Tambuling Batangas Publication April 03-09, 2019 Issue | Page 4

OPINYON April 3-9, 2019 Lingguhang Pahayagan ng Lalawigan ng Batangas na inilalathala tuwing Miyerkules / PRINTING PLANT: Sinag Publishing & Printing Services, National Highway, Brgy. Parian, Calamba City, Laguna. Tel nos. [phone] & [phone] / Subscription fee: One year P360.00 Six Months: P180.00 / Commercial Advertising rate: P160 per column cm / MEMBER: Publisher’s Association of the Philippines, Inc. (PAPI) / Raia Jennifer E. Dela Peña Managing Editor / P.L. Villa, RC Asa Contributing Editors / Shara Jane Falceso, Rachelle Joy Aquino, Jacquilou Lirio, Maria Carlyn Ureta staff writers / Ruel T. Landicho Lay-out Artist/ Ms. Corazon D.P. Marcial, Amber D.C Vitto Legal Consultant. email add: [email protected] & [email protected] Otso Diretso’s disinformation campaign THE Otso Diretso senatorial ticket endorsed by the discredited Liberal Party (LP) of ex-President Benigno Aquino III and its current national apologist, Sen. Francis Pangilinan, is once again misleading the voters, obviously to get the most that it can in the coming May 2019 elections. When the news media reported that the administration candidates for senator were urging the electorate to vote straight in favor of their entire group at a campaign sortie in the provinces, the apologists for the Otso Diretso candidates quickly condemned the move. For them, voting for an entire senatorial ticket is bad for democracy. The opposition candidates wanted to paint a grim portrait of the Philippines dominated by a legislature controlled by one powerful leader. That was said, of course, in the hope of puncturing the administration ticket’s senatorial juggernaut and creating a little room for one or two of pitiful characters comprising Otso Diretso. For the record, the Otso Diretso remark about voting straight in favor of a particular political party is misleading and dishonest. Obviously, the group’s apologists, most of whom are Liberals in name only, failed to review their party’s political history, which is mainly about deceit. In the November 1971 senatorial elections, eight seats were to be vied for between the administration Nacionalista Party (NP) and the opposition LP Party. Senators Eva Estrada Kalaw and Jovito Salonga led the LP candidates. The bombing of the LP proclamation rally (not a miting de avance as many believe) at Plaza Miranda in the evening of 21 August 1971 created a political opportunity for the LP to court sympathy votes. In the aftermath of the bombing, the LP candidates showed up at campaign sorties and on television talk shows in wheelchairs and in plaster casts, to court public sympathy when public sympathy mattered most. Decades later, one of the LP senatorial candidates at that rally revealed that, with the exception of the badly-injured Salonga, many of their fellow candidates exaggerated their injuries in the hope of getting sympathy votes. One LP candidate even wore a phoney plaster cast which was removed before bedtime and attached anew before every campaign. The LP campaign spiel on radio declared, “Ibagsak ang mga tuta ni Marcos! Vote straight Liberal Party!” In other words, the LP knew as early as 1971 that there is nothing wrong with a political party urging the electorate for vote straight in favor of its senatorial ticket — because the LP made that same call before. Evidently, the LP’s infamous Otso Diretso candidates were engaged in political deception when they said voting straight is a threat to democracy. Be that as it may, if the electorate does vote straight in favor of the administration senatorial line-up in the coming polls, that will not be the fault of the administration. That will be the fault of Otso Diretso strategists like Aquino III and Pangilinan for their failure to attract competent, credible and respectable people to fill up the LP senatorial slate, and for their decision to field the lackluster and hollow personalities comprising the Otso Diretso. Before resorting to populist remarks, the Otso Diretso strategists should ask themselves why the voters are reluctant to install in the Senate the likes of a discredited ex-senator who bungled his job in both the transportation and the local governments departments, and of an incumbent senator whose only claim to public office is his desperate attempt to look like his famous uncle. The same strategists should also ask themselves why voters will not elect senatorial candidates like an ex-military mutineer who violated his oath to support the Constitution; an ex-solicitor general who willingly defended the administration of Aquino III in all its cases in the Supreme Court and who resorted to misplaced statistics to justify a foundling’s unconstitutional claim to natural-born Filipino citizenship; a lawyer who defended Aquino III and the LP in its election cases; an ex-representative from Southern Tagalog who can’t even get himself re-elected in his own district, and two more non- descript personalities who merely ride on populist issues and nothing more. One more thing — voting straight for the administration senatorial ticket is not bad for democracy. There are still a few LP driftwoods in the Senate who can still get in the way of the administration’s agenda in the Senate, something they will always do regardless of the results of the May 2019 senatorial election. Ni Teo S. Marasigan Hipnotiko ang Himig Niya PATAY na pala si Mike Francis, musikerong Italyano. Noong una, gusto kong awayin ang mga kaibigan ko dahil walang nagsabi sa akin. Ano’ng klaseng kaibigan sila, kayo kung nagbabasa kayo nito? Pero hindi naman sikat si Mike Francis sa kanila, at naguguluhan siguro sila sa dami ng sinasabi kong paborito. N a g y u - Yo u Tu b e ako kanina ng mga paborito kong kanta noong nakita ko sa video ng “Hey Survivor” ang tunay na pangalan niya (Francesco Puccioni) karugtong ng mga taon ng buhay niya (1961-2009). Ngayong taon! Bakit? Nag-Google ako at nakita ko ang artikulo saInquirer. net tungkol sa pagkamatay niya. Bata pa ako noong sumikat siya sa bansa noong dekada ’80. Ate at mga pinsan ko ang naaalala kong may gusto sa kanya. Sabi ng nabasa ko sa kung saan, “penomenong La Salle” ang pagsikat niya – kung paano sigurong “penomenong Ateneo” ang pagsikat ng Stephen Speaks (“Passenger Seat”) nitong ilang taon. Hindi ko alam kung totoo. Walang nakapag-aral sa angkan namin sa La Salle, kahit sa Ateneo. Salamat kay Ate Sienna, naaalala ko ngang mahilig maglagi ang ate ko noon sa Corinthian Gardens. Akala ko naman, “Bible study.” Iyun pala, nakikinig – at umiindak! – ang lintek sa ebanghelyo ni Santo Mike Francis. Nagustuhan ko na lang si Mike Francis sa pakikinig nitong nakaraang mga taon sa Crossover 105.1. Gusto ko rin ang “Let Me In” (na bastos daw sabi ng iba), “Friends,” “Dusty Road,” “Suddenly Back to Me.” Pati ang “Room in Your Heart” na pinakabago niya sa radyo – at tunog- kursilyo sabi ng isang kakilala. Magaang sa pandinig ang tunog niya, hipnotiko at nakaka-engganyo. Masarap sabayan ang boses niyang mababa, lalo na ang pabugsu-bugsong pagpasok ng mga chuwariwariwap (back-up vocals) niya. Masarap pakinggan sa gabi, lalo na kung kasama ang mga kaibigan o bumibyahe. Okey din sa hapon, nakaka- relaks. Ano kaya ang konteksto ng pagsikat niya? Sa Italya, noong dekada ’80, kakatapos lang ng panahong malakas ang Kaliwa – ang kilusang Autonomia o Operaismo, halimbawa – noong dekada ’60 at ’70. Panahon ito ng terorismo at ng kontrobersyal na pagkidnap at pagpatay kay Aldo Moro, bantog na pulitiko. Sumikat si Mike Francis sa panahong malakas ang kontra-Kaliwa sa Italya at sa mundo. Mukhang naging himig siya ng kilusang masa noon na nakita hindi sa mga demonstrasyon kundi sa disco – noong pinalitan ng droga ang diskusyon sa isip ng tao. Kakatwang hindi siya nakilala sa US, sentro ng kontra-Kaliwa noon. Sakto sa ganitong panahon ang mga tema ng mga kanta niya – indibidwalidad at pag- ibig na walang pakialam sa mundo. Pati ang himig niya – nagpapaindak pero malambing, mapaglaro pero paulit-ulit. Sa isang banda, kalaban ng kulturang progresibo, pero pwede ring kanlungan lang sa magulong mundo. Sa Pilipinas, noong huling hati ng dekada ’80, nagagasgas na ang Kaliwa sa mga ultra-kaliwang hakbangin nito. Sa kabila ng masaklaw nitong propaganda, buhaghag ang pag-oorganisa nito sa masa, kahit sa mga kabataan- estudyante. Maging ang mga aktibista kaya, mas nahahatak ni Mike Francis sa sayawan? Partikular sa akin, naaalala ko ang pagkabata ko. Panahon iyon na parang walang problema sa mundo. Mag-aaral ka lang at maglalaro. Hindi naman sa gusto mong balikan. Siguro mas paalalang kahit gaano kahirap ang buhay ngayon, dinanas mo rin ang maging bata – masaya dahil wala pang muwang. Anu’t anuman, tulad ng iba, may mga kantang gusto kong pakinggan kapag masaya, malungkot, galit, puno ng diwang palaban. Para sa akin, laging kasama ang mga kanta ni Mike Francis sa mga nagpapasaya. Bata man siyang namatay, mananatiling bata ang himig niyang naiwan sa mga tulad kong tagahanga niya. 25 Abril 2009