ASTEC HOSTS WOW PINOY 2007!

During last year’s edition of WOW PINOY! get-together event by leaders of various Filipino community groups, ASTEC (the Association of Tennis Clubs in Jeddah) was selected to host this year’s annual event.

In a meeting held at the Tropicana Restaurant on Sunday, 28th October 2007, which was attended by about 35 community leaders, it was agreed that the day-long event will be held on 30th November 2007 at the Sultana Bowling Lanes with the usual Bowling Team Competition at the center of the fun games and team presentation.

Although the agreed scheduled date is too close, with barely a month of preparation, ASTEC accepted the challenge upon assurances by various community groups of financial, logistical, and moral support to the activity.

ASTEC has officially released invitation to various community groups, including those who were unable to attend the initial meeting, to participate in the forthcoming WOW PINOY 2007 activities.

Entry Fee per team (of 5 members) is set at SAR 300.00 minimum. Participating teams may provide extra financial support for prizes and give-away items. Mechanics of the tournament will be announced later.

The objective of the annual event is to provide venue for various community leaders to get acquainted with each other, through a day-long of fun games and entertainment.

ASTEC enjoins all community groups to cap the year-end with a worthwhile activity by joining the WOW PINOY 2007. For any inquiry on how to join and be a part of this joyful event, please contact the leaders of your community group or any of the following:

Bernie Soguilon (Astec Chairman) - 050 2925660 berniesoguilon@yahoo.com)
Gary Bautro (Astec Vice Chairman Finance) – 050 9724706 (bautro.gary@samaco.com.sa)
Jun Atienza (Astec Founding Chairman) - 055 7181472 (juna@elafgroup.com )
Francis Salud (Wow Pinoy) - 050 9383058 (f.salud@teamyr.com)

OLAGUER, BAMBILLA EMERGE CHAMPIONS

Manuel Bambilla underlined his supremacy in Category C by beating Ciganik 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the Singles and followed-up the win with partner Jan Heller the next day by trouncing Raul Paraguia/Noel Sarabillo, 6-1, 6-3 in the Doubles, to capture his second championship crown in the recently concluded 2007 AFTPA Independence Cup, at the Al Bilad tennis courts in Jeddah.

Jeck Olaguer joined Manuel Bambilla in double celebration, by knocking out top seed Maan Janoudy and Bong Agdame, 6-4, 7-5, wth partner Michael Marquez, in the B1-Doubles finals. Olaguer also captured the B1-Singles and overwhelmed Jojo Valencia in straight set, 6-3, 6-4.

COLAYCO FINANCIAL LITERACY SEMINAR

My thoughts about the recent Financial Literacy Seminar held at Ramada Hotel last two weeks ago.

First of all I must congratulate and thank the group that organized this seminar, particularly Benny Tadili, Kiel Erida, et al, as well as the sponsors. It was well-organized and has been very informative. I would have wanted more, but sitting for over 4 hours, well… it was rather long, but it wasn’t boring though.

I did not raise any question during the open forum because, as I said earlier, we had been there for well over 4 hours (from 7pm to past 11pm). I was already hungry, although snacks were provided during the break.

After listening to the nearly two-hour lecture of Investment Guru Mr. Francis Colayco, indeed the question that remains to be asked is “Where do we invest?”. Colayco extensively discussed his book (I forgot the title because I did not buy) and urged the OFWs to save… and save. I did not miss his point in saving 80/20, but it does seem to me that 80/20 too he was barking up the wrong tree. He was telling the over 200 OFWs who attended the seminar the importance, the virtues of saving, the benefits of which would be reaped 20 to 30 years thereafter!

What?! He was asking me to save and reap the benefits 20 to 30 years thereafter? I am now 55 (56 next month) years old and if I followed his advice I would have been 75 or 85 years (heaven forbid I am still alive by then), to see how my money grew! That’s why I said he was barking up the wrong tree – he should have lectured to the young ones back home who can digest the virtues of saving, and not to an audience of OFWs aged 40 and above, because most of these people, including myself were not interested to start saving the way he wanted us to do. He should be lecturing that to my daughter who’s 20 years old. I do not want to be lectured to start saving at this time, only to get the rewards 20 to 30 years from now. Kasabihan nga, live life and be merry for tomorrow you die! Ganun ba’yon? Aanhin ko ang savings ko when I can no longer enjoy the money saved kung 80 years old na ako?

80% of his discussion centered on the importance and techniques of saving and investing, which is, as he said, “there's nothing really new and original about the formula except that very few people are aware of what they should do.”

What I was waiting for him to say, and I’m sure most OFWs who attended the seminar wanted to know as well, was what to do with whatever money they have already saved or in hand. Many OFWs have done some savings already and whatever they already have and what to do with it is what interests them. The OFWs would like to hear the investment opportunities and not saving and spending tips. At our age this is not the time to be lectured about saving. This is the time to be lectured about what we can do on whatever meager resources we have, what we have so far saved – opportunities for investment and how to go about it.

I wanted to hear about the different investment schemes such as the various funds (forgive my ignorance) e.g. mutual funds, government bonds, etc., being offered by investment houses. I wanted to know those different types of funds - which ones are more or less safe, or which ones are risky. This was not tackled at length, but only when questions were asked during open forums. Thus, I left the seminar not more financially literate than I was before I attended.

However, prior to Colayco’s speech, there was the 10 to 15 minutes lecture by Armand Bengco about KsKSMP Cooperative which, to me, was more enlightening. It was a clear explanation and a more direct investment opportunity. I was more attentive to his presentation because it was a more or less concrete investment proposal, plain and simple, and easy to understand. If the purpose of the seminar is to get additional members to its KsKMP Coop, then it achieved its objective – I am going to apply for regular membership very soon!

Those who wish to join the coop please log-on at http://www.kskcoop.com or e-mail them kskcoop@colaycofundation.com .

B/B+ DOUBLES CHAMPION

In the Higher Mix-Doubles, the tandem of Dr. Ashraf Ibrahim and Nick Pabilonia survived a 1-3 first set deficit and rallied to 7-5 first set win over Mohsen Hafiz/Iftikar Ahmed. Hafiz/Ahmed fought back with a 6-3 victory in the second set, and forced a deciding set. At 4-4 in the deciding set, Ashraf/Pabilonia held off the pair with a break and never looked back in a stunning 6-4 victory, to seal victory and claim the Doubles Champion trophy in the Higher Mix category.

MIGS ZUBIRI AND MAGUINDANAO

As I Wreck This Chair
MIGZ ZUBIRI AND THE MAGUINDANAO BOVINE ORDURE
By William M. Esposo
ABS-CBN News
July 3, 2007

Juan Miguel Zubiri now seems to be infected with the same strain of libel suit virus that previously infected a controversial Jose Miguel we know.
In the race to clinch the 12th slot in the 2007 Senate race, he starts with the threat of a libel suit against rival Koko Pimentel, for allegedly insinuating that Zubiri was about to resort to cheating in order to win. Of course this did not even faze Pimentel whose family had already been subjected to even more severe challenges and pressure during the Marcos era.

Last Friday, Zubiri reacted to the stinging comment of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV who said (in reference to Zubiri) after his induction: “I would not want a cheat to join me in the Senate.”

“I believe that Congressman Zubiri knows deep in his heart that he benefited from cheating. If he is decent enough, he wouldn’t accept it [victory in the Senate race] because that is not something you want your kids to emulate.” Trillanes added.

Zubiri again raised his threat to file a libel suit, this time against Trillanes. “It is uncalled for…calling me a cheat.” He asserted.

“He is maligning my reputation. He is not immune from lawsuits. Even though he is an elected senator, he cannot go out in public and say [those words], Zubiri added.

Zubiri even had some digs at Trillanes: “He is a loose cannon. It shows his immaturity. He is not bringing it to the proper forum.”

From where I sit, wrecking another chair, I think that Migz Zubiri is peddling bovine ordure, the more polite term for bull shit. It’s bovine ordure because Zubiri is merely evading a big and serious public issue — the highly questionable Maguindanao vote. If he takes to filing libel suits as recourse to brush off the Maguindanao issue, then his strategy is way off the mark.

To begin with, does Migz Zubiri really think Senator Trillanes would feel threatened by his libel suit? Doing that to the man who is the same military officer who staged the Oakwood Mutiny and who continues to defy the hierarchy of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) is like spitting against an overpowering wind going your way. You will only end up splashing your own spit all over your face.

Zubiri can even ask AFP Chief General Hermogenes Esperon to send a full battalion of troops to coerce Trillanes and I doubt if that would even faze the senator from pursuing the senator’s plan to investigate the Maguindanao cheating. Without the expressed mandate of 11 million voters, Trillanes faced the entire senate and stood his ground. Without the expressed mandate of 11 million voters, Trillanes never licked ass or kowtowed in order to get an accommodation or leniency for his acts.

And now, does Zubiri think that Trillanes will be deterred from expressing his views about the Maguindanao vote — just because he was threatened with a libel suit? Bovine ordure, I tell you.

Message to Migz
The Maguindanao controversy is not going to go away because of your threat to file a libel suit, Migz Zubiri. And if by the grace of Ben Abalos and Lintang Bedol you manage to grab that 12th senate seat — rest assured that you’re not going to get away with it without the people of this country hounding you and pressing for a real accounting in due time.

Ben Abalos and Lintang Bedol may be able to win you this round Migz, but this will most likely cost you your political future. That is tragedy, not victory, Migz.

Of all those who are closely associated with Madame Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, many find you, Migz, the least repulsive. I’m talking from what many have told me and what I personally feel myself. You struck me as someone like our former Prime Minister Cesar Virata — a basically good man who happened to have been associated with Ferdinand Marcos.

Under a different time and circumstance, a lot of other people could have voted for you, Migz. But Madame Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and of course Garci have made this a difficult equation for anyone on the wrong side of history, the side you found yourself in.

Being with Arroyo in 2007 is like being with Hitler in Berlin on April 30, 1945 or with Mussolini on a lonely road called Mezzegra on April 28, 1945 — fatal association.

And one more thing Migz, please spare us the worst bovine ordure you can dish out when you say that you thank God and democracy for your victory. To Filipino Catholics, thanking God for the Maguindanao results would border on blasphemy. I don’t think the Pope will allow you to associate God with what happened in Maguindanao.

And for millions of Filipinos in this generation who fought Marcos in order to restore democracy in 1986, calling what happened in Maguindanao as the product of democracy is the ultimate insult.

BASEM JAWI CHAMPION IN B+ SINGLES

In a battle of power play, Basem Jawi (holding the trophy) swept Moshen Hafiz with authority in an impressive 6-3, 6-1 win, to take the B+ Singles crown in the recently concluded AFTPA-RP Independence Cup at Hotel Al Bilad tennis courts. (Others in the photo L-R, Gerry Nazaire-Vice Chairman, Erwin Pangan-Chairman, Reden Luangco-Tournament Director).

PARDON ME

There's The Rub
PARDON ME
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer
Last updated 01:08am (Mla time) 07/03/2007

Eduardo Ermita says his boss plans to give amnesty to all enemies of the state. The idea, originally conceived by the mind of Yoda -- or his look-alike, not his think-alike, Jose de Venecia -- has become full-blown in the mind of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. (I am using “mind” liberally.) It is part of the peace process that Arroyo is initiating in line with her desire to leave a legacy to the nation, says Ermita. It hews to the amnesty proclamations of Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos. “In due time, the amnesty proclamation will be considered by the President.”

That is all very well, except for one thing. Cory and Ramos were the presidents of the Republic of the Philippines; Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is not.

The question is not: Should Arroyo pardon Antonio Trillanes and Satur Ocampo’s friends in the hills? The question is: Should Juan de la Cruz pardon Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?

Largeness of spirit is not the concept that strikes you when Ermita talks about pardoning the enemies of the state on behalf of Arroyo. Presumption is. The image I get is that of Ferdinand Marcos doing exactly the same thing. The problem there is not just the word “enemies,” it is the word “state.” In Marcos’ time, the definition of the “enemies of the state” was the “enemies of Marcos,” the unholy equation being that Marcos was the state. Arroyo seems to believe that, too. It is a tyrant’s favorite conceit.

At least when Louis XIV proclaimed “L’etat c’est moi, (I am the state),” he was the rightful king. Marcos and Arroyo are merely errant -- and arrant -- pretenders.

What galled about Marcos’ notion of pardoning the “enemies of the state” was that he wasn’t even a legitimate instrument of the state, he merely seized the state with martial law. What galls about Arroyo’s notion of pardoning the “enemies of the state” is that she isn’t even a legitimate instrument of the state, she merely seized the state with “Hello Garci.” Marcos had no business pardoning anybody, Arroyo has no business pardoning anybody.

I grant Trillanes does need pardoning -- by a duly constituted authority. His crime precisely was rebelling against one. Arroyo was the duly constituted authority during the Oakwood mutiny, notwithstanding that the Joseph Estrada hordes refuse to accept that. The people had spoken against Estrada at the Edsa highway, in the same way that the voters spoke for Trillanes in the last elections. I recognized Arroyo as my president at the time. I might not have liked her, I might have distrusted her -- for crying out loud, and I say that to the people who eventually turned against her, wasn’t the ambition patent from the start? -- but I recognized her authority. I did not like Estrada either, but I recognized his authority when he was president. Both carried the mandate of the people.

Certainly, I diligently paid my taxes throughout that time. I refuse to pay my taxes after the “Hello Garci” tape, and truly mind it that they are exacted from me anyway in the form of withholding tax and value-added tax. I acknowledge my duty to pay taxes to a duly constituted authority. This government is not a duly constituted authority.

But to go back, Trillanes does need a pardon for his mutiny to fully put that past behind him. But the ones who mounted whatever they call it -- a coup, a withdrawal of support, another round of people power, a desperate frustrated attempt to get rid of someone who shouldn’t be there—after the “Hello Garci” tape, they do not need a pardon, they need a medal. Certainly, Francisco Gudani and Alexander Balutan do not need a pardon, they need a medal. Certainly, Danny Lim and Ariel Querubin do not need a pardon, they need their freedom. They did not mount a coup, they tried to end one.

The one who needs pardoning, though the least likely to get it, is not Trillanes, it is Arroyo. Trillanes merely tried to seize power with a mutiny, and though he might have been well intentioned, his means remains questionable. Arroyo did seize power with an atrocity -- “Hello Garci” is, by and of itself, a coup d’état, no more and no less than all the ones the RAM group attempted against Cory -- and there is no question about her intentions: they were selfish. “Hello Garci” is a lapse of judgment only in the same way that plagiarism is an oversight. They are nothing of the kind: the one is the ultimate crime of a president, the other of a writer.

Ermita’s stated reason for Arroyo’s plan to pardon the “enemies of the state” is to reconcile the warring factions and bring unity and peace to the land. Well, contrary to rumor or popular belief, Filipinos do not really have problems uniting. Not when confronted by a common threat. We had no problem uniting against Marcos, and we had no problem uniting against Estrada. As the last elections show, or indeed as the popularity of the rebellions, or the figures associated with those rebellions, show, we have no problem as well uniting against Gloria.

Nor do we have any problem reconciling with one another. We simply have problems reconciling ourselves with illegitimacy, whether as the product of a union with the sacrament of marriage, or as the product of the occupation of office without the sacrament of the vote. She did get it the first time around, during Rizal Day, when she vowed not to run: Let us all do as Rizal did, and think of the nation first before self. She follows her advice and leaves, and overnight this country will be more united than anything glued by epoxy, and peace and harmony will swiftly descend upon the land.

The question is not: Should Arroyo pardon the “enemies of the state”? The question is: Should Juan de la Cruz pardon Arroyo?

Well, as Jaime Cardinal Sin used to say during Cory’s time, pardon is contingent on contrition and penitence. You are not contrite or penitent when you say, “I … am … sorry,” and punish yourself by having more and more power.

JIS TENNIS & BADMINTON COURTS

Hi guys! I hope you forgive me for messing your tennis careers with newspaper articles that have nothing to do with our tennis activities here in Jeddah. These are just temporary postings while we have so far nothing much to discuss about tennis other than the invitations already forwarded by ASTEC to all tennis clubs regarding the forthcoming 13th ASTEC Team Tennis Tournament which will commence on 27th July 2007. But I guess these articles by well-known newspaper columnists are worth reading, if only to know what is currently going on back home. You may comment freely on the articles though.

There is one bit of important information though about tennis - the newly-constructed JIS (Jeddah International School) tennis court facilities. My brother Loy invited me to play badminton with him last Thursday and I said, "Why not?" and we went to JIS. There are 2 new tennis courts and 2 badminton courts. Initial impression is - the courts are Good but I notice that additional lightings are needed at the middle (the area that separates the 2 courts) as it seems dark in that area. The back courts on both sides are rather short (it seems as I look from afar) and tennis player might have difficulty getting the ball when it is 'lobed', especially pag ako ang nag-lobo (hehehe!) it bounces high and you have no place to step back farther.

I had no chance to play though and test it, so I may be wrong, dahil maraming waiting to play. I will try to play in this court one day and see for myself. I do not know if my information is right, the facilities are being managed by JIS Top Seed Tennis Club? Okay, book na kayo during week-days dahil pag Thursday/Friday daw ay maraming naka-book. I still don't know how much per hour.

Try also their badminton courts. I think it is better than the other badminton courts I have seen, although there are only 2 badminton courts there.

Okay for now. Post your comments if you have any.

IT'S UP TO THE SUPREMES

The Long View
IT'S UP TO THE SUPREMES
By Manuel L. Quezon III
InquirerLast updated 02:50am (Mla time) 06/28/2007

Team Unity started it. When its spokesman Tonypet Albano (who seems to have disappeared) boasted that the administration senatorial slate obtained 12-0 in the province, he never produced any proof. The only proof was the say-so of provincial officials, which is no proof at all. The proof should have consisted of papers, but neither he nor the provincial leaders waved them around, though they were entitled to copies.

How could they? Lintang Bedol says the documents were stolen. Including the copies of election results that the law says should be given to electoral watchdogs. Ask the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections. Ask the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting. So they can’t say, one way or another, if any other set of documents being, belatedly, waved around by officials are genuine or not. Yet the law mandates that they be given copies, precisely to provide a means to determine whether or not the election results have a basis in fact and weren’t manufactured.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman himself said the claims of a 12-0 sweep were “statistically improbable,” the improbability being based on 19 senatorial candidates getting no votes at all in all of the province’s 22 municipalities. As a former judge, Benjamin Abalos knows that making such an observation in public has legal consequences: the Supreme Court, for one, can take judicial notice of the statement. Abalos’ observation leaves the door wide open for the application of the Lagumbay Doctrine, which says that when the number of registered voters does not match the community’s voting population, the votes should be invalidated. Candidates not getting any votes at all might be another kind of statistical improbability to which the doctrine could be applied.

One observer has noted that the Comelec, in the past, was told by the Supreme Court that where fraud is so palpable from the election return itself -- that is, "res ipsa loquitur" [the thing speaks for itself] -- the poll body can determine if a statistical improbability took place.

This brings us back to Bedol, the missing election documents, and the other set of documents the Comelec says it recovered. What were stolen from Bedol were the provincial certificate of canvass and the first copies of the Municipal Certificates of Canvass (MCOCs). What the Comelec gathered were the second copies of the MCOCs, or the ones pasted on the wall. But the provincial COC remains lost and the MCOCs belatedly brought forward can’t be compared to any provincial COC or the watchdog documents -- or copies for the political parties -- which have never been provided, because they disappeared. This situation speaks for itself.

So now, the second copy of the MCOCs are being tabulated by the Special Board of Canvassers convened in Maguindanao province. The board is taking on the role that would normally be played by the Provincial Board of Canvassers, which would then submit a report to the National Board of Canvassers in Manila. But why a special board is substituting for the provincial board and on the basis of what authority are juicy questions themselves.

Meanwhile, in Maguindanao, for every objection made, the special board has been saying: Sorry, we’re only here to add things up; take your questions to the national board in Manila. They’re counting fast, so they can produce a report, which will say: based on the documents (which we did not look into, in terms of their contents, because your honors from Manila said they looked OK, and it is not up to us to figure out on what basis you said so), the following candidates got such-and-such votes in Maguindanao.

The Comelec, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers in Manila, in the meantime, is anxiously watching the clock. They have a deadline to meet, which is the beginning of the term of the newly elected senators on June 30. By that date, the Comelec can say that based on past precedents, it needs to proclaim all the senators-elect.

No time to make its own determination, it can say. It can then accept the report of the Maguindanao special board, and say: Let these results be added to the national total, and based on the national total, let us fill the final vacancy in the Senate. Any objections? The Comelec can say: Sorry, but this is not the proper forum. Republic Act 7166, the Synchronized Elections Act, says that for senators, “no pre-proclamation cases shall be allowed on matters relating to the preparation, transmission, receipt, custody and appreciation of the election returns or the certificates of canvass, as the case may be.”

But the Comelec had every chance, and all the necessary authority, to do the counting and appreciation of documents conscientiously. But sorry, the clock’s ticking. We shall proclaim now, everyone can sort it out later. The special board said it couldn’t attend to questions or objections? Neither can we, because we have to meet the deadline, and proclaim someone, anyone, under whatever circumstances, suspicious or not, the 12th senator-elect for 2007. Blame it on Bedol. Blame it on our special board. Blame the people of Maguindanao. Pontius Pilate would have been proud. Gotcha! Pass the hot potato and let it land on the Senate Electoral Tribunal’s lap!

As Ferdinand Marcos loved to say, “Aw, c’mon.” The Supreme Court can’t permit itself to be led around by the nose like this.

The Supreme Court spokesman urged the Comelec not to make any appeal “moot and academic” until it hears both sides. But if the national board, upon receipt of the special provincial board’s report, accepts it, and makes a proclamation -- to meet the June 30 start of term -- the Court would have been outfoxed by a Comelec eager to wash its hands of a mess of its own making.

The people of Maguindanao deserve better. The public deserves better. Fair play requires a Supreme Court temporary restraining order on the Maguindanao proceedings.

Now.

LAW-KOHAN

There's The Rub
'LAW-KOHAN'
'By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer
Last updated 02:06am (Mla time) 06/26/2007

Juan Ponce Enrile wears the sternly benign face of law. The Senate can sign all the petitions it wants, he says, but in the end Antonio Trillanes’ fate rests on the courts, not on them. “We are dealing with the separation of powers. When the court says no, there is nothing you can do about it.”

His twin sister, Miriam Santiago, goes further. Trillanes’ case, she says, is just like Romeo Jalosjos’. Jalosjos ran for public office and won but remained in jail. His victory was soon voided. “Just because a prisoner has won as senator does not mean that she should be free to attend Senate sessions. That would be a violation of the equal protection clause of the Constitution.”

That is all very well, except for several things.

First is that Ponce Enrile should be saying those things. Lest we forget, he was an architect of martial law and was Ferdinand Marcos’ chief legal expert in that wise, or witlessness. Marcos, being a lawyer himself, was near-obsessed with finding a legal justification for his illegal usurpation of power and its murderous consequences, and employed a battery of lawyers, Enrile among them, for the purpose. He built an order dedicated to fomenting lawlessness by means of law. You see Enrile suddenly discovering the majesty of law, you can be sure it will be a travesty of justice.

Second is that it is not true at all that the courts of this country, probably with the sole, though luminous, exception of the Supreme Court, and only as shown by its recent pronouncements, are independent or constitute a bastion of the separation of powers. The courts insist on keeping Trillanes in the stockade, it will not be a sign of their dogged grit, it will be a sign of their slinking cowardice. It will not be a sign that they will not cave in to pressure, it will be a sign they have long given in to pleasure.

The one thing Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s courts understand is not the force of law but the law of force. Look at those courts’ determined efforts -- with Ronaldo Puno flailing at them with a whip like a coachman does his horses -- to oust a duly elected mayor in the form of Jojo Binay on grounds of corruption. Or look at those courts’ determined efforts to jail Satur Ocampo, or send him to Leyte province, whichever comes first or produces the worse result, on grounds of having morally blessed, if not actually participated in, the massacre of comrades there.

For some reason, neither the courts nor Congress have demanded the ouster or jailing of an unelected president who has turned the country into the most corrupt in Asia. For those two crimes, the courts and Congress have ruled to punish her by making her the longest-serving post-Edsa People Power president. For some reason as well, neither the courts nor Congress have demanded the damnation or casting to hell of Norberto Gonzales and Jovito Palparan and their boss who, even as they were accusing Ocampo of a specious crime, were decimating this country’s tribe of journalists and political activists. Forget morally blessed, their hand in it is direct and patent.

Respect the judgment of the Gloria courts in the case of Trillanes? Only in the same way we should have respected the judgment of the Macoy courts in the case of Ninoy. What’s that grand phrase Miriam used, “equal protection clause of the Constitution”? Well, to paraphrase Imelda, some are more equal than others.

Third is that Trillanes’ case is not like Jalosjos’. Jalosjos’ sin is criminal, Trillanes’ is political. Jalosjos was accused and convicted of rape, and of a minor at that. However you slice it, however the public itself rules about Jalosjos’ qualifications to serve as public official, you cannot remove that blot on his person. By any moral standard, he remains despicable and deserves to rot in jail.

Trillanes was accused and convicted of mounting a coup against Arroyo. By all moral standards, other than the ones people like Enrile and Miriam discover when convenient, that is not a crime, that is a service to the nation. That does not deserve jail, that deserves a medal. That is not beyond the pale of the people, the ultimate arbiter of law and justice in a democracy, to set aright.

If trying to overthrow a government automatically deserves jail, then neither Enrile nor Miriam should be enjoying the fruits of freedom and afflicting us with their notions of law. Enrile was one of those who rebelled against Marcos, though unlike Trillanes who openly defied authority, he simply holed up in Camp Aguinaldo after being discovered to be plotting against his former patron. And Miriam was one of those who openly called for the mob during the so-called Edsa III to “sugod, sugod” ["attack, attack"] Malacañang after her former patron, ravisher of the nation but lavisher of largesse to friends, was ousted by an act of people power. In fact, she openly defied the efforts to arrest her, putting a gun on a table in front of the cameras and daring the law enforcers -- a monumental misnomer, “law” and “enforcer” -- to haul her ass away.

“Equal protection of the Constitution”? Well, if only by the law that heaven is kind to fools and drunks, Miriam should remain free to torment this country. Some people are more brain-damaged than others. Some nations are, too.
But in the end, I don’t mind if they keep Trillanes in jail. Because if the open disgust of the Armed Forces rank-and-file at their superiors, as shown by their defiance of orders to not make Trillanes win, and the open support of the people for Malacañang’s scourge, as shown by their shoving a well-known coup plotter into the Senate, are anything to go by, Enrile, Miriam and their boss may yet know law in all its thunderous righteousness before very long.

Keep him in jail, and this country may yet know freedom.

13th ASTEC TEAM TENNIS CUP 2007

After 3 months break in team tennis competition, ASTEC will officially announce today that it will hold its 13th Team Tennis event from July 27 to September 7, 2007 at the tennis court facilities of Hotel Al Bilad and Sheraton Hotel.

In the regular Categories "C", "B2", and "B1", there will be 3 Doubles and 2 Singles alternating (e.g. Doubles/Singles/Double/Singles/Doubles), while in the Lower Mix and Higher Mix there will be the usual 5 Doubles.

In the Lower Mix there will be 5 C/B2 Doubles while in the Higher Mix the composition of 5 Doubles is B1/B1, B1/B, B/B+, B+/A2, B1/B1.

The Ladies Team event will be handled by Boy Urquia and mechanics will be announced.

Invitation letters to all Clubs, together with Entry Forms, will be issued later today.

You may please contact the following ASTEC Officers for any further information:

Bernie Soguilon - 050 2925660
Francis Idjao - 050 3369727
Gary Bautro - 050 9724706
Jun Atienza - 050 7181472
Boy Urquia - 050 2784782

LOST

The Long View
LOST
By Manuel L. Quezon III
InquirerLast updated 02:29am (Mla time) 06/21/2007

In the province of Papa-oom-maw-maw, a demonstration of the New Math™ (and other adventures in learning).

“This meeting will come to order. Commissioner Dagdag?”
“Present!”

“Commissioner Bawas?”
“Ready for duty, Chairman Ayos!”

“Commissioner Gapang?”
“Here, ready and willing!”

“Very good. So, we are all present and accounting for.”
“Excuse me, Chairman Ayos…”

“What is it, Commissioner Dagdag?”
“You mean, ‘present and accounted for,’ because ‘accounting for’ might be, you know, heh-heh…”

“Ah. Hee hee. True. Very well. Gentlemen, we are here to conduct a special investigation to find out what happened to the numbers in the province of Papa-oom-maw-maw. We cannot declaim, I mean retain, I mean sustain, I mean—”

“Sir, victory for Zooberry!”

“Yes. Which requires numbers. Commissioners Dagdag and Bawas, can you tell us why we have no numbers?”
“Actually, sir, numbers were produced, it’s just that witnesses came forward to say the numbers were invented.”
“Invented? How?”

“Secret!”

“Oh, of course. But so, what happened with the witnesses?”

“Sir, do you see any witnesses? Anywhere?”

“I guess not. But -- oh! Hee hee. So what’s the problem?”

“Chairman, you said we should declare a failure of counting here in Papa-oom-maw-maw, but then it turned out the numbers were OK.”

“They are?”

“Except, we have a problem. You see, the numbers -- they’re sort of missing.”

“Missing? But I thought it was the witnesses who -- ”

“Never mind them, sir, it’s the numbers. They’re … lost!”

“Where were they last seen?”

“In Mr. Betel’s office. But Betel has kind of gone … nuts.”

“Betel? Nuts? Explain!”

“Well, perhaps, Mr. Chairman, we should ask him?”

“Very well. Call in Mr. Betel.”

“Hi po.”

“Mr. Betel, do you swear that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?”

“Maybe po.”

“Good enough. So, tell us, where are the numbers?”

“Lost po.”

“Lost? How?”

“Actually, stolen po.”

“Stolen? How?”

“Well, really, eaten po.”

“Eaten?”

“Kasi po, my dog ate the numbers and then someone stole my dog. It’s true po.”

“Oh. How terrible. And where’s your dog?”

“Missing na nga, po.”

“Ah. And, uh, what is that beside you?”

“Oh? That? My cat, po.”

“Why is it barking?”

“I don’t know po.”

“Ah. Curious. Thank you for your testimony.”

“Bye, po.”

“Well gentlemen, it seems the numbers (or the dog, or both) were eaten! What do we do?”

“Chairman Ayos, I move that we find substitute numbers.”

“Commissioner Bawas moves that we look for new numbers. Produce the new numbers!”

“Sir, we have to find the new numbers first.”

“Oh. Is that difficult?”

“Not really, Sir. Let us apply the Advanced New Math™.”

“I like that! Tell me how we can do that, Commissioner Gapang.”

“Well, sir, we have two sets of relevant numbers. The Zooberry numbers, and the Pimple numbers. Applying the Theory of Glorious Relativity, we know that where A=Zooberry and B=Pimple and C=Population, then A=C-B squared, where A is always 12 times C.”

“Huh?”

“That’s why it’s advanced New Math™, Chairman. Leave it to Commissioners Dagdag and Bawas to compute.”

“No, no, I’m a pro. Hmmm. We know there are 3,000,000 people in Papa-oom-maw-maw, then we already know Zooberry, I mean, A, equals 36,000,000 numbers!”

“Well, no sir, that’s too extreme. A equals 3,000,000 minus 5 squared, or 25 (that’s the number for Pimple, or B), where A, or Zooberry, always equals 12 times 3,000,000 or C. So, 36 million.”

“That’s what I said!”

“But, sir, you see, it’s the process that matters.”

“Ah! Of course! We must always uphold the numbers process!”

“Exactly, Chairman Ayos. So now that we know the results, we can work backwards and rediscover the numbers!”

“And that is why we’re here, yes?”

“Yes, sir. Oh, by the way, sir, what’s that under your chair?”

“Where? Here? Oh! Look! Numbers!”

(Chorus) “Wow! Plenty of numbers!”

“My God, amazing! Let me see… 1… 2… 7… 11… 36… 954… 10 million… 20 million… 29 million and a half… why, 36 million numbers! Imagine that! All for… Zooberry!”

(Chorus) “A miracle!”

“No! It’s the triumph of New Math™!”

(Chorus) “Amen!”

AFTPA INDEPENDENCE CUP OPENING DAY

AFTPA OFFICERS and participating players in the AFTPA RP Independence Cup, with Erwin Pangan, AFTPA Chairman, and Bob Wilson, Al Bilad Hotel Recreation Manager, during Opening Day ceremonies.

AFTPA INDEPENDENCE CUP

PARTICIPATING B1 PLAYERS.
Semi-Finalists: Jun Miguel, Dr. Talaat Hussein
Finalist: Jojo Valencia; CHAMPION - JECK OLAGUER

AFTPA INDEPENDENCE CUP

Quarter-Finalists in B2 Singles before the start of their games, with Reden Luangco AFTPA Tournament Director.

B2 Singles Semi-Finalists: Salah Labib and Asad Ansari

B2 Singles Finalist: Ricky Mediavillo

B2 Singles CHAMPION: Abdullah Abdullah

MY PERSONAL REVENGE

There's The Rub
MY PERSONAL REVENGE
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer
Last updated 02:17am (Mla time) 06/20/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Jackson Browne has a song I particularly like. It was originally written by Tomas Borge, a Sandinista who was blindfolded and tortured for 18 months in Somoza’s jails and whose wife was gang-raped by soldiers. The song is called “My Personal Revenge.” Some parts of it (translation by Jose Calderon) give you an idea of where he is going:

“My personal revenge will be the right/ Of our children in the schools and in the gardens…/ My personal revenge will be to tell you good morning/ On a street without beggars or homeless/ When instead of jailing you I suggest/ You shake away the sadness there that blinds you/ And when you who have applied your hands in torture/ Are unable to look up at what surrounds you/ My personal revenge will be to give you/ These hands that once you so mistreated/ But have failed to take away their tenderness.”

It’s an astounding concept of a “personal” revenge, given the depths of bitterness the author must have felt over the ordeal he had to endure. But it’s not just the awesome Christian turning-the-other-cheek that makes it wondrous. It is also that, completely practically, or pragmatically, or politically, it is the only complete and satisfying revenge there is. The only way to punish a tyrant who has oppressed a land is to regale him with a land freed from oppression and a people enjoying peace and prosperity. That is driving a stake into the heart of Dracula.

The only personal revenge against a tyrant that works is the personal revenge that becomes the national revenge. There is no other. Torturing a tyrant, or worse oppressing the country, in turn, is trying to kill Dracula with darkness.
I first used this concept during Cory Aquino’s time. I said then that the reason the country was having problems punishing, or even prosecuting, the Marcoses and their cronies -- indeed the reason the cronies came back with impunity -- was that the personal revenge exacted by those that came after them was, well, too personal. The personal revenge of the Cory government against the Marcoses was to steal back what the Marcoses had stolen from the people. The personal revenge of the Cory government against the Marcoses was to regale them with a land that did not teem with milk and honey but with blood and vigilantes.

The only way you can punish a tyrant is with the people’s anger. It takes an aggrieved nation to prosecute a tyrant, not a handful of selfish individuals with scores to settle. What enabled the Marcoses to come back was not the lack of a case or cases against them, it was the waning of public interest in prosecuting them. It is not easy to be angry at an old tyranny, or even remember it, when you are in the throes of a new one.
What was true then is truer today. To begin with, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had no reason to be bitter at the Joseph Estrada government. Unlike Cory, she never personally suffered in its hands; she even profited from it. She never had cause to harbor a grudge that she needed to subsume under, or fuse with, the national one. By rights, in complete gratefulness to those who had risked life and limb to put her in power, indeed to give back to a nation that had given so much to her, she had the obligation to inflict the kind of “personal revenge” Borge speaks of, forcing the former rulers to recoil in pain from the laughter of children wafting from schools and gardens and the sight of streets bereft of whores and beggars.

She did not. She foisted a worse tyranny than the one she found.

The reason for these perorations is that I find myself no longer assailed by the prospect of Estrada being released from jail. I was one of those who assailed him for his corruption, which went beyond the theft of money to the theft of morals, particularly given the shape, form and appearance of the Midnight Cabinet, as ugly a collection of goons and villains as the ones that graced Estrada’s own movies. I was the first to call for him to be impeached, when he closed down the Manila Times and called for an ad boycott of the Inquirer, long before the idea percolated in the minds of Manny Villar and his fellow congressmen. And I was one of those who rejoiced when he was jailed for malfeasance, imagining that a new day, gray and overcast that it was, had dawned.

I still believe that crime may not be made to pay. I still believe that two wrongs do not make a right, and that “if everybody cheats anyway,” as some bishops say, that is not an excuse for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to rule, that is an imperative for all cheaters to go to jail. But there’s something to be said as well for selective justice.

Estrada may have robbed, but he did not make this country the most corrupt in Asia. Arroyo has. Estrada may have stolen morals along with money, wrecking this country’s concept of right and wrong, but he did not break this country’s spirit completely, making right wrong and wrong right, punishing good and rewarding evil. Arroyo has. Indeed, Estrada may have pillaged and pillaged big, but he did not steal the most valuable of the citizen’s possessions, which is his vote, and the most precious of any human being’s property, which is his life. Arroyo has.
For Estrada to continue to languish in jail for his sins is for a pauper to rot in a pit for stealing a loaf of bread while a politician enjoys the fruits of his plunder. I grant Estrada is not a pauper and what he stole is not a loaf of bread, not in absolute terms. But he is so compared to the height and depth, the length and breadth, of what Arroyo has done, a ransacking not just of this country’s material wealth but of its human essence. No, these days I do not find myself assailed by the thought that Estrada would be free to reunite with his harem.

I’ll just wait for the day when we may exact our personal revenge on the one that has deeply wronged us.

INDEPENDENCE DAY - A WORKING HOLIDAY

There's The Rub
Independence
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer
Last updated 01:58am (Mla time) 06/14/2007

Emilio Aguinaldo waved the flag in Kawit, Cavite, in defiance of tyranny 109 years ago. His great-grandson, Emilio Aguinaldo Suntay III, waved the flag in Baguio City in defiance of insanity 109 years later. If Suntay should remain steadfast to his nationalist convictions, he may yet add more than genealogical meanings to the “great” in “great-grandson.”

Suntay’s beef was with Arroyo’s sacrilege of declaring June 12 a “working holiday.” He asked all freedom-loving Filipinos to defy the order to work. He invoked the authority of one particular person for it. It was not his great-grandfather, it was Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s not very great father. Diosdado Macapagal himself had defied the traditional observance of Philippine Independence on July 4, which was when the United States granted independence to its colony 61 years ago, when he moved it to June 12, which was when the Filipino revolutionaries proclaimed it.

Suntay said he was alarmed that Arroyo’s decision to “reduce the relevance of Philippine independence to support an economic theory” did not spark outrage among the public. Patriotism and not tourism, he said, was the key to solving many of this country’s problems. “If you love your country, you wouldn’t harm it. I submit that patriotism is the missing ingredient to our lost opportunities.”

The part about why a sacrilege like this doesn’t spark outrage among the public shows only the tragedy of this country. It is the clearest indication of the Filipinos’ transformation from a race of lions to a race of sheep, from a race of titans to a race of dwarves (notwithstanding that Emilio Aguinaldo and Arroyo probably have the same height), from a race of freedom-loving heroes to a race of chain-loving cowards.

The public isn’t outraged by June 12 being turned into an ordinary, wretched, bedraggled day in the life of Juan de la Cruz? The public isn’t even outraged that the very life of Juan de la Cruz, in the heroic figures of Jonas Burgos and Musa Dimasidsing, is taken out of him. The murder of the latter is mind-bogglingly outrageous. Why this government’s officials, not least the commissioners of the Commission on Elections, are not even now quaking in their boots from the prospect of being torn limb from limb by an angry mob, only we can say.

Holidays are not unlike laws: They can be enforced only to the extent that the public holds them sacred. A law the public cares little for will not be obeyed, a holiday a public cares little for will not be observed. Take the Fourth of July in America. For all his stupidity (his audacity stems from it), George W. Bush will never think to declare that a working holiday. The American public will find it easier to declare their independence from him, or his independence from the White House, not to speak of this world. The same is true of Christmas Day in this country. Try declaring December 25 a working holiday if it falls on a Tuesday or Thursday. Filipinos will find it a lot easier to have Christmas with Arroyo on a permanent holiday.

That Arroyo feels free to trifle with Independence Day doesn’t just show her contempt for anything that can’t be translated into money or power. Though there’s that too: If she can think nothing of trifling with human life, she can think nothing of trifling with human freedom. It shows as well our contempt for what can’t be translated into food and survival. The reason Arroyo can declare with impunity June 12 a working holiday is that it holds little meaning for us. Asking us to forget independence is just like asking us to forget “Hello Garci.” She knows we are not going to be duly, or unduly, incensed by it.

That is our tragedy. Because Suntay is dead right (emphasis, alas, on dead) when he says that lack of patriotism has cost us a host of opportunities. In fact, it has cost us everything, probably including our future. It’s not just that a country, like a man, doesn’t live by bread alone, it is that love of country is bread itself, or the inexhaustible source of it.
I myself have said it again and again: Our leaders keep looking at other countries, wondering whether it’s democracy or authoritarianism, capitalism or socialism that has worked for them. They overlook the one thing all our Asian neighbors have, whatever government they have, whatever political proclivities their leaders have, and that is a sense of country, if not a passion for it. That is what they have and we do not.

Other Asian countries may have tyrants and crooks, but they have patriotic tyrants and crooks. Suharto stole more than Ferdinand Marcos -- $35 billion to Marcos’ $15 billion, if Transparency International is to be believed. (We have two of the top 10 crooks, Marcos and Joseph Estrada, in 2nd and 10th; we should have a third soon, probably at 3rd, unless she gets to rule as long as Marcos did). But with a huge difference: Suharto kept the money in Indonesia, Marcos (and his successors) stashed their loot abroad. Suharto’s dirty money is keeping Indonesians employed, Marcos’ (and his successors’) disappeared money is driving Filipinos abroad.

Suntay is dead right (alas, again, emphasis on dead) when he says that if you love your country, you won’t think to harm it. If you’ll be living in this country for the rest of your life, and your children and children’s children with you, you’ll want to safeguard it. If you’ll be living in America at the end of the day, and your children’s and children’s children with you, you’ll think nothing of despoiling it. If you think of this country like the family you love, you’ll want to protect it. If you think of this country like a stranger you don’t know, you won’t mind screwing it.

Or, well, maybe if you think of this country as the family you hate for treating you like an outcast child, you’ll want to spite it.

But that’s another story.

BELITTLING THE OFWs

From: picpawr@yahoogroups.com On Behalf Of Francis OcaSent: Saturday, June 09, 2007 11:53 PM

To: OFW Congress Middle East

Belittling the Overseas Filipinos

During the last couple of weeks, we have witnessed the strengthening of the peso against the dollar. Whether this strengthening is real or artificial does not matter. The fact is that the pesos’ strengthening has adversely affected the Overseas Filipinos and their families.

In school we were taught that a strong peso means higher purchasing power. In layman’s term it simply means that with a strong peso we should be able to buy more goods and services. If that statement is true, the decrease in the dollar’s exchange rate should therefore not worry the families of Overseas Filipinos in the Philippines since the decrease will be cancelled out by an equivalent decrease in the prices of goods and services.

However the laws of economics do not seem to apply in the Philippines. While the government has continuously announced that the economy is improving, this is not being felt at all by the consumer sector. In fact, instead of prices going down, prices of prime commodities continue to rise. The failure of the ‘strong peso’ to provide better purchasing power has caused a double edged problem to the Overseas Filipinos and their families.

To maintain the present peso equivalent of their dollar remittances, Overseas Filipinos have to tighten their belts to be able to remit more dollars to their families back home. In the Philippines, the families of Overseas Filipinos also have to tighten their belts to make the best of what they received from family members abroad.

But to Secretary Neri, Overseas Filipinos should even be thankful because they are not being taxed anyway, obviously referring to the aborted plan to tax the Overseas Filipinos’ income. To him it is more important for government to provide a peso-dollar protection for the Filipino exporters because their peso earnings are getting smaller, unlike the overseas Filipinos whose remittances are, according to him, getting higher due to better quality jobs they land into. Neri sees the diminishing income of the export sector, but his eyes are closed to the Overseas Filipinos’ dilemma. He thinks that the remittances are getting higher because Overseas Filipinos get higher pay for better jobs, but fails to see that Overseas Filipinos have to send more dollars to maintain the peso equivalent of what families back home are receiving.

I wonder what could be the reason why it is too easy for cabinet members like Neri to belittle us Overseas Filipinos. They are aware that there are millions of us spread all over the globe; they know that if we want we can bring down the economy, and make the government officials fall to their knees; they know that if we cut our remittances by half for three consecutive months we can bring back the exchange rate to 56 pesos to the dollar or even higher and make the members of the Makati Business Club cry; they know that at any point in time we can make or break a sitting President. Yet why are they so brave to give us so little importance, if any?

My history teacher in high school once told us that there is power in numbers. I believe him because I have seen it worked in several occasions, most recent of which are the two impeachment cases filed against GMA. Those two cases did not prosper because the opposition in the lower house did not have the number of votes needed.

How about us Overseas Filipinos, do we have the strength in number that would make Malacanang tremble? The latest estimate places the number of Overseas Filipinos to about eight million. If on the average there are three voting members in each Overseas Filipino family, the eight million will easily translate to twenty four million votes - enough to send a presidential candidate to Malacanang. Do we have the number? The answer of course is yes. Yes we have the number, but we do not have the strength!

I know it is sad to admit that while we Overseas Filipinos have all the power in our hands, we have not been able to use it. The reason is because up to now, we are still so disorganized; we are just like broomsticks scattered on the floor – sometimes stepped on, sometimes kicked to the corners, sometimes picked up and broken into pieces. And for as long as we remain scattered, the high and mighty, the Neris and his kind, will continue to step on us, kick us to the corners, or even break us into pieces. I can only hope and pray, that one day one of those kicks will be strong enough to awaken the sleeping giant in us.

HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE TRILLANES?

THERE'S THE RUB

How do you solve a problem like Trillanes?
By Conrado de QuirosInquirer

Last updated 01:52am (Mla time) 06/11/2007
MANILA, Philippines –

Somebody passed on to me a most interesting document. It comes from the Civil Relations Service of the AFP. It is signed by Brig. Gen. Nestor R. Sadiarin and addressed to the AFP chief of staff.

It says on its front page: "This is in reference to a survey that is being conducted by the CRSAFP among military officers to gauge their perception regarding the outcome of the recent elections specifically to clarify why former Lt. Antonio Trillanes garnered sufficient votes to gain a spot in the Magic 12 of senatoriables in the current counting, despite the charges he is facing.

"In this regard, please extend assistance to our survey team who will be conducting the survey proper among the officers of your command."

The survey questions follow in the next couple of pages, printed on long bond paper, to be answered by ticking off one of the boxes, Strongly Agree, Agree, Unsure, Disagree, Strongly Disagree. The questions themselves, independently of how they are answered, are vastly revealing of the concerns, or fears, of the top brass and deserve to be laid out in full. They are:
"1. In the May 2007 elections, it is possible that many personnel, active or retired, have also supported the candidacy of ex-Lt. Trillanes. 2. Voters have cast their votes for Trillanes to openly express their disappointment with the present national leadership. 3. The votes cast in favor of ex-Lt. Trillanes reflect the people's trust in his competence for good governance. 4. Within the military organization, a Trillanes vote indicates a compelling desire for change in the military/defense establishment. 5. Within the AFP, a Trillanes vote implies defiance of the AFP top brass.
"6. I perceive ex-Lt. Trillanes, who is a military man, to have limited knowledge of governance. 7. Trillanes is successful in his senatorial bid because of the public's dissatisfaction with the military/defense leadership. 8. Ex-Lt. Antonio Trillanes definitely provides strong leadership. 9. Many have supported Trillanes' candidacy because he represents reform in the Armed Forces. 10. The concerns of the soldiers will be better represented when Trillanes becomes senator.

"11. Ex-Lt. Trillanes should be released on bail by the time he sits as senator. 12. Ex-Lt. Trillanes should have waited for the conclusion of the charges against him before running for public office. 13. Coming from the military organization, ex-Lt. Trillanes can bring forth significant changes for the AFP should he get elected. 14. Ex-Lt. Trillanes wants to be in power so he cannot be made accountable for his fault in the Oakwood event. 15. I believe that ex-Lt. Trillanes is supported by politicians who want a divided AFP.

"16. The votes that ex-Lt. Trillanes got are expressions of the public's diminished confidence in the military organization. 17. The support that Trillanes got represents a silent approval that agrees with extra-constitutional resort to achieve organizational change. 18. If this country requires radical alternatives such as ... a coup d'etat to achieve reforms, then so be it. 19. Voluntarily, ex-Lt. Trillanes could have forged an alliance with the Left for his senatorial candidacy. 20. Left-leaning groups have supported Trillanes because they saw in him a rallying point to promote their cause."

Of course I'd like nothing better than to know the results of this survey. But quite apart from that, the survey by itself already says the most curious things about the state of this country's armed forces today. It's enough to make you think that Trillanes' success in this election quite possibly qualifies as its most important aspect. It has the most far-reaching consequences of all, not just for the future of the military but for the future of the country as well.
At the very least, as someone pointed out to me, what this survey suggests is that, contrary to Hermogenes Esperon and company's earlier press release that they would not mess around with the election but would keep the military neutral, they have messed around with it and tried to make the military partisan. Not the least by throwing all sorts of obstacles in one candidate Trillanes' path.

Someone told me that what happened was that the top brass guaranteed Malacañang a command vote of 50,000, ordering the rank-and-file to register en masse and vote for the administration ticket. Alas—for them—the rank-and-file did register but voted opposition. Indeed, they voted for the one person they had been told not to, making Trillanes their No. 1 choice. But even if you take that story with a grain of salt, the survey by itself is proof of the utter astonishment, if not profound chagrin, of those who tried to make sure their worst nightmare would not happen. You would not make that survey if things went well within your range of expectations.
Will it show the true sentiment of the armed forces?

Somebody told me that he worried many respondents might not answer truthfully given that the survey also asked them to identify their rank, branch and assignment, which would pretty much identify them. For all they know, this could be a ploy to ferret out the malcontents, or their leaders.

I myself suspect the people who made this survey are primarily intent on getting a true picture of the sentiment of the rank-and-file. Its whole tenor suggests a desperation to know so. It gives you a sense of people who have been unnerved by violently thwarted expectations and who have begun to wonder if they are basing their judgment on the wrong premises. It is a demand to know what happened. It is a demand to know what is happening.
It is a need to know if they are still in control. (To be concluded)

THERE’S THE RUB

How do you solve a problem like Trillanes?
By Conrado de Quiros

InquirerLast updated 01:16am (Mla time) 06/12/2007

(Conclusion)

At the very least, the questions themselves reveal the kind of bind government finds itself in.
Item No. 11 specifically shows so. “Ex-Lt. Trillanes should be released on bail by the time he sits as senator.” What’s unusual about that question is that, officially at least, whatever the rank and file thinks of it should really be of no consequence. Whether Trillanes should be released on bail or not to serve his duties as senator is not a matter for the barracks to decide. It is a matter for the courts to decide.
Unofficially, that question is vital in the extreme -- and shows not quite incidentally how law in this country, far from being the sternly benign and the impassively objective presence it is trotted out to be, is the timidly opportunistic and politically malleable apparition it is. The fate of Trillanes does not hang on the intrinsic merits of his case, it hangs on the extrinsic perception of it. Especially of the people who hold the guns. Whether Trillanes should be allowed to serve as senator in the halls of the Senate or in his detention cell depends vitally on how the rank and file feels about it. The current leadership cannot afford to piss off the people with the guns.
No. 12 is closely related to it. “Trillanes should have waited for the conclusion of the charges against him before running for public office.” Like the previous question, officially at least that one solicits answers from soldiers that are irrelevant or inconsequential. Unofficially, and pragmatically, the answers to that are decisive to his case. It is not just Trillanes’ liberty while serving as senator that is at stake here, it is his future as a free man or a continuing convict.
The real question, in fact, the one that lurks beneath is: Should Trillanes be recognized as a senator or not? Government’s predilection is to not do so, or at least to have that as a last resort. The cue there is Lawrence San Juan, one of the accused in the Oakwood mutiny, suddenly changing his plea from innocent to guilty. A thing that bowled over his lawyers, Teddy Te and Rene Saguisag, who could not for the life of them comprehend why a man who stood a very good chance of being acquitted would masochistically insist on being jailed for a crime. By doing so, of course, he is dragging down with him his co-accused, chief of them Trillanes.
Whether that tack will prosper or not does not depend on legal implacability, it depends on public outrage. The outrage above all of the soldiers themselves.
The other questions merely try to gauge the rank and file’s perception of what the public already knows, or intuits. If the respondents answer the questions without fear or trepidation, we are probably going to see them ticking off “Strongly Agree” to many of them.
Most citizens certainly will. Yes, many personnel, active or retired, supported the candidacy of Trillanes -- they were his bulwark. Yes, voters voted for Trillanes to express their disappointment with the present national leadership -- more Trillanes in that respect than the other opposition candidates. Yes, a Trillanes vote indicates a compelling desire for change within the military establishment -- votes are easier to cast than coups. Yes, within the Armed Forces of the Philippines, a Trillanes vote implies defiance of the top brass -- how else construe it, they were told not to and they did?
Yes, Trillanes is successful because of the public’s dissatisfaction with the military/defense leadership -- Trillanes was a referendum on changing that leadership along with the civilian one. Yes, Trillanes represents a strong leadership -- the strength isn’t just physical, he has endured prison for four years and continues to hold fast to his principles. Yes, Trillanes’ votes are expressions of the public’s diminished confidence in the military organization -- and increased trust in those who are being punished for trying to make it better.
I don’t know how the soldiers will answer the last few questions, given that they have been formulated baldly. The votes that Trillanes got represent a tacit endorsement of “extra-constitutional resort to change”? If the country requires radical alternatives to achieve reforms, such as a coup, so be it? I don’t know that most soldiers, quite apart from citizens, will say yes.
But change the wording into “tacit endorsement of extra-constitutional action against this regime” and “radical alternatives to change this regime, such as by coups,” and the equation changes completely. If truthfully answered, we could see a lot of yeses there. An extra-constitutional action against an extra-constitutional regime, or a coup against a coup regime -- this is a regime that is hounded by legitimacy problems -- has a way of canceling things out. Lest we forget, the officers and men, not least of the Marines, are still smarting from having been used to cheat in the South and seeing those who tried to stop it court-martialed.
The survey is a neon sign pointing to truly interesting times. Its longer-lasting implication is not to the future of coups, it is to the future of any action by the current rulers to retain power by hook or by crook, by law or by force. I do still think that is their natural trajectory: They cannot afford to lose power as they stand to reap the whirlwind afterward. The question now is how to. Ferdinand Marcos at least had all the generals of the various commands with him, save Rocky Ileto, when he decided to plunge this country into political darkness. The current leadership, civilian and military, can’t even count on their own to plunge someone they have decreed as pariah into electoral oblivion. Right now, they are only busy singing the refrain:
How do you solve a problem like Trillanes?

JEDDAH RANAO CHAMPIONS IN "C"

The tussle in Category "C" has a new face when both protagonists are first-time contenders for the Championship plum. But Jeddah Ranao Tennis Club emerged victorious after the initial threat posed by Al Salam Tennis Club in the finals held at Al Bilad Hotel tennis court last April 2007.

Members of the Champion Team are: Kim Guro, Michael Pangandamun, Daud Mua, Joel Usman, Mustafa Laguindab, Amenodin Dipatuan, Kid del Rosario, Abdulrahman Guro, Ibrahim Mua and Abner Sampaco.

SPTC - MAZDA 3 CHAMPIONS LMX & B2 CAT.

SPTC (Samahang Pinoy Tennis Club) under the sponsorship of ZOOMZOOM MAZDA3, emerged Champions in Lower Mix and B2 categories in the 1st Western Union Money Transfer Tennis Cup 2007 held at the tennis courts of Hotel Al Bilad and Sheraton Hotel in April 2007.

Members of the Winning Teams: Bong Mayoral (Team Captain), Noel de Guzman, Noel Sarabillo, Salah Labib, Ricky Mediavillo, Willy Dimaano, Vic Albaran, Raul Paraguia, Norwin Catipay, Choy Escober, Albert Bayot, Romy Detera

JETO/HIDADA - CHAMPIONS HIGHER MIX CAT.

JeTO/HIDADA successfully defended its title as Champions in the Higher Mix Category when it subdued the team of Shuman International in the recently concluded 1st Western Union Tennis Cup 2007.

Members of the Team (L-R): Tirso Manalo (Team Manager), Rey Diega, Dr. Ibrahim Ashraf, Francis Idjao (Team Captain), Mohsen Hafeez, Iktidar Ahmed, Jeck Olaguer, Michael Marquez, Ely Ramos & Jojo Aran.

LIGHT OF LEARNING

There's The Rub

LIGHT OF LEARNING
By Conrado de Quiros

Inquirer

Last updated 01:48am (Mla time) 06/07/2007
MANILA, Philippines --

Some of the stories were poignant.

An 11-year-old boy in the mountain town of Banaue was reading by a fire. No, not by a fireside but by a fire, in the open wilderness on a moonless night. The boy was one of a brood, and he was the one who most had problems reading. His parents and elder siblings were helping him improve and had built a fire using pine splinters as kindling. The boy held out a book against the flickering light and was plodding through the text. Asked why he was having difficulty reading, he said it was because the letters were small and he had poor eyesight.

You thought: The reading might improve, but the eyesight was going to get worse. But such was the dedication of the family to educating one of their own amid a mountain of adversity, bigger than the mountains around them, your heart went out to them.

The other stories told of the usual woes. Classrooms were in short supply, teachers were in short supply, books were in short supply, money was in short supply, and patience was in short supply. There was the usual supply of perfidy and malfeasance, hustling and conning. One elementary public school in the depressed area of Payatas in Quezon City was charging a fee from enrollees worth P200 that wasn’t sanctioned by the Department of Education. The principal would later say that fee was purely optional, and was more in the nature of a donation than anything else. A toothless driver would say not so, his son was refused admission because he couldn’t pay it.

Every time school opens, you get scenes like this that make you laugh and cry, praise and decry. But for the most part, that gets you depressed, making you wonder where this country is going. If anything speaks of the fragileness of our future, this is it. The opening of classes is supposed to fill you with a sense of uplift, of minds being opened and enlightenment planted there amid the bedlam of traffic and tribulation of rain and flood. The opening of our classes gives you only a sense of drift, of a country desperately trying to survive, of the poor hoping against hope that being able to read and write, count and account all the way to graduation will, somehow, give them a crack at finding a job. Preferably abroad, as an overseas Filipino worker.

The contrast with other countries, not least our immediate neighbors, is glaring. In their capitals at least, kids in neat uniforms are bundled off in cars or school buses or trains on their way to impregnable schoolhouses. It’s the most moving thing in the world to see a kid struggling by wood fire to make sense of the jumble of letters in a book -- it might as well be hieroglyphics -- but you also get to wonder how that kid is going to compete later on with another kid who is even now sitting on a desk with a PC monitor in front of him, and roving the Internet. In other Asian countries, the computer to student ratio in high school at least is 1:1. Indeed, the whole spectacle of a country struggling to pull itself up by its bootstraps, the boots worn out at the end and the toes of the wearer peeping out of them, is inspiring, but you also get to wonder how it is going to fare later on in a global environment where competition is as fierce as gladiatorial combat.

More than anything, it’s the opening of classes that drives home to me the point about what corruption means. Corruption by itself holds little meaning; it is an abstraction. Particularly when the sums reach millions -- not to speak of billions -- the mind is unable to grasp the enormity of it. Even saying that corruption is thievery, that corruption is pillage, that corruption is stealing, doesn’t quite get the message across. All people get is the image of public officials enriching themselves on taxes which, in this country, mean nothing more or less than tribute, the kind vassals give to their liege.

The opening of our classes shows the sinews, the bones, the flesh and blood of corruption. Indeed, the state of our education drives home the taste, the smell, the sights and sounds of corruption. You get to see what corruption really means in what you see and hear this week -- or what you don’t see and hear this week. Corruption is taking away:
It is the classroom with the aluminum roof and fortified walls that should be there but is not there, which is why teacher and students are out there in the open, besieged by wind and rain. It is the books and pencils and crayons that should be there but are not there; only grimy kids in shirts with the faces of candidates fading away are there, wiping off the sleep from their eyes, waiting for the first shift to finish so they can have their turn at the classrooms. It is the shouts of joy and expectation and the smell of new clothes and rosy hopes that should be there but aren’t there, only the bedraggled groans of those whose summers have ended or the sighs of relief of those who get a respite from scavenging or foraging for food. Or so in the public schools, which is where most of this country’s kids go.

Corruption isn’t just drowning in bills flung into the air over one’s bed, which is how it is in the movies, though I know one congressman who did that quite literally to know how it felt to be filthy rich, emphasis on filthy. It is taking away. It is grabbing the scraps of food from the table of the hungry. It is seizing the jeepney money of a Grade 2 kid, forcing him to walk in frayed rubber slippers in the smoldering heat or raging flood, through fetid sidewalks and semen-smelling alleys, to the decrepit structure that is a light in a storm-tossed sea. It is holding up this country’s future the way holdup men (who are often dismissed or active enlisted men) hold up banks, gunning down poorly paid security guards without pity or thought.

Each time a school year starts, I wonder who needs education more badly. Our kids, or our public officials?

THERE’S THE RUB

Death and progress
By Conrado de QuirosInquirer

Last updated 01:02am (Mla time) 06/05/2007

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is unperturbed. The Team Unity debacle, she says, will not deter her from pursuing economic progress. “The path we have set for economic reforms will not be upset by partisan elections. Politics will not undo our economic progress.” She has only three more years to go, she continued, and she will not be distracted by the results of the senatorial election.

Either she has good instincts for propaganda or her handlers know their business. If you notice, over the past several months, she has removed herself from the electoral scene and over the last couple of weeks has been abroad busily projecting herself as “delivering the goods.” At the very least, that frees her from blame for whatever might be said about the conduct of the elections, which her people have been desperately trying to overturn. At the very most, it makes her out to be working where everybody else is playing. Or it makes her out to be engaged in the serious business of uniting the country through economics while everybody else is engaged in the frivolous indulgence of dividing the country through politics.

Nice try, but it doesn’t cut.

All the alarm bells in my brain go blaring when I hear things like this. The last time I heard Arroyo say she had only so much time left and would rather spend it uniting the country through economic work rather than frittering it in political play was in 2002. She even went on to pledge on Rizal Day at the end of that year to not run in 2004, knowing as she did that she was a source of dissension. Less than a year later, she cast her lot in the field, and the rest is history. Or thanks to people like Garci, this country’s democracy became history.
When Arroyo acknowledges that she has only a few more years to go, be very, very afraid.
More than that, that was how Ferdinand Marcos postured toward the end of martial law when the world turned against him. Quite literally, the world, including the United States at one end, which would eventually force him to cut and cut cleanly, and the Filipinos at the other, who after August 1983 would have liked nothing better than to cut and cut him cleanly. During his twilight years, Marcos also postured about being busy with salvaging the economy, which he said was what the “silent majority” wanted, while his enemies were busy “salvaging” it with their fractious politics. Marcos did cut, but not so very cleanly: He had to be cut off from Malacañang by an angry crowd.

You know you’re looking at trouble when you see posturing like this. At the very least what’s wrong with it is that it offers a monumental contradiction. It says that a ruler, particularly an illegitimate one, can lead a nation to progress when its people do not particularly want him or her. In a parliamentary system, the kind the Charter-change proponents, including Arroyo herself, have been pushing for, the “vote of no confidence” that the senatorial results represent would have been enough to make a prime minister resign. I’ve yet to know of a nation that progressed whose ruler could not rally the people behind her. I’ve always thought progress was something that was premised on widespread, if not universal, support.

There’s more. For you also have to ask, “What economic progress?” As in Marcos’ time, the “progress,” or whatever there is of it, is happening in spite of, and not because of, government. It’s happening because of the overseas Filipino workers, a humongous price to pay for survival. Just some weeks ago, an official at the Department of Foreign Affairs acknowledged the ravages overseas work was inflicting on the integrity of the Filipino family, and was incorporating that warning in its pre-departure orientation seminars.
As in Marcos’ time, the “progress” is being paid for by enormous loans. Lest we forget, this administration has borrowed more than the past two presidents combined. As in Marcos’ time, the “progress” isn’t trickling down to the poor: Arroyo has yet to answer the question (she says it’s “political”) why the “progress” hasn’t benefited most Filipinos. As in Marcos’ time, or probably more so, corruption riots -- we are now the most corrupt country in Asia -- which answers in part why the manna isn’t falling down. The officials of this government merely project their individual enrichment to that of the nation.

But in the end, what’s truly chilling about this posturing is the authoritarian message it sends. What it says is that it doesn’t really matter if you cheat in elections or you have a ruler who isn’t elected so long as you have “economic progress.” What it says is that it doesn’t really matter if murder and mayhem riot, if the victims are journalists or political activists, if they live in places God has forgotten or in those Mammon remembers, so long as you have “economic progress.” What it says is that it doesn’t really matter if your liberties are taken away and the two Gonzalezes and ilk are free to dictate how you may live your life, so long as you have “economic progress.” What it says is that it doesn’t really matter if right is wrong or wrong is right, the guilty are rewarded and the innocent are punished, so long as you have “economic progress.”

Indeed, what it says is that it doesn’t really matter if you have democracy or not. That argument was expressly revived by Washington SyCip some months ago in an article in the Business section of this paper, an argument we heard throughout martial law: that American-style liberal democracy wasn’t suited for the temper of Filipinos. For reasons known only to him, SyCip considers himself one.

You know you’re in trouble when you hear rulers, particularly illegitimate ones, talk about “economic progress” and not “fractious politics” being what the “silent majority” ordered.

The only reason that majority is silent is that it is dead.