heart of CRK” as promised by then-BCDA chief Vince Dizon in one of the pre-opening media sorties at the airport, “where we embrace a positive atmosphere and treat everyone with utmost respect.”

Yes, herded as we were at the waiting area of Gate 9, prevented from crossing over to the aforementioned spaces, depriving us of the promised “sense of place” evoked with a view of majestic Mount Arayat at sunrise while lounging on those sinuous sofas of rattan and wood crafted by Betis artisans.    

Reduced to marveling at the ceiling “reminiscent of the Zambales mountains” rendered in wavy massive glued laminated timber, instantly drawn to the Marvel Cinematic Universe was I to post on FB a photo captioned: “CRK. So world-class that even Spiderman came over and left his web.” Or maybe CRK is just planning a

Halloween theme this early, hence the accumulation of clouds of cobwebs at the rafters.

All pre-flight bitterness turned all-too sweet upon boarding 5J157, starting with the sunny disposition and welcoming smiles of the flight attendants, to the fine service onboard.

And yes, my past – both remotely and immediately pre-pandemic – experiences with the airline hold: CebPac is never on time, it is always ahead of time. Be it in Narita or Chek Lap Kok, Itami or Suvarnabhumi, Macao or Changi, in Davao, Iloilo, and Cebu, but of course.

It’s the nth time I came to the Queen City of the South, but the feeling was no different from my first in the 1980s. In Cebu, never did I succumb to that been-there-done-that ennui of the jaded traveler.  

Foregoing the usual must-see sites of Magellan’s Cross and the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño de Cebu, Fort San Pedro and the Mactan Shrine, the 17^th century Yap-San Diego Ancestral House and the Osmena Residence, our itinerary, courtesy of the Department of Tourism-Region 7, took us to the city’s newest destination – its highlands. Yea, Cebu is not all beaches and cultural heritage, it has mountains too.

The Highlands

                                        Buwakan ni Alejandra. Photo courtesy of Borj Meneses

Taking the pre-eminent spot is Buwakan ni Alejandra, a 700-square-meter expanse of rolling hills blanketed with plants and flowers – “buwak” in Cebuano, hence the name – of all hues found in the LGBTQ+ kaleidoscopic flag, and more. The garden lies along the Cebu Transcentral Highway, about an hour from the city center.

Second is the Adlawon Vacation Farm in its eponymous mountain barangay that offers staycation of “buhay probinsya” right within the bounds of the metropolis. 

Unfortunately, ours was not even a stay overnight but a quick look-feel of 15 hectares of forest green of mighty mahogany and majestic acacia trees, a sprinkling of other forest and fruit-bearing trees, flower gardens and vegetable patches, as well as plant nurseries and animal pens. The Lodge is the main structure at the farm, housing guest and function rooms, a library and lounge, an entertainment center and a viewing deck. A Chapel of the Resurrection stands at the farm too.

                                 

                                      Adlawon Vacation Farm. Photo courtesy of Borj Meneses

 The “buhay probinsya” vibe found in the Payag, the Visayan version of the traditional Filipino bahay kubo, and the Farmers Market, a “talipapa” of produce straight from AVF’s vegetable patches and trellises.

All-organic, all farm-sourced was the sumptuous lunch served us at the Kusina Luche by hands-on owners Atty. Danilo Ortiz and Dra. Melinda Ortiz themselves.

Really wished we had stayed overnight, if only to witness the farm’s claims of spectacular sunsets and magical moonrises.

Speaking of Dreamland, Summit Galeria Cebu more than fits the bill. The Sinulog Premier Room where I nested for two nights provided not your usual starred-hotel amenities but customized luxuries – a king bed, finest linens, ultra-soft non-allergenic pillows, a living room tastefully decorated with art pieces.

 

                               Sinulog Premier Room at Summit Galleria. Photo by Bong Lacson

Why, Summit Galleria Cebu even indulged the mallrat in me with a direct access to Robinsons Galleria, and most pleasurably at that, via Café Summit, the hotel’s all-day restaurant serving diverse dishes ranging from the classic to the exotic. A letdown though – no “danggit” for breakfast in the two mornings I was there.

Food trip

At the mall, we indulged in a feast of the senses of sight, smell and taste at The Chocolate Chamber Café, with Cebu’s Chocolate Queen herself, Ms. Raquel Choa, raising to the level of performance art the preparation of “tablea” into a “sikwate” for all of us to drink. So remarkable was her performance that it merited a separate short feature published as a sidebar story.  

 

                                                Tablea. Photo courtesy of Borj Meneses

A food trip this coming to Cebu did turn out, indeed. Contrary to my wont in my usual travels, I did not have to dispense with my innate Capampangan culinary conceit this time to enjoy whatever the table offered.

Dinner at all-day buffet CAFÉ bai with its multiple live cooking stations dishing out the best of East and West cuisines was no simple gastronomic experience but a gluttonous excess. Made superbly wonderful by the presence of bai Hotel’s GM Alfred Reyes, a dear friend dating back to his days at Widus Hotel in Clark. The night view of Mandaue City from the hotel’s Twilight Roofdeck Lounge + Bar capped the evening’s delight.

 

Mandaue City nightscape from bai Hotel’s Twilight Roofdeck Lounge + Bar. Photo by Bong Lacson

Next night’s dinner at the Marco Polo Plaza Cebu made an almost perfect duplication. The evening tryst though starting not ending with cocktails at Blu Bar & Grill overlooking the city with GM Roel Constantino. A brief look-see at selected rooms and facilities of the hotel led to a feast at the Café Marco – easily proving its claim as “Cebu City’s favorite international buffet.” Native grilled salmon head, in all its tasty simplicity, easily became my favorite dish there though.

 

                                  Buffet station at Café Marco, Marco Polo Plaza Cebu. Photo by Bong Lacson

 Regional, read: Southern Chinese and Southeast Asian, culinary delights we had our fill too with lunch at Xin Tian Di (New heaven and earth, in Chinese), one of three restaurants – Il Primo Steakhouse and Fina, the other two – currently operating at Nustar Resort and Casino located at South Road Properties. Mott 32, that award-winning Chinese restaurant is coming to Nustar soon.  

We were given a sneak peek of the complex’s Fili, the five-star brand of Robinsons Hotels Resorts, now nearing completion. Two other hotels are in various stages of construction at the same site of Nustar Resort and Casino, the flagship project of Universal Hotels and Resorts, a privately owned corporation of the Gokongwei Group focused on gaming and integrated resort developments across the Philippines, so the collaterals say.

 

           Cebu’s premier 5-star integrated resort. Photo by Bong Lacson

 So how big is Cebu’s premier five-star integrated resort?  

Charles Lim, president of our host Selrahco PR, easily pulled our legs when, on the way to Nustar, he referenced it as “a small version” of the Clark Freeport’s flagship Hann Casino Resort. Nustar is Hann four times, with more to spare.

Luxury defined

While Nustar, still a work in progress, is blurbed as “redefining luxury,” I experienced the full meaning of the word at the Crimson Resort and Spa-Mactan. A private beach, arguably the most magnificent infinity pool in the whole of Cebu, cocktails at the Azure Beach Club right at the water’s edge, food, glorious food at the Enye restaurant, a deluxe garden villa all my own – if only for a night – ah, the pesante took a bite, albeit a small one, of the life exclusive to the rich and famous.

                              Crimson Resort and Spa Mactan. Photo by Bong Lacson

 A wonder too how the resort hardly showed any remnant of the battering inflicted upon it and the rest of the city by Supertyphoon Odette only last December.   

Recovered, even renewed, from disasters meteorological and pestilential. Yes, both boon and boom are back in the city. So delighted to take this first foray into post-pandemic travel nowhere else but Cebu.

(Cebu Pacific flies Cebu-Clark-Cebu daily from the CRK)      

           

Taking crime out of libel

 

"ON WHAT I can do for media workers... first I will decriminalize libel. It's causing headaches for media workers. [Libel] is being used by politicians and those seated in the government to harass and threaten [the media]."

So was quoted presumptive senator Raffy Tulfo in an interview with The Chiefs on May 16.

“Ngayon pa lang sinasabi ko sa inyo, isa sa mga priority bills ko ay ‘yung ipa-decriminalize ‘yung libel.” So, the proclaimed senator Tulfo made an echo chamber out of the Philippine International Convention Center, May 18.

He clarified though that he does not plan to remove the civil liabilities of libel "so that those who feel that they have been affected by what they believe to be libelous can attain justice."

"Let's accept it, there are also people from our ranks who are crazy, who are biased in criticizing the government," he said. 

Earlier that same day, the senator’s elder sibling Ramon was arrested by police for cyber libel.

“Wala, di pa nagbabago ang aking stand. Di ito top priority, itong decriminalizing libel. Karamihan lumalapit sakin mga mahihirap nating kababayan. Sila ang uunahin ko muna. They are the reason bakit ako tumakbo sa pagkasenador." So, Tulfo told ANC's Headstart on May 19.

I leave that there. Draw your own opinions. I came out here to take my stand anew against decriminalizing libel, updating a piece I wrote here in February 2014 that put me at odds with a number of my media peers.   

I HAVE had no problem with libel, notwithstanding the eight cases I had faced in my almost 50 years of writing. No bragging there, just being matter-of-factly.  

I have always considered a libel case as par for the course in the journalism field.

As a recourse – the only legal one – of anyone who felt maligned in print, broadcast, or personal utterance, to seek redress for her/his grievance. Indeed, the exercise of a civil right in our democratic state.

It is precisely owing to this core belief that I never begrudged all those people who took me to court – mainly to the prosecutor’s office – crying that I libeled them.

I respected their right to seek my comeuppance for whatever perceived and felt wrong I did them. I respected them for their civility – of going the judicial course instead of taking the extra-judicial route with extreme prejudice.  

It is precisely because no libel complaint bearing my name as respondent ever prospered, all finding closure at the prosecutor’s office, that I have lived well with the reality of libel – until 2010.  

Mid-December of that year, a complaint rising out of my reply to a story denigrating procedures in the conferment of some awards went beyond the prosecutor’s, after its dismissal and subsequent denial of a motion for reconsideration there, to the Department of Justice via the complainant’s petition for review. Only to be dismissed anew. The case ran all of three years. Meaning not to scratch old scars to draw fresh blood anew, I made no mention of names and circumstances here. A slew of stories about it came out in the local media and I recorded my personal account in acaesar.blogspot.com.

20 years ‘warranted’

In November 2015, a libel complaint I did not know still existed came to my knowledge only when I sought an NBI clearance relative to the renewal of my gun permit and found an alias warrant to my name. The case was filed in 1997. Alas, two co-respondents – publisher Joe Pavia and editor Ody Fabian – had died since.    

I hastened to Angeles City RTC Branch 62 to post bail and seek the reopening of the case.

The ink on my fingers and my palms from posting bail had yet to be completely scrubbed off when I got a subpoena from the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office for another libel complaint. A Guagua cop felt maligned by a story in Punto! in August 2015 written by the erudite Ding Cervantes alleging irregularities in the handling of evidence obtained in drug buy-bust. As editor, I was co-respondent.

The 1997 case filed by husband-and-wife officers of the Mabalacat Water District was dismissed in August 2016 “for lack of interest to prosecute” as the complainants could not be found anymore. What dragged on – absent my knowledge – for all of 20 years took but two hearings to be scratched off the court archives.         

People vs. Cervantes, Lacson et al did not go beyond pre-trial for over three years, the complainant showing himself in court all of three times. Raffled off thereafter to another judge, the case was “conditionally dismissed” in August 2020 after only three hearings.                                                  

Grand celebrations

Any dismissal of a libel case is a cause for grand celebrations, as much for the personal triumph of the writer-respondent and his paper or radio-TV station, as for the victory of justice, and the supremacy of press freedom.

At the time of our prime, not too long ago, libel cases were never considered swords of Damocles hanging over our heads in our daily journalistic grind, but rather areas of opportunity to test the bounds of the freedom of expression. The possibility of libel cases never deterred us from the pursuit of the story, any story fit to print, to appropriate the hallowed motto of The New York Times.

No fear factor, no “chilling effect” then as now did a libel case serve as prior restraint in our exercise of this profession.

Feeling safeguarded as we were by Justice Malcolm, writing in United States v. Bustos, 37 Phil. 731, 740, 741, to wit:

“The interest of society and the maintenance of good government demand a full discussion of public affairs. Complete liberty to comment on the conduct of public men is a scalpel in the case of free speech. The sharp incision of its probe relieves the abscesses of officialdom. Men in public life may suffer under a hostile and unjust accusation; the wound can be assuaged with the balm of clear conscience. A public officer must not be too onion-skinned with reference to comment upon his official acts. Only thus can intelligence and dignity of the individual be exalted. Of course, criticism does not authorize defamation. Nevertheless, as an individual is less than the state, so must criticism be borne for the public good.”  

Badge of honor

Indeed, there was this somewhat perverted sense Pampanga journalists held then – a number of us still holds to this day – of libel cases as badges of honor, aye, journalism’s very version of the Medal of Valor, to be worn and displayed with pride. So, the more libel complaints, the more effective, if not better, the journalist.

 So it was with Ody Fabian (+) of The Voice who landed himself at the Angeles City Jail over a libel complaint from the Angeles University Foundation Medical Center, and cleared of a P25-million case from a mayor, among others.

So it was with Sonny Lopez (+) and Elmer Cato of the Angeles Sun, hauled to the fiscal’s office by then Angeles City Mayor Antonio Abad Santos (+) over exposes on corruption in the city government, and subsequently cleared of libel.

So it was with Ashley Jay Manabat of Sun-Star Clark, tagged in a ridiculous P500-million suit over articles repudiating the doubly ridiculous claims of someone owning the Clark special ecozone along with practically the whole of Luzon.

So it was with Jerry Lacuarta (+) of Manila Bulletin, haled to court by a US Navy man nabbed for international drug trafficking – of a “considerable amount of high-grade heroin stuffed inside imported tuna” coursed through the Subic port. The conviction of the American sailor ended the libel case.

So it was with Lacuarta again, with Fred Roxas (+) of the Philippine News Agency and Ding Cervantes of Philippine Star, earning a P20-million libel suit over their reportage of alleged anomalies and incompetence in the construction of the FVR Megadike system. The complaint failed to go beyond the prosecutor’s office.   

So it was with Rizal Policarpio (+) of Balita who, until 1999, held the distinction of being the only member of the Pampanga media to have gone the whole legal course of libel – filed by a town assessor implicated in the murder of three men – and acquitted for absence of malice. 

So it was with the venerable Toy Soto (+) of Times Journal, who in his senior year was hit by what he evaded through his decades of journalism practice – a libel suit from Angeles City traders inferred ina report of the Clark Development Corp. as alleged smugglers. Dismissed at the prosecutor’s office, nonetheless.

So it was with Arnel San Pedro of Manila Times, charged over his exposes of allegedly anomalous transactions in a government rehab center; acquitted after a decade of trial.    

So it was with me.

As much a vindication – of the correctness of the story, politically and factually – as a resolute re-commitment to the ethics of journalism is every dismissal of libel. So many libel cases we have been subjected to that the Pampanga Press Club, founded in 1949, is now a proud keeper of a Libel Tradition.

Shields

Two basic elements in journalism we have experienced as strong shields against libel: accuracy and fairness.

Precise as precise can be in the facts obtaining in one’s story. While truth is not always a defense in libel, inaccuracies make falsities that open the respondent to utter defenselessness.

Fairness is the antidote to malice – the usually most damning of libel’s four requisites. Evil intent or ill will on the part of the writer will be more difficult to establish in a story that presents all sides fairly.

Be truthful. Be accurate. Be fair. That’s what all the editors I worked with told me on my way up in the pecking order of the Fourth Estate.

I have upheld – did my best to, every which way I wrote – all three. Still, I’ve had my share of libel suits. And I’ve been lucky. Emerging unscathed, and rather stronger, from them.

Even as I joined the voices raised against online libel in the Cybercrime Law, mainly for the harsh punitive provisions, I have this fear over the decriminalization of libel. At the Senate deliberations on the then Cybercrime Prevention Bill, I was in awe of the honourable senators – Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Alan Peter Cayetano, Francis Escudero, Edgardo Angara and Teofisto Guingona III – moving toward that direction.     

However, I stand with Sen. Koko Pimentel in his cautionary plea to his peers on decriminalizing libel.

 “It’s a redress for grievance. If you’re libeled, you can file a complaint, and if the fiscal tells you no libel was committed, at least you feel you tried the remedy, and the potential penalty—since it’s a jail term—is sufficient enough to deter indiscriminate libeling of people,’’ rationalized Pimentel.

“If we decriminalize it, more people would feel they’re victims of injustice because they’ve been libeled, and they don’t have a remedy. We don’t want people to take the law into their hands because of inefficient justice system.’’

Inefficient justice system. That’s one operative phrase that has not really factored in amid all the noise rising from the Supreme Court’s declaration of the constitutionality of the Cybercrime Law.

Given the Maguindanao Massacre and other media killings even with libel laws extant, it will most certainly get even worse with libel decriminalized.

And the culture of impunity will get the nation in an even tighter grip.

Yeah, I would rather face summons from the prosecutor’s office than look straight into the barrel of a .45. I have been through that too.

No mere chilling effect but a polar vortex there.    

 ,

After the losing

 

WE WUZ robbed. True or not, losers still lost.

As there’s nothing you can do to undo what’s done, may as well accept it, with all graciousness, with all humility. And go into some introspection, into reflection over the might-have-beens – no, not to sulk and wallow in blaming and self-pity, but to find the resolve to do much better for the next run. It’s only three years away, you very well know.

To that end, what I have long proffered as post-election prescription for the solace of the hurting also-ran is this rumination of Pulitzer Prize-winning The New York Times columnist William Safire in his The First Dissident subtitled The Book of Job in Today’s Politics, thus:

“IS SUFFERING a defeat good for a political person? The run for office is a short run, and the loser is not likely to find comfort in talk about the long run. But can rejection at the polls be fairly presented as what condolence-bearers sardonically call ‘a character-building experience’?”

Yes, and yes. And the dearly lamented Carmelo F. Lazatin, better known as the Tarzan, exemplified it.

Tarzan lost in his very first try for an elective post – mayor of Angeles City in 1980.

Losing an election early in a political career is deemed constructive. As Safire says, “a therapeutic trouncing introduces a little real humility into candidates who must at least profess humility.”

Though not exactly a long shot in the 1^st district congressional contest in 1987 – he was the beatific Cory’s choice, after all – Tarzan managed to squeak through victory – by a plurality of less than a hundred votes against his closest rival, if now-selective memory still serves right.

Tarzan rolled through victory after victory thereafter – three terms in the Lower House, notwithstanding his being derided as the chair of the comite de silencio at the camara de representante; first ever city mayor to serve three terms; back to Congress in 2010.

He lost in his comeback bid for the mayorship in 2013 and was readily consigned to the dustbin of the political has-beens. Only to resurrect – by proxy – in 2016 with the masterful crafting of the twin victories of his namesakes – Carmelo Jr. aka Pogi, and Carmelo II aka Jon – at the city council, and in the first congressional district, respectively.

Contrary to all expectations, aye, in direct defiance of age and health, Tarzan won the chairmanship of the city’s premier barangay of Balibago in 2018.

It was to be Tarzan’s final yell, succumbing to cardiac arrest over the ravages of age seven months later.

But not his last hurrah – if only from the grave – with the definitive victory of Pogi as hizzoner of Angeles City, and the impressive re-election of Jon as Pampanga 1^st District representative. (Even more definitive victories for both in the elections just past: Pogi as first ever city mayor to garner over 100,000 votes, Jon unopposed.)

The sons handling contemporaneously the positions held by the father one after the other. What greater political legacy than this?

Tarzan could not have known it but what Safire called the “law of political return” impacted upon him, ingraining him with the “comeback quality.”

Qualified, thus: “Defeat, if it does not destroy them, tempers leaders. After reaching deep within for internal resources, they can rightly claim to have grown as a result of what the voters have taught them. In the art of comeback, one lesson is not to insist that voters admit they were wrong last time, even if their choice of candidates turned out to be inept or corrupt in office. On the contrary, the putative comebacker should compliment the electorate on having been right in spotting his own shortcomings in policy or personality or presentation, which have been corrected – with no compromise of principle, of course. Last time losers should assert with pride that they have learned enough to become next time’s winners.”

Else, they stop running altogether. And stop losing forever.                         

(First published May 13, 2019, reprinted for its refreshed timeliness)

All in the family

SIBLING SUPREMACY is affirmed anew in the 1^st District of Pampanga polls with the triumph of namesakes Carmelo Lazatin – Jon retaining the congressional seat unopposed, and Pogi setting the record of first-ever Angeles City mayor to have garnered 100,000 votes (actually 112,947). The dear lamented Carmelo père could only be on cloud nine.  

On the other hand, sibling rivalry took its toll in Sta. Rita – former mayor Art Salalila unseating brother Dagi; and an even heavier impact in Macabebe – Bobong Flores beating sister Annette Flores-Balgan; his son Vince besting her daughter Bembong for vice mayor. A double whammy there.

Siblings-in-law made it in Magalang – Malu Paras-Lacson reclaiming the mayoralty from Romy Pecson, Norman Lacson successfully capping his three terms as vice mayor with the top spot in the municipal council.

Conjugal rule has descended upon Arayat with Madeth Alejandrino ascending to the mayoralty to be vacated by three-term husband Bon, stepping down to the post of vice mayor.

Wife-atop-husband, at least in political positions, is instanced in 4^th District presumptive Cong. Anna York Bondoc-Sagum and San Luis Mayor Dr. Jay Sagum.

How about a long-distance relationship taken to the political plane with Marjorie Morales-Sambo elected councilor of Mabalacat City in the 1^st District and Johnny Sambo winning over 2019 conqueror Ninang Ronquillo in Sto. Tomas in the 4^th District?     

Alas, a similar, if closer – intra-3^rd District – arrangement failed to materialize in the case of reelected Mexico councilor Trina Dizon and husband Sta. Ana vice mayor Soy Guevarra losing in his mayoralty bid.     

Coupling for a political dynasty emerged stillborn in Danilo Baylon falling short in his gubernatorial crusade against what his mentor called “Pampanga’s entrenched dynasty” as well as in his wife Aniway losing big to Mayor Rene Maglanque in Candaba.

The elections past in Pampanga also had a slew of fathers not exactly bequeathing their electoral posts to their scions like the family heirloom it has become hereabouts – being still in the game, but actually rearing them at this early into it.

In the 3^rd District, unopposed Rep. Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales spared no expense, er, effort to make his daughter Mica not only win a seat in the sangguniang panlalawigan but to emerge the senior board member with the highest number of votes at 227,603, and his son Brenz taking the top slot in the City of San Fernando council with 82,006 votes. Preparación, says mi amigo. 

Reelected Patrol Partylist Rep. Jorge Bustos steered the election of Pampanga’s youngest mayor in Masantol’s Ton-ton Bustos, his 21-year-old son.

Mabalacat City Mayor Cris Garbo has his heir apparent in daughter Win-Win who graduated from city councilor to 1^st District board member.

In Sta. Rita, elected along Mayor Art Salalila is his son JR in the sangguniang bayan.

In Floridablanca, reelected Mayor Darwin Manalansan has his son Darren elected in the SB too.   

Father-and-son who failed to make the grade are former mayor Ernesto Punzalan, landing third behind reelected Mayor Teddy Tumang, and his son and namesake Jun-Jun ranking 10th for the eight-man council.

Worse than the loss of the Punzalans is the wipeout of once mayor-for-22-years Boking Morales for mayor, his sons Dwight for board member, and Ike for councilor in Mabalacat Cit. Estranged daughter Marjorie won in the slate of Boking's nemesis Mayor Garbo, a spit on the face of the father there.

Thereby lie the triumphs and travails that have both blessed and beset political kin at each election.

Lose today, win the next time. Or vice versa. Win some, lose some too. Political families have had their share of triumphant hurrahs and mournful whimpers, on the general score. An exception to this distinctly obtains in the Pinedas of Lubao, ever victorious through the years.

Gov. Dennis “Delta” Pineda. Vice Gov. Lilia “Nanay” Pineda. 2^nd District board member Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab. Lubao Mayor Esmie Pineda. Reelected all comfortably, Nanay and Esmie even unopposed, in the recent polls.

Methinks, there can only be goodness – competently and compassionately – in what they have been doing – constantly and consistently – to merit this outpouring of trust and confidence from their constituents. The family that serves better together, gets elected over and over.

Troll me now, anti-dynasts.  

 

The voice of our gods

 IT IS the favorite ejaculation of my favorite mayor: Vox populi, vox Dei, with, perhaps, the least idea of its etymology: from late 15th century, the Renaissance abloom, and Il Papa ’s sole proprietorship over God’s word challenged.

Most assuredly though, he – my mayor – knows full well the argumentative efficacy of his oracion, having invoked it at each of his questioned poll victories. Its potency proven most definitively in his unprecedented four terms – and still counting – making him a firm believer in the power of the vote, a firmer believer in the power of the Comelec, and the firmest believer, I would so presume, in the power of prayer.

So enshrined in our so-called democratic tradition is the sanctity of the ballot. From our youth, we were led to believe – and without question accept – the element of the divine in the exercise of suffrage. The curtained poll booth in the pre- and immediate post-Martial Law years even resembled a confessional. Thus, the affected infallibility of our election results: God speaking with the voice of his people. Blaspheming reprobate is he that dares question the word of God!

Vox populi, vox Dei takes roots in the Book of Genesis, at the very instance of Creation itself, if I may advance so myself, neither knowing nor having read any priest, philosopher or political scientist having said it. (Let me know if I appropriated somebody’s statement so I can promptly and properly apologize.)
Read Genesis 1:26-27: “God said, “Let us make man in our image, to our likeness…So God created man in his image; in the image of God, he created him; male and female he created them.”

What is it that makes man, and woman – to be gender-correct – unlike all of creation, in the likeness of his Creator? Will and reason.
The exercise of our free will is that we most share with the Divine. As voting is an exercise of our free will and use of our reason, our choice thus corresponds with that of God: our voice becoming God’s, and God’s becoming ours.

The cynic that I have turned to be in things political now asks: Which god?
In the pursuit of our electoral exercises do we, as we should, to quote Baruch Spinoza, “… use in security all (our) endowments, mental and physical, and make free use of (our) reason”?

Reason, my ass. Reason is at its weakest when passion is at its strongest. This is borne in Philippine elections: always visceral, rarely, very, very rarely cerebral. There lies a chasm as unbridgeable as sin between man and God. So, what voice of God do we talk about in election results?

Fettered on patronage, the electorate makes the vote a commodity to trade for some favor, given or promised, or to directly sell for cash. The outrageous outburst of Gouverneur Morris at the time of the infancy of the American nation comes of age: “Give the vote to the people who have no property, and they will sell them to the rich, who will be able to buy them.” Not only able but willing and raring to buy them.

Factored on popularity, the electoral choices tax the intellect of the gnat. Were a brain pool of the country’s elected officials established, it most surely would fit the head of a pin.

Fault not the elected. Damn the electorate. So, we have clowns and idiots in the Houses, so we are clowns and idiots ourselves. An iteration ad nauseam: We just don’t deserve whom we elect. We are whom we elect. The booboisie, as H.L. Mencken put it, is us. And our vote, that “great right grossly abused, and has become, in practice, a grave wrong.”

Still, we adhere to the veracity of vox populi, vox Dei.

But the voice of the people has become the voice – not of God – but of their gods. The lord of numbers, the lord of celluloid illusion, the god of goons, the glorious goddess of the tapes.

Aye, Alcuin, an English scholar and theologian of the 8th century is right: “And those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness.”
(First published in Pampanga News, Jan. 6-Feb. 1, 2006. Finding relevance after every election.)   

 

 

Date with history

TAKE A bow, Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin Jr.

In his very first re-election bid, Lazatin did the unprecedented in the annals of the city’s electoral history – garnering over 112,947 votes -- the first ever hizzoner to attain – aye, surpass – the 100,000-vote mark, the first ever to be voted by over 50% -- exactly 54.87% -- of the city’s total voting population of 205,822.

A landslide, indeed, an avalanche by any measure, totally burying the pretender to the mayoralty’s 47,300 votes to electoral nothingness, okay – just to be kind – to utter insignificance.

With Lazatin’s triumph comes now the greater challenge: his numbers manifesting the greatest affirmation by the city electorate of his sterling performance in his very first term as mayor now engendering among them higher hopes of even greater accomplishments in his second term.

Tall order? Worry not, Pogi always delivers.

Shine on, Crisostomo C. Garbo.

Indeed, a rarity elsewhere and never in the history of Mabalacat, from town to city, has a single slate – governor, vice governor, two board members, mayor, vice mayor, all of 10 councilors – been voted straight. 

Yeah, if fading memory still serves right, not even during the dictator Marcos’ KBL bloc-voting days when then popular Fred Halili handily won the mayoralty while his gubernatorial bet, the erudite Estelito Mendoza, lost miserably.

No mean feat, did Team MCG – standing as much for Mayor Cris Garbo as for Mabalacat City Government – achieve in the elections just past with its wholesale poll victory.

“The people of Mabalacat City have spoken once again…” So declared Garbo in his post-election statement.

How the people have, indeed, spoken! Garbo garnering 75,794 votes – over 60% more than the combined votes of his rivals, former forever-mayor Boking Morales with 25,926 votes and broadcaster Deng Pangilinan with 3,659.

An even stronger statement the electorate delivered for Vice Mayor Gerald Aquino with 80,051 votes against opponent Christian Halili’s measly 25,440.

“Through the ballots, they have reaffirmed, in unison, their choice for a governance that firmly stands on integrity, honesty, credibility.  and unwavering service,” enthused Garbo.

Rising up to the new challenge, thus: “With the help of the Almighty God, we shall endeavor once again to deliver to expectations anchored in our ‘Bayung Mabalacat’ vision. We shall also continue to challenge ourselves to do even more in pushing our beloved city and its people to greater success.”

Rise now, Vilma B. Caluag.

With 55,508 votes to her name, the first-ever lady mayor takes over the City of San Fernando. No spectacle in terms of numbers there, but the magnitude of her electoral ascendancy comes to brilliance with the very renown of the rivals she bested.

Unarguably, Caluag was the most inexperienced in the field of governance among the marquee names in the city’s mayoralty contest: multi-term provincial board member Rosve Henson, longtime vice mayor Jimmy Lazatin, and certainly not the least, multi-term congressman, EDSA 2 hero, three-term city mayor, World City Mayor awardee Oca Rodriguez.

Daunting as the task ahead is for Caluag, the greatest challenge for her at the onset is to immediately prove she has something more substantive other than her prowess to parlay her Tik-Tok moves to electoral victory, sans daughter Nicole and husband Melchor.

Even as her triumph serves as an empowerment to all women, gender will be the least consideration in her performance as city mayor, of the very capital of Pampanga at that!

Luck be a lady, so we can only wish her. For now.