June 1 - 15, 2018
OPINION
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY
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Breaking
Point
By Rosette Correa
The G7 Summit in Montreal pit-
ted the US and Canada against each
other in an awful display of bullying in
the playground, while the rest of their
playmates watched in disbelief as the
scene unfolded before their very eyes.
US President Donald Trump made a
spectacular display of his “awesome”
power by disrupting a meeting on
women’s empowerment by arriving
late, leaving the summit early before
planned meetings on climate change,
appeared late for the breakfast to dis-
cuss gender equality the next morn-
ing, railed against Trudeau on Twitter,
and announced he would not honour
the G7’s collective communique he’d
signed hours earlier before leaving for
Singapore to meet with North Korea’s
Kim Jong Un. One would think his
people would schedule an “impor-
tant” meeting with the North Korean
dictator on a different day, but when
one really wants to skip a chore, they
would do anything to change the
schedule. Trump was more comfort-
able dealing with autocrats and dic-
tators, thus, it was easier for him to
dodge the meetings that would open
him up to vulnerability and bring him
to the negotiating table.
Other than the disruptions in the
meetings and calling Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau “weak and dishonest”,
Trump continued to wipe his dirty
shoes on the Canadian welcome mat
and declare “Whatever!” I think it rude
Bulong
Pulungan
By Deedee Siytangco
Reprinted from Manila Bulletin
Here we are, halfway through the
year already!
I mark my days with gratitude
for the blessings of getting older; sev-
eral among my cherished friends and
classmates have not been given this
privilege. Let us take a few minutes to
say “Thank you” to the Almighty just
for being alive today.
Let’s love more and hate less.
* * * *
With family and friends, Sena-
tor Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan recently
launched his first book, Tagsibol. The
book relates his journey into farming,
from his chairmanship of the Senate
committee on food and agriculture
in 2010 to becoming a serious and
committed farmer.
Tagsibol, which means spring
season, is an autobiographic snap-
shot of a life-stage where the lawmak-
When the world is your doormat
and callous to be ungracious to
your host and his guests, but
I expected that from him. His
presidency is marked by intol-
erance of things and people that do
not agree with him, and to dismiss the
meeting of leaders is another class on
diplomacy he doesn’t want to attend
because he knows he will flunk the
subject.
Taking into consideration that
Trump does not agree with most, if
not all, of the topics for discussion at
the summit, such as trade and climate
change, it is a poor excuse to leave
the talks and to make the rest of the
team feel they have been dismissed
unceremoniously for his refusal to
sign the communique. I am certain
diplomacy is a part of what you learn
in business school, and I believe it is
essential in making negotiations, but
I guess Trump thinks he’s invincible
that he doesn’t need to make apolo-
gies for his behaviour. When the rest
of the working class is demanded a
certain level of decorum and rules of
engagement, US presidents can be
excused from them? Isn’t the G7 sum-
mit actually put together to talk trade
and other world issues? Why did he
go in the first place if he was going to
be uncooperative anyway?
As his cabinet and advisors con-
tinued to berate Trudeau and the Ca-
nadians, Americans all over the world
apologized for Trump’s behaviour,
including Robert DeNiro who apolo-
gized on his behalf during a press
conference in Toronto. Tweeters went
on social media,
one saying what
an awful friend
the US is to
Canada. Chan-
cellor
Angela
Merkel called his
tweets against
Trudeau
and
Canada “a little
depressing
“
and “sobering”,
perhaps
the
only words the
German leader
can utter that
will not make her look pedestrian the
way Trump looks when he opens his
mouth.
And with his recent “signing”
of an agreement with North Korea,
Trump will have a never-ending show
of braggadocio that will last us the
next few days, despite the agreement
being one of a declaration of a new
friendship and a vague pledge of nu-
clear disarmament. The North Korean
dictator’s “reaffirmed firm and unwav-
ering commitment to complete denu-
clearization of the Korean Peninsula”
means little, and so is Trump’s agree-
ment to “provide security guarantees”
to North Korea. I am certainly rooting
for him that he succeeds in this en-
deavour, but what it will be in the next
ten years is still unsure, and Trump
and his family could care less as they
hide in their bomb shelter when Kim
Jong Un decides not to hold up his
end of the bargain.
A picture says a thousand words,
and the one taken by the international
media with Trump sitting down and
his hands folded across his chest as
the rest of the world leaders stand-
ing and addressing him, can be inter-
preted in many ways. Everyone knows
that when one folds his arms together
across the chest, it is an attempt to
put a barrier between the person and
someone or something they don’t
like. The arms crossed on chest ges-
ture is universal and it has the same
defensive or negative meaning almost
everywhere, and ever since the world
has known Trump, he has always
had this posture. Bullies also have
this posture, as they want to shut the
world out so that they don’t have to
reveal their insecurities and smallness
and hide behind their weaknesses.
Trump doesn’t have to show us this
posture - we already know.
Kiko Pangilinan’s Tagsibol,
from senator to farmer
er was able to tap into a differ-
ent source of inspiration: producing
healthy food and becoming one with
Filipino farmers.
I have been attracted to the fresh
vegetables and herbs from his farm,
which are sold on weekends in Tagay-
tay’s open market, and I haven’t been
disappointed in the veggies I buy from
his Sweet Spring Country Farm.
Pangilinan’s daughter, Frankie,
who hosted her father’s book launch
alongside her cousin, Donny Pang-
ilinan, said: “Growing up with my Dad
means growing up around farming. I
saw how his passion for farming grew
to how it is today. And how he tire-
lessly works toward bettering the lives
of farmers. Tagsibol is a story of his
journey, of this fight.”
Miel,
Pangilinan’s
youngest
daughter, recalled her first visit to the
farm and shared how her father taught
her to respect farmers. “Thank you,
you changed our view of life, of what
farming is, and the lives of farmers.
You made us have more respect for
what they do for the entire commu-
nity,” she said, addressing her father.
Aside from Pangilinan’s daugh-
ters, his nephews Donny, Joey Arenas,
Joshua Buizon, Timothy Pangilinan,
and Benjamin Pangilinan also worked
at the farm. In fact, the nephews were
what Pangilinan called the farm’s “first
farm workers” who had their summer
job in May 2012 and “sowed our first
harvest of lettuce.”
Donny, Pangilinan’s nephew
through brother Anthony and sister-
in-law Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan, re-
called the time he worked in the fam-
ily-owned Sweet Spring Country Farm
in 2012. He thanked his uncle for that
“most memorable” time, learning
about how hard farmers work to “pro-
WWW.PHILIPPINEASIANNEWSTODAY.COM
duce the food we eat.”
“Tito Kiko has been so much into
agriculture and farming that he influ-
ences our own family members to be
part of farming as well,” he gushed.
Sen. Pangilinan is fifth of nine chil-
dren.
Joey Arenas, Pangilinan’s neph-
ew through sister Chel Arenas and
brother-in-law Vic, noted how farming
is a hard but necessary job. He also
said that farmers need to be top prior-
ity and that government needs to step
up in its job of helping farmers. “Tito
Kiks, thank you for the experience.
I have a deeper sense of respect for
farmers and what they do,” he said.
The senator-farmer said he is
grateful that his daughters and their
cousins have a deeper appreciation
of farmers, which he said is what his
book is all about.
“Tungkulin nat- CONT PAGE 9