Ka-Blog!

I woke up to a bad news today—Corazon Aquino, world democracy icon and former Philippine President, died at 3:18 this morning.

I first saw it on BBC.  Then I frantically punched the remote commander and, sure enough, ABS-CBN and GMA were at it again, trying to outdo each other’s spins on Cory.  Suddenly, an epiphany in Philippine broadcast journalism was happening before our very eyes—that closed mortuary gates and drawn windows require full coverage and running commentaries over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.  Then, once in a while, they would put a reporter before the camera and ask the same questions that have been answered and reported on barely thirty minutes back.  As their version of a fast ball a reporter interviews Cory’s parish priest about the late President’s favourite church chair and makes her pitch to make her report be made part of the growing ammunition to the expected sob fest that is sure to follow.

When GMA managed to air gloria’s message about Cory’s passing first they made sure we know we got it from them first.  Methinks it’s akin to being Brutus’ first megaphone after Julius Ceasar has been butchered on the marble steps of the Roman Senate.  Big deal.

How sad.

I then woke up my wife and drove to the CERV office.  I had the compelling urge to smash Thor’s mallet on the screen and make myself to be a buffoon so we had to be outa there pronto.  I am only consoled by the fact that since I will be virtually cloistered in the next week or so I will be able to escape most of this inanity from our two biggest networks.  Cebu, here I come.

There are several questions for Cory I would gladly have given my left eye for.

1. What really happened and what were your thoughts right after the Mendiola Massacre?
2. Ditto the Hacienda Luisita Massacre?
3. Ditto the atrocities committed under Lambat Bitag I and II?
4. What and/or pushed you to recall Prof Jose Maria Sison’s Philippine passport forcing him to seek asylum in The Netherlands?
5. What was really the plan about the GRP-NDFP peace talks in 1986?
6. Why did you not use the inherent powers of your revolutionary/newly-established government to order a genuine and general agrarian reform that could have ended the ongoing civil war and pushed this country towards genuine development?
7. What made you risk your reputation to support the extension of the Military Bases Agreement with the imperialist United States when you know the people already wanted out?
8. Why did you not punish the soldiers who launched nine coups against you and nearly killed your only son?
9. What made you choose FVR over Mitra?
10. Did you pen a call to the Filipino people on what we should do against the next woman president after you who has turned to be as worse as the dictator Marcos?

These are questions that our networks are very hesitant to ask and seek answers to.  In fact, it took the CNN to ask the first probing questions about Cory’s legacy, which the ABS-CBN’s senior reporter deftly skirted around instead of answering directly.

I have always been critical of Cory.  The first nine questions gnaw at my mind when I think about her and her legacy.  I only started to like her some when she spoke out against gloria. (Finally, she admitted, she could no longer stand her as it reminds her too much of the satan she helped oust from power 23 years ago!)

Let me be Filipino in ending this piece: I am sad that Cory died, more so that most Filipinos wanted the other woman President to go first. Compared to our current Madam President Cory was all the saint the world makes her to be.

“My continued detention (until today) shows that the Government of the Republic of the Philippines is not serious in lifting the suspension of the Jasig. There is political pressure to keep me in jail. But they are no match against the mass movement who spared no effort in their support,” Principe said.

By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — Political detainee Elizabeth Principe walked out of the Philippine National Police Custodial Center at Camp Crame at 4:25 in the afternoon of July 21, a full two weeks after the fourth and last of the criminal charges against her was dismissed by a Regional Trial Court in Nueva Vizcaya.

Wearing a blue blouse, smiling broadly and raising a clenched fist, Principe walked out of her jail accompanied by daughter Lorena Santos and welcomed at the gate by Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza.

On the day of her release, Principe started a hunger strike which was accompanied by a sympathy strike by all women detainees at the custodial center. The hunger strike subsequently spread throughout the center. She is the “mayora” (leader) of the women detainees at Camp Crame.

Principe revealed that her latest release order reached the PNP Custodial Center last July 14, which was forwarded to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group last July 15. Her release was approved by CIDG last July 20 but instead of releasing her, the PNP submitted the order to the Armed Forces of the Philippines “for comment.”

Elizabeth Principe and daughter Lorena Santos celebrate. View more pictures. (Photo by Raymund B. Villanueva / bulatlat.com)

Santos and Principe’s lawyers asked the PNP what legal basis was there to justify the move.

“I owe no debt of gratitude to this government for my release. I owe my freedom to the mass movement and my lawyers,” Principe said.

Visibly elated by her release, Principe said that she is happy that she is “happy to be back in the larger society.”

“After one year and seven months in detention, I am raring to rejoin the struggle against this unjust regime and social system,” she added.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita announced that the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees is again operational starting July 17.

“My continued detention (until today) shows that the Government of the Republic of the Philippines is not serious in lifting the suspension of the Jasig. There is political pressure to keep me in jail. But they are no match against the mass movement who spared no effort in their support,” she said.

Principe said her fellow political detainees at the custodial center asked her to work for their release as well. Still in detention are political prisoners Randall Echanis, Eduardo Serrano, Eduardo Sarmiento, Angelina, Ipong, Prospero Agudo, among others.

She said that she is ready to participate in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in her capacity as consultant for the latter.

“I now rejoin the movement to oust Gloria Arroyo,” Principe said. (With reports from Ronalyn Olea / bulatlat.com) http://www.bulatlat.com/main/2009/07/21/elizabeth-principe-%E2%80%98i-am-raring-to-rejoin-the-struggle-against-this-unjust-regime%E2%80%99/

After a huge lunch, followed by a delicious dessert, it took us some time to work up appetites for dinner at Kinabuhayan Café.  But dinner had to be served and we had no choice but to seat ourselves for another feast.

It was curry risotto with steamed chicken this time, sprinkled and topped with curry and alagao leaves.  An artfully sliced tomato filled with horse radish (malunggay) pesto decorated the plate.  Plus there were more chayote and carrot strings with sliced tomatoes on the side to cool down our tongues from the delightful assaults of the spicy rice.

I am no big fan of food wastage but here was one serving that totally defeated me.  I finished off the chicken to the bone and cleaned off the vegetables but I failed, despite best efforts, to chow down all the rice.  I wish I had Cris Balleta or Aya Santos’ legendary appetites for this kind of meal.  Too much; too good.

Jay was genuinely surprised when I told him earlier our trip was to celebrate Pom’s 33^rd birthday.  But he wasn’t too surprised to hurriedly bake a “pineapple upside down cake” for her.  If the cake was only half-decent I would still be touched for my wife.  But the cake was superlative.  So can I say I was doubly-touched?

While wolfing down generous slices of the cake and washing them down with this bed & breakfast’s legendary coffee, Jay re-entered the dining area bearing a gift for Pom.  It was inside a small Pandan box tied with abaca string.  The gift was an original Ugu Bigyan clay sculpture with his signature leaf design and relief.  (Bigyan’s workshop is 30 minutes away from here [by appointment] which is another good side trip to Kinabuhayan aside from the delights of Banahaw, San Pablo City’s seven lakes, and Casa San Pablo.)

Wait!  There’s more!  After dinner and retreating to our hut Jay gave us a white bignay wine with appropriate glasses.  Our favourite fruit wine!  And Jay wasn’t even told about this.

And just before calling it a night Jay allowed us to copy his classical guitar collection of traditional Filipino love songs from different regions in the country.  (These were the background music during our candle-lit dinner and we were the only guests.)

Little touches like these are making this trip memorable already.

Today is my wife’s 33^rd birthday.   We started celebrating when we spent the night in some-star hotel in the metro a few days prior.  It was a good if only for the extended hot water bath (lublob) we had but we missed Panda so much it felt a bit incomplete. There was even one time before dawn Pom looked under the sheets to check if Panda was there. That cracked me up.

For Pom’s actual birthday we drove exactly 100kms south of the metro to this little hideaway called Kinabuhayan Café near the Dolores (Quezon) Central Elementary School. This backyard affair has two dusty, cobwebby and termite-infested bamboo and nipa huts and three lean-tos in an overgrown garden of eclectic indigenous endemic and exotic plants.  It also features a small tree house and a main house that looks and feels like a small museum cum sports bar.  Each lean-to has a mosquito net and a mattress. The small property is also called home by three dogs and a pot-bellied pig called “Onion”.  The owner tried to go native but there seems to be no such rhyme or reason to things we now see around here. The huts had Roman blinds for minimal privacy and Japanese paper lanterns for lighting.  The bathroom features a huge boulder naturally shaped like a loveseat.  No concrete pavement here, just slates as stepping stones, rocks as ladders, and gravel as bathroom flooring. You can smoke without guilt while seated on the throne.  And the bowl flushes so well.  Being situated at the foot of Mt Banahaw I surmise that is spring water flushing my babies away.  And, dig this, while doing the number two there’s a loud chirping from inside the bathroom, as if cheering me on.  I don’t know if it’s a wild bird but it sure sounded like it.  All the while fruits rain from the green canopy above.  Sweet!

As I’m typing this Panda is fast asleep on my legs while I am parked on a hammock.

This crib’s proprietor is Jay Alcala Herrera, reportedly a cousin to the town mayor.  Jay is long-haired, tattooed, with spectacles and likes to speak in English. He seems cool, and so are his staffs.  Jay is a chef.  His meal presentation is better than the exclusive club I had lunch in last Wednesday on the top floor of a Makati skyscraper called the Tower Club.  The club served me too many courses to count with my stubby fingers. Kinabuhayan on the other hand served us a single-course lunch of pork grilled back ribs and mushroom risotto served with pancit-pancitan, stringed carrot and chayote and tomato salad drenched with vinaigrette.  There were garnishes like edible wildflowers and ferns which were picked right where we were.  The plates were served on a rickety bamboo table while we were seated on a bamboo bench on the middle of a burbling river.  Our feet were massaged by a lively current while we dug in with our claws.  All the while Jay was chatting us while chain smoking Marlboros and scolding his two Daschunds. The brook was about two kms away from Kinabuhayan but the property is still owned by Jay.  Back at the café we were served sweetened cassava cubes topped with cream that went very well with Jay’s famous coffee.  Masarap lahat!

We leave Kinabuhayan tomorrow.  We still have dinner and breakfast to look forward to but it already feels that the PhP1800/day/pax is already worth it (PhP600/meal/pax).  Call or text 09162215791.

Imelda Marcos turned 80 a few days ago and celebrated it at Hotel Sofitel.

Wait!  Don’t scoff just yet.  The party wasn’t imeldific at all.  The Sofitel is just a five-star hotel.  She had it built as the Philippine Plaza when she was still the Madame of Malacanang.  But that does not mean anything.  It is not a new palace built for the occasion.  This hotel is a dump compared to where Imelda had parties back in the old days.

Plus, Sofitel is right next door to the ill-fated Film Center where the remains of dozens of construction workers she ordered cemented over when it collapsed during construction lie buried.  How dreadful that our dear former First Lady held a party next to a mausoleum.

Plus, there were no B-class Hollywood actors present.  Some of the old perfumed set and martial law dogs were there but the rest have died or are still abroad enjoying their shares of the loot while the Madame has “No funds! No Funds!”  Not like the old days, indeed.

And while the food was lavish and the (no alcohol) drinks were free-flowing, those were sponsored by friends.

Don’t you people get it?  Imelda is already very poor and is under unjust persecution—for more than two decades already.  I think it is time to give her back her jewels, shoes, underwear and companies’ shares.

= = = = = =

After initially and vehemently denying our beloved President had a boob job while in a swine flu quarantine, Palace lips are now saying it’s true.

But it’s not true that it was a recent operation and that it’s leaky.

(Karengkeng ka ha, Madame.  Did you also get your areola and nipples fixed?)

But let me say this: The President is well within her right to have a proud set of mammary.  I don’t care if it was recently done.  And if, and only if, it is leaky, she is right in having it fixed by the most expensive doctors of the most expensive hospital in this poor country.  I do not want the likes of cosmetic surgeon Hayden Kho doing it.  As much as possible, I do not want Atty Lorelei Fajardo to lie to the people (even though we pay her to do it) when another Haydencam scandal breaks out.

In fact, I support the President, our genuine and kind chief executive, in her desire to have erect twins.  If we can’t have a tall President, it does not speak well of the Philippines to have saggy Chief Pair of Boobs.  Never mind that she is failing our economy and politics; never mind that her administration is responsible for thousands of deaths and hundreds of disappearances; never mind that she wants the Constitution changed; what is important is that the most important jugs in the country are not soggy to the feel.