Bautista and billions of the Marcos money.

ORDINARY CITIZEN'S NOTES. 1 JAN 2014. THUR. N5.
Bautista and billions of the Marcos money.

THERE IS SOMETHING redeeming among some--but only some--big shot leaders of government in da Filipins. 

We may not like Leila de Lima but we know she makes sense. 

We may not like Kim Henares but we now she makes sense. 

We may not like this Andres Bautista guy, head of the PCGG, but he makes sense. 

He wants to have an accounting of the P168B remitted by the PCGG to the Philippines treasury.

He says he is not going paranoid, that he trusts the government, that all these monies from the Marcoses--now, now, tell us: where did all these Marcos uber-wealth come from?--have to go back to the people. 

But are these monies supposed to be where they are supposed to be? 

What happened to the cache of jewelry of Mrs Imelda Marcos? 

Some say that some powerful people have divided the spoils of the change of abusive regimes, and that these people have taken these and given to their wives and relatives, some resized somewhere in Hong Kong, some redesigned so Mrs Marcos would not recognize these any longer. 

You think da Filipins is the home of the praying people, with something like 80 percent Catholic, which is why Pope Francis is coming to bless these two Catholic believers in January, the rich Catholics who are friends of bishops and priests on the one hand, and the poor Catholics who go to Church only thrice in their lifetime, one when they are baptized, second when they are married, and the last when they die? 

No, no: da Filipins is also the home of the preying people.

Those are the people who prey upon the other people while they are busy praying. 

Now, now, Mr Bautista: do not listen to the abusive leaders who will cart away whatever money has been left of these Marcos billions. 

Listen to the cry of the wretched people who deserve something better, better than what P-Noy is offering, and much, much better than what B-Nay is promising.

HON/

Holy are the days for the Eastern Visayas people: Bless them, dear Lord.

ORDINARY CITIZEN'S NOTES. 1 JAN 2014. THUR. N6.
Holy are the days for the Eastern Visayas people: Bless them, dear Lord. 

EASTERN Visayas is spelled resilience. 

It must be so. 

The place has this indomitable spirit, and that spirit, even if battered, does not know how to bow down to that annihilating power of the vacuous. 

Instead, like Phoenix, it keeps on rising from the ashes, with or without Roxas, with or without Romualdez, and better if they are not around. 

With or without P-Noy with this callousness ("But you are alive, right?"). 

With or without B-Nay with his doles, with his technique to doing so in a shameless way. [Remember those relief goods bearing his name?]

I went to Tacloban and many parts of Eastern Visayas many times before Yolanda came a-visiting. 

Yolanda, after kissing its sacred earth, wreaked havoc on this land peopled by real people. 

The Eastern Visayanons are welcoming and warmth, real and happy. 

On their faces is the easy smile of contentment, that cheeky grin suggesting a people that does not know the meaning of surrender. 

I could have been an Eastern Visayanon in the past, and that thought tickles me so. 

I wish I were. 

If reincarnation is true, that must be something to remember--for the soul, transmigrating as always, to reconsider. 

Our reasons are simple. 

How on earth were these Eastern Visayanons able to withstand the tragic effects of that tidal wave of their otherwise calm and giving sea, and the pernicious tidal wave of government apathy is something that I cannot imagine. 

I can only commend them, if that means something at all. 

Perhaps they do know only the meaning of peace, of resignation, of submission to the dictates of the higher forces of this mortal life. 

I let Christmas go by, and this New Year, and yet, at the back of my head are these images of Eastern Visayans trying to get by in life and in death. 

A research assistant from Leyte I hired for a project I am doing lost 25 of his relatives in one full sweep on that day Yolanda came. This, to me, is worse that war. 

It is Apocalypse for the wrong reasons, and has nothing to do with God's promised redemption. 

And now, Pope Francis is going to the Philippines to bless them, these Eastern Visayanons. 

Please, please Pope Francis: say the word to these callous government leaders. Tell them that they have no right to govern because, like the UNA, what they only care to do is give ham to the hungry people. 

HON/