Cream rises – and values dip?
I AM delighted to see the list of San Beda University Alumni Association honorees that SBU Alum Association Executive Director Dr. Joffre Alajar furnished me. I see not a single commie there, contrary to what the military would have us believe. Fake news.
Heading the list is new Supreme Court Justice Joey Reyes. I first met him when he was a staffer of Justice Felix V. Makasiar, who would call me occasionally from the SC during the Dark Years and thunder: “’Ne, you hit us again!” I’d say, “Sir, ‘yan po ang natutunan ko sa inyo.” Even then, it was evident that my head was not properly and tightly screwed on; I marched to the beat of a different drummer, taking the less-travelled road, as it were.
No. 2 honoree is new SC Justice Ramon Paul L. Hernando, who I understand is 52 and should be in the SC until he is 70. (In January 1987, I, then 47, was handed a signed SC appointment, which I declined. I had tried to convince Bobby de la Fuente, to join the SC; he declined. I was successful with his compadre, Flor Regaladado, 96.7 percent in the 1954 bar; Bobby, 95.95 percent, grades to stand till the end of time.)
Justice Makasiar would only pick the best and the brightest. His other staffer at the time was Marino de la Cruz, my stude, who retired as an RTC Manila judge.
The other honorees are equally deserving of recognition and reward. To them, I add my felicitations. I was just wondering whether Mayor Jaime Rusillon should also be included. He’s the bossing of Siargao, just rated as No. 1 tourist destination hereabouts by Conde Nast Traveler, which ranked it as “best island in the world.” There has to be a nexus. I hope Siargao is not as choked with over-regulation as Boracay, with reports of visitor limits, electronic bracelets, etc., as if we perceive tourists as meriting disrespect, like fugitives on the run.
Many are running in the May 2019 elections, a great Pinoy pastime. From Binibining Palanggana to the presidency, mahihilig, when the bell rings, Teng!Teng! takbuhan na po sa gitna ng rueda. To the question whether I am running, my stock response is, with my cane on uneven surface, “di na nga po makalakad, tatakbo pa?” Urged to run for the presidency even, I’d retort, “of what country naman kaya?” Better to be asked why I am not running than being asked why.
I hope the winners will agree with Bill Bradley, Princeton and Oxford alum, and New York Knicks star who ran for the US Senate after—not before—retiring from the NBA. A book about him, by Phil McPhee, was entitled A Sense of Where You Are. He later wrote Life on the Run where he said that winning an election “is not supposed to be a thrill. You have just won the right to serve the people…an honor but not a thrill.”
The candidates should have a sense of where they are, know their place, and remember what they have been elected for—to toil for, and serve, the sovereign people; no show of the arrogance of power and greed. We expect them to “choose the harder right, instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half-truth, when the whole can be won.” As is said, good people should go to the priesthood or the nunnery but the best ones should go to politics, which should not be the oligopoly of rascals.
This week, I was asked by certain candidates to accompany them in filing certificates of nomination and acceptance (CONAs). There were newsmen and picture-taking and videotaping. Prez Duterte need not worry. We are too busy texting and pix-taking to launch a coup, a cure worse than the disease. I just gently told the local Comelec personnel concerned to take good care of the forms we filed so that these may not join the ranks of the desaparecidos, “pakiusap lang po, huwag naman kami sanang ma-Trillanes,” haha.
The other day Mayor Abby Binay filed her CONA. The day before, JunJun, her brother, did. Normally, one may say that the Binays and the Estradas enjoy the paradise of pedigree, but not this time. How I wish they could find a way to reconcile, but a Prez Duterte, Mayor Duterte and Vice Mayor Duterte?
Meantime, we need to be on the same page with the military. Early this month, Gen. Antonio Parlade, Jr. disclosed that San Beda U, among other schools, had been infiltrated by the commies. Huh? Then, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana announced that the threat had been neutralized. Wow, galing, bilib. Permit me to doubt that we are inciting and plotting at SBU, contrary to what military intelligence may fantasize. To begin with, Holmes said, “every idea is an incitement.” Red October? Krazny Oktyabr? Our Red Lions explode only on the basketball floor. And now, a White December for a White Christmas the song says we are dreaming of. The military is singing our San Beda colors, the Red and the White…
In 1972-1973, after Martial Law was inflicted, I kept criticizing ML in the classroom and was advised to be “prudent.” I left teaching to remain a free man in a wider cage in which to roam. More democratic space.
In the Trillanes case we are warned by the Department of Justice not to comment on it given the sub judice rule which no one seems to obey in this country, beginning with the talkative Prez, who prejudges critics. The case involves serious policy considerations anyway and should be the subject of a robust, intense and uninhibited public debate. While only Sonny is being targeted by the Solicitor General who with his multitude of tasks found the time to search for documents that according to him were missing, I keep asking how that revocation of an amnesty may impact on our dozen or so clients in Oakwood. Salimpusa, who, along with the leaders, should just be asked to supply any deficiency, if that.
It is reported that the National Privacy Commission is looking at the loss of 277 amnesty applications, which may affect our salimpusa, not one of whom, to my knowledge, has raised questions about the Prez’s supposed humongous bank accounts or SolGen Joe Calida’s family’s intriguing security agency contracts.
The military has set up a Krazny Oktyaber straw man and knocked it out. Now noises about December. Result: more presidential visits and a higher budget to stroke soldiers and policemen with.
That many people viewed the relic of St. Padre Pio even in Davao may indicate our desperation in the fight against corruption. Not enough to rely on the tough Dutertes. The Prez reportedly makes noises before the military that he has given up, asking his guests to stand up if they agree that he should step down. But, no one stood up, of course, and we cannot ever give up on our people and Motherland. Hope springs eternal.
Now, hopeful Manong Johnny Ponce Enrile (JPE) has filed his candidacy for the Senate. He will be 95 come February. He had masterfully handled Rene Corona’s impeachment ending in conviction. Who will dare make an issue of the wild allegation that PNoy had bribed the senators to convict? Anyway, I am reminded of Strom Thurmond who served in the US Senate and reached 100 while there, where he became a celebrated elevator groper of women. Harmless? But, not armless, Kamandag Tsikboy Manong ain’t.
In another interesting development, Ambassador Teddy Boy Locsin replaces Alan Peter Cayetano as Department of Foreign Affairs top dog. Ted is eloquent in oral and written English; once, in 1986, he showed his unmatched command of body English by giving the “You are No. 1 sign,” with his right middle finger. Now, he tells “useless” administration officials what he thinks of their mothers. Susmariano! In Pilipino, not in Spanish, he also masters where we see lo cortes no quita lo valiente, courtesy does not detract from valor.
I hope though never ever to see him doing the Nazi salute Prez Digong cherishes, so as not to add needlessly to the pain of what Jewish Justice Frankfurter characterized as the most vilified and persecuted minority in history.
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