“This is an excerpt from the draft version of my autobiography titled “A Prophet’s Life”. In the days leading to All Souls’ Day, this is now a recounting of a ghost story which was told to me so long time ago. I believed it must have happened as it was told.”

There was one fish story that brought me to the very ends of the world it had seemed, so far away that running water does not exist and a paved road is an alien concept.

My cousin King came to me on a warm day, the kind of day that my head is loose and every idea could grow and expand into some humongous concept. The kind of weather that the breeze is almost thick you could see them pass by, making you light inside and cheery. It was this cheeriness perhaps that made me take a bite at salesmanship, an amateur one at that I realized later.

(more…)

“Now whose to say that a snap election is good for us right now? And can we trust the COMELEC now to bring to us the right election results?”

There is now once more, a call to sidestep the constitutional mode of transition by way of a snap election. It boggles me that we give back our trust so easily to something that had shown to be apparently flawed and fragile, that is, our election system. Isn’t that the main thing why we want the President to step down? Remember, if somebody else win that snappy election, or if GMA herself would win again that out-of-the-blue contest, could we trust again any election results? I guess not. Not so soon. There would always be accusations of cheating again, and again and again and there would be tons of tons of “evidences” again showing who really won or who really got away with cheating. Remember also that we would wallowing once again in a mud that we had such a bad experience with or a not-so-pleasant encounter with. In 1986, the nation stood breathless before an unprecedented snap election, amidst massive boycotting and rampant violence and election fraud. And when the results came out, no one believed it and we drove the dictator out of office by the voices of the street, by the first ever and original People Power.

(more…)

Something unsavory must have happened within the ranks of LAKAS strong bedfellows that now, the elder of all elders of that seemingly formidable political cluster has made a major turnaround and finally spoke against Malacañang. Former President Fidel V. Ramos now completes all three living former Philippine presidents desiring the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo aside from former presidents Corazon C. Aquino and Joseph Estrada. I never even thought that this day would come knowing how FVR had unbelievably become a fierce defender of the Arroyo government lately—but the day finally did come. In fact if you ask me, this huge “about face” of FVR seem to leave a bad taste in the mouth, even among anti-GMA factions and may just stain his reputation as a elder politician loyal to his political aggrupation, now that he dwells almost in the realm of turncoatism. Maybe, he’d hide behind the famous Manuel L. Quezon line: “My loyalty to my party ends where my loyalty to my country begins”.

(more…)

I never really knew why but when I was of tender age (like about eight or nine years old) I had always found myself watching horror movies—not by intention but by pure chance. Every now and then, I would be glued to some fearsome flick that an older cousin or an uncle was watching on TV. Of course I had no control of what to watch on the boob tube when I was just a skinny kid back then and I can’t really remember if we had a VCR at that time but always it had seem, I had been watching a lot of those scary films when I was little. In fact, there was once this occasion where Uncle Mameng was watching a late night film on TV just by himself and for some reason I arose from my bed so late in the evening and went downstairs and sat beside him as we both watched the film adaptation of Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot”. How could I forget that film? There was this one scene when a ghost-child was floating on the night wind trying to open the window of the house being haunted. The ghost was repeatedly saying “Open the window!” and I just got scared by that particular portion of the movie that I cried furiously and so suddenly that Uncle Mameng had to calm me down and make me go upstairs. He said that I shouldn’t be watching horror movies again. But then, I still had to watch a lot of them.

(more…)

WE SHOULD ALL BE feeling appalled and dismayed by now, but strangely enough, we do not seem to belch anything close to a whimper when there should already be an outcry. Like we–the public–just do not mind it at all or perhaps just could not absorb the whole implication of such happenstance. I am talking about the proverbial emergency power that Malacañang might let loose on us if (according to Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita) the situations warrant it. Today, the talk on the emergency rule already centers on the three main crisis condition that could probably justify the declaration of the power and as declared, they are a terrorist attack, a breakdown in peace and order, and a steep surge in oil prices. It was only days ago that the head of the monster was just being whispered as rumors and gossip matters but now, we are almost speaking of the emergency rule as if it is already a requisite event that could always happen in the days to come with reasonable certainty. How much steeper can the oil prices go before it’s a crisis condition ? How grave a terrorist attack be? And what breakdown of peace are they talking about? The conditions set by Malacañang are way too general that the gray areas are staring at us like a slimy serpent. And this becomes dangerous for us; when abuse of power become so very convenient for those who are poised to abuse.

(more…)

“Hold me now, oh hold me now. Till this hour has come around. We fought for justice and not for gain but the magistrate sent me away.” — The Edge singing for U2 in Van Diemen’s Land

WHEN TOMORROW COMES TO THIS NATION of our birth, what door should open to us and what road shall lead us unto what place?

To be certain, we take some little strides forward, and we have gained them, as our exports grow and the remittances of our overseas workers (our modern day heroes) redound into more and more families that are uplifted from the cruel stranglehold of poverty. Yet, as we examine our terrain, our society’s flawed pyramid of wealth, there are still much left to be desired. Like upon a battle, when the smoke clears after the last gunshot is heard and we see the dead and the maimed lying on the bloodied warpath, we know by heart that battles may be won now but the war ain’t over yet.

We must seek our future now for if tomorrow comes, we have no regrets to drink to and have no blame to impute upon ourselves.

Now we seek the key or keys to our forward march into the economic battles of this global economic world where competition is the harshest ever and those who flinch for even for just a second would surely lose any economic advantage where even the richest of nations now are more inclined to protect their markets with inequitable tariff adjustments that favors the few that caters to their own interests. The GATT is never fool-proof in fact, even as we speak, many have already seen blatant loopholes in the agreed rules and conduct of trade that markets like ours could not compete with subsidies other rich governments give their own farmers. There were times in the near past that it was much cheaper to import vegetables from South Korea than source them from local producers. And we are just talking about vegetables here. Fair play is an illusion and we only must realize this. We see even the European states gathering into a strong union in order to build and rebuild their markets and keep other competitions out of the way. To compete then is never to depend so much on equitable tariff adjustments from more advanced states but should be mainly on terms of quality and standard.

(more…)