Set up for disappointment?

In a passage from F. Sionil José’s celebrated novel Mass, the protagonist Pepe Samson finds himself at what used to be called a teach-in where so-called reformers of the “burgis” class discuss strategies for building a bigger support base and pontificate about the masses needing “political education.” Challenged for his challenges to their highfaluting rhetoric, Pepe thinks, “what did they know about living in Tondo?”, and hurls back this wonderfully pointed riposte, “I am the masses.”

My column that was not allowed to be printed today, by Carmen Pedrosa

The machines that will fail; letters from Boston

It is not as if it is being said for the first time. I repeat what others have said that failure of election will not come from the PCOS but from two other machines – FV (Filipino voter) and FC (Filipino candidates).

The machines are so out of date, they cannot function properly for the selection of leaders for our country. The FV is out of sync and performs as if it has nothing to do with why he is voting a particular FC. The FC operates within this flaw and produces results with nothing to do with FV.

Carmen Pedrosa talks about NoyNoy

Does the nation owe the Aquinos?

I now believe in luck. Senator Benigno Simeon Cojuangco “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd all his life has led the easy life of a hacen-dera’s son. He wakes up in the morning with one problem, “Ano ang ulam ko?” (“What’s my viand?”). Most kids from a poor family wake up with one problem, “May pagkain ba ako? (“Do I have food to eat?”).

By the way, Hacienda Luisita’s 6,443 hectares is worth potentially, P190 billion—P3,000 per square meter multiplied by 64.43 million square meters. The P3,000 per sqm is usually the price of an idle farm land in provinces immediately north and south of Manila, once a highway or a major development is injected into it.

Reason or Wishful Thinking?

Voters who choose presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino are discarding reason for wishful thinking. I certainly empathize with their wishes for better governance, but I think that placing their bets on a candidate who has achieved essentially nothing in his public career, who has shown no interest whatsoever in any reform issue, and who is funded by big business and other vested interests is the height of foolishness. Such an unthinking vote can only end in collective frustration and dashed hopes.

Can the Lid be kept on?

Asked by ANC’s Tina Palma if he would be agreeable to candidates for public office opening their medical and psychological records to scrutiny, presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino waffled and then mumbled something about public figures being also “entitled to privacy.” There is no way to interpret that answer except as “No” and this speaks volumes about the need of Mr. Aquino to keep his medical and psychological files private.

Noynoy’s Endorsements – Opinion column of Jojo Robles, Manila Standard, April 23

A clincher

Ninoy himself sought psychiatric help for Noynoy.

I did not want to write about Noynoy’s mental sickness. In a political campaign season, it looked like black propaganda from rival politicians.

That was before I received information I could trust that the allegations about Noynoy’s mental illness were true. My source is apolitical but she was moved by her responsibility to her country. She decided to do her part to stop the prevarication of others who also knew. The stories about Noynoy’s mental illness are not ‘concoctions’ she said. These should not be dismissed. It should be proved.

‘Tomcat’ recalls Noynoy

Readers of this column know that I rarely surrender my space to others in the form of extensive passages quoted verbatim. But today I willingly cede my allotted quota of words, editing only for style considerations, to someone who calls himself “Tomcat,” who recently wrote the following open letter (via Facebook) to leading presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino:

Dear Noynoy:

VILLAR AND THE LEFT

This is a reaction to Bong Wenceslao’s April 16th column questioning the logic of the Left (represented by Bayan Muna’s Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza) joining Manny Villar and the Nacionalista Party (NP). Frankly, I was not a bit surprised when Ocampo and Maza teamed up with the NP because among the presidentiables, only Villar can truly claim to have “masa” roots and more importantly, to offer a program of government that aims primarily to reduce if not eradicate poverty. Villar is not “big bourgeois” as Mr. Wenceslao carelessly claims. Consider the following. Villar graduated from the College of Business Administration in UP Diliman in 1970 (I went to the same college and university but graduated a year ahead). Marcos was starting his second term then and the ferment and protests were already a-brewing in Diliman. It was difficult for us not to be caught up in the nationalist and pro-masa fervor of the times. To be “burgis” was practically a crime. These nationalist and pro-masa stirrings left an imprint in our young minds and hearts that stayed with us no matter how far we may have gone in the world. To further debunk the “big bourgeois” label, here is a bit of trivia. Most of us, including Manny, went to classes using public transport, oftentimes standing up in a crowded bus (“nagsinardinas”) while holding on precariously to the railing. It was not your typical “burgis” experience. When Manny Villar says he understands what it feels to be a common Filipino, it is because he has been there. Running after and riding in crowded buses during rush hour surely cannot be considered elitist.