Tony and 'Ondoy'

That sunny noon that woke up summer early February was made even warmer by Tony Chua’s hosting of a sumptuous lunch for us who have just welcomed the new leadership of the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA).


It was a homecoming of sorts for Mr. Wachu, as some PSA members call him with endearment, as Sir Tony somehow reconnected with the PSA, the country’s oldest media organization, which he supported long before Red Bull and Agfa, two companies he helped nurture into becoming big businesses, were affected by the coming of cheaper energy drinks and the advent of digital camera technology.


It was with pain that Sir Tony had to relay to Gus Villanueva, our PSA elder, the decision arrived at by his business partners sacrificing their long-time sponsorship of the PSA to cut advertising costs. We took it well and thanked them for their nearly 10 years of support to the PSA.


Sir Tony, however, did not totally abandon us. He was always of help whenever the sports media needed him. He stayed active in the promotion of football and basketball. It was in the Philippine Basketball League and the Philippine Basketball Association where he shone as one of the best team managers and board representatives around. He helped the PBA stay afloat during one of the league’s short trying times when he served as league chairman.


In his mind, it was all sports. And during the luncheon he had hosted for us, he brought along the owner of Outlast Batteries, whom he "forced" to become a sponsor of the PSA forum the PSA hosts weekly at the Shakey’s UN Avenue branch.


He turned what was already a lively discussion into a riot when he tried to convince us to use a sports bracelet he was wearing which he claimed bettered his blood circulation, breathing and all the major medical promises the late Ernie Baron’s pito-pito tea once promised until it overtook the "pamparegla" juice being openly sold by so-called herbalists in Quiapo.


He never took our jibes personally, but he knew he failed to sell us his thoughts on that "revolutionary product."


He would call once in a while, but he never mentioned anything about that bracelet anymore. He would check on Letran’s progress in the NCAA, or he would just simply check on some PSA members he loved well.


So, it came as a shock when we learned about his death on Sunday.


"Napakabigat, brod," was all Nelson Beltran, Class A sportswriter of the Philippine Star who heads the PBA press corps, could say when this rubbernecker tried to confirm news about Sir Tony’s drowning in the floods that swept Metro Manila at the height on Typhoon "Ondoy."


My cellphone screen also turned cloudy soon after other news about his death came in, they were like a deluge which came later after Ondoy had subsided.


It was not just Sir Tony.


Different news and different stories came later when communication lines were reestablished among friends and relatives.


Even fellow scribes reported losing homes and properties due to the floods. Some of them had to be rescued, others had to wait for two days before the most basic of their needs, like food and water, came.


Government help was not felt in majority of the affected areas.


Gloria Arroyo looked good in a raincoat and boots, but she was not cute in her gimmicks, including opening Malacañang temporarily to victims of Ondoy.


Although Ondoy offered Gibo Teodoro a chance to shine, he was a big letdown as he was obviously drowned by the immediate task at hand.


While disaster preparedness is 100 percent anticipation, government was only reactionary to the demands of a wrecked population, its weaknesses were exposed.


Questions were also raised about its spending, with more people becoming aware of the P800 million emergency fund used for Gloria’s trip while she is now knocking on foreign donors to help in the relief of Ondoy’s victims.


Her expensive dinners in the US also became an apparent target of criticisms as the money would have saved more lives if it was used to purchase rubber boats which would have come handy at the height of the flooding.


Questions were also raised about the much-touted AFP modernization program, whose funding should come from the bases conversion fund raised during the FVR administration and yet, the AFP and the PNP do not have enough of a fleet of rubber boats to help in such disasters, how much more planes and ships and choppers?


Had these monies been used properly and wisely, and not gone to corruption and the Malacañang toilets, we would not have lost friends and relatives, like Tony.

Noli's folly

Was it heckling or just pure chants that made Noli de Castro lose it when, for a fleeting moment, prescience — that ability to know where an action or thought is headed — seemed to have escaped his mind, he fell into the trap of a group of activists who were simply looking for an ingenuous way to express a grievance?


If it was a trap, which Noli should have known, as a former member of the media with a keen sense for a story, which the Kadamay sought and got with his reactions, extending the issue further and exposing the vice president to the bone, then the left-leaning group seems to have shown the uglier side of Kabayan, as Noli would like to be known, somebody who is more than a Kapamilya or a Kapuso, but one with whom we belong, regardless of regional, religious, economic and ideological splits, as once, he embodied the poor man’s savior.


It was this false thinking that sent what other more veteran and respected media personalities branded as a "mere newsreader" to the Senate, and then to the vice presidency of our nation, and for another brief moment, he had even flirted with what used to be the possibility of his becoming president.


But very soon, with words that normally come from a tambay’s mouth, he revealed himself as nothing more than a worthless piece of paper that becomes one of his reports soon after they have been read. Or at least the papers would make for a useful scratch, or a fuel, or a recyclable material, and not a vice president who is fast on a dive to oblivion and cursed at by the poor from whom he once got his votes but will never give him that chance again.


Noli called them lazybones, the tambays without work or simply, as many among us think, those who simply don’t want to work, spending their days in animated conversations about anything under the sun to kill time. But they are the same ones whom we seemed to have forgotten to take care of, as we did not nurture their chances to better their lives, because as long as we see these tambays — these lazybones — huddled in the the sari-sari store of Aling Maria, gin in hand, then we have not yet succeeded in tilting the balance of power and money onto the masses’ hands, proof of the old order where the rich get richer through the toiling of those who care to work, for the minimal of cents for every drop of their blood, sweat and tears, which Noli seemed to have overlooked, because he is richer now than the days when he had to meet production deadlines and toil his days with ABS-CBN.


Or maybe his years in government only made him see the things before him and not beyond, as a broadcaster worth his salt does in knowing the true state of the issue being laid in front of his eyes. This may explain why he just became a jewel in Gloria’s watch, until his usefulness ceased as her term winds down. He is now being discarded for a trash, like the paper ball he used to make and send straight to the basket after his days in media were done.


Had he looked further, he may have had a different view of these poor people than just being lazybones who could not afford to pay the houses these lazybones’ money have paid for in the first place.


Had he allowed his journalist’s senses work, Noli would have known that their problems with government lie deep in the abyss of helplessness. He would have known that since these so-called lazybones were born, they were already denied their chance to health care, which would have made them better babies; that they were denied a chance at having a better education, a chance to earn degrees for most of them could go past high school, and get better-paying jobs; that they were denied a chance at improving their lives, with a better house and better living conditions in better communities because, as soon as they were born, they were already denied that chance.


Or maybe Noli just thinks rather simply, as some tambays do.

Noynoy

If bland was the impression people had of Noynoy, sister Kris confirmed it when she offered—no, insisted is the word!— her brother a grand makeover. But it will take more than that if Noynoy would really want to win the presidency.
Noynoy is best known as the only son of Cory and Ninoy, and twice as representative of second district of Tarlac. He would vault into the presidency as a neophyte senator who gained his place as Liberal Party’s standard bearer only after Cory’s death.
It was Cory’s death, and the long funeral march that followed, when thousands of people lined up the streets, not just to express their loss and sympathize with the Aquino family, but also to show disgust over the way Philippine politics and governance have become, that bolstered Noynoy’s name.
Noynoy never really mattered in national politics when Cory was the unofficial conscience of the nation, although there were times when she faltered, too.
Noynoy followed wherever Cory went, providing her strength with a shadow that merely echoed, if not directly mimicked, her decisions. His votes and actions as a congressman, as we have seen in his support of two impeachment complaints in the 12th and 13th Congress, the first against Erap and the next against Gloria, would have been Cory’s votes if she were in his place.
Noynoy’s greatest challenge is stepping out of that shadow and become his own man. Malacanang, for a change, is right on this.
On his own, Noynoy seems a fine, simple man. He is said to enjoy billiards and shooting, two sports erstwhile thought to be within the confines of macho men. He was linked to some of the most beautiful faces of show business—Korina Sanchez, Bernadette Sembrano and Diana Zubiri. But he cannot seem to escape the shadow of his family, great historical families, actually, that he is also best known as Kris’ older brother until now.
Who could blame Kris? Even Ninoy was reduced to only being known as her father!
Kris has become the most famous of the Cojuangco and Aquino bloodlines. Hers is one of the most recognizable faces in show business, and it would be a plus for Noynoy’s candidacy, especially when he starts campaigning in areas where show business figures are looked up with admiration and politicians are looked down with a deadly concoction of contempt, hatred and envy.
A corporate survey last year showed Kris as the most trusted brand endorser until Dionisia Pacquiao came along. Yet, it would still help bolster Noynoy’s candidacy, Pacmom or not.
But Noynoy’s shoulder must be feeling the weight of his decision to run for the presidency even this early.
Some view Noynoy as the catalyst for the long-awaited change in Philippine politics, in the manner we have viewed Cory when she sought to replace the late strongman Marcos in 1986.
Noynoy, however, would not be compared to the president he would succeed, but with his mother whom he would replace as the nation’s anchor to hold the nation after a great storm, or tsunami… or maybe we should it a great devastation.
Or maybe Noynoy would also become like his mother who showed promise at the height of her campaign against Marcos, but had become a big letdown to many when she failed to meet people’s expectations (too much, maybe, given the opportunities of the time), beginning with her decision to honor the Marcos debts, which did not benefit the people, really.
Noynoy, of course, is not his parents’ second chance. If he becomes his own man, as Gloria’s clique had demanded of him, then a repeat of Cory’s magic is imminent.
Noynoy is promising change, as other declared candidates for the presidency did. But if we could only stop romanticizing history and begin scrutinizing these candidates, then we would realize what little choice we have to bring that change.

Mar and Noy

The fortunes of war, one that has yet to start, came rather harsh for Mar Roxas.
Roxas, never the frontrunner in the presidential race of next year but hopeful still even after Cory’s death, was felled by a sniper shot from his own party, the Liberals who took their name too seriously to drop their standard bearer in an effort to change horses in midstream, and disregarded the gains Roxas had earned, since the day he dreamed of becoming Philippine president, like his grandfather was, only that he would never be.
Cory’s death changed all that, although it was not the late president’s fault but by those she left behind, including Cory’s friends and relatives who saw an opportunity to regain the power they lost since she gave everything to one Fidel Ramos, who never became the kind of president she had envisioned him to become, and yet the chance beckoned, one that was for Noynoy, Benigno and Corazon’s only son, and the only one to carry on the vestiges of two great families that lent their names to make this nation great, only that Noynoy had never shown that greatness—not yet—but lived his life as just a shadow of his father and mother, on whose names his ambition, in case he would really desire to seek the presidency, are hinged.
Cory’s death, however, was like the fulcrum that lifted Noynoy’s name above that of Mar, and everything became obvious when the call for him to become the Liberal Party’s standard bearer gained ground, a call that was too fast to stop when it already snowballed, it hurtled past Roxas’ pedicab like a bullet train on a clear day, Roxas had to tell his driver: “Stop, I’m good until here.”
Roxas’ decision to turn his back on his and his family’s dream of sending another scion to Malacanang was one that was hard to make. But it was also the easiest exit route for Roxas, who, it seemed, could no longer gain ground in surveys, he was overtaken by events that came after Cory’s death, and was trampled by the mob which sought a new leader to carry the Liberals’ flag to that side of the Pasig river.
Noynoy has become the hottest item in Philippine politics so far. After Roxas, priest/ politician or politician/ priest Ed Panlilio, the Pampanga governor who had also initially wanted to become president, had thrown his support to Noynoy, like it would provide him with enough votes to ensure and assure victory, although on surface and in deep analysis, they are only speaking of votes from one side of Pampanga and Tarlac, the same votes Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is wooing, through her frequent visits and the largesse she gives to their local leaders, who would be the only ones rejoicing when another Pampango bet makes it to the presidency.
Roxas, whose stake would have been supported by the Southern votes, those from Cebu and elsewhere, whose people have been clamoring for another Visayan or even a Mindanaoan president, however, was left to sulk with his own statement of support to Noynoy, wherever history and the so-called Cory magic would take him, yet in reality and in fact, he had left his own supporters sulking more, as they have staked their own wealth and time for him to become president.
They are left in the dark as to what will happen next, and not even Noynoy’s prayers could assure to galvanize his team with those of Roxas, a bad sign given the limited time there is for Noynoy to prepare, the chance for him to suffer the same fate that befell Roxas, that of seeing himself becoming victim of moment and juncture when other probable candidates would seize control of events and not ride on whatever magic there is.
Cory magic had worked once. They say it’s Kris Aquino’s magic which will work now.
Roxas, whether he admits it or not, had his own magic in Korina Sanchez, yet he had no control of the events, he had failed to seize them in his favor.
Yet with eight months before D-Day, Noynoy has to work them double-time to gain where Roxas had left, and even with Kris around that would be harder to convince people to transform their sympathy to the Cojuangco and Aquino families over Cory’s death into votes.
Getting votes are a different story than convincing us to flash the Laban sign in respect to our departed president. That is for sure.