Winners and Losers of 2007

2007 has drawn to a close. Everybody’s talking about year-ender specials… most of the time, last year’s newsmakers. Every year, magazines publish their own version of who’s the man/person of the year, athlete of the year and so on… I thought of making my own after visiting my favorite gaming website ign.com and it’s the “Winners and Losers of 2007!” Let’s start with Philippine politics.

Loser: Senator Antonio Trillanes IV

He started the year as a loser being detained for a failed mutiny in Oakwood and then come election time turned into a winner having won a seat in the senate with 10,999,999 votes, unfortunately… plus… mine. In a surprising twist before the year ends, he reverted to being the pitiful loser that he is by staging another fart sounding siege at the Manila Peninsula.

So why did I vote for the mutinous soldier? Take note… I am doing this not in defense of my action. I voted for the guy because I am… like what he’s trying to project, an idealist. After the failed Oakwood Mutiny that he led, a research paper he wrote circulated the Internet. After reading most of it, I kind of pictured that he is a man that is against corruption and is only after the welfare of all Filipinos specifically that welfare of his brothers in arms. In his paper, he discussed how high ranking officials in the military get away with ghost shipments of supplies, stealing of fuel later exchanged for cash and others. He even analyzed tactical failures of the military in capturing the Abu Sayyaf bandits when they have them cornered at one of the Mindanao islands suspecting the higher ranks are in cahoots with the terrorist group.

“With great powers comes great responsibility.” He should have watched Spiderman while in detention by the military. He’s a senator now and rebellious acts should no longer be in his repertoire. He should have studied more carefully the country’s last 20 years’ history. You will never topple a government on your own. Not even Enrile, Ramos and Honasan combined can do what the people did way back in ’86 although they usually claim they were the architects of “People Power.”

Come next elections, I believe the Filipino people have or should have learned their lesson, no more freaks coming from the Philippine Military Academy. And to think a friend of mine failed to enter the said institution because he’s “flat footed.”

In the end, he’s just a tamed down defective clone of another senator… Gringo Honasan. But unlike Mr. Honasan, he surrenders at the sight of tear gas and complains like a sissy when allegedly manhandled (during his arrest in the Manila Peninsula) by an upper class man, Director Gerry Barias. Isn’t hazing in the PMA or shall we say terrorizing of new recruits just a common thing?


Winner: Father Ed Panlilio

Pampanga is a province that I always have to cross before I get to Manila. Notably of the province is the poor condition of roads and bridges (which can be used as launch ramps!) but that is understandable since the province was ravaged by the Pinatubo eruption in 1991. In the last elections, the real battle for the highest post for the province is between the younger incumbent Lapid and the wife of alleged jueteng lord, Pineda. The alleged president of the Philippines was torn in choosing her bet between the two gubernatorial candidates. Then came an outsider to the political world… a priest, willing to challenge the much known candidates volunteering as the alternative! The priest that I am referring to happens to have a non-communicable skin disease making some portion of his face whiter and is fondly called “Among Ed.”

Winning the gubernatorial post was no great feat as some would say. If only the younger Lapid and Pineda pitied just one candidate, they could have won and would still control Pampanga. But both have their own agendas and ambition so instead of the usual “choose the lesser evil,” miraculously… the Kampangans was blessed with someone righteous.

Reforms were evident in his first few months. One remarkable improvement was the collections from quarrying. The amount collected in a few months under his watch equaled the younger Lapid’s collection… in years.

But there’s a snag in his administration. A grand display of what is known as “crab mentality.” His second in command, the Vice Governor and at the same time coach of a popular basketball team and some municipal officers are not in tune and rather decided to be thorns towards the province prosperity… the ugly side of democracy.

Kapampangans with Among Ed are already winners but if they let the smaller crabs do their thing… they’ll definitely end up as losers!

Among Ed for President? Why not?

More on Among ED… click here!

"3"

According to Wikipedia, a “prime number (or a prime) is a natural number which has exactly two distinct natural number divisors: 1 and itself.”

To continue, “An infinitude of prime numbers exists, as demonstrated by Euclid in about 300 BC. The first thirty prime numbers are:

2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97, 101, 103, 107, 109, 113

… The number one is by definition not a prime number… The property of being a prime is called primality, and the word prime is also used as an adjective. Since two is the only even prime number, the term odd prime refers to all prime numbers greater than two.”

The number “3” is one of the talked about prime numbers maybe in the same league as the number “7” with 7 Deadly Sins and Akira Kurosawa’s 7 Samurais, “13” with bad luck and Friday the 13th, hmmm “5”… all I know is that “Bioman” and a basketball team have 5 members/players… and I think boy bands.

“3” may represent good and bad luck as pointed out by some movies. In the movie “Stealth” which starred Jamie Foxx, Josh Lucas and Jessica Biel (where they form a stealth fighter strike team), as a more advanced unmanned fighter was about to be added to their team, Jamie’s character quipped that such action is bad luck since “4” is no longer a prime number. Another movie, “Letters from Iwo Jima” also mentioned the number 3. One scene in the movie shows Ken Watanabe’s character (General Tadamichi Kuribayashi) approached by Kazunari Ninomiya’s character (Private First Class Saigo) and thanked him for saving his life for the second time. Ken replied that everything happens in three’s so he wonders when or how would be the third time. By the end of the movie… the general saved the private’s life for the third time thus confirming that everything happens in threes.

Ramon Tulfo, whose column I fail to miss in The Philippine Daily Inquirer, observed the occurrence of events by threes in his article last November 13.

"…Several days after the accident at the intersection of Arnaiz Avenue and Osmeña Highway in Makati City that killed Dulce Saguisag, wife of former Sen. Rene Saguisag, and injured the senator, another road mishap killed three people in Marikina.

The first and second accidents were related in that they were caused by blatant violation of traffic rules. The first was caused by the driver of the dump truck who allegedly tried to beat the red light; the second, was reportedly a result of drunk driving.

When traffic enforcers look the other way, reckless drivers have a heyday.
* * *

Haven’t you noticed that big mishaps come in pairs or threes?
If there’s a plane crash, it’s followed by another plane mishap.

Remember when a helicopter bearing senatorial candidate Luis “Chavit” Singson crashed?

That was followed by another helicopter crash.

And then a third one.

I’ve noticed the striking coincidences since I covered the police beat in the 1970s and 1980s when I was also assigned to cover disasters.

Why is that so? I have no answer. Do you?.... "

Then on November 13, 2007, just past 8 PM, a first in Philippine history happened. A bomb was remotely detonated at the House of Representatives killing four personalities and others injured. The bombing/explosion is a “third” in less than two months in the Luzon area, first… the Glorietta bombing or gas blast followed by the Cavite dynamite explosion. The events are said to have no relation since the Glorietta blast investigation is leaning towards accidental methane gas explosion due to poor building/facility management by the Ayala’s (thanks to the geniuses at the PNP). The Cavite dynamite explosion is also an accident… though it’s a big question why on earth there’s a dynamite factory in a residential area? Such explosions are being claimed as nothing to do with terrorist. Somewhat odd or coincidental that prior to recent events, there was a report that there’d be terrorist attacks and twice have occurred where considerable amounts of dynamite were left by the roadside, one in manila and another at a bus terminal somewhere in the Visayas. Terrorists operating in the Philippines do not immediately claim responsibility over such events as what happened with the Super Ferry incident years back and maybe after a few months or years, new evidence might surface to prove otherwise.

Seeing the news update thirty minutes after the “Batasang Pambansa” bombing and upon hearing that Representative Wahab Akbar was badly hurt, I already assumed that it was a hit. My assumption was further strengthened when the police said that the bomb was remotely detonated. My position is that if it’s an attack at the Philippines Congress as a whole, it should have been detonated with a timer. My initial assessment as to who’s the culprit… the military seems to be the only one capable and since the Marines accuse the representative’s men as the ones responsible for the beheadings of their comrades. With the following operations by the PNP, they believe that they have the ones responsible. Pretty fast for an organization that is usually slow to react. Something’s not right though regarding the suspects. They say they’re Abu Sayyaf operatives and yet they have access to government installations like the House of Representatives? And is it a standard operating procedure to return to your hideout once you’ve made a hit? When you pick a hideout, do you really have to choose one with a history of police and military raids? Indeed there are a lot of questions that needs to be answered.

Back to the numbers thing, some number and conspiracy theorist as published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer have suggested patterns in the dates of bombings. If New York have 9/11, Bali with 10/12… Manila’s recent bombing is 11/13. As the article suggest, there might be something lurking about to happen that will likely take place on December 14… that’s 12/14.

Be safe everybody and pray for peace!

picture! by my friend Vhlad using a Nikon D8O