No evidence, no case

“Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.”
—George Eliot

By Alex P. Vidal

I TRULY care for my country, but I have nothing concrete to say yet as regards the controversial outcome of the May 9 presidential election unless there are pieces of evidence that will surface.
If none, everything will remain as speculation. Even in a court litigation, the most important element of surprise is the testimonial and/or documentary evidence. With any evidence, the case will falter.
Like many political observers, unsatisfied voters and curious analysts, I also have misgivings with certain figures that came out in the Comelec Transparency Server.
It’s so unbelievable that Vice President Leni Robredo got only 14 million votes (almost the same number of votes she got in 2016 against the same rival in the vice presidential contest) and the presumptive winner, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., got a whopping 31 million votes.
The wide margin is so incredible and mysterious, to say the least. It has never happened in the history of Philippine elections even when the counting of votes was still done manually.
The automated canvassing of ballots is really something that needs a total review and thorough investigation.
But I can’t conclude yet with absolute certainty that a fraud of horrific magnitude attended the recent presidential election in the absence of any solid evidence.
As Archimedes had famously said, “Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I’ll move the world.”
Give me pieces of evidence and I will make a loud voice.

-o0o-

THERE are predictions that after his failed presidential bid, Senator Manny Pacquiao might next attempt to erase the world record established by Bernard Hopkins: to become the oldest world boxing champion.
Pacquiao, 42, was the only presidential candidate in the recent Philippine election who supposedly spent his own money during the entire campaign period and did not solicit any financial help from private donors.
If he wants to quickly recover the millions of pesos he spent during the electoral process, where he garnered 3,629,666 votes and was running for third in the Comelec Transparency Server as of this writing, he will need to step on the ring once more.
Now retired from boxing and is not anymore active in election campaign, he might decide to stage a comeback if he is still physically fit, according to many observers.
Even if he is now past his prime, Pacquiao continued to be a household name in the world of prizefighting, having been considered during his active years as the best boxer pound-for-pound.
He could still bankroll a huge prize if he will fight for a cause, or to seek to establish a certain record.

-o0o-

In his last fight before hanging up his gloves on August 21, 2021, he lost by a 12-round unanimous decision to Yordenis Ugas in Las Vegas.
The oldest boxer to win a world title is Bernard Hopkins, who at age 46 on May 21, 2011, took the World Boxing Council’s light-heavyweight title from Canada’s Jean Pascal in a 12-round unanimous decision at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
He actually erased the record established on November 5, 1994 by George Foreman, who became boxing’s oldest heavyweight champion at 45 when he defeated 26-year-old Michael Moorer in the 10th round of their WBA fight in Las Vegas. More than 12,000 spectators at the MGM Grand Hotel watched Foreman dethrone Moorer, who went into the fight with a 35-0 record.
Foreman had dedicated his upset win to “all my buddies in the nursing home and all the guys in jail.”
Pacquiao’s only obstacle is that he has to wait until he turns 46 and several days and win the fight that would make him the new titleholder of the oldest world boxing champion.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

Dante’s Inferno for would-be thieves

“There is no dignity in wickedness, whether in purple or rags; and hell is a democracy of devils, where all are equals.”
–Herman Melville

By Alex P. Vidal

SOME Filipino politicians will prevail in the May 9 Philippine election not because of their competence and excellent track records.
It’s because of their popularity and notoriety; they will be elected by the benighted voters even if most of them aren’t prepared for a job in public office.
Since our electoral system is not something we can be proud of in as far as qualifications of those seeking for the higher offices is concerned, many of those will be elected are characters from the social media, showbiz misfits, long-established political dynasty, returning traditional politicians, retired military or police officials who made a name for being tough, media scalawags packaged as “defenders of the poor and victims of injustice”, etcetera.
We’re not impressed and will never be impressed.
Once elected, many of them will again only enrich themselves, abuse their power, acquire mistresses left and right, go on unlimited junket, appoint their relatives and cronies in key government offices that don’t require civil service qualifications.
This has happened in the previous administrations of the past presidents from Ferdinand Marcos Sr., Cory Aquino, Fidel V. Ramos, Erap Estrada, Gloria Arroyo, Noynoy Aquino, and Digong Duterte.
Because we don’t have a hell literally on earth, the destinations of these would-be thieves and rascals should be in Dante’s Inferno.

-o0o-

Hell is the state of the soul after death, but it is also the state of the world as seen by an exile whose experience has taught him no longer to trust the world’s values.
Dante’s Inferno is a vision of the City of Man in the afterlife, which is why it contains no glimmer of forgiveness.
At the same time, it may also be thought of a radical representation of the world in which we live, stripped of all temporizing and all hope.
There is no sign of Christian forgiveness for thieves in Dante’s Inferno.
The dominant theme is not mercy but justice, dispensed with severity of the ancient law of retribution.
Every reader was amazed by Dante’s Inferno, by the frights, the obscenities, the filth and effluvia of a vision in which execration was often the central act of perception, and suffering the central spectacle of desire.
The sinners–the lustful, gluttonous, treacherous–are caught forever.
In the passage set in the Eight Circle, serpents surround and tear at thieves, who catch fire, burn, and are then reconstituted, like the phoenix.
But when they are reborn out of their own ashes, they only suffer again.

-o0o-

In Robert Pinsky’s bilingual edition, The Inferno of Dante’s new verse translation, this was how the thieves are punished in Canto XXIV, 91-120:
Among this cruel and depressing swarm,
ran people who were naked, terrified,
with no hope of a hole or heliotrope.
Their hands were tied behind by serpents; these had thrust their head and tail right through the loins,
And then were knotted on the other side.
And–there!–a serpent sprang with force at one who stood upon our shore, transfixing him just where the neck and shoulders form a knot.
No o or i has ever been transcribed
So quickly as that soul caught fire and burned
and, as he fell, completely turned to ashes;
and when he lay, undone, upon the ground,
the dust of him collected by itself
and instantly returned to what it was:
just so, it is asserted by great sages,
that, when it reaches its five-hundredth year,
the phoenix dies and is reborn again;
lifelong it never feeds on grass or grain,
only on drops of incense or amomum;
its final winding sheets are nard and myrrh.
And just as he who falls, and knows not how–
by demon’s force that drags him to the ground
or by some other hindrance that binds man–
who, when he rises, stares about him, all
bewildered by the heavy anguish he
has suffered, sighing as he looks around;
so did this sinner stare when he arose.
Oh, how severe it is, the power of God
that, as its vengeance, showers down such blows!
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

Presidency a gift for Atty. Leni Robredo?

“Few men in our history have ever obtained the Presidency by planning to obtain it.”
—James A. Garfield

By Alex P. Vidal

THERE were two sets of father-son Presidents in the United States: John Adams (1797-1801)-John Quincy Adams (1825-1829) and George H.W. Bush (1989-1993)-George W. Bush (2001-2009).
In the Philippines, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., namesake of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., will attempt to win the presidency on May 9 and catapult the Marcoses to the record books as the first father-son Filipino Presidents. Amazing!
Unfortunately, I don’t see this happening soon; no, this might not happen yet, or it may never happen at all.
Bongbong Marcos Jr and his running-mate, Sara Duterte-Carpio, have been endorsed by the bloc-voting religious sect, Iglesia ni Cristo (Inc) six days before the election, apart from consistently topping the surveys conducted by Pulse Asia, Social Weather Station, Laylo Research and Publicus Asia, where the son Marcos pulled away by a commanding 53 percent over his closest pursuer, Vice President Leni Robredo, who got 23 percent.
These were the solid basis for the claim of a successful campaign by supporters of Marcos Jr. and, perhaps, by Marcos Jr. himself and Duterte-Carpio, daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte.
And why not? What “concrete signs” do we need to know more to be convinced that this presidential race would be a lopsided win for Marcos Jr.?
Were these overwhelming indications or probability of a “sure” Marcos Jr. victory not enough?
They’re more than enough, yes; and that’s enough.

-o0o-

The presidency may not necessarily be an inheritance; it’s more of a “rendezvous with destiny.”
It’s not a regular title that can just be bestowed upon anyone who wishes to get it by hook or by crook. It’s a gift.
If Marcos Jr. is destined to become president, he will bring it home even without leading in the pre-election surveys; and without the much ballyhooed endorsement from any religious empire.
Ditto with his arch-rival, Vice President Leni Robredo, the real dark horse in this race.
Between Marcos Jr. and Atty. Robredo, however, we see two different worlds apart.
We feel the vice president is the one deserving the gift of the presidency by virtue of her sterling background in public service, her humble stint in the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), her low-key lifestyle, her moral ascendancy as a single parent, her character and demeanor as a woman, her intelligence, and as a widow who never compromised the values of her modest family.
The quality of people who admire Atty. Robredo’s brand of leadership and politics pales in comparison with those who regularly mounted brutal disinformation campaign and canard against her person and family. They simply wanted to malign her based on the lies and derogatory issues being spread in the social media. Many if not most of them were unfounded and baseless and meant only to sabotage her public image as a presidential wanna-be.
If she wins on May 9–which we feel, based on the passionate reactions of her supporters, she will—Atty. Robredo will redeem the nation from being tagged as the biggest cemetery in Southeast Asia owing to the mishandled bloody campaign against illegal drugs and from a leadership that has institutionalized the use of cuss words in public speaking and the most familiar “p_tang ina” or SOB.

-o0o-

The phrase “rendezvous with destiny” has been used by Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill during World War II and Ronald Reagan in his successful bid for the presidency in 1980, according to writer Ross Sloan.
It would be hard to argue that the election of Donald Trump in 2016 would not also rank in that same category.
Very few persons of note thought Mr. Trump would defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The liberal left even assured everyone that Trump’s election absolutely could not happen, Sloan added.
Even former President Barack Obama smugly told the Americans that Trump would never be president. How many anti-Robredo TikTokers have said that Robredo has no chance?
Time and again, elections have been proven to be the most unpredictable if not latently mysterious societal human undertaking since the right to suffrage was established.
The candidates are presented in public for the voters to choose; they campaign for our votes; and we cast our votes based on what we know about the candidates—or based on their qualifications.
And there are several factors why the strongest and more popular candidates penciled to win sometimes end up eating the dust
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

Guide to win an election

“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.”
—Philip K. Dick

By Alex P. Vidal

HARVARD University’s Dr. Philip Freeman translated the text of the Commentariolum Petitionis from Latin to English and included it in the amazing book, “How To Win An Election”, an ancient guide for modern politicians.
Its unit price was $9.95 excluding tax, but I secured a copy of the book from the Salvation Army in Queens for only $3.98 (plus $.35 tax).
Commentariolum Petitionis (“little handbook on electioneering”), also known as De petitione consulatus (“on running for the Consulship”), is an essay supposedly written by Quintus Tullius Cicero, 65-64 BC, as a guide for his brother, Marcus Tullius Cicero, in his campaign in 64 to be elected consul of the Roman Republic.
“I have tried to make my translation accessible, colloquial, and as clear as possible to modern readers, while remaining faithful to the sense of the original text,” writes Freeman, who holds the Qualley Chair of Classical Languages at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
The book tells us that in 64 BC, when idealist Marcus Cicero, Rome’s greatest orator, ran for consul (the highest office in the Republic), his practical brother Quintus decided he needed some no-nonsense advice on running a successful campaign.
“What follows in his short letter are timeless bits of political wisdom, from the importance of promising everything to everybody and reminding voters about the sexual scandals of your opponents to being a chameleon, putting on a good show for the masses, and constantly surrounding yourself with rabid supporters,” explains Freeman.
Freeman describes it as “unashamedly pragmatic primer on the humble art of personal politicking is dead-on (Cicero wins)–and as relevant today as when it was written.”

-o0o-

Like Machiavelli’s Prince, this short treatise provides timeless and no-nonsense counsel to those who aspire to power.
Idealism and naiveté are left by the wayside as Quintus tells his brother–and all of us–how the down-and-dirty business of successful campaigning really works.
Freeman says the letter is full of priceless advice for modern candidates, but some of the choicest gems are:

1. Make sure you have the backing of your family and friends. Loyalty begins at home. If your spouse and children aren’t behind you, not only will you have a hard time winning but it will look bad to voters. And as Quintus warns Marcus, the most destructive rumors about a candidate begin among closest to him.
2. Surround yourself with the right people. Build a talented staff you can trust. You can’t be everywhere at once, so find those who will represent you as if they were trying to be elected themselves.
3. Call in all favors. It’s time to gently (or not so gently) remind everyone you have ever helped that they owe you. If someone isn’t under obligation to you, let them know that their support now will put you in their debt in the future. And as an elected official, you will be well placed to help them in their time of need.
4. Build a wide base of support. For Marcus Cicero this meant appealing primarily to the traditional power brokers both in the Roman Senate and the wealthy business community–no easy task since groups were often at odds with each other. But Quintus urges his brother as an outsider in the political game to go further and win over the various special interest groups, local organizations, and rural populations ignored by other candidates. Young voters should be courted as well, along with anyone else who might be of use. As Quintus notes, even people no decent person would associate with in normal life should become the closest of friends during a campaign if they can help get you elected. Restricting yourself to a narrow base of support guarantees failure.

-o0o-

5. Promise everything to everybody. Except in the most extreme cases, candidates should say whatever the particular crowd of the day wants to hear. Tell traditionalists you have consistently supported conservative values. Tell progressives you have always been on their side. After the election you can explain to everyone that you would love to help them, but unfortunately circumstances beyond your control have intervened. Quintus assures his brother that voters will be much angrier if he refuses to promise them their hearts’ desire than he backs out later.
6. Communication skills are key. In ancient Rome the art of public speaking was studied diligently by all men who aspired to political careers. In spite of the new and varied forms of media today, a poor communicator is still unlikely to win an election.
7. Don’t leave town. In Marcus Cicero’s day this meant sticking close to Rome. For modern politicians it means being on the ground pressing the flesh wherever the key voters are at a particular moment. There is no such thing as a day off for a serious candidate. You can take a vacation after you win.
8. Know the weakness of your opponents–and exploit them. Just as Quintus takes a hard look at those running against his brother, all candidates should do an honest inventory of both the vulnerabilities and strengths of their rivals. Winning candidates do their best to distract voters from any positive aspects of their opponents possess by emphasizing the negatives. Rumors of corruption are prime fodder. Sex scandals are even better.
9. Flatter voters shamelessly. Marcus Cicero was always courteous, but he could be formal and distant. Quintus warns him that he needs to warm up to voters. Look them in the eye, pat them on the back, and tell them they matter. Make voters believe you genuinely care about them.
10. Give people hope. Even the most cynical voters want to believe in someone. Give the people a sense that you can make their world better and they will become your most devoted followers–at least until after the election, when you will inevitably let them down. But by then it won’t matter because you will have already won.
    (The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

Don’t be scared of surveys, big crowd

“Fearless means trusting your instincts and clarity of thought. Once you have made up your mind, don’t be scared of what if.”
—Ravi Shastri

By Alex P. Vidal

SURVEYS and big crowds in political rallies are good indicators of the possible results of an election, but they aren’t the be-all and end-all of the whole race.
Former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr may have consistently dominated the “scientific” surveys conducted on 2,500 respondents; his lead in those surveys has been “unmoved” as the pollsters described it, but they don’t put an exclamation point with finality on the presidential race on May 9.
More than 63 million Filipinos from various islands not covered by surveys have registered to vote. Pollsters can never read the minds of voters in far-flung regions, municipalities and villages in the entire archipelago.
The last-minute groundswell of support to be amassed by certain candidates lagging behind the surveys can never be underestimated.
Also, the big crowds in both the grand rallies of Vice President Leonor “Leni” Robredo and even Marcos Jr. don’t translate into actual votes on May 9.
Many of those in the rallies may not be registered voters; or, if they can vote, may not be able to vote because of various circumstances on Election Day.

-o0o-

The best pulse, I think, is to feel the heat of passion among the people; how excited and determined they have been and will be to go all out for their chosen candidates.
If these passionate voters don’t just shout and dance but also go house to house, invite others or convince the undecided with so much fervor and intensity, their number will certainly grow magnificently.
And they are the most powerful motivating engines that can produce a whirlwind of support and probably votes for certain candidates on the day of reckoning.
Isaac Newton’s third law states that when two bodies interact, they apply forces to one another that are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.
Newton’s third law is also known as the law of action and reaction. If applied in the May 9 Philippine presidential election, it will dismiss altogether the tenacity of all the pre-election surveys and big crowds.
The election on May 9 will be determined by the quality of people who will cast their votes.
Since this contest is about the number of votes to be garnered, the quality voters will be the quantity that will overwhelm the lesser quality.
So let’s not be nervous or scared if our chosen candidates didn’t fare well in the surveys, or didn’t attract a mammoth crowed.

-o0o-

OUTSMARTING A SNACK ATTACK. Eating two small snacks a day can help us lose weight. Trouble is, research shows that we’re munching more than ever before–choosing foods that are high in calories and fat–and packing on the pounds as a result. “Often we’re not even hungry, but because we’re surrounded by food, we’re tempted to eat anyway,” says Kerry Neville, Ph.D. of American Dietetic Association.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

Déjà vu: 1986 Cory Aquino; 2022 Leni Robredo

“You can only predict things after they have happened.”
—Eugene Lonesco

By Alex P. Vidal

IT seems all indications are pointing to history repeating itself in the Philippines.
I’m referring to the presidential election.
There’s a feeling of déjà vu when an unknown housewife with no political background whatsoever, toppled one of the most powerful presidents in Asia in the 1986 snap presidential election on one hand, and when another woman, an incumbent vice president with relatively obscure political ties, is about to create a major stir in the 2022 presidential race on May 9, on another hand.
Against President Marcos, who lifted the Martial Law before the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1981, no one gave Mrs. Aquino a slim chance to defrock the Ilocano strongman, who had called for the snap polls in response to a challenge from a foreign journalist.
Because of its deplorable human rights records, the Philippines needed to be lifted from the doldrums and dark chapter of history, but no seasoned politician or male firebrand opposition leader could mount a challenge and put away the vastly dominant and authoritative Marcos Sr. even in a fair and square tussle.
Out of the blue, Mrs. Aquino entered the picture and totally torched President Marcos’ invincibility, sending him and his family packing to be exiled in Hawaii after the “People Power” intervened in February 1986.
Was it an act of God? A Divine Intervention? It depends on the believers and the non-believers.

-o0o-

Fast forward in 2022, the Philippines has been smarting from a negative image abroad owing to its horrendous human rights records under the Duterte administration, which had institutionalized the mass murder of suspected drug addicts who “resisted police arrest” and suspected drug pushers who were mostly wearing slippers and basketball shirts.
To compound the matter, President Rodrigo Duterte’s penchant to pick up fights against prominent personalities who did not even have a personal quarrel with him, including cursing the God as “p_tang ina” or SOB, has turned off some of the world political and economic leaders, snubbing him in international APEC and summit meetings.
At the height of his political power where he employed Machiavellian warfare and iron fist to boot, no gutsy male opposition leader could withstand President Duterte’s ferocity.
Without a doubt, the Philippines needs to be redeemed from the harrowing nightmare just like in the pre-1986 snap election period.
Voila, enter Vice President Leni Robredo, whose dramatic and phenomenal rise since the day she declared her candidacy, is reminiscent of Aung San Suu Kyi’s and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s breathtaking upsurge in their respective political conquests.
Despite the much-vaunted growing survey results dangled by the camp of Bongbong Marcos Jr., projections from experts, independent observers and reputable political analysts, including the reliable and tested Google Trends, show Vice President Robredo could be the Philippines’ third woman president.
Is this an act of God? Is there a Divine Intervention? Again, it depends on the believers and the non-believers.

-o0o-

If there was social media when housewife Mrs. Aquino tackled strongman Marcos Sr. in the 1986 snap presidential election, Tita Cory would have suffered worst than Robredo, who is up against a wall in Bongbong Marcos Jr. in the May 9 election.
The reason why some people hated Robredo was because of the lies and innuendos spread against her in the social media even before she became vice president six years ago.
They didn’t hate her because she’s crook; she’s been implicated in graft and corruption or for being a mahjong partner of Janet Napoles; for being opulent; or for living an immoral and scandalous life.
They hate her only for being a woman; and, thus, “she doesn’t deserve to be a leader.” That’s how shallow and irrelevant is the “hate” they harbored against the good vice president.
In the eyes of most of those who have been misled and poisoned by TikTok and other “fake news” in the social media, Robredo isn’t the Real McCoy.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

No respect for Comelec

“We don’t need to share the same opinions as others, but we need to be respectful.”
—Taylor Swift

By Alex P. Vidal

IT’S not only Bongbong Marcos Jr. who has showed an apparent attitude of disrespect for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) by ignoring the scheduled debates sponsored by the poll body in April.
Bongbong’s rivals appeared to have followed suit.
Like the former senator and son of the late strongman Ferdinand Sr., other presidential candidates also “boycotted” the Comelec panel interview on May 1.
Of course they offered different excuses to justify their absence, but we all know they probably wanted to send this curt message: when Bongbong wasn’t around in the past debates, nothing bad happened to his survey numbers, so why do we have to belabor ourselves?
For lack of a punitive measure, the Comelec couldn’t compel any candidate to attend the debates, panel interview, and whatever remaining public forum before May 9.
Everything was on voluntary basis in as far as activities hosted by the Comelec related to the presidential election was concerned.
No coercion. No threat of disqualification. No penalty. Not even a reprimand.
Comelec is the most powerful government office during the election, but it has no teeth to compel candidates to join their election-related activities.

-o0o-

If Bongbong, who claimed he had prior schedules ahead of the debates and panel interview, didn’t display a haughty attitude towards the Comelec debates form the beginning, Vice President Leni Robredo, Mayor Isko Moreno, and Senator Ping Lacson wouldn’t have ignored the remaining programs arranged by the Comelec prior to Election Day.
In their thinking, if Bongbong could “get away with the snub” what and who will prevent us from doing the same?
Thus it became a case of “follow the leader” when they, too, dodged the panel interview, which was supposed to be the last leg of the scheduled Comelec debates before the cancelation of the other scheduled debate last month.
All the hullabaloo boiled down to one thing: they have no respect for the Comelec.

-o0o-

IT’S not only Iloilo City Vice Mayor Jeffrey Ganzon who has chosen a different candidate for president other than the one being campaigned for by Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Trenas and Senator Franklin Drilon.
There are others in the slate, those running for city councilor—reelectionists and newcomers—who have picked other presidential candidates and would silently vote for their respective bets.
For instance, a reelectionist city councilor who had expressed admiration for Pacquiao both as a boxer and as a politician, until today still considers the former world boxing champion as his “idol.”
“I can’t openly say it because we are committed to support (Vice President) Leni Robredo, but my vote goes to Pacquiao,” the reelectionist city councilor told a former colleague in the industry that made him famous before he entered politics.
A neophyte candidate, a mestizo Chinese, who got lucky to be included in the slate of Trenas also confided to a former classmate, a balikbayan, that he will vote for Senator Ping Lacson.
“He (the neophyte candidate) admires Lacson even when the senator was still a PNP chief. The Chinese community likes Lacson because he helped rescue many victims of kidnapping-for-ransom in Manila and managed to return the ransom intact,” the balikbayan former classmate informed this writer.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

I campaigned for Bongbong’s parents

“An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.”
—George Eliot

By Alex P. Vidal

I HAD the privilege to “campaign” for the parents of 2022 presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. during the 1986 and 1992 presidential elections, respectively.
First, my family in San Jose, Antique campaigned hard for Bongbong’s father, the late former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., during the 1986 presidential snap election.
Many of my aunts were friends of the Pacificadors; in fact, they were neighbors.
At that time, former Assemblyman Arturo “Turing” Pacificador, Marcos’ chief ally, was lording over the politics in Antique; Pacificador’s grip with the Antiquenos then can be compared with the Dutertes’ political supremacy in Davao City today.
Whether Pacificador was a hero or villain for teaming up with President Marcos, it depended on which political spectrum one belonged.
Several weeks before the snap election on February 7, 1986, I was in Antique, where I witnessed how the Marcos administration mobilized its resources and full might to ensure the late dictator’s “victory.”
To make the long story short, I helped campaign for the late strongman to please my aunts, who had high regards for the late patriarch Pacificador and his family.

-o0o-

When the late former Antique Governor Evelio Javier made one of his last hard-hitting speeches before the snap election, I was there playing chess in the back of the public plaza (located in front of the capitol), where the now national hero delivered the powerful speech.
Javier, who was the chief campaigner of Marcos’ rival, the late former President Corazon Aquino, yelled while denouncing both Marcos and Pacificador.
I thought I heard the voice of a very angry man with an ax to grind in that afternoon.
It was on the same place where he was murdered on February 11, 1986 during the canvassing of ballots.
In the 1992 presidential election, I was “obligated” to campaign for Bongbong’s mother, former First Lady Imelda Marcos, who ran against the late former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, the late former House Speaker Ramon Mitra, the late former Ambassador Danding Cojuangco, the late former Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) chairman and senator Jovito Salonga, and former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) vice chief of staff, General Fidel Ramos.

-o0o-

Mrs. Marcos, accompanied by then KBL senatorial candidates Salvador Panelo (who is now running for senator anew), the late comedian Chiquito, General Vicente Piccio of Belison, Antique, and other KBL stalwarts, met us at Hotel del Rio in Iloilo City through her former chief of staff Sol Vanzi.
It was Vanzi who had earlier facilitated our “exclusive” meeting with Mrs Marcos and her late mercurial lawyer Antonio Coronel at Manila’s Intercontinental Hotel.
This was in the first week of November 1991, or several days after the Marcos family, ousted in the “People Power” EDSA Revolution in February 1986, was allowed by the Cory Government to come back from exile in Hawaii after five years.
In a “special arrangement”, we joined Mrs. Marcos’ caravan from Iloilo to Antique, Capiz, and Aklan.
On May 11, 1992, however, I cast my vote for the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who lost to General Ramos or FVR after a controversial power outage during the canvassing.
Dear was Mrs. Marcos, who wound up fifth but garnered more votes against sixth placer Salonga, but dearer was my fellow Ilonggo and one of the best presidents the Philippines never had, Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
Now that Bongbong or BBM is the one running for president, I did not campaign for him. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. In fact, I won’t vote for him.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

Our Trojan horse and faith in the Filipinos

“We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves.”
—Blaise Pascal

By Alex P. Vidal

ARE the Filipinos worth dying for?
Part of the answers will be known on May 9, the Election Day 2022.
Our heroes had risked their lives for our freedom and independence from slavery and dictatorship; they sacrificed everything to secure our future and ensure our survival as a nation.
If we don’t give a damn and decide to put all their noble sacrifices to waste, all we can do is elect bad leaders during the election and, thus, surrender the reigns of our government to the thieves, the thugs, and the pagans.
After all, we deserve the kind of leaders we elect. We choose our future and “we know what is best for us.”
We still have faith in the Filipinos who will vote for the new officials from the national to the local levels on May 9.
Not all the candidates are good and deserving. Some are wolves in the sheep’s clothing—charlatans who mesmerize the gullible for their nefarious intentions; scoundrels and con artists who want to make a living out of the taxpayers money.

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They want to join the civil service via the electoral process not to serve as a primordial intention, but to take advantage of the government resources that will be at their full disposal once they are in power.
Some of them are also agents and dummies of foreign interests, or the so-called Manchurian candidates.
We are worth dying for if we know how to protect our country from fake and undeserving leaders. We are wort dying for if we know how to secure our patrimony and defend our sovereignty.
We are worth dying for if we exercise in full might and fervor our rights to suffrage by choosing only the leaders who can best represent our values and character and fight for our dignity and well-being.

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We also need to spot the Trojan horse and those who are really genuine public servants.
Let me share a story that happened a long ago or more than 3,000 years.
A band of Greek princes and heroes made a war on the city of Troy, in Asia Minor.
They laid siege to the city, but the Trojans were not easily beaten and the war went on for 10 years.
It might not have ended even then had not Odysseus, the cleverest of the Greeks, devised a scheme to overthrow the city.
The Greeks pretended that they were giving up the siege and began making preparations to leave. One of the things that they did was to build a gigantic wooden horse.
They left this on the shore, and then went on board their ships and sailed away.
When the Trojans saw the Greek warriors depart, there was great rejoicing.
Believing the horse to be a luck offering to the gods, they opened their gates and hauled the horse inside as a prize of victory.
During the night, however, when the feasting was over and the Trojans were asleep, a door was opened in the side of the hollow wooden animal and out crept a band of Greeks who had been concealed inside. These men opened the gates of the city and let in the main army of the Greeks, who had sailed back again as soon as darkness had fallen.
Thus Troy was captured and destroyed.
Long ago the blind poet of ancient Greece, Homer, told about the Trojan horse in his Odyssey.
Even today the name is applied to a person or persons who get inside enemy territory and help outside forces to get in and conquer it.
We must vote wisely to avoid being invaded by a Trojan horse.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

No more excitement

“We’re all going to change. Otherwise, it’s boring.”
—Alicia Keys

By Alex P. Vidal

ALTHOUGH they won’t complain, most of the presidential and vice presidential candidates are now probably suffering from physical, emotional, and mental burnout after a series of lung-busting campaign sorties nationwide for several months now.
Thus, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) made a wise decision to scrap the remaining town hall debates and will instead air pre-taped interviews of poll candidates.
Although the debates were initially set on April 23 and 24, some of the candidates appeared to be not anymore enthusiastic as they’re now brimming with excitement and suspense for the Election Day on May 9.
Even the public must’ve been bored already by the prolonged debates, which had been repeatedly snubbed by survey frontrunner Bongbong Marcos Jr.
Everyone now seems to be hellbent to expedite the clock if only to satisfy their suspended animation.
Some people are mainly excited to cast their votes with less than two weeks to go, and another debate among the contenders doesn’t excite them anymore; they have heard the same wrangling and showboating in the previous debates.
They have seen and heard some panelists grandstand; they have heard the same questions and monotonous answers; and whatever will transpire in the debates might not matter anymore as most voters have already decided.
The PiliPinas Debates 2022 Series’ concluding event was supposedly scheduled on April 30 and May 1 after it was postponed over payment issues involving private firm Impact Hub Manila, which organized the previous debates.

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Like in the Philippines, the top protagonists in the recent presidential election in France were a man and a woman.
In France, it was a man who beat a woman in a tension-filled runoff.
In the Philippines two weeks from now, will Marcos duplicate the victory? Or will Vice President Leni Robredo reverse the situation?
Days ago, it looked like reelectionist President Emmanuel Macron would be toppled by firebrand populist Marine Le Pen before the runoff, holding the woman challenger at bay by slim margin.
On April 24, 44-year-old Macron, a centrist, comfortably secured a second five-year term, triggering relief among allies that the nuclear-armed power won’t abruptly shift course in the midst of the war in Ukraine from European Union and NATO efforts to punish and contain Russia’s military expansionism.
Macron spared France and Europe from the seismic upheaval of having Le Pen at the helm, who quickly conceded defeat but still scored her best-ever electoral showing.
Acknowledging that “numerous” voters cast ballots for him simply to keep out the fiercely nationalist far-right Le Pen, Macron pledged to reunite the country that is “filled with so many doubts, so many divisions” and work to assuage the anger of French voters that fed Le Pen’s campaign.
“No one will be left by the side of the road,” Macron said in a victory speech against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower and a projection of the blue-white-and-red tricolor French flag as quoted by Reuters.
He was cheered by several hundred supporters who happily waved French and EU flags.

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WE ARE STILL SUPERIOR. Human brains are smarter than creatures whose brains are larger than ours in absolute terms, such as the killer whales, as well as those animals whose brains are larger than ours in relative terms, such as shrews.
Thus, the size alone does not explain the uniqueness of the human mind.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)