Fortuna in his last days: What the people—not the politicians—wanted

I did not attend, because I was not invited to, a meeting of Romblomanons that the late Julius Fortuna—Manong Jules to many of his acolytes—convened on June 20 in Quezon City, three days before he left for a Greater Meeting beyond.

The meeting, according to La Tondena de Bachawan of www.romblonpost.com, was to jumpstart a dialogue by and between Romblomanons on the basic problems confronting us in the province and to find ways to solve these problems.

According to my kumpadre Gen. Orville Gabuna, however, the meeting was Manong Jules’s “feeling the pulse” for what Gabuna said was the former’s preparation to make a run for Congress versus Eleandro Jesus “Budoy” F. Madrona in the May 2010 election, if there would be such.

La Tondena de Bachawan used the euphemism “make himself relevant for the 2010 elections” in describing the meeting.

I do not dispute the above observations. Neither do I doubt them. During one of our coffee powwows at the Century Park coffee shop, I hinted as much to Manong Jules that I wanted him to be in politics.

This, I said, could be an easy transition for him from the parliament of the streets (where he fought so bravely) to the “parliament of pork”, the House of Representatives, where his valuable wisdom would have weighed heavily against many representatives’ idiocy, lying and thieving ways.

Manong Jules’s presence in the House, if elected Romblon congressman, would have been an effective counterweight against the shallowness of thought of many House members, as well as a great opportunity for Romblon to be represented once again by an articulate, hard-working soul.

We could have been witness to a rebirth of Romblon’s glory days in national politics, last seen during the pre-Martial Law days.

When I egged him to run for Congress, Manong Jules would just look at me with his sparkling eyes, smile his enigmatic smile, and say:

“Let’s think about it.”

His answer, using the third personal pronoun in plural form, “us”, was a window to his thinking. He would always be on the side of the people, concerned about what they wanted, not about what the few politicians dreamed of. From his answer, I knew he would not side with the fat cows or overweight pigs of Congress if he was there. He would, instead, roast them with his pointed barbs.

Alas, this was not to be the case, for the Great Maker has other plans for Manong Jules.

Gabuna saw through Manong Jules’s plan, and he expressed his support for it. When he called up to inform me about the meeting, I sensed Manong Jules was building a team. A reformist team.

The meeting, according to La Tondena de Bachawan (the poor fellow didn’t have a name so he hid behind a bottle of wine!), produced a manifesto drafted by Manong Jules.

“We are residents, voters and friends of the province of Romblon who are all concerned about its future. We come together in this manifesto to make a pledge—to help the province and free itself from its many problems,” the manifesto’s opening paragraph declared.

Manong Jules expressed concern about the pervasive poverty of Romblon, saying “we cannot and should not accept this as a continuing feature in the lives of our people”.

He deplored what he called “leadership by neglect” and our leaders’ unmitigated greed and corruption leading to the “common disregard of environment laws and the destruction of our rivers, our mountains and our seas”.

“We are concerned that unabated corruption has led to the depletion of resources for most needed services for our people. Corruption not only depletes the provincial budget . . . . Corruption also comes in the abusive exercise of discretion by some provincial officials in the granting of permits and the tolerance of illegal gambling,” he said.

He had no kind words for the destruction of the environment through logging and mining, and wrote that “the inability of the provincial government to control mining has led to chaos in governance, social problems and unsolved murders”.

The most telling indictment that he had was his observation that, “We are almost a failed province.” This made me very sad I almost cried. Poor Romblon.

In the last paragraphs of his manifesto, he asked that anomalies happening in Romblon be investigated and those guilty prosecuted. “Our people should know about them—for it is they who should judge their leaders eventually.”

He asked our leaders to desist from punishing the province some more. “Maawa po naman kayo sa probinsya natin!” he said, respectfully.

If I were to rewrite this part of the manifesto, I would have said: “Mahilak kiy ra kamo sa ato probinsya. Tur-i ra baga ka namamanwa,” because it seems to me that Romblon is a dying, tubercular patient. Sinupsop piy it ato mga lider ka tanang unor it Romblon, magtuna sa isra, kahoy, mina, ag abilidad nak magtikang pa sa masunor nak henerasyon. Even our provincial morale is so down and low.

Manong Jules called for a dialogue, for us take advantage of the forthcoming election to find solutions to our problems, and expressed hope that “dialogue would lead to the wise selection of our leaders capable of leading our province in the challenging times ahead.”

But he left us with a few questions hanging in the air: “Are there such leaders and if the answer is yes, where are they?”

“Will the people of Romblon—having known of Manong Jules’s reformist views—follow his admonition and “select wisely” those leaders? Or will they continue to believe in Romblon’s two BMs—Ballistic Missiles Budoy Madrona and BatMan—lording it over the province?

Tell me.

The gutter language of Romblon politics

Roll out the carpet,
get out the barrel,
politics, for all intents and purposes,
is here,
has become many Romblomanons’:
daily fare;
bread and butter;
primary occupation;
chief entertainment;
major problem;
field of dreams;
worst nightmare;
and cause of division,
exactly eleven months
before the May 2010 election.

In order is a qualification. When I say “May 2010 election”, I don’t mean I am certain there will be one. I merely refer to the date set by the Constitution for a regular election. That’s on the second Monday of May every three years.

If the Constitution will be followed, there will be one. However, this administration of La Lola Loca is not exactly popular for following the letter and spirit of the Basic Law. It is, in fact, the worst violator of the Constitution. Look at how it lies through its teeth regarding human rights.

Now, let’s go back to Romblon politics.

The observation that politics now consume many Romblomanons is not without basis. Go to http://romblonpost.com/ and see for yourself. This online medium is populated by people whose passion for the voodoo craft is such that reading their posts could lead one to commit suicide, if he or she is weak-hearted.

This online community, which I have visited a few times in the past and in which I have posted some pieces from my blog at http://bunsurancaravan.blogspot.com/, is a lively forum of “unknown” but articulate Romblomanons who have a lot of things to say about politics and our politicians.

Alas, most of the things they post online are vulgar epithets that belong to the gutter of social discourse. The ‘posters’—divided along ideological, minus and plus, pros and cons, negative and positive sides of the political equation—quarrel most of the time, with no one but among themselves.

They call our politicians and each other names. Loud, colorful, dirty names. Names that will make mothers cry when it is their sons or daughters being called by such name. Names that if published in the mainstream media could earn the authors a string of libel suits.

I said many of the ‘posters’ are ‘unknown’ because almost everyone in the online community hides behind the skirts of invented aliases accompanied by invented photos and caricatures. No one seems to care at http://romblonpost.com/ about their identities or the identities of the individuals they are exchanging pointed blurbs with. Or, are they afraid to be fingered as the authors of the daily name-calling spree?

I make this observation with exceptions. There are ‘posters’ in the site who back up their allegations with hard evidence, such as official documents. This is true in the case of Gov. Jojo Beltran’s recall of his order installing one Richard Lozada as officer-in-charge of the provincial general services office after its chief, the controversial Anthony “Jojo” Rugas, was ordered suspended by the Ombudsman.

The exchange of blurbs in the site after the two orders of Beltran were posted ran like this:

Tisoy, Jr.: “Ginagawang tanga lang ni Rugas ang Ombudsman. O baka naman walang maglakas loob na kastiguhin itong si Tony Rugas dahil maraming ninong ang animal na ‘to. Ano ba ang nangyari dito?

Carlos: “Jojo the respondent was suspended by Jojo the governor through Office Order No. 08-099 dated October 28, 2008, but in less than a week, Jojo the governor recalled his own order through another Office Order No. 08-102 dated November 3, 2008. Jojo the respondent is no doubt "malakas." That's what they are in power for.”

How about Madrona, the Congressman?

Oh, Budoy is fair game to Romblon ‘posters’. Yes, he has some defenders, such as this person who answers to the name ‘nonong’, apparently a paid hack, but ‘nonong’ is so alone because he/she is outnumbered by a horde of anti-Madrona partisans.

Read this exchange last week:

Ginoo: “June 22 aalis na ang grupo ni Budoy para bumili ng bagong barko. Hay, salamat naman, kung hindi pa sa payola ng cha-cha, ‘di pa ulit magkakaroon ng barko ang Romblon. Mga kababayan ko: tangkilikin natin ito ha? Para naman may masakyan tayo ng libre sa 2010 pag uwi natin para sa eleksiyon. Mga ex-MBRS staff, forget the past, okay?”

Ghost Whisperer: “Buti na lang may cha-cha. Kung wala ‘di na makakabili ng boat ang multong (derogatory name deleted). Saang lupalop naman ng mundo bibili ng barko ang multong (derogatory name deleted)? Sana kung saan man ‘yun may A(H1N1) virus para mahawa ang . . . . Sana Lord, please. Ito lang ang consolation diyan. Malulugi din ang barkong ‘yan o kaya baka lumubog pa bago nito masilayan ang lupang hinirang. You know, God is not sleeping. We will have our sweet revenge against the multong . . . .

Taga-Cogon Sr.: “Hindi lang sa payola sa con-ass manggagaling ang pambili ni M. B. ng bagong barko. Malaki rin na bahagi ay mula sa pork barrel funds ng (epithet deleted). Para hindi mahalata na malaki ang kinukupit niya sa pork barrel funds, ang diskarte niya ay ang DPWH, through Dodoy ‘Jalozjoz’ Perez, ang pinapa-prente sa projects. Si Dodoy Perez ang bumibida sa harapan habang binuburiki ng (derogatory name deleted) ang pondo na dapat mapunta sa mamamayan. Noong binili ang kauna-unahang bakal na barko ng MBRS taong 1989, maraming Romblomanon na may kaya sa buhay ang kinuha nilang kasosyo. Pero nang dumami ang barko mula sa parehong sistema na pambuburiki sa pork barrel funds, unti-unti ring sinipa sa eksena ang mga kasosyong ito. Pinagloloko sa bigayan ng dibidendo. Sa sobrang inis, lumayas na lang and mga ito. ‘Di ko lang sure kung andiyan pa ang mga kagaya nina Thornton, Susing Falo, Rizal Morato at marami pang iba na dinugas ng pamilya M. . . .”

The above is only a sampling of the exchanges in the community. The ‘posters’, I should mention, are equally derisive of the political opposition (does it exist?), notably the likes of Dr. Lolong Firmalo, Vice Governor Alice Fetalvero, SP Member Mel Madrid and Department of Agriculture undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla.

A few questions about Firmalo and Fondevilla.Where are they? Is Firmalo hatching his political comeback in his Quezon City clinic? Is Fondevilla having sleepless nights trying to become a congressman or a full-fledged secretary?

Are they politicians still? Or has Madrona co-opted them to forget their dreams of empire?

Come on, people. Will somebody please unzip the mouths of this two?

The fortunes of JuliusFortuna

Romblon history, when the time comes that it shall be written, will inevitably only have kind words for those who made that history possible.

Those who left an indelible impact on Romblon, those who made it happen, those who descended on the arena and fought for the province, and those who, lastly, made life for the Romblomanons a little better and sufferable, will have a first claim over that history—not because they wanted it, but because history finds its own way of according its own respect and regard for people who led extra-ordinary and meaningful lives.

These people are very few. One of them was Manong Jules Fortuna.

I knew him first before he knew me, sometime in 1999, when I ran across a column of his in the defunct Daily Globe. I knew him to be a Romblomanon because of his surname. It began with a letter “F”, to which the majority surnames of the Asi population of the province answers to.

I knew, from what he wrote, that he was—by living the dangerous life of a journalist—on to something.

That something was articulating the dreams and aspirations of a race—the Filipino race—which have been subdued—killed—by the rising and ebbing tide of tyranny: Marcos’s, for which Manong Jules, because he was a principled man, suffered. Sacrificed big.

No matter how one looked at it, ten years of incarceration is a huge deduction from the limited tenure each human being is allotted to on this earth. There must be a reckoning, a just amelioration, for such deduction by man from the life of another man firstly, because that life allotment is not made by us, and secondly, because no one can tell how much a man can do and could have done in those years that he was prevented from doing anything.

Such was the fate, or fortune, of Manong Jules. A lesser mortal could have demanded for an accounting for this egregious injustice. A weak-kneed soul would have thought of exacting vengeance and stored rancor in his heart for the authors of the perfidy against himself.

Not Manong Jules. Never in our serious conversations about politics, foreign affairs, books, and Romblon issues did he insinuate he was wounded. No, he never hinted at all about the injustice he suffered.

What occupied him during those times when we sat together for coffee at the Century Park hotel lobby were the burning issues of the day that were crying for resolution. He was, it seemed to me, on a race to recover the lost time deducted from his life. He earned his keep the old, traditional way: by working. Hard and driving.

We traveled together once to and from Odiongan, his hometown, and during the time, we wasted not a second in meaningless blabber. With Manong Jules, you always get quality minutes of intellectual discovery. The book I saw last in his hands was Thomas Friedman’s bestseller, “The World is Flat”. He spent money on books and foreign newspapers, in the same manner that he was generous to struggling friends in the media.

As a thinker and journalist, Manong Jules can slice through a conversation and insert a gem of wisdom, usually his take or view on a topic enriched by reading and distilled by years of experience in observing events and human nature, and of course, by regular interaction with the powers-that-be.

All the years, however, that he lived, he retained his wit and firm anchor on his Asi roots even as the people around him—the subjects of his writing, most of them politicians—were running like headless chickens and fumbling in stupidity.

It was I who named his gathering of friends in Odiongan the Libakan Forum, over which he regularly presided and steered to a happy conclusion. Everyone walks away from the forum sober at the thought that they have exercised their mental faculties not for trivialities, but for meaningful discourse. The Libakan Forum was a Kapihan sa Sulo, Odiongan-style, where coffee and sometimes, food, is free, but where ignorance has a price. Manong Jules certainly knew how to make people think.

When Awe Eranes of the Romblon Sun called up to inform me that Manong Jules has gone away, he was crying and wondered aloud what will happen now that Romblon journalists have lost a mentor and godfather.

I was thinking of another matter. I was mourning the loss of a Romblon icon in journalism whose voice has been heard and listened to around the country, whose company has been enjoyed by countless friends, and whose revolutionary struggle to re-arrange the order of things in a society drowning in collective apathy, guile and guilt will now be missed.

I was thinking about Romblon without Manong Jules, whose love for his native soil is equaled only by his love to see that soil cultivated and toiled on by Romblomanons enjoying the opportunities possible only in a democracy.

I was also thinking of Manong Jules’ good fortune to have lived in an era that recognized—was grateful for—his transition from a life of revolutionary activism to a life of battling society’s inequities through a more powerful weapon—the Word.

Manong Jules lived a full life regardless of his early death. That fullness he achieved when he chose to become what he became: a revolutionary, a thinker and a journalist who engaged the world when many others in his era opt to be co-opted and therefore, are in danger of losing their souls while still alive.

He is dead. Gone, gone, gone.

But his animating spirit lives. His story remains. His kindness continues to be affecting.
And his weapon, the chief implement he used in his battles, stays with us: “the unkillable word.”

Manong Jules, nag-aampo ako para sa kalmadang payadag nimo sa sunor nak kinabuhi. Pagkayangkag ka kalibutan sa imo paghalin. Magkinita ray kita.

The vanishing loads: Regulation in the face of ‘vultureeism’

After I’ve commented on Juan Ponce Enrile’s and Mar Roxas’s taking up the cudgels for poor Filipinos against the mobile phone companies and suggesting that the government regulate them more strictly because of their crocodile-like business practices, a reader sent information which followers of this blog may find more infuriating.

Another reader posted the article on Facebook, possibly to incite some more mobile phone users to consider banging their phones on the wall for utter helplessness in getting the mobile phone companies to serve them better, meaning, for these ‘telcos’ not to tolerate frequent ‘drop calls’ or not to steal their ‘loads’.

There is such a thing, says a reader who answers to the email jcloyola@skyinet.net, as inter-connection or network access charges, these being the rates that the ‘telcos’ charge one another for ‘crossing’ into each other’s network. A ‘telco’ crosses a network to make or connect a call or deliver a text message.

That’s from Globe to Smart to Sun to Red and vice versa, if I get it right.

The reader who sent the email said Filipinos send about 16,200 text messages per second, or two billion text messages a day. That’s a third of the world’s population of over three billion.

With 60 million mobile phone users sending these two billion messages, it’s only logical that we are called the ‘text’ capital of the world, a reputation which I don’t know if we should be proud or ashamed of.

I said this because ‘texting’ has developed its own popular culture, making idiots out of many Filipinos for their prostituted grammar and syntax, not to mention their prostitution of their own languages. But that should be for another time.

At the moment, we mobile phone users have to face the heavy burden of our mobile phone bills or ‘loads’ because the ‘telcos’ are charging us part, if not all, of the cost they pay to cross each other’s network, if the reader who answers to the email jcloyola@skyinet.net is correct.

He says the Philippines has the highest interconnection rate in Asia. This, I am sure, is a reputation we don’t want to stick on our skin.

This means that a Filipino mobile phone user pays more than anyone else when connecting to other mobile phone users using other networks. The inter-connection rate in this country of La Lola Loca is four pesos, or 9.5 cents in Uncle Sam’s money. Compare this with the rates in the following countries: Indonesia, 4.95 cents; Thailand, 2.97 cents; Malaysia, 2.55 cents; Pakistan: 2 cents; China, 0.88 cents; India, 0.71 cents; and Hong Kong, 0.56 cents.

What are we compared to Hong Kong and China economically? Yet, mobile phone users in these countries pay far, far less in network-to-network charges, he averred.

And listen to this: “In 2007, the combined gross revenue of Smart, Globe and Sun Cellular was P149.5 billion, with Smart earning P39.6 billion in text messaging alone and Globe chalking up revenues of P18.3 billion”.

In the same year, Smart earned P17.2 billion in inter-connection charges, while Globe get paid P12.8 billion for the same network access usage, according to the guy.

“To be rich is glorious.” Those were the late Deng Xiaoping’s words, but not if one profits from the ignorance or from the docile passivity of another. If one gets more than enough at the expense of consumers, how should it be called? “To be rich is gluttony?”

“How would you like to make voice calls from Smart to Globe and vice versa for less than P2.00 per minute? How would you like to send a ‘text’ message for less than fifty centavos per text? These goals are not as lofty as they seem. Ironically, the possibility of this happening rests on the unlikely shoulders of our government, specifically, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)”, says the email sender.

He added that the NTC needs to be firm in implementing its rules.

Now, I remember that sometime ago, some do-gooders in Congress had the sudden inspiration to propose to tax text messages, but this, I think, has run into strong opposition. I don’t know from where or from whom. Our reader says that “because of some hesitation brought about by recent tax proposals, the NTC seems to need a little push, specifically to adopt its own draft circulars in implementing these game-changing rates.”

It needs a shove, my friend. Over the cliff, if necessary.

Forget the NTC. It is mired presently in court fighting for a memorandum circular which would have put the ‘telcos’ on their proper seats. The ‘telcos’ however, were able to get a judge to restrain the NTC from implementing the circular so we are f—d. All of us, just because some black-robed arbiter of the law has been ‘convinced’ that a restraining order will be a boon to mobile phone users.

How long has the court battle been pending?

And why, for Abraham’s sake, would Congress tax ‘text’ messages? This will only lead to the ‘telcos’ passing the tax to the consumers, like in “pasa-load”. This will only burden us some more. Why does Congress not order the ‘telcos’ to lower their rates on pain of revoking their franchises? You know, the government is really not that helpless. It is only inutile, most of the time, for being so spineless.

Still, I would go for the Mar Roxas proposal to review the franchises of the ‘telcos’. This is the only language they seem to understand: to be faced with a certain kind of proscription to their money-making abilities. Regulation, in the face of ‘vultureeism’, would be fine. It would be welcome.

But I would also go for my reader’s exhortation for mobile phone consumers to unite:

“And this is where you come in, (you) end-consumer of all things mobile,” he said.

I like that: “consumers of all things mobile.” Consume anything that moves.

“Your support is absolutely necessary in converting these prices from mere fiction to definitive fact. Join our call for cheaper ‘text’ and call rates. Join the Textmate Movement!” he added.

Aha! So there is a movement of ‘texters’ ready to fight for us.

I will join. . . when I get a new mobile phone. In the meantime, start that review, Senator Mar, before you get married.

The robber-gods of 'text'

If you are a pre-paid mobile phone user, read this.

Your mobile phone service provider may be stealing your ‘load’. The amount, since the very beginning of time, could run up to your entire lifetime earnings.

I am exaggerating, of course, but if you are the Senate President like Juan Ponce Enrile, and you lost something like P600 in phone ‘load’, what would you do?

Enrile called the service providers, also called ‘telcos’ to the Senate and gave them a dressing down when they couldn’t explain what happened to the P600 ‘load’.

You see, Enrile doesn’t know how to ‘download’ ringtones, so when Globe Telecom officials told him his P600 ‘load’ vanished without a trace because he was ‘downloading’ ring tones, the 85-year old solon was furious.

“I don’t even know how to text,” he said.

It was a gotcha! moment for Globe, and I could see the officials of Smart Communications squirming on their seats because their company, too, like Globe, ‘robs’ the public, the consumers, through various pre-paid promos and services without their permission. This is also true with the other smaller ‘telcos’.

No need to prove it. I, myself, regularly receive inane, useless, syntax-tortured promo messages from Globe and Smart which irritates me no end and which brings me to the point of throwing away my mobile phones—when I still have two—to the garbage bin.

These messages aren’t free. They cost you something, like emotional imbalance, because I, for example, tend to have a very bad day when I read garbage in my phone, such as ringtone alerts or noise masquerading as popular music. These, the ‘telcos’ send to 90 million Filipinos without their permission.

OK. I am exaggerating. It’s only 91 million.

Enrile’s beef was that the ‘telcos’ enrol every prepaid mobile phone users to promos and useless services without their consent and then—in the dead of the night—rob them of their ‘load’. That’s hold-up. That’s robbery. That needs to be stopped.

Well, in this country, ‘telcos’ substitute themselves for our parents. They ‘enrol’ us, and they earn millions of pesos from it.

The Senate committees on trade and commerce and public services are conducting an inquiry on the issue of disappearing ‘loads’ after Enrile lost his P600 in May and delivered a privilege speech about it.
I am happy the Senate President cares for small consumers. He is rich. P600 to him is loose change, but because it was stolen by the ‘telcos’, they now faces the Senate’s wrath.

It’s high time. ‘Telcos’ are very well known for their loud advertisements that inundate every corner of the land and saturate every opportune airtime, but they are short, very short, on service delivery. They are so lousy, in fact, that they should not be called ‘service providers’. They are service sellers. Or short-changers.

In their ads, they promise paradise, but deliver you to hell. Try calling their service numbers. A machine answers. And in very rare instances when a human with a sarcastic voice happens to respond to an inquiry, he or she will give you a run-around that you will pity yourself why you called in the first place.

So, what does the Senate intend to do about the ‘disappearing loads’?

Mar Roxas, the Senate’s resident consumer welfare advocate, said the Senate should amend the law and review the franchises of the ‘telcos’.

This delivered the message. The Congress grants the franchises of the ‘telcos’ so they better behave.

I would suggest: “Put them in their proper places through regulation.” I know the word ‘regulation’ is anathema to business, but if there’s no regulation, then we become a jungle. The ‘telcos’ will survive by devouring us, the consumers.

And while the Senate is contemplating to amend the franchises of the ‘telcos’, the gods of ‘text’ that have gotten fat and lazy and continues to steal our ‘load’, perhaps, it should first focus on the so-called ‘content providers’ that the ‘telcos’ are in cahoots with.

These are the companies that manufacture ringtones, games, promos and the like, which the mobile phone firms deliver to the consumers without their permission. These ‘content providers’, last I heard, are not being regulated. They share their profits with the mobile phone companies.

Are they paying taxes?

In the next hearing, I would like the Senate to delve into the corporate structures, ownerships, and finances of these ‘content providers’ and their relationships with the mobile phone companies. Here, I can sense something fishy.

I’ll ‘text’ you why.

Will she run?

The Philippine Inquirer on Sunday devoted its headline to a non-news item: “Allies welcome GMA bid”, an indication that the newspaper’s editors have been bitten by the political bug, or worse, have fallen into the trap laid down by Palace factotums to get everyone else hyped up about a Gloria Arroyo run for representative of Pampanga’s second district in Congress.

Of course, her allies should welcome such a move. Or must, considering the President’s hold on them, which is by their balls. Had the Inquirer carried as front-page news, for example, a statement from one ally who opposes the move, that ally would have been dead meat by now, politically.

Look at Nasser Pangandaman of the Department of Agrarian Reform.

Pangandaman, who was reported by the Inquirer to have categorically stated that La Lola Loca would run in 2010 in her home province, very quickly denied—for mortal fear of the President—that he said that, using the age-old “I-was-quoted-out-of-context” palusot.

The denial was sought.

“It was more of an option”, former (in)Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales said. After him, Palace officials tripped over each other to explain Pangandaman's loose tongue, that if there had been a prize for the title of denial king, jurors would have a hard time picking who to award it to. Although, we are sure, Raul Gonzales would line up to get it.

Gabriel Claudio, GMA’s political adviser, said Pangandaman called him to say he was “misquoted’.

Edgardo Pamintuan, another ally, said Pangandaman denied that he said what he said.

I expect some more allies coming out of the woodwork to tell us they have talked to Pangandaman who have denied, again, that he said what he said.

Deny, all of them except Pangandaman. But did you notice how close the word “deny” to the Tagalog word “dinaya”?

The Inquirer said it called up the embattled agrarian reform secretary but he did not answer or return calls. Hiding for mortal fear that other allies of the President might stab him at the back once he peddles again on loose talk? Or, was he afraid they will pull out from his throat another denial to pacify the opposition—and convince us that indeed, Gloria is not running?

Gloria is running. And lying. No doubt about it. No ifs, no buts. If she doesn’t, just to prove wrong many, including this blogger, well, that’s her lookout. She is still a liar.

I remember a representative from Nueva Ecija who answers to the name of Antonino who said last week that if ever Gloria is to run, it will be to shield herself and her family from various lawsuits that will be hurled against her when her car no longer sports Plate Number One.

I pity the people of second district of Pampanga, if this would be the case. I pity them because their representative will only use them as a hedge, an insurance, a safety net, a tuktukan, to save herself.

This Rep. Antonino, a conspirator in the ConAss conspiracy, did not called up anybody in the Palace to say he was quoted out of context, and not one among the allies ever said the congressman denied what he said.

Why is that? Probably because it is true. With her nine years of bad governance, of consecrating corruption and coddling the corrupt, of pursuing a personal agenda rather than the public good, and of perpetuating human rights violations across this benighted land, I doubt that none among the 90 million Filipinos will drag her to court.

So, who is afraid of a Gloria in the House?

Let her run and let her win. In the House, she will discover how lonely it is to be one among many, not the only one, who has to stand in line in Malacanang to beg for the President’s largesse.

There, at the House, she will be exposed. Not that she can’t debate with anyone, but the fact that she has to debate with other representatives will be a reversal of her nine-year run as the commander-in-chief, not the plebe, when no one questioned her wishes and her word was law.

Let her run and let her win. In the House, maybe she can join other members in proposing that the Constitution be amended without the participation of the House. Maybe she could be elected as speaker. Or whatever, as long as it lends her power.

Why not run for a seat in the Senate instead? Although a co-equal of the House, the Senate has a national constituency, and there, she can propose farm-to-market roads in San Juan, or a monument to her name, or grandstand like what many in the Senate are now doing. She can also write pieces of legislation speaking favorably about her term in Malacanang, something which history books will most likely deny her. She can also rake in coals through public hearings and inquiries those who criticized her when she was President .

Run, Gloria, run. Just don’t leave Mike behind.

A pandemic among us

A global epidemic finally catches us. Catches up with us.

Yesterday, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic of the H1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu, after a meeting with health experts in Geneva.

The swine flu pandemic is the first global flue epidemic in 41 years. The last pandemic was the Hong Kong flu in 1968 which killed one million people, the world health authority said.

Unlike war, which human beings declare upon human beings in certain parts of the world one at a time, a pandemic is one inanimate enemy that human beings should—and must—declare war to at once, simultaneously, and in all places and in every nook and cranny of the globe.

For both kill.

For the first kind of war, man has designed and manufactured every conceivable weapon and gadget that instill the fear of civilization being wiped out in an instant—should a global war similar to the last from 1941-45 erupts—and justify the political and economic oppression by the powerful of the powerless. By the haves of the have-nots. Look at Iran and North Korea. Take a look at Iraq and Afghanistan.

There is no weapon yet in the second kind of war. The Associated Press report on the WHO decision said it will “trigger drugmakers to speed up production of a swine flu vaccine and prompt governments to devote more money toward efforts to contain the virus.”

There are also no sides in this war against the swine flu, no political underpinnings, no diplomatic initiative to mount or negotiation to conduct. It is the world against an unseen enemy that attacks without consideration of gender, race or creed.

In the swine flu pandemic, the only issue that matters is the health of the human race. The motive is win the war, “contain” the virus, to preserve life.

So that there will be ones left alive to declare war against and so the world can use its stockpile of nuclear and other sophisticated instruments of death it has spent billions of money and precious time to produce?

I suspect so.

Wars—economic and political—occur everyday in many places, taking the lives of many in subtle and unsubtle ways. Governments usually perpetuate these and the people, taking sides, sustain their continued happening. These wars over the long period of man’s existence have killed more than a pandemic did. They ontinues to kill.

The swine flu pandemic is not an everyday event, unlike hunger or traffic or political squabbling. But because the media’s reporting painted the swine flu virus in very graphic and alarming terms, people have come to grips with the sound byte and behaved accordingly.

It is for experts to explain the causes and events that led to the mutation of the swine flu virus. For the people around the world, their concern is how not to get afflicted. For those who have it, to get well and healed.

Are we to panic? No.

The WHO the other day said 74 countries had reported nearly 27,737 cases of swine flu, including 141 deaths. Health officials in the US said swine flu cases in the country are on the decline.

“Despite WHO's hopes, raising the epidemic alert to the highest level will almost certainly spark some panic about spread of swine flu.” That’s the Associated Press reporting.

It continued:

“Fear has already gripped Argentina, where thousands of people worried about swine flu flooded into hospitals this week, bringing emergency health services in the capital of Buenos Aires to the brink of collapse. Last month, a bus arriving in Argentina from Chile was stoned by people who thought a passenger on it had swine flu. Chile has the most swine flu cases in South America.”

“In Hong Kong on Thursday, the government ordered all kindergartens and primary schools closed for two weeks after a dozen students tested positive for swine flu—a move that some flu experts would consider an overreaction."

In the dictionary, preparation comes before proximity. The events above-described should warn us that the swine flu recognizes no geographical borders. Because there were already reported swine flu cases in the country, we should be concerned, not fear. We should prepare.

Yes, we should strengthen our defenses, but not for swine flu alone. There are matters that could kill us swiftly than swine flu. One of this is the constitutional assembly virus, which has contaminated some pot-bellied swine in the House of Representatives and who now wish it to inflict upon us.

That’s another war we better be on guard.