Villar: Sukol-Dagan

I was pleasantly surprised seeing Sen. Manny Villar live on television discussing his side before fellow senators when I arrived at the Superbalita newsroom yesterday afternoon. Finally, I thought, Villar has mustered enough courage to face his peers. Unfortunately, he fled the session before the interpellation. Sukol-dagan diay ang strategy.

Villar’s flight from questions did not serve him well in the eyes of both supporters and detractors as well as those giving him the benefit of the doubt.

For supporters, their champion ran away before their very eyes. He could have bravely faced the assault and won or played the role of a martyr.For detractors, Villar’s escape deprived them the pleasure of seeing him clobbered. For those in between, running away finally convinced him of his guilt.

The way I looked at what happened, Villar tried to wiggle his way out of the “C5 ang Tinaga” issue and failed miserably.

(To get a clearer picture of the different sides, watch this video of Winnie Monsod explaining it in plain terms in a GMA 7 telecast)

Villar’s non-appearance

Supporters of Sen. Manny Villar should learn from history so they would be able to defend their presidential candidate well. Here’s a link to an article that should provide us with the proper historical perspective … http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100127-249835/Villars-impeachment

Facing accusers

The detractors of Sen. Manny Villar has obviously readied a political trap at the Senate floor with the filing of the official report of the Committee of the Whole that investigated allegations of unethical behavior and conflict of interest.

While talking about upholding the integrity of the Senate, the move by senators belonging to opposite camps clearly seeks to shoot down Villar’s phenomenal climb in the surveys, thanks to the billions he is pouring into television and radio advertisements.

Unfortunately, Villar’s defenders are not themselves objective players. They are also political partisans in Villar’s bid to become the country’s next president.While they object to the political undertones of the anti-Villar move, their defense is also very political. After all, the Senate is a political body.

With that said, I see the advantage clearly enjoyed by the anti-Villar camp. Whether Villar faces his accusers or not, the insertion and C5 issue have been revived with renewed energy that could live a life of its own after this.

Media focus on the P200 million budget insertion and C5 diversion issues now paints him as the most corrupt presidentiable. Without saying it, many now read Villar’s “Sipag at Tiyaga” as helping oneself to the government’s coffers while in power.

With this situation, should Villar continue his path of non-appearance at the Senate floor and refuse to face his accusers?

According to the senator, he does not want to enter a process that is clearly political and biased. As a strategy, this had worked for him.

However, the renewed media attention on the issue and calls on Villar not to be a coward are now taking its toll.

Sen. Noynoy Aquino could always say his father Ninoy Aquino did not believe in getting justice from Marcos but he did not hide. In fact, he returned to the Philippines and was shot to death at the tarmac by the Marcos military. Thus Ninoy became a hero to every freedom-loving Filipino.

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada could also say his father faced the music at the Senate floor when Erap was president at that time and bravely went to jail after he was ousted during Edsa 2.

In the eyes of ordinary folks, Mr. Sipag at Tiyaga is not man enough to face his accusers at the Senate. I hope that the man who said he was once poor could sense this developing sentiment before its too late. Already, allies like Rep. Satur Ocampo are already having second thoughts about this man who prefers to hide.

Cerge Remonde

I was not really fond of Cerge Remonde when I first knew him. He was a critic of Marcos and a close friend of my father during the early 80s. But he did not share our radical cause (then) for an overhaul of the system. What can I – a young man working closely with members of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) – expect from somebody identified with the Associated Labor Unions?

Thus I did not expect him to be sympathetic with my plight when he and my father came to visit me late that evening on the day I spent a night inside the Metrodiscom stockade together with eight student leaders way back in January 1985. Defiant as to what I got myself embroiled in, I stuck to the agreed line about spending a post-Christmas getaway with female student leaders (hehehe Doris was there) in a small hut in Gun -ob, Lapu-Lapu City.

Cerge and my father asked what were we doing there. I only admitted the truth — I led an underground discussion group for student leaders on conducting mass campaigns — some years later. Nevertheless, I also learned only recently that the two spent the next long hours trying to get us out of jail.

Well, we got out the next day all right. Fr. Rudy Romano (I called him up about what happened that day) and Inday Nita Cortes-Daluz created such radio noise the next day. My father and Cerge appealed directly to then Metrodiscom chief Col. Angan. While an uncle of a fellow political detainee also exerted some influence.

I am thanking Cerge again not primarily for helping to get us out. I thank him for keeping my father company during that harrowing episode with the dictatorship.

Looking back through the decades, I admit I only met Cerge a few times. But those few times were significant moments.

When my father died on December 2, 1994 for example, Cerge was the first person my brother Nonoy and I turned to for help and advice. I was then new as managing editor of Superbalita.

Shortly after Cerge joined President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, he helped my brother Enrico get a permanent item inside the Bureau of Customs. Later, he became one of the sponsors in Nonoy’s wedding.

Last year, he was the guest of honor of Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal when I received my second Catholic Mass Media Award (Camma) for Best Editorial in Cebuano. I last saw him when he invited us members of the National Press Club Cebu for lunch at his office in Malacanang.

Thank you Cerge. I know nagkuyog na mo ni Papa in heaven.

Watching Pacquiao

There was a time years ago when I practically ignored fights of Manny Pacquiao or merely gave it some attention so I won’t be left out in the conversations afterward.

Once, I slept blissfully the whole day while the rest of the country watched him fight only to later find people at the office talking about nothing else but how Pacquiao demolished an opponent I could no longer remember.

In another occasion, I went out of my way early evening during a Manila trip to look for a friend Al Cruz who was then an assistant secretary at the Presidential Management Staff (PMF). I found him at a watering hole somewhere at the Timog/Morato area waiting for the live coverage of the Pacquiao fight somewhere else in the Metro. After a few drinks, I left for another place with a band playing only to overhear young people at the other tables excitedly talking about the Pacquiao win.

Watching people get excited with each succeeding fight, I soon looked forward to actually going out for the pay-per-view drinking sessions.

Thus, even when we were at a hotel in Bacolod City last summer, Joe Canton and I went out to look for restaurants that offerer pay-per-view privileges. We ended up inside a plush but crowded and smoky room at the Pagcor complex.

Yesterday morning, we motored a short distance from the house in Carmen, Talisay City to the new roadside su-tu-kil of Jun Caoson at the Cebu South Road because he installed two television sets for customers to watch the Pacquiao-Cotto fight. Unlike the Pagcor room in Bacolod, the place was not air-conditioned. But they had adobong kanding and kinilaw nga bat that went great with a bottle of San Miguel pilsen while puffing sticks of Marlboro.

While Pacquiao at center stage proceeded to pummel Miguel Cotto into a pulp, I could not help observe how people became one with him as he stalked and rained punches from practically all angles.

Now, I’m thinking of the possible fight with the American Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Atan and Mary Ann as Osmena alternative?

Local headlines screamed early this week that sportsman Atan Guardo will run for mayor with Lahug Barangay Captain Mary Ann delos Santos as vice mayor of Cebu City.

This came after two Osmenas — Mayor Tomas Osmena’s estranged kid sister Georgia and uncle former senator John Osmena — expressed their intention for Cebu City’s top post. They will go against Tom’s bet Vice Mayor Mike Rama.

I would like to point out that Tomas does not exactly relish supporting Rama judging from his continued adverse remarks and the mayor’s fielding of his trusted man Joy Young as running mate and wife Margot Osmena as councilor. Uncle John Osmena said Margot is running to serve as “yaya” of Mike Rama. Tomas himself said Margot shall keep Mike’s girlfriend Joy Pesquera from interfering in city affairs.

The situation of Tom’s party (Bando Osmena-Pundok Kauswagan) bets prompted both Georgia and Sonny to test the political waters in Cebu City which is a traditional Osmena bailiwick. However, both Georgia and Sonny are not exactly exciting candidates for city residents.

Then entered Atan and Mary Ann.

Let me clarify though that the verbal accounts of what transpired during the Atan-Mary Ann presscon contrasted with the published reports. Both did not categorically say they would run for mayor and vice mayor.

Both known as opposition bets for congressmen in the north and south districts respectively merely bared a unified program for Cebu City, not district specific legislative agenda. They pushed for what they called OUR Cebu City. “OUR” means opportunity, unity, and reform. They pitted this slogan against Tom’s MYCT that referred to Mike Rama, Joy Young, Cutie del Mar, and Tomas — the four main candidates of BO-PK.

According to insiders, they merely want to project a unified program for both north and south districts that they would pursue in Congress. Even Tomas saw this and said both would run for Congress.

However images of Atan and Mary Ann campaigning together for a unified program were seen by the local media as a campaign for mayor and vice mayor. And the media projection tickled several political players in Cebu.

Now is the Atan-Mary Ann tandem a viable alternative to the Osmenas?

I believe that would depend on how they would conduct themselves in the next few weeks especially in pushing for their supposed advocacy. If they succeed in getting a critical mass of Cebuanos actively behind them and their advocacy their so-called OUR Cebu City, they will have a good chance of making it either as congressmen or as mayor and vice mayor.

CO2 causes climate change: fact or hypothesis?

Lawyers in Cebu, Philippines, who are into anti-climate change advocacy are publicly claiming that carbon dioxide (CO2) as a cause of climate change is already a scientific fact that is beyond dispute.

Atty. Benjamin Cabrido of the Global Lawyers Against Climate Change (GLACC) had been repeatedly saying this before members of the local media.

I am sure many have already accepted this view. But something in me says there is something wrong.

Way back in our elementary and high school days, my science teachers taught that science is not a collection of undisputed facts that we memorized from science books. It involves testing what we believe things are through observation and experiments. Scientific knowledge is arrived at by meeting and passing rigid tests.

Thus we first make a hypothesis that is subjected to experiments. If it passes the tests, we treat it as theories. Over time and upon consensus by scientists who subjected the theories with more experiments, it may become a law.

But even laws could be changed later as new scientific knowledge emerges. For instance, Newton’s laws on gravity were modified by Einstein’s Laws on Relativity.

“Even the most persuasive scientific findings are, therefore, held to be incomplete and tentative — always subject to further investigation, revision and dismissal in the light of new scientifically tested discoveries … And it is fanatic certainty that science replaces with a recognition that even the most entrenched scientific findings are at best partial or temporary truths and hence uncetain,” wrote Alvin and Heide Toffler in their book “Revolutionary Wealth.”

My point is: it is wrong to claim that the scientific finding on “CO2 as a cause of climate change” is beyond dispute. One only needs to Google or search Youtube for “climate change” to be able to get a glimpse of the other side.

I am saying this because the climate change theory is already being peddled as an absolute truth and beyond question, much like dogma of religious fanatics. Those who disagree become lynching targets.

Coal debate in Naga: Looking for a middle ground

I accepted the invitation of Gov. Gwen Garcia to cover her trip in South Korea. Basically, the trip is for a tourism conference. But she intends to visit coal fired power plants owned by KEPCO to see for herself how clean or dirty the technology these plants are.

True, KEPCO would try to present their best side. Yet, we should be able to observe more objectively and think about what is applicable to Cebu and Naga.

As a journalist and the one tasked by the University of San Carlos with writing the history of Naga, I find the trip an excellent opportunity for seeing myself CFBC power plants in operation. This is timely in the light of the raging climate change controversy that has made Naga a local battleground in the global fight to avert the warming of the earth.

I am quite acquainted with the anti-coal arguments advanced by my friends within the local environmental movement in calling for an immediate stop to the construction of the KEPCO plants in Naga. On the other hand, I also am privy to the arguments of the other side as well as the sentiments of Naganhons preferring  jobs and development over the prospect of ecological damage.

I talked with Mayor Val Chiong during the city’s second charter day celebration last September 5, 2009 and sensed his desire to explore a middle ground.

Indeed, while we look forward to making moves to avert global warming, we should also respect the sentiments of the local populace. Cebuanos, for example, definitely don’t want to part with the modern conveniences made possible by the supply of reliable and affordable electricity.

I agree that we should be able to find a middle ground. The Korea trip would help me personally to look at the controversy from a broader perspective. Ultimately though, it would be the decision of the people of Naga that should be respected.

With President Aquino in Malacanang 1987

I joined other Central Visayas youth leaders in posing with President Corazon Aquino during the Konsultahang Kabataan 1987. I was the Region 7 youth coordinator. The other youth leaders representing Cebu were Aristotle B. Batuhan (former congressional candidate), Jorge John Cane (now Danao City councilor), Victor Ariel Canoy (son of the late Vic Canoy), Bellona Luna (who became a staff member of Joey Lina), Ramsey Quijano (now Cebu chapter president of the IBP), Jay Yuvallos (now a business leader in Mandaue City), and Josefat Montebon. Those who represented Bohol and Negros Oriental were Ferdinand Ayos, Orlando Ducay, Luis Dungog, Ma. Neriza Lumantao, Avelino Olasiman, Ma. Anna Prisicila Pareja, Perlita Penkian, Rufino Sun Jr., and Rogelio Torres. We joined the national consultation of youth leaders in Pook ni Maria Makiling in Los Baños, Laguna on February 23-28, 1987 that proposed the formation of the National Youth Council, National Youth Assembly, and Sangguniang Kabataan as alternatives to the Kabataang Barangay.

Don Bosco Batch 77 and Facebook

The wonders of the Internet continue to amaze me through much of the decade. The latest – and I admit quite belatedly because before I’d rather play chess at FICS, or be content with lurking in Cebulife, Yahoo groups, or some favorite blog sites – involved Facebook.

Because of this popular social networking site, Don Bosco Technical High School 77 batch mates here and abroad regularly meet not only online but also offline. So far, the ones in Cebu met almost every weekend during the past month – Peter Alan Señeres of CEBECO 2, Noel Paras of Shamrock, Ludovico Lim of Timex, Manuel Roa of Norkis, Rodrigo Cumba of MCWD, Fred Navales of PAL, Raymond Diez of COA, the entrepreneurs Dodong Dico, Bobby Magbutay, Dodong Lopez, Danny Demecillo, Mon Prescillas, and Eric Ruiz. Al Paraguya who recently retired from the US Navy and Lando Cabaluna of Telecom-Cagayan de Oro joined us. The last time such numbers gathered was during our 25^th anniversary way in 2002.

So far, there are already 25 members of our Facebook group including Fr. Richard Varela. To view our group’s page, click this link “Batch 77.”