No Ilonggo lawmaker is ‘pipitsugin’

“As lawmakers, our job is to listen to our constituents. If our phones are ringing off the hook with people demanding to know where we stand on an issue, we pay attention.” 

–Chris Murphy

By Alex P. Vidal

NO historian will write about an Ilonggo lawmaker who is “NPA” or “non-performing asset” in both the Lower and Upper chambers of Philippine Congress.
No chronicler of the past will claim that legislators from the south are “no talk and, therefore, no utok (to borrow the late Senator Roding Ganzon’s bombshells).”
Almost all senators and representatives with Ilonggo blood running in their veins have given the country tremendous glory and prestige since the pre-war era, and the list of these outstanding lawmakers from the Western Visayas is expanding every election year.
When they are in the rostrum, Ilonggo lawmakers will make sure the words that come out from their mouths aren’t non-sense or will become the sources of humiliation for their heritage and culture.
This could only mean one thing: we have quality leaders and quality voters to boot.
One of the remaining few titanic voices in the Senate today is Senator Franklin Drilon from Molo, Iloilo City.

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The former Senate President made many Ilonggos proud of him when he recently schooled on the basics of parliamentary interpellation neophyte but aggressive Senator Francis Tolentino of Cavite, who probably wanted to impress the nation when he introduced some “novel legal theories” in his recent inaugural privilege speech.
Tolentino, a lawyer like Drilon, must’ve underestimated his colleagues’ capacity to think when he asserted that President Rodrigo Duterte’s oral agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping, allowing China to fish in Philippine waters, was valid and legally binding.
“There is no restriction on either the form or substance of international agreements,” Tolentino.
Drilon thundered: “Many of these I have heard for the first time. These theories, however, in our view, are not settled.”
The Ilonggo Senate Minority Leader, who believes that the best avenue to test the validity of such “novel theories” is through a committee hearing and not on the floor, added: “I am prepared to debate on the propositions here and now, but we do not claim to have a monopoly of legal knowledge. That’s why we qualify and deny the attribution that we are a legal luminary.”

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We saw how greenhorn Tolentino capitulated after Drilon’s barrage of snipes when Tolentino asserted: “There is no restriction on either the form or substance of international agreements.”
Drilon parried Tolentino’s theory: “Following this proposition, can the President of the Republic enter into an oral or even a written agreement ceding the island of Panay, even if it is contrary to Article I of our Constitution on national territory?”
Drilon pumped more bullets: “If there is no restriction as to form, can multilateral agreements be in the form of an oral agreement? I cannot imagine the difficulty of enforcing a verbal multilateral agreement. Can we enter into an agreement that is in conflict with the Constitution, despite the latter being an internal law of fundamental importance if we say there’s no restriction as to the substance of the verbal agreement?”

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Drilon showed all and sundry you don’t parade a shallow intellectual stunt in the presence of sharp-witted and sagacious legislators especially if you are beginning to make a name for yourself before a “live” session aired worldwide.
It was fine if Tolentino’s interpellators were, with due respect, the honorable Senators Lito Lapid, Manny Pacquiao, Bong Revilla, Bong Go, and Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa.
Not Drilon. Not Sen. Ralph Recto and other remaining sensible senators today.
And certainly not another Ilonggo intellectual behemoth, the late Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
We missed the best woman President the Philippines never had, especially when she unmasked the charlatans, head-butt the idiots, and clobbered the ninny lobcocks in a tension-filled privilege speech and nerve-biting but hilarious Senate committee hearings.
Tolentino and the pack of intellectual peacocks and rattlesnakes now occupying the Senate are lucky Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, a true-blue Ilongga darling of the masa and a fire-spewing legal and constitutional authority, was no longer around.
Erap once quipped: “Pupulutin kayo sa kangkongan.”
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

 

Morally sick

“Gambling can turn into a dangerous two-way street when you least expect it. Weird things happen suddenly, and your life can go all to pieces.” 

–Hunter S. Thompson

By Alex P. Vidal

NONE of our Ilonggo legislators were among the contenders for major posts when the administration lap puppies led by recently installed House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano divided the “kingdoms” of the House of Representatives the way the generals of Alexander the Great divided his kingdoms after his death.
Even in the scandalous “term-sharing” agreement, Cayetano and his fellow eager-beaver solons who desire power and positions in the Lower House like David desired Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, limited the choices for themselves alone.
Because they eat alone, time will come they will also fight alone.
For the meantime, even if they don’t hold key positions in the hierarchy of the House of Representatives, the Ilonggo congresspeople, all age below 50, will see to it that they will abscond or avoid any membership in the committee on silence.
Let’s watch them as they trail-blaze their way to quality legislation.

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If the gaming operations of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) weren’t ordered temporarily suspended (only lotto has been restored as of this writing) recently, many of us wouldn’t have been exposed as morally sick.
The suspension was treated by most gambling-crazed Filipinos as like a national tragedy; like they lost a prime property to a hurricane; or they weren’t able to withdraw a single centavo before the rural bank, where they saved all their money, declared bankruptcy.
For some it was like a matter of life and death.
Give us gambling or give us death.
It exposed a grim reality that without organized gambling, many Filipinos can’t go on with a normal life; they can’t function effectively as normal social beings.
For some whose main livelihood and day-to-day existence are 100 percent reliant to the PCSO gaming schemes, it was like a sudden death from a thousand cuts.

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It demonstrated the fact that many Filipinos exist on a game of chance; that if the government or any higher authority will permanently clamp down on both legal and illegal gambling in the country, life will also abruptly end for many gamblers and gambling operators.
We teach our children the basic Christian virtues and the values of hard work, sacrifice, fair play, simple living; yet, many of us openly pay homage to gambling and treat it as a be-all and end-all of how to survive and exist in this world.
The situation becomes more alarming when public officials like Health Secretary Francisco Duque III go on a rampage if gambling operations are stopped.
“They have to be imaginative on where to get the funds. The PCSO funding is huge and can render anemic the capacity of the Malasakit centers to be able to maximize support to poor patients,” Duque said. “The shortfall must be filled.”
The likes of Duque believe that gambling, as the chief source of funds to help defray the expenses for social assistance, is omnipotent.

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We are glad that the name of the new Iloilo City grandstand now located in Muelle Loney, City Proper is now back as “Iloilo City Freedom Grandstand” by virtue of an executive order issued by Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas.
Many Ilonggos sobbed when Mayor Jose “Joe III” Espinosa III renamed it to “Iloilo City Dinagyang Grandstand” last year.
It added insult to the grandstand’s injury after it was demolished and uprooted from its original territory on J.M. Basa Street in Aduana last year and transferred to its new location.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

 

We can live without ‘lotto’ but not without gambling

“The world is like a reverse casino. In a casino, if you gamble long enough, you’re certainly going to lose. But in the real world, where the only thing you’re gambling is, say, your time or your embarrassment, then the more stuff you do, the more you give luck a chance to find you.”

–Scott Adams

By Alex P. Vidal

ONE of the most famous gambling icons in the Philippines is an Ilonggo businessman who owns several businesses in Iloilo, Negros, and Cebu.
Even before the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) was institutionalized, Filipinos were already agog over different types gambling, he once insisted.
“Gambling can become a form of genuine entertainment if professionalized and regulated,” quipped the Ilonggo businessmen, who helped build one of the most modern cockpit stadiums in Asia.
He will probably agree with us that with or without the gaming operations of the PCSO, Filipinos will continue to engage in gambling–in whatever means.
In fact, we can live without PCSO and “lotto”, but we can’t live without gambling, which has become one of our most favorite past times and vices since time immemorial.
PCSO operations, which have been ordered suspended by President Duterte, are limited to numbers game.
There are certain gambling activities in the Philippines that are more popular or “addictive” than others which even the broad social and economic theories failed to explain why.
Filipinos engage in gambling primarily for economic reasons.

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Most Pinoy gambling addicts always want a quick-fix solution to poverty; they believe that if they get luckier their basic economic needs will be answered; their financial woes will be given immediate solution.
From sabung or cockfighting, to card games and jueteng, Filipino gamblers don’t have holidays.
If they don’t have cash for gambling, they borrow and steal, if necessary.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde was only stating the obvious when he declared recently that he saw a possible resurgence of jueteng and other illegal numbers games now that the PCSO gaming operations have been halted.
Several surveys of gambling have shown that there are a broad range motivational factors that are central to gambling, and that attitudes towards gambling are positively related to availability and cultural acceptability.
Dr. Mark D. Griffiths of Psychology Today says variations in gambling preferences are thought to result from both differences in accessibility and motivation. Older people tend to choose activities that minimize the need for complex decision-making or concentration (e.g., bingo, slot machines), whereas gender differences have been attributed to a number of factors, including variations in sex-role socialization, cultural differences and theories of motivation.
Variations in motivation are also frequently observed among people who participate in the same gambling activity.
For example, Griffiths explains, slot machine players may gamble to win money, for enjoyment and excitement, to socialize and to escape negative feelings. Some people gamble for one reason only, whereas others gamble for a variety of reasons. A further complexity is that people’s motivations for gambling have a strong temporal dimension; that is, they do not remain stable over time.

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As people progress from social to regular and finally to excessive gambling, there are often significant changes in their reasons for gambling.
Whereas a person might have initially gambled to obtain enjoyment, excitement and socialisation, the progression to problem gambling is almost always accompanied by an increased preoccupation with winning money and chasing losses, adds Griffiths.
“Gambling is clearly a multifaceted rather than unitary phenomenon. Consequently, many factors may come into play in various ways and at different levels of analysis (e.g., biological, social or psychological),” he emphasizes.
“Theories may be complementary rather than mutually exclusive, which suggests that limitations of individual theories might be overcome through the combination of ideas from different perspectives.
“This has often been discussed before in terms of recommendations for an eclectic approach to gambling or a distinction between proximal and distal influences upon gambling.
“However, for the most part, such discussions have been descriptive rather than analytical, and so far, few attempts have been made to explain why an adherence to singular perspectives is untenable.”
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo).

 

A hellish Big Apple train ride

“I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say; I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”

–Harriet Tubman

By Alex P. Vidal

SINCE it has affected so many cities and provinces in the Visayas, particularly in Western Visayas, the dengue outbreak is definitely part of the “state of our nation”.
President Duterte apparently wasn’t properly briefed by his health officials and his advisers on the extent of damage wrought by the dreaded disease from a mosquito bite to hundreds of children.
Although Health Secretary Franciso Duque III has expressed alarm and has been telling parents and health workers to be “proactive” in their attitude toward the epidemic, his power in as far as helping contain the spread of the disease is only limited.
Since it was Duque himself who admitted that “the worst is yet to come,” the problem now demands an immediate intervention from the highest official of the land.
Dengue is not the only concern of the Department of Health (DoH), although it is the main priority in the list of urgent matters that the department must resolve.
If the President is the one who spearheads the no non-sense campaign against dengue, all the woes and confusion over the lack of hospital beds and facilities, shortage of medicine and equipment, among other problems, will be minimized and addressed properly.
Budget won’t be a problem if the President is “on top of the situation.”

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I was one of the hundreds of passengers affected by the breakdowns that caused the recent nights of hellish commute in New York City.
Traveling from Manhattan to Brooklyn July 24 night, the Q train stopped at Manhattan Bridge before 7 o’clock in the evening. After nearly 30 minutes, it resumed running but stopped again in the tunnel near the DeKalb Avenue.
I can bear the train getting stranded in an open area like the spacious Manhattan Bridge, but not in the dark and creepy tunnel. It lasted for 10 horrifying minutes.
From the tunnel of the DeKalb Avenue, the train proceeded to the Atlantic Avenue/Barclay Center station. Some horrified passengers disembarked to transfer to the “faster” B train.
I patiently stayed inside the Q train, which resumed after another delay in the Atlantic Avenue/Barclay Center station. But when it reached the Prospect Avenue station, it halted again.

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The delays had scooped off my time travel for more than an hour and I was terribly late for my work, thus I decided to jump out and transferred to the “express” right lane.
When I reached my destination (I had to spend additional 15 to 20 minutes for a bus ride), I was 15 minutes late. In America, it’s already a hell if you have somebody waiting– an appointment or an employer/client.
Delays and service changes were reported on at least 12 subway lines since Tuesday morning (July 23) as the system was plagued by signal problems, train breakdowns and repairs to track infrastructure, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
The main culprit of the transit nightmare that started Monday (July 22), a broken switch at the Franklin Avenue stop in Brooklyn, wasn’t reportedly fully repaired until after 7:30 a.m. After the repairs were done, 2, 3, 4 and 5 train service resumed with delays, but the transit authority was warning passengers to “expect long waits” as trains resume a normal schedule. The switch malfunction at Franklin Avenue was first reported around 1 p.m. Monday.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

 

What I know about Pacquiao’s eyes

“Boxing is a sport. We allow each other to hit each other, but I’m not treating my opponent like my enemy. We’re doing a job to entertain people.”

-Manny Pacquiao

By Alex P. Vidal

WE have no idea if the wishes of Iloilo Governor Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. that the proposed Panay-Guimaras-Negros bridge project be specifically mentioned by President Duterte during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 22 was fulfilled.
If the president did mention it, then it will be materialized as what Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar had been promising the Ilonggso even before Ferdinand Magellan was killed by Lapu Lapu.
If President Duterte did not mention it, Ilonggos will continue to pin their hopes on the press releases and, again, on the promises of politicians like Villar and other talkative minions in the Department of Budget and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).
Ilonggo governors and mayors in the provinces and cities that are part and parcel of the mega-million project are hopeful that the bridge’s construction will begin before the Star Wars and total eclipse, or before the Return of the Jedi.

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Cleaning up the streets with garbage should not be done only to destroy the breeding grounds of mosquitoes that carry dengue virus.
It should be carried on a regular basis as part of the overall cleanliness program, not only because we are being attacked by a deadly virus and our kids are being decimated.
If cleanliness is next to orderliness, an once of prevention is always better than a pound of cure.
We are always good in cure instead of prevention.
We react and implement drastic actions only after the crisis has rolled on, not before the crisis; never when everything seemed normal and nobody was rushed to the hospital and dying of certain diseases.
Even in elementary and high schools, we are trained to preserve and protect the natural resources and all the living things, clean our surroundings, and value our health and total well-being.
These education, training and discipline help prepare us to co-exist with the environment and promote the preservation of life.

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EXCLUSIVE: WBA welterweight champion Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao’s eyes bothered him so much after he scored a 12-round split decision win against Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas on March 15, 2008.
It was their rematch after their first duel ended in a split draw after 12 rounds also in Las Vegas on May 8, 2004.
Immediately after the fight, Pacquiao was whisked away from the dressing room and brought to his hotel room.
I was one of the more or less 10 people present inside the champion’s suite at the Mandalay Bay.
I was with the two doctors: Nasser Cruz of the Games and Amusement Board (GAB) and Allan Recto, a Texas-based Ilonggo pediatrician, who left his iPhone (I picked it up and turned it over to Dr. Recto in Los Angeles a week later).
I saw Pacquiao vomit. He was in pain.
They rushed him to a hospital that night, but this detail was never reported in the media.
The following morning at 6 o’clock, I and three other Manila-based sportswriters from the Manila Bulletin, The Philippine Star, and the Philippine Daily Inquier, visited Pacquiao in his room. His face was a crimson.
Because of his condition, he was not allowed to fly to Manila where he was scheduled to be given a hero’s welcome by DENR Secretary and now partylist Rep. Joselito “Lito” Atienza until a week later.
I suspect he didn’t look good again hours after whipping Keith Thurman; his eyes must have bothered him so much the reason why doctors didn’t allow him to fly on a private jet to Manila for President Duterte’s SONA on Monday.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

 

Sweeter than a KO victory

“In sport, you only see the fighter, but it’s teamwork. Without a good team, you will never be the best. In boxing, you have to work with the best coach, the best lawyer, the best manager, the best doctor. Exactly the same principle applies in politics.” 

-Vitali Klitschko

By Alex P. Vidal

SENATOR Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao’s (62-7-2, 39 KOs) 12-round split decision win over hitherto WBA welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (29-1, 22 KOs) on July 20 in Las Vegas was considered to be more glorious and exciting compared to his victories over Lucas Martin Matthysse (TKO7) and Adrien Broner (UD12) combined.
In fact, it was sweeter than a knockout (KO) victory because of the quality of action and because it was the only split decision in his ring ledger that was not protested.
And his duel against Thurman was action-packed, toe-to-toe, brutal, and had the making of the “Fight of the Year.”
Pacquiao’s only other split decision victory was against his former conqueror Juan Manuel Marquez in their rematch on March 15, 2008.
And it was smeared by a terrible protest and condemnation from the Team Marquez that insisted the dynamite-fisted Mexican clearly out-shuttled and out-punched the then 29-year-old ring icon from Gen. Santos City claiming Pacquiao “looked more like the real loser” between the two after 12 rounds in a duel for Marquez’s WBC super featherweight title.

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Like in Pacquiao’s fight against Thurman, the Filipino southpaw also scored a flash knockdown in the third round.
Marquez, a durable warrior, quickly rebounded and won the Rounds 5, 6, 8, 11, and 12. Marquez also won the Round 2. Pacquiao won the Rounds 1, 3, 4, 7, 9, and 10 plus the knockdown.
Because of Team Marquez’s insistence and persistence, Marquez was awarded two more multi-million fights against Pacquiao– losing the third by 12-round majority decision and winning the fourth by 6th round KO.
The other split decision topic in Pacquiao’s record was as controversial as his split decision win over Marquez: a 12-round loss to Timothy Bradley Jr. for WBO welterweight diadem on June 9, 2012.
In that highly disputed split decision defeat of Pacquiao, nobody believed Bradley Jr. had won except Bradely Jr. himself, who entered the post-fight press conference on a wheelchair, and his handlers.
Pacquiao settled the issue with a sensational 12-round unanimous decision win in their rematch on April 9, 2016.

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Pacquiao’s 12-round split decision win against Thurman was as explosive and bloody as his 12-round split decision win against Marquez, but Thurman and his team did not question the verdict.
Team Thurman did not denounce the two judges who awarded Pacquiao the identical 115-112 scores.
The former champion from Clearwater, Florida showed tremendous sportsmanship and professionalism in accepting the split decision defeat; he even acknowledged Pacquiao’s ferocity and talent.
“I felt I tested him and myself. The judges saw it their way and now Manny Pacquiao is the champion,” Thurman stated. “It just hit me in the right spot and had me bleeding. It didn’t bother me too much. I was focused on putting pressure but he was quite conservative. I really thought I was putting pressure on him but my numbers were not up to par.
“There was so much going on and in that moment I knew it would be difficult to get the judges on my side. I was obviously hurt in that fight. That’s boxing and, obviously, he was well prepared.
“He started with the knockdown in the first and then the body shot in the end was enough to convince the judges. I thought I would be able to do some countering and pressure him. Some of the things I wanted to do I did. Put I came up short in the numbers game.
“It was a blessing and a lesson to have a tremendous fight. Me showing my grit. Of course, I wanted to win the fight and I fell short. I do know that I’m a true champion. I will be back to the top in the sport of boxing. Keith Thurman brings out the best in the welterweight division,” Thurman concluded.
That made Thurman’s split decision loss so unique from Pacquiao’s split decision affairs with Marquez and Bradley Jr., thus Thurman earned the respect of the pundits and the boxing fans.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

 

Thurman hits like Thomas Hearns who flattened Roberto Duran

“We all think we’ve got one more boxing match in us, and that, probably, will be the downfall of Floyd Mayweather, George Foreman, Manny Pacquiao. We’ll overstay our welcome.”

–George Foreman

By Alex P. Vidal

AT five feet and seven inches, Keith “One Time” Thurman Jr. stands only an inch taller than Sen. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao, but he looks menacing when he is in front of an opponent while ready to unload his vicious signature hooks.
He reminds of the legendary Thomas “The Hitman” Hearns (61-5, 48 KOs), a ring monster who reigned terror in the 80’s and who owned one of boxing’s most scary knockout wins: a second round demolition of the feared Roberto “Manos De Piedra” Duran (103-16, 70 KOs) at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on June 15, 1984.
Hearns was only 25 when he shot the daylights out of the Panamian phenom, considered at that time as already “past his peak and something less than highly motivated” at 33.
Thurman is 30 while Pacquiao is 40.
In that battle for the WBC super-welterweight title, “The Hitman” took control, backing the smaller Duran up with aggressive footwork and a hard left jab, making excellent use of his 12 inch reach advantage.
Generally a slow starter, Duran, who lost to Marvelous Marvin Hagler by 12-round unanimous decision on the same arena months earlier, looked to take his time and find his rhythm.
The taller, stronger, more assertive Hearns, however, never gave him a chance.
Hearns’ annihilation of Duran was viewed as one of the single most devastating right hand missiles ever thrown by “The Motor City Cobra.”
It crashed on the side of Duran’s jaw and the triple-crown champion who had never come close to being stopped in his entire career, instantly went limp and collapsed face first to the canvas.
Referee Carlos Padilla didn’t bother to count.

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Like Duran, Pacquiao (61-7-2, 39 KOs) is highly-touted, revered as a dangerous ring warrior who doesn’t backpedal against taller opponents.
Technically at 40, Pacquiao is also considered already as past his prime; meaning, fans expected him to retire even before he became 35 or five years ago.
I interviewed Duran in Las Vegas in 2015 and he told me he admired Pacquiao a lot. The feeling between him and the senator from Gen. Santos City was mutual.
Pacquiao idolized Duran, who amazingly fought in five decades: 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and in his last fight in 2001 where he lost by a unanimous decision to the late Hector “Macho” Camacho in Denver.
Like Duran, Pacquiao was sometimes careless during mega fights and got walloped by Juan Manuel Marquez’s wicked short right in one of Pacquiao’s most brutal KO defeat in 2012.
The similarity didn’t end there. Both Pacquiao and Duran are hailed in their respected countries as folk heroes; they are so popular and loved by fans that they could win the presidency of their countries.
And when they unexpectedly lost important world title bouts that they should have won, fans easily forgave them and gave them a second chance to redeem themselves (Duran to Sugar Ray Leonard in the infamous “No mas, no mas” on Nov. 25, 1980 and Pacquiao to Erik Morales on March 19, 2005).

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Going back to Thurman.
Aside from Julio Diaz, Shawn Porter, and Danny Garcia, those on the list of his victims were like passengers in a roller coaster rides in the Coney Island.
But they all gave Thurman heckuva and Youtube-quality fights for all the world to see and compare vis-a-vis Pacquiao’s recent jousts versus Adrien Broner, Lucas Martin Matthysse, Jef Horn, and Jessie Vargas.
Thurman is a confident fighter like Hearns.
During fierce exchanges, Thurman’s punches usually come from outside and are delivered mostly as counters. And they pack wallops.
Pacquiao’s camp might not force the issue in the first three rounds and will wait for Thurman to fade away in the middle rounds like what happened when Thurman won by decision against Josesito Lopez in January 2019.
We don’t expect a knock out either from both camps to come early or even in the later rounds. But we won’t be shocked if the more veteran fighter quits out of fatigue or after being bamboozled by Thurman’s dizzying hooks.
If underdog Thurman knows how to use science to tire out an older man, he might cruise to a unanimous decision win.
In retrospect, what transpired on that Duran versus Hearns WBC fight night in Las Vegas isn’t so shocking.
As famed writer Michael Calbert had described it: “But at the time, it was, for one simple fact: no one, not even a deadly puncher like ‘The Hit Man,’ knocks out Roberto Duran. It had never happened before; no one expected it to happen now.”
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

 

How I ‘escaped’ New York City’s power outage

“If it weren’t for electricity, we’d all be watching television by candlelight.”

–George Gobel

By Alex P. Vidal

I WAS inside the Manhattan-bound Q train from Brooklyn at past 7 o’clock in the evening July 13 unaware that New York City’s worst power blackout since 1977 occurred in the midtown Manhattan and parts of the Upper West Side.
The subway train, one of the world’s oldest and most efficient public transit systems, halted operations momentarily within these areas.
The train moved again after about 30 minutes, and I immediately transferred to N train upon reaching the Union Square station (instead of the Times Square station on 42nd Street which I normally do everyday).
N train brought me straight to the Queensboro Plaza station, a plaza overlapped by elevated subway tracks and straddling the western end of Queens Boulevard in Long Island City, Queens, between 21st Street and Jackson Avenue/Northern Boulevard.
The train was full and it was a Sunday.
That’s when I learned that a five-hour power blackout had hit the heart of “the city the never sleeps.”
Broadway shows were cancelled, including Jennifer Lopez’s concert at the Madison Square Garden.
In the Philippines, power blackout is a normal event.
In America, it’s a matter of life and death for many residents as they rely heavily on electronic life; they can’t probably exist and survive without electricity.

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New Yorkers in midtown Manhattan were confused and inconvenienced. Some stranded train commuters took the cabs on their way home.
Since it happened in the Big Apple, it’s a major event.
It became a headline story in the US and other parts of the globe.
New York Governor Andrew Coumo expressed outrage and called the blackout “unacceptable.”
“You just can’t have a power outage of this magnitude in this city,” Coumo boomed. “It is too dangerous, the potential for public safety rick and chaos is too high, we just can’t have a system that does that, it’s that simple at the end of the day.”
The governor expressed relief nobody was harmed or killed unlike in 1977 when pandemonium broke loose and stores were looted after New York City experienced a blackout that lasted for 25 hours.

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New York City mayor Bill De Blasio, who was chided by Coumo for being absent in New York City during the blackout (the mayor, a 2020 presidential candidate, was on his way from Iowa where he campaigned) said federal authorities had confirmed “there was no evidence whatsoever of any nefarious activity in this situation.”
Earlier, Con Edison CEO John McAvoy assured that all customers should have their power restored by midnight.
A flash of lights came on, and people in the street cheered as he spoke in midtown.
The outage started about 6:47 p.m. with an “event” that will be the subject of investigation, according to McAvoy, who claimed that summer warmth, which can overload power grids with energy demand, was not the source.
“It does not appear related to excessive load,” he said, quoted by NBC New.
The outage disrupted life for thousands in the Big Apple.
The city’s transit authority tweeted that multiple stations were not operational and were being bypassed.
It came on the anniversary of the citywide blackout of 1977, which led to rioting and looting. That outage started July 13 and ended the next day.
A senior city official with direct knowledge of the matter said it appeared that the outage was caused by a transformer fire. The New York City Fire Department tweeted it was at the scene of a transformer fire on West 64th Street.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

 

Pacquiao should listen to the wind of change

“Listening to your instincts, while being the easiest, can also be the hardest thing to do.”

-Tena Desae

By Alex P. Vidal

THE biggest stumbling block in Sen. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao’s presidential ambition is not Davao City mayor Sara Duterte for they both belong in Mindanao.
It’s the “rock star”, Manila City mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagos.
And the biggest obstacle in Pacquiao’s political career is Keith Thurman Jr. (29-0, 22 KOs).
If the menacing five feet and seven inches-tall American reigning WBA super welterweight champion scores a fatal win against the 40-year-old lawmaker from Gen. Santos City at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on July 20, the hard-hitting Filipino superstar might have to again neglect his senate obligations to focus in a rematch even if the “wind of change” has long ago swept away his invincibility.
Win or lose, Pacquiao (61-7, 39 KOs) will never retire.
The prospect of losing doesn’t scare him as long as he is able to thrill and entertain his fans.
Pacquiao doesn’t believe in defeat and retirement.
He is a ring warrior who forgets his age–and how far can an average athlete’s main faculties sustain a rigid physical activity beyond the limit.
The Filipino ring heartthrob will continue to fight as he probably needs to raise more money for his presidential dream–at the expense of his “tired and weary” bones.
His presence in the ring on July 20 to attempt to snatch 30-year-old Thurman’s belt actually defies the logic.
His handlers, if he still listens to them, share the guilt.

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As an 8-time world boxing champion, Pacquiao has nothing to prove anymore.
He doesn’t need a fame; he had abundance of it since he began fighting for money as a scrawny miniflyweight curtain raiser with a decision win against Edmund Enting Ignacio on January 22, 1995.
He should have retired a long time ago; in fact, immediately after losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr. In 2015 in a boring fight hyped as the richest in history of prizefighting in terms of purse and shares in pay-per-view awarded to both boxers.
The combined paychecks he got in his next five fights (winning four and losing one) after the Mayweather Jr. debacle were enough to last a lifetime on top of the reported $100 million he bankrolled from a shoulder injury-laden rumble with Mayweather Jr.
Is the bulk of that gargantuan amount still intact?

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Why continue to risk incurring a life-threatening injury by fighting the undefeated Thurman in the heavier weight (147 pounds and up to 154 pounds or 66.7–69.9 kg) when Pacquiao can very well live a comfortable and privileged life as a senator with his mind-blowing ring earnings that have breached the billion mark in Philippine currency?
Every fight for an aging boxer is always literally a fight of his life.
History is replete with horrifying tales of famous Marquee names who ended up in the wheelchair for good after they refused to quit and defied father time.
A pugilist engaged in a sustained brutal physical assault for many years (Pacquiao started receiving punishment on the head in the ring at 17 as a licensee in the Games and Amusement Board) can risk a brain injury especially if the boxer is already in a precarious level of “my spirit is still willing but my body cannot” but still decides to go up the ring.
What the body can’t absorb the spirit must obey for it’s the body that gets the pounding and blasting, not the spirit.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

 

Let’s unite to defeat the virus

“Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?”

-Henry David Thoreau

By Alex P. Vidal

ANYTHING that destroys and kills should alarm us and impel us to be united to stop it.
Whether it’s a poisonous food and drink, virus, act of terrorism, bad weather, war, animal attack, epidemic, it must be given major emphasis, importance, priority, and full attention.
The bottom line is to halt its destruction, minimize the death toll, and altogether save and preserve the human life.
In the arena of death and mayhem these past weeks, dengue fever has been the “star of the show.”
Luckily, we’ve seen how the government, media, non-government organizations (NGOs), civic organizations, individual Good Samaritans, military, Philippine National Police (PNP) have combined their talents and resources to fight dengue fever, which has reached red alert level in Western Visayas, particularly in the city and province of Iloilo.

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In times like this, we can’t afford to entrust everything to the Department of Health (DoH) and relegate ourselves in the role of kibitzers.
Dengue is not the only problem that bedevils the undermanned DoH.
Although it won’t scream for help, DoH definitely needs both moral, financial, personnel, and logistical support from concerned agencies and private groups in the battle against dengue.
If help will continue to come from a myriad of sources outside the DoH, there is no reason why we can’t help trounce the dreaded virus that have killed many Ilonggo kids and adults.
The signs that many Ilonggo leaders, organizations, and private individuals are determined to help avert a terrible dengue outbreak have been felt this past week when businessman Johnny Que and the Philippine National Red Cross donated folding beds for Iloilo hospitals inundated by dengue patients.

 

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We are saddened that another media colleague, Eduardo Dizon of the Cotabato-based Brigada News, became the latest murder victim in the country ruled by an iron-fisted president who once threatened to kill “all corrupt journalists.”
Under the Duterte administration, Dizon was the 13th casualty from the Fourth Estate.
We have no idea about the issues Dizon had tackled before he was shot to death by two motorcycle gunmen while travelling in a car on his way home in Makilala town on July 11.
Initial reports said his murder was job-related as he received threats during his radio program prior to the ambush.
Journalists in the Philippines are like sitting ducks.
Every now and then we hear reports of radioman or newspaperman being murdered in cold blood.
And we seldom hear that the cases are being pursued seriously by authorities; or, if the culprits have identified, they are brought behind bars and convicted,

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We hate to again mention that the culture of impunity in the Philippines must have emboldened enemies of press freedom to silence Dizon, who was partly a politician.
The danger that crusading journalists face in the Philippines can be compared to the danger combatants in actual armed combat are facing in the battlefield: no one knows who will fall next.
Authorities must exert strong efforts to arrest Dizon killers soon so that the international community will not accuse the government of “abetting” the murder and connect it to the drastic campaign against illegal drugs now that the Philippines is under scrutiny and being monitored by the United Nations for its horrible record in human rights.(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)