A week for writing all you can
Credit to Author: MAURO GIA SAMONTE| Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2019 18:09:35 +0000
Lest this space become one for advertising the eatery, I won’t mention the name, but it’s just that my daughter, Keng, had this brief vacation from her job as a nurse in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and she thought of treating the family to a dinner before flying back to work. She took us to this place, which offers thinly sliced pork that you grill on a furnace specially fitted before you on the table, and then gobble up, batch after batch after batch, all to your heart’s content.
In a sense, that set the tone for my writing this week: too many occasions attended, too many issues confronted; but as in every smorgasbord, go ahead, write all you can…
Last Sunday was the birthday bash of Mentong Laurel at his Mama Rosa Restaurant in Barrio Kapitolyo, Pasig. Always, the occasion is memorable as much for the buffet of mix Filipino and Chinese cuisine as for the attendees: Victor Corpus, Ado Paglinawan, Jun Simon (together with the children of his Catholic congregation), Diego Cagahastian, Raymond Burgos, George Siy, Austin Ong, Mike Alunan, oh, the list is long.
Two distinct notes punctuated the event.
Music and poetry
Larry Gadon was as vociferous with his tongue as with the strings of his guitar. Anticipating that Mentong had not been prone to treating guests with music, Larry made sure to bring along the instrument precisely to score the fine dining with fine tuning.
First, he struck “Somewhere In Time,” a variation of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” evoking memories of early romantic flings, then he segued to the real “Romance,” which us in the FQS — First Quarter Storm — in the ‘70s would really delight at, because ever, every time you heard the piece, you would know that following would be someone’s stirring rendition of Amado V. Hernandez’s “Lumuha Ka, Aking Bayan.” This time around, as by some stroke of revolutionary sentimentalism, that someone was me:
Lumuha ka aking bayan
Buong lungkot mong iluha
Ang kawawang kapalaran
Ng lupain mong kawawa…
All the guests were astounded, turned their eyes on me. The pro that he is, Larry went on playing, unperturbed by my sudden entrance. But then, Lo! I realized, if I went on with my poetry, I’d end up agitating:
Lumuha ka kung sa puso
Ay nagmaliw na ang layon
Kung ang bulkan sa dibdib mo
Ay hindi na umuungol
Kung wala nang maglalamay
Sa gabi ng pagbabangon
Lumuha ka nang lumuha
Ang laya mo ay nakaburol
May araw din, and luha mo’y
Masasaid, matutuyo
May araw din, di na luha
Sa mata mo’y mamumugto
Ang dadaloy kundi apoy
At apoy na kulay dugo
Samantalang ang dugo mo
Ay aserong kumukulo
Sisigaw ka ng buong giting
Sa liyab ng libong sulo
At ang lumang tanikala
Ay lalagutin mo ng punglo!
Oh, no! I’m done with Jose Maria Sison! I’m done with the Communist Arty of the Philippines/New People’s Army!
Had I not, in fact, in this very column, run a nine-part series on my declaration of rapture from all concepts of armed struggle?
I zipped my mouth after remarking, “Oh, well… That’s all I remember of the poem.”
I took a drink from my glass. Some trouble there, because Mama Rosa, by Chinese tradition, serves, instead of cold, warm drinking water. That hardly served to douse the fire of the raging volcano in my chest.
Seniors, politics and 9/11
Next note, the idea of Mentong to get Eddie Ilarde appointed chairman of the Commission for Senior Citizens. The former senator, who brought the ubiquitous Bicol laing to add to the already sumptuous menu, expressed willingness to accept the post if offered — “if that’s the last legacy I can leave to the nation.”
I haven’t been familiar with the law creating such a commission on senior citizens, so I couldn’t contribute much to the discussion, but this column is open to anything it can do to help.
Back to Larry, he talked about a movie titled “Vice,” said to be a true-to-life story of former US vice president Richard Bruce Chenney. Larry said the movie delineates how
Chenney actually ran all affairs of the US government during President George W. Bush incumbency. That was the time of the Iraq war.
“So, it was Chenney who ordered the bombing of the Twin Towers?” I asked.
George Siy cut in, “Wait. Are you saying the US did it.”
Mike Alunan took it up from there, citing evidences of the 9/11 incident in New York as a US government handiwork.
“We’ll have another lunch for that,” said George, who wants to be known more as a scholar than the businessman that he is. But even now, I’d wish George viewed
“Zeitgeist,” a video presentation that substantially tackles concerns on 9/11; Diego Cagahastian recommended it to me some years back.
Anyway, Larry distributed copies of “Vice” to select attendees in last Friday’s edition of the Nanka Forum, hosted by him together with Diego, Malaya’s editorial writer, The Manila Times’ Al Vitangcol and Manila Standard’s Charlie Manalo. I got one myself.
Nobody pointed out that in the necrological services for the senior George Bush, the Junior lauded his father for having “shown how it is to be president.” So, was it Chenney actually whom Busy Jr. was lauding in this regard?
Quo vadis, Bongbong?
Curiously enough, the Vice Presidency of the Philippines was among the topics discussed, specifically the electoral protest of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. versus sitting Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo. I had thought the issue was over but for the announcing of results by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), but as the Nanka Forum attested to, the controversy rages on.
Attorney Vic Rodriguez, sitting in the panel on behalf of Bongbong, talked about a petition by their camp at the PET for, instead of failure of elections, annulment of election results in three areas (Lanao, Maguindanao and Basilan). The assumption here is that Bongbong would acquiesce to anything that comes beyond those areas in his electoral protest. One reporter in attendance, a male, rose to question the Bongbong move. Juvy de Guzman, the lady broadcaster beside me, quipped: “Of course, what do you expect?”
“What?” I asked.
“E, Inquirer yan.”
A lady followed through on the man’s pro-Leni line, citing a position by Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa to dismiss the Bongbong protest, sounding like it was the official position of the PET. Rodriguez was visibly irked, but kept his tact, disclosing that the PET had actually ruled 11-2 denying the Caguioa resolution. He lectured the lady on straight reporting, saying something like, “Tinarantado n’yo na nga ‘yung resulta nung 2016, pati ba dito sa PET lelechehin n’yo pa rin (You’ve bastardized the result of 2016 [elections] enough, you still want to spoil it at the PET one more time.”) Rodriguez told the newshen what to advice Leni: “Instead of passing off misinformation, magbayad muna siya ng kanyang counter-protest fee. Hanggang ngayon, hindi pa siya nagbabayad (she first needs to pay her counter-protest fee. Up to now, she has not paid).”
Enter the President
I asked Al Vitangcol how much leverage President Duterte has on the Bongbong protest. Al said, “Wala.”
Of course, Al is a lawyer and he was speaking with a mind for legalese. The executive branch of government is theoretically not supposed to infringe in whatever degree upon the functions of the judiciary.
I took the matter at that, and kept to myself some colleagues’ analysis that between Bongbong and Leni, President Duterte is more inclined to keep Leni in her post as a “necessary evil.” Bongbong would be a formidable foe for whosoever the President will endorse in 2022, Sarah or who else?
In his electoral protest, Bongbong is really up against not Leni but some two or three, who even now are flexing their muscles for the 2022 presidential elections. All of these are praying to high heavens that Leni wins.
In short, President Duterte would wish to keep Leni in her post so that when, for sure, she runs for president in 2022, she would be a sitting duck for his anointed.
Who is the anointed one?
Your guess, going by the cliché, is as good as mine.