Half and Half doesn't mean a whole lot of anything

Rufus Rodriguez, the spokesperson of Erap, shoots his mouth off about Erap seeking the Presidency and says that he (Erap) is contemplating a term-sharing scheme with whoever it is who will be his Vice President. The premise is that Erap lost three (3) years of his original term and therefore he is only trying to get back his lost three (3) years--if you believe that, I have a bridge (two actually) that I want to sell you.

What do you think Erap is? Stupid? Ok, ok, don't answer all at the same time.

Once he gets back to the Presidency (assuming he can run again legally and is not restrained by the Court), he's not going to share the term with anyone else. And assuming he does agree to the harebrained scheme of sharing his term, he is going to choose someone so unambitious and so scared of the office that s/he would not even contemplate going after the half-term.

What Rufus Rodriguez has brought out is not a novel issue, it is downright cheap. It is to cheapen the Office of the President even more than Gloria has cheapened it--with EDSA 2 and with Hello Garci. It is the ultimate trapo solution to anything--since you can't agree on anything, halve whatever it is you're trying to get.

The Office of the President is not bibingka which you can half. Besides half and half doesn't mean a whole lot of anything. It is precisely what the people will get--half of one and half of another, which put together is totally less than the sum of the whole.

Rufus has gotten his fifteen minutes of fame and his above the fold headline now; he should just shut up now.

Is there no one else?

Erap contemplates running for President again in 2010; to this, the FVR side says, if Erap runs, FVR will be "asked" to run again.

I have nothing against old people; I am on record that Jovito R. Salonga is the best President we never had and he's an old man. But, is there really no one else?

Are we so bereft of talented and gifted and committed leaders that we have to have these two old men run again?

And please, no drafts for Gloria, JDV, Jojo Binay, Ping, Dick, Edong, Mar and Manny and ANY other person currently or in the last eight years in the Senate or the House.

What this country needs is fresh wind, not old farts.

Proven wrong

I did not expect it from him but I do know how to appreciate a decent gesture and I do recognize when I've been proven wrong.

Gloria Arroyo's obvious favorite candidate/cabinet secretary/all-around gopher* Michael Defensor conceded defeat in the Senatorial elections even before the COMELEC could finish its canvassing. Now, that is a decent gesture and certainly worth another post on him (I did say in a previous post I would not waste any more time and space blogging about Mike Defensor).

Of all the candidates running, he was the last one I would have expected to concede. That makes his concession even more significant.

As far as concession speeches went, Mike's didn't set off any fire alarms; this one (see below) did.





Now, that's a great concession speech.


* (1) To be fair to the mammal of the same name. the reference is to the american slang "go pher this, go pher that" which indicates that the human "gopher" is servile and/or in servitude. (2) For those who were born and were around in the late 70's to the early 80's, you may also remember that this was the name of the purser on "The Love Boat."

Nellie Banaag. Leticia Ramos.

Remember those two names: Nellie Banaag. Leticia Ramos.

They died because some coward out there considers life so cheap that he/she would hire equally cowardly goons (show your face, why hide behind bonnets) to deliberately put gas in a school building and burn down the place including Banaag and Ramos.

They died because people like Abalos of COMELEC--yes, he who is famous for looking the other way and blaming everyone else but himself--have absolutely no control over these elections and those who are armed and are out there.

They died so that trapos like Loren Legarda, MIke Defensor, Joker Arroyo and everyone else in GO and TU and even some independents like Gringo and Kiko could have their fifteen minutes of fame.

Let the sacrifice of Nellie Banaag, school teacher, and Leticia Ramos, volunteer pollwatcher, not be in vain.

Remember these two names: Nellie Banaag and Leticia Ramos.

Remember them, pray for them and those they have left behind--that they may find some measure of peace at this time.

Remember them but let us also do right by them.

To those who ordered the murder of Nellie Banaag and Leticia Ramos--there are no words to describe the evil of this act that you have done, none at all. When your time comes, may there be words to describe you and how you lived your life because right now, there are none. "Cowardly" and "Evil" are too kind.

To those who murdered Nellie Banaag and Leticia Ramos by burning them--may God, the merciful and the just, be precisely that: merciful but just.

To those who sit silent in the face of your knowledge of who murdered Nellie Banaag and Leticia Ramos--may God give you the grace to do what is right, not what is easy; what is just, not what is convenient.

Nellie Banaag and Leticia Ramos: you will not be forgotten. The hearts of a grateful nation go out to you and your families; may God's angels sing you to your deserved rest in Heaven.

Why was this never a message in the Elections?

U2 and Pearl Jam asking us to "Make Poverty History!"

Why vote?

Quite a few have been asking me who I'll be voting for on May 14. My usual response to that would be a semi-facetious "that will depend on whether I decide to vote or not." That usually elicits a reaction of disbelief that I would even consider not voting.

My reply--"that will depend on whether I decide to vote or not"--- is not a facetious one; it was not intended to be so. It is a statement borne out of experiences of being hopeful and, time and time again, rendered hopeless.

For those old enough to remember how Marcos rendered voting a farce in every sense of that word, my reply would not be so incredible; for many--including myself--who remembered the boycott movement for the Interim Batasang Pambansa elections, that was a statement that Marcos's government would never be "of the people, by the people and for the people." A refusal to vote was the strongest weapon against a craven dictatorship that desired but one thing: legitimacy; and the hope brought about by one's vote was, ironically, that which involved denying a dictatorship that vote.

For those old enough to remember how one's vote truly became a symbol of hope in the snap elections between Marcos and Cory, my reply would not be so incredible; many--including myself--remember casting a vote for Cory, not because we were great fans of hers (I was not and still am not; I voted for her though because I wished to spit in the face of the dictator) but because we truly abhorred the dictator; many still remember how our vote became a statement in itself, a collective repudiation of all that Marcos was and a collective affirmation of the hope that an anti-Marcos symbol like Cory was (never mind if she couldn't govern, we just wanted Marcos out). The hope brought about by one's vote was, fitfully, that which involved casting that one precious vote.

For those old enough to remember how Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo managed to once again reduce the hope that one ballot brought to unfathomable depths of ignominy, my reply would not be so incredible; many of us--including myself--still remember hearing the dictator Gloria--that unmistakeable voice, that unmistakable nasal tone--directing her underlings Garci, Ebdane, Esperon and so many others to steal not only an election but the hope that that election symbolized. The hope brought about by one's vote was, maliciously, snuffed out in the most cynical of ways--"but will I still win by over a million votes?"

The power of one's vote--my vote and yours--is the power to hope; it is the power to dream; the power to say to the face of a dictator, like Gloria, "Your time is up. Be gone"; it is the power to stay what may be an inevitability--the clash of arms drowning out the rule of law--and say, "not yet, not just yet."

The power of one's vote--yours and mine--is the power to chain as well as liberate; it is more than a symbol of hope, it is hope for change itself. To paraphrase Diokno, for change will come, if not now, then inevitably.

The power of one's vote--yours and mine--spells the difference between light and darkness; the light that comes out of a realization that hope is not lost, that change will not tarry much longer, that our passions, our ideals, our dreams, and yes, our hopes, will one day bear fruit in a country that is truly Filipino, truly free, and truly beautiful.

But why vote, when the very ones who stole our hopes for change in 2004 still abound in the highest places?

But why vote, when the obscenity that is "Hello Garci" comes back in full flavor and in living color to inflict himself on our popular psyche and our electorate by means of his very own full-fledged candidacy?

But why vote, when the very cynicism that eats away at hope abounds in every nuisance candidate made to run, in every Manny Pacquiao fielded, in every dynasty created?

But why vote, when even now the dogs of war have been unleashed and the staccato of gunshots rings out louder than the tolling of the bells of peace?

Why vote indeed?

Because there must be hope. Because there is hope.

The hope that one vote and one's vote--yours and mine--brings.

One's vote and one vote makes the difference between light and darkness, the difference between being in chains once more and being truly free, the difference between whining in enforced silence and raising voices in just and righteous indignation, the difference between all that is good for this beautiful country and all that will lead us further on the road to perdition.

So to those who ask who I will vote for, allow me now to answer you this way: I will vote for those who will truly symbolize the hope that my vote brings.

And so, I will not vote for any member of Team Unity--most especially not Joker Arroyo.

And so, I will not vote for most members of the Genuine Opposition--most especially not Panfilo Lacson or Loren Legarda (I am still praying about voting for Chiz Escudero).

I will most probably vote for Kiko Pangilinan simply because he has chosen to stand on his own, not allying himself with all that Team Unity and Genuine Opposition represents; my reservation is that he might finally find the voice and the passion that has eluded him in his previous term in the Senate; my hope is that he might truly stand on his own and speak only for those that matter--the people who put their trust and hopes in him.

But I will vote for the three gallant souls who have decided to fight the good fight--the three members of Ang Kapatiran: Martin Bautista, Zosimo Paredes and Adrian Sison.

Fittingly, the hope that one vote and one's vote--yours and mine--carries is borne on the shoulders of these dreamers; for only those who hope dare dream.

These three will lose the election and not become Senators but they would not have lost the respect of a grateful electorate; these three will lose the election but your vote would not have been wasted; these three will lose the election but they will have run the race extremely well.

In these times of cynicism, the hope that these three dreamers and "losers" represent is more than enough. The words of George Bernard Shaw borrowed by a famous Kennedy* and spoken by his even more famous brother** are apt indeed, "Some people see things as they are and ask 'why', I dream things that never were and ask 'why not'?"

My one vote represents the power to dream, the grace to hope, the courage to ask "why not?"

Why vote? Why vote for them? This is why--the power to dream, the grace to hope, the courage to ask "why not?"

To these three dreamers, my hopes go with you.




* Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy, U.S. Senator, killed June 6, 1968;
** John Fitzgerald Kennedy, U.S. President, killed November 22, 1963;

Pichay and Posters

I never thought I'd find anything nice to say about Ben Abalos, the COMELEC Chair. As the last week ended, however, he had a sound bite that was funny; commenting on all the posters of Team Unity Senatorial wanna-be Butch Pichay that were sprouting everywhere, he said something about "pechay" being planted all over, even in cement. That merited a chuckle.

Predictably, Pichay denied any involvement either personally or by his staff; never mind that the posters looked identical to those he presumably knew about and authorized. Predictably, he cried "sabotage" and said that his opponents were trying to make it look like his staff did it so that he would be disqualified (Oh, happy day, should this happen!).

One suggestion perhaps: require all candidates to have ALL posters carry the COMELEC seal before any are posted. Similar to the cigarette packs that must contain the safety warning, all posters should have a COMELEC certification that is prominent and distinct; any poster that does not have those would clearly be unauthorized. So, posters bearing this certification that appear in a place where there should be none will then be directly attributed to the candidate whose mug appears on it.