The saga continues...
Limpbwizit's continuing coverage of the SC arguments:

after a recess, the oral arguments on the disqualification case against fernando poe jr. resumed.

counsel for petitioners, known in the legal profeesion as mega-lawyer atty. sharon cuneta, presents her argument...

Chief Justice: Counsel, you cannot argue before this court in that red and black gown, you should wear your robe.

Atty. Cuneta-Pangilinan: With all due respect your honor, this gown was made by rajo laurel especially for this occasion (waves at the video camera and smiles)...HI RAJO!

Chief Justice: This court is not a ramp, robe yourself or you will be cited for contempt!

Atty. Cuneta-Pangilinan: With all due respect Honorable Chief justice, if you insist that i robe myself, i will transfer to the other court!

Chief Justice: Which court?

Atty. Cuneta-Pangilinan: The Cuneta Astrodome!

Justice Artemio Panganiban (whispers to the Chief Justcie): let her argue in that off-shoulder gown, or else we will be mobbed by sharonians.

Chief Justice: the Court allows the counsel to speak before this court wearing a rajo laurel gown, but let it be on record that this should not take precedence.

Atty. Cuneta: Thank you very much honorable justices. The third contention of the petitioners is that, according to my husband kiko, Tito Ron is not a natural-born filipino citizen...i'm sorry talaga tita susan,tito ron,tita helen at tito sen i just have to do this because kiko is with the administration kasi e...i'm sorry your honors but i can not proceed in arguing this case.

Chief Justice: This court understands why you cannot. We take judicial notice of the fact of the megastar's close association with the king and queen of philippine movies and also with the campaign manager of the respondent. you may take your seat. who will present the third argument of the petitioners?

Atty. Jolina Magdangal : I will your honor.

Chief Justice: But not in that orange blouse and purple pants and all those dangling accessories.

Atty. Magdangal: Your Honors, with all due respect, it would be travesty of justice to allow my colleague atty. cuneta to argue in a rajo laurel and not allowing me to argue in my own creation, these items being original filipino creations that are on display in my burloloy shops.

Chief Justice (whispers to Justice Panganiban): how many fans does this lady have?

Justice Panganiban: she used to have many but her career is on a free fall.

Chief Justice: Counsel, this court allowed atty. cuneta to speak in a rajo laurel because what she was wearing was a gown.

Atty. Magdangal: But your honors, these are the same clothes that i wear when i host the TV program The Working President, and in that program, i am face-to-face with the president of the philippines.

Chief Justice: Ok, to preserve the sanctity of the principle of co-equality between the three branches of government, we will allow to descend to the level of the executive and let counsel argue in clothes that she usually wears when facing the president. proceed with your arguments.

Atty. Magdangal: Thank you your honors. it is just timely that we are discussing about clothing and fashion here because the third contention of the petitioners is that respondent fernando poe jr. is naturally an american citizen because he wears a jacket over long-sleeved shirts all the time, as in grabe, all the time talaga, even on summer. with all the chuva-chu-choo about jus sanguinis and jus soli and res ipsa chu-chu-bels, the answer to the question on whether respondent fernando poe jr. is a natural-born filipino is borne by fernando poe jr. himself.

Justice Antonio Carpio: Counsel, do you mean to say that because counsel for the respondent atty. german moreno wears colorful coats all the time, and in your own words, as in all the time talaga, he is not a filipino?

Atty. Magdangal: Thank you for bringing that up mister justice, the case of counsel german moreno is different because he could not, in any case, be a filipino because he is a filipina

Mme. Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales: Corny! I've already heard that having been said about ernie maceda!

Atty. Magdangal: your honors, the philippines is a tropical country and it's so unnatural for a filipino, and someone of respondent fernando poe's stature, to be donning jackets, leather or otherwise, over a long-sleeved shirt all the time even in his fight scenes in the movie panday, which was supposed to be in a desert and also when he has fight scenes in rivers or other bodies of water, like his movie with counsel sharon cuneta. these, your honors, clearly show that the respondent is not a filipino but an american.

it is to be noted that the masculine national costume of the philippines is the barong tagalog and if you are truly proud of your cultural heritage, you are not supposed to wear a leather jacket on top of your barong.

Justice Renato Corona: I have seen this movie where he was a police officer, but i can't exactly remember if he wore short-sleeved poilce uniform in that movie. Can u enlighten us on that counsel?

Atty. Magdangal: you are talking about batas ko ang hahatol your honor but even in that movie, he wore a black leather jacket over of his police uniform. he, the respondent, is making a huge insult to the filipino culture and the integrity of the colors of our police by either not wearing the filipino costume or covering it with a jacket. if this honorable court could recall, in fernando poe's san miguel ad six years ago, he was supposed to be katipunero in that ad, but instead of wearing red pants with one of the manggas rolled up and white camisa and salakot and was supposed to be carrying a spear made of bamboo, he wore an elegantly-designed long-sleeved silk uniform with some insignias that i couldn't understand and carried a silver sword just like the spaniards. and it was supposed to be an ad made specially for the centennial, but he looked like a spaniard. it was the centennial celebrati8on of philippine independence and he was like, hello? wearing a spanish general's costume? hello?

take these facts together, your honors, and you will realize that we wasted so much time in arguing whether respondent fernando poe jr. is filipino or not.

Chief Justice: Are you the final speaker for the petitioner?

Atty. Magdangal: Secret!

counsel for respondent, atty. anabel rama-gutierrez, is so furious but at the same time nervous because of the brilliance of the argument of counsel jolina magdangal. she approached the stand and saw a crying atty. sharon cuneta secretly waving at her from the other side. amicus curiae kris aquino was also making a secret wave under her robe. atty. rama-gutierrez snobbed both of them.

Atty. Rama-Gutierrez: Maayong buntag dong! (referring to the cebuano Chief Justice)

Before i proceed with the respondent's third contention, i would like to manifest to this honorable court that counsel for petitioners, atty. magdangal, is malandi. why i say that she's malandi, because she wants to see the body of fernando poe jr., that's why she's complaining that fernando poe jr. is always wearing long-sleeves. naku day! halata naman masyado na sobrang landi mo. tingnan mo naman 'yan, pati si ronnie na ang tanda-tanda na ay pinapantsaya mo pa. tama nga siguro ang narinig ko na balita na may syota ka na DOM na pulitiko.

Chief Justice: proceed with your arguments!

Atty. Rama-Gutierrez: Mr. Chief Justice, i'm just getting warmed up. Ronnie is a natural-born filipino citizen because i know!

filipino gyud sya, i will not say how i knew about it because my husband eddie might kill me. pero hibaw-an ko gyud kung pinoy o dili kay katilaw man ko ug foreigner pero iba lagi sila sa pinoy. Guisulti man sa ako ni ruffa, kay daghan man sya natilawan, pareho lagi among hi-baw-an parte sa mga pinoy.

Mme. Justice Ynares-Santiago: what do you mean?

Chief Justice: The counsel is saying that she's sure fernando poe jr. is a filipino because she has tried foreigners and she knows the distinctions. Her daughter ruffa also shared to her everything and they both agree on the distinctiveness of the filipino.

Amicus Curiae Kris Aquino: Tita Annabel, i know that, you're so naughty talaga! don't tell me pati si Yilmaz...

Atty. Rama-Gutierrez: ang landi mo talaga kris, pati ba naman si Yilmaz. hindi naman ako gaga no, hindi ako pumapatol sa may asawa!!! at lalong di sa asawa ng anak ko! That's all your honors!

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FPJ's crash course on economics
Despite his earlier antiglobalization postures, FPJ would, it turns out, be having neoliberal economics for his presidency. This was announced by the economist Bernardo Villegas, who advised FPJ and provided him with reading materials on economics. The report says:

Asked to assess if Poe were able to absorb the lectures well, Villegas merely quipped that it’s hard to judge a person’s capability but noted that “Poe is intelligent, talkative and humane.” This is contrary, Villegas said, to Poe’s “laconic image” in public.

“Besides, the brain’s capacity to absorb knowledge is infinite,” he said, stressing that people “should just have to be patient with his education.”

Not true. The brain's capacity to absorb knowledge is not infinite. Perhaps a toddler's brain has infinite capacity to learn, but FPJ is no spring chicken. FPJ, like normal people who deteriorate through time, has fewer brain cells now than when he was younger. (This deterioration must have been further aggravated by FPJ's beer drinking.) An older person's memory is simply not as retentive as a younger person's. It is seriously doubtful if Villegas's Economics 101 really made an impact on FPJ. Two hours of advising and lectures are not enough; the academics are simply too overwhelmed by the sight of potential political power that they lose their proper judgment on this matter.

FPJ is getting too many briefings these days from academics who, for all their bright and shining Ph.D's, are not especially known--we must admit--for their communicative skills with high school dropouts. The academics advising FPJ are actually overestimating two things: 1) their own pedagogic skills and 2) FPJ's capacity to learn on the fly.

Everybody though is happy with this arrangement. FPJ's campaign gets a semblance of coherence, the academics' egos get a boost, and the reporters get stories to write.

Oral arguments at the Supreme Court on FPJ's citizenship
Limpbwizit blogs on the SC arguments:

Atty. Moreno: Thank you for raising that Madame Justice, it is of public knowledge your honors that fernando poe jr. is dubbed as the king of philippine movies. he would not be called such if he is not a natural-born filipino actor because making around 500 movies in 50 years would not be easy if you are not a natural-born, hence, under the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, the career of fernando poe jr. speaks for itself - that he is a natural-born filipino actor. and in my experience with that's entertainment, your honors, i can spot whether an aspiring actor is a natural-born or not and with all honesty, your honors, and i think the whole country would agree, that fernando poe jr. is a natural-born filipino actor. furthermore, the father of fernando poe jr. is fernando poe sr., as suggested by his name, and his father was a known filipino actor of his time, thus, following the well-settled doctrine that the fruit of the poisonous tree is also poisonous, there is an overwhelming evidence that fernando poe jr. is a natural-born filipino actor. it is thus submitted your honors that by the facts of public knowledge that was just presented, mr. fernando poe jr. is a natural-born filipino. before i end my argument your honros, i would like to distribute to you these newly-released CDs from vicor records, these are the albums of my former babies in that's entertainment, and some gift packs from the sponsors of my show. sha-la-la will distribute them to you your honors.
XXX
Amicus Curiae Kris Aquino: How about the argument under the doctrine of poisonous tree? Kasi, like my Josh, he's so like his daddy Ipe, and my brother noynoy, he's a carbon-copy talaga of my dad, that's why i'm super kumbinsi that because tito ron's dad was a great filipino actor, tito ron is a natural-born filipino actor.

Solicitor General: Thank you raising that, madame amicus curiae. It is disputable whether the father necessarily sires a son of equal or greater character than he is. It is also of public knowledge that the respondent's best friend erap was a handsome man during his youth, but questions arose - how about jinggoy? Furthermore, erap estrada is known to have so many women in his life so it is also proper to ask - how about jude?How about Dolphy Quizon and Eric Quizon? it is thus submitted, your honors, that the poisonous tree doctrine finds no application in this case.

Atty. Armida Siguion-Reyna: Your Honors, I shall be direct-to-the-point with our second argument. It is our contention that fernando poe jr. is, aside from being a natural-born filipino actor, also a natural-born filipino boxer, as earlier raised by the counsel for the petitioner. it is of public knowledge your honors that filipinos are natural boxers as demonstrated by great filipino boxing champions like flash elorde, luisito espinosa jr., manny pacquiao, onyok velasco, and bong navarette, not to mention the obvious popularity of the sport in the country.

Mme. Justice Chico-Nazario : did the respondent win any boxing championship?

Atty. Armida Siguion-Reyna: none that i know of Madame Justice but noteworthy is his fist-fighting ability that he knocks down all of his opponents with his trademark rapid punches punctuated by his another trademark "cymballing" of the bad guy through the latter's ears. these, on top of being natural abilities that could not be acquired by training by those who were not natural-born boxers, your honors, are uniquely filipino boxing routines born and existing only in the philippine scene. being a unique filipino boxing routine, it follows that it's creator is a natural-born filipino for we can not, by any means, claim as uniquely ours something not created by a natural-born filipino.

Justice Reynato Puno: counsel, it was already said earlier that one single occurrence should not be taken to prove a general fact.

Atty. Siguion-Reyna: I took note of that your honors and as a matter of fact, i have other examples to cite to prove my point. Mr. Poe is also a filipino legend as proven by his movie alamat ng lawin. by simple translation, the legend of the hawk. according to bouvier's law dictionary, a legend is a story of how things came into being and mr. poe could not be a legend if he is not a natural-born because legends are born and not made. thus, he is not just a natural-born filipino actor and boxer, he is also a natural-born filipino legend. your honors, the facts pointing to fernado poe's being a natural-born is overwhelming, it is therefore submitted that he should not be disqualified from running as president of this country.

Nelson Mandela is coming to town on March 23!
Teddy Benigno in his column today quotes Luis Taruc announcing this. No mention of the occasion and other details though.

Booty capitalist
Raul Rodrigo writes today about the happy life of Danding Cojuangco as a rentseeker:

By dint of astute, sharp-elbowed maneuvering, Danding built one monopoly after another: coconuts, soft drinks, beer, and so on. When Marcos fell, he was on the verge of building a new sugar monopoly. The Boss’s modus operandi remained the same, whether in Marcos’s time or Erap’s: use other people’s money to create monopolies, leverage these monopolies into wangling even more power and influence, and all the while keep enough resources flowing to the powers-that-be to keep them looking the other way.

"All this public display of love is vulgar and pure foreign nonsense."
---D. Khandelwal, a local leader of the Indian hard-line group Vishwa Hindu Parishad, threatening to blacken the faces of young lovers with soot if they celebrated Valentine's Day

The president is reading komiks
Because of her embarrassing gaffes in speaking the national language, President GMA is reading komiks to hone her Filipino linguistic skills. The Inquirer reports that the president is in the habit of directly translating English phrases into Filipino: drawing the line turns into paggguhit ng linya and turning around the economy, the President disastrously translated as pagpapaikot-ikot ng ekonomiya.

I wonder what komiks GMA reads. And where does she get them? I see some on display at the National Bookstore, but I don't see some of the titles I enjoyed in the past (must be defunct now): Pinoy Klasiks, Pinoy Komiks, Kwento, Funny Komiks.

While the president is at it, she should also try listening to AM radio soaps on air luchtime. And one more thing: stay away from Randy David. The Filipino language as used in the academe can be just as off-putting to the masa as pagpapaikot-ikot ng ekonomiya.

Rumors of a disqualification
With vicious rumors circulating left and right about the alleged Malacanang predetermination of FPJ's citizenship, the Supreme Court should be hurling contempt of court charges to just about everybody--starting with Atty. Estelito Mendoza, who warned on primetime TV that an adverse decision would unleash chaos. (Atty. Leonard de Vera did exactly the same thing when he said that an SC decision declaring the Anti-Plunder Law unconstitutional would unleash chaos and People Power, and he was cited for indirect contempt by the Supreme Court and fined P20,000.)

What is especially galling is that these rumors currently circulating are being given credence by people who are presumed to be in the know. Their credence betrays their distrust and low opinion of the Supreme Court. Is our Supreme Court really this week and pliable that lawyers who have invested their lifetimes in the practice of law are all to ready to believe that our Supreme Court takes orders?

If the Supreme Court were a totally honorable institution, rumors of this type would have been nipped in the bud. That these rumors bubble up to become the stuff of front-page headlines only shows that despite our paeans to the rule of law we as a people do not really buy that justice-for-all claptrap.

Exactly what are the indications that the SC will decide against FPJ's citizenship? None but alleged insider rumors. The choice of amici curiae though can be more revealing. At least one of them, Dean Joaquin Bernas of the Ateneo, would be sharing the opinion that FPJ is qualified. And there seems to be no clear indications that the other three friends of the court--Justice Mendoza, Prof Balane, Dean Magallona--would be tendering diametrically opposite opinions. The purpose of all these rumors seems to be nothing more than to put on hold the money contributions flooding FPJ's coffers.

What happens though if, in any event, the SC disqualifies FPJ? Rumors of chaos and People Power scenarios are highly exaggerated. The combined FPJ and Erap crowds are simply not enough to overturn the present political dispensation--the unpopularity of GMA considered (read Conrado de Quiros's column which raises some doubts on this). As UP Prof Alex Magno is wont to point out, in People Power, it is not only the quantity but the quality of the crowd that counts. It is sad but the FPJ crowd of politically dispossessed may have the numbers but it doesn't have the quality to stage a successful People Power.

Incidentally, Raul Roco seems to be buoyed up by the prospect of FPJ's disqualification. He is confident that the electorate would choose him over the president in a mano a mano fight.

The World Social Forum: challenging empires
A critical anthology of essays on the theory and practice of the World Social Forum, with essays by wo/men from many parts of the world, is available here. The essays include two written by Filipinos: Walden Bello and Irene Santiago.

Desperately waiting for the UPCAT results
I have heard UPCAT results are quite late this year. All the other universities have released their rosters of accepted applicants, but UP's website has been eerily silent. High school seniors all over the country can hardly wait.

Peace fatigue
Today's main editorial talks about the "peace fatigue" everybody is feeling with regard to the peace talks between the NDF and the GRP:

Few Filipinos, however, are under the delusion that the talks would pave the way for the cessation of hostilities, permanent or otherwise, in the immediate future. In fact, there is so little public interest in the talks that the media would have completely ignored them had the Malacañang press office not been issuing a flurry of press releases on the Oslo talks and, in some cases, calling in favors from reporters and editors. Nobody really cares.

Joaquin Bernas, exasperated by the futility of the talks, even unholy compares Saint Monica and GMA:

The patience of Gloria, not yet a saint, is being tested by the Netherlands exiles. They will not negotiate unless first delisted from the Roll of Terrorists authored by President Bush and the Europeans. Gloria may have to wait as long as Monica.

Nobody free from Pollyana delusions can seriously think that peace can be had in this time, or in the near future. Joma deplores GMA; the rebels call the present dispensation clerico-fascist. How can they possibly be expected to agree on anything? The two camps totally proceed from mutually exclusive positions.

Peace talks are done not so much to seek peace as to humor the reporters. Neither the government nor the NDF wants peace; they want peace talks. The NDF buys time while the government gets something to talk and write about.

And the people are the ultimate losers. Just how much does the goverment spend for hotel accomodations, staff functions, plane fares? Does Norway contribute?

If the money spent on fruitless peace talks were doled out to invidual rebels instead, we would probably be closer to peace. Probably disastrous for public accounting, but undeniably more efficient than our peace talks today.

Web prowl
Time magazine reports about Filipino soldiers doing humanitarian work in Iraq and how they are unfazed by the situation there. Read JM Coetzee's absolutely delightful short story "As A Woman Grows Older" (funny thing is I imagine Nadine Gordimer as the woman protagonist while reading the story). A first-year medical student writes about dissecting a corpse here.

FPJ and the economy
Tony Lopez had a conversation with FPJ and asked him about the economy. FPJ's reply was:

I’ll try to bring back people’s trust in the government. They (my political opponents) seem to forget that particular word—trust. We should bring back trust. If you don’t have trust in a person, then the relationship is finished. It’s like swimming. If there is a lifeguard and you trust him, you go swimming, if there are no lifeguards then you don’t feel confident swimming.

The pivotal question though is: Do the country's businessmen trust FPJ as a lifeguard? This is important because the D and E class may trust FPJ all they want, but they barely constitute a national economy by themselves. Economy means businessmen which constitute a sizable proprtion of the country's elites who, rightly or not, are contemptous of FPJ's gall to run for president. A recent survey commissioned by Makati Business Club among its members yielded zero--not one, not two-- but a resounding zero vote for FPJ. And there is no sign in the horizon that the negative perception of the country's elites will change any time soon.

The only reason why the country's elites and managerial classes are barely tolerating FPJ's candidacy is that they are not quite intellectually rigorous enough (plus perhaps the natural conservative inertia of people doing well in the status quo) to reject majoritarian rule altogether.

FPJ is cruisin' for a major bruisin'. He does not know it yet, but he will know soon enough. It is only the Americans that we fully trust. FPJ insists he is a Filipino. He may be right.

What's the real score?
It seems Senator Biazon can not quite decide which side he is on. After dramatically joining Roco in his quest for the Philippine Camelot and saying paeans about Roco's being the best candidate in promoting the public good, Sen Biazon has now bolted Roco's alliance in favor of GMA's K-4.

What happened ? Did Sen. Biazon see the the hitherto unknown dark side of Roco? Or has there been a sudden and precipitate reconfiguration of the public good overnight?

Roco himself has a simpler explanation, the Inquirer reports. Biazon, according to Roco, was bought off by 30M pesos to join GMA's camp. Thirty million pesos is quite a good amount for anybody's retirement, but Biazon, of course, denies he was proselytized by cash and cites personality differences between him and Roco, differences which Biazon says he is at pains not to divulge.

The first time I read about these supposed personality differences, I thought Biazon and Roco were having an annulment of marriage. "Personality differences" is the cliche reason given by people breaking up previously amorous relationships. The reason he gave is meaningless crap and the public deserves better than that. Even if the 30 M grease money were true, Biazon should have given a better reason than personality differences--something perhaps like he could no longer abide Roco's gumamela shirts. The public should understand this, with Biazon's being of the older generation and a former military man and all.

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In an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations, John Lewis Gaddis, a noted historian of U.S. foreign policy, says the Bush administration's pre-emption doctrine is "the most dramatic and most significant shift" in Washington's international strategy since the outbreak of the Cold War following World War II. Jose Ramos-Horta, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of East Timor, spoke with The Irrawaddy in Bangkok on East Timor's solidarity with the democracy movement in Burma and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Bush's Wow Mali
The transcript of the NBC interview last Feb 8 with US President Bush can be read here. Bush admitted a deficiency in the intel work for the Iraq invasion, but pleaded that in any case, the American people should understand the context in which he made the decision to invade.

In the interview, Bush also denied that he was a deserter during the Vietnam War. And, no, he never knew Kerry at Yale, contrary to Kerry's claims.

Counting democracy
If I were Benjamin Abalos I would require this to be posted on the main entrance to the COMELEC building in Intramuros:

It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting.
--British dramatist Tom Stoppard, Jumpers

Something to perk up the employees in these trying times.

Free access to SAGE academic journals
SAGE will provide free complete access to its academic journals until March 31.

Bush v. the intellectuals
Wall Street Journal had an op-ed on the disdain felt by the intellectuals for US President Bush. The first paragraph:

Many people look back on their college years and regret how much they missed of the great intellectual resources of the university. Not me. My regrets are about failing to meet more of the remarkable people who were my fellow undergraduates at Harvard and nearby MIT. I thought of such socializing as mere fun, which came after coursework. As a result, there were a lot of interesting students I never got to meet, from Benjamin Netanyahu to Benazir Bhutto, from Bill Gates to Scott McNealy, even though some of these people knew friends of mine. But my regrets are more wistful than realistic, since no one knew everyone in college.

PDE National Lecture Series
(Sponsored by: National Economic and Development Authority, National Statistics Office, Tariff Commission, Development Bank of the Philippines and the UPSE Program in Development Economics)

Title : Philippine Economic Development:
LEARNING FROM THE PAST AND LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Guest Speakers : Prof. Gerardo Sicat
Prof. Solita Monsod
Prof. Cielito Habito
Sec. Romulo Neri
Date : February 20, 2004 (Friday)
Time : 1:00 PM
Venue : Development Bank of the Philippines Penthouse Makati City

Entrance Fee is P 150.00 (inclusive of snacks).
For inquiries or confirmation, please get in touch with the following:
Ms. Rose San Pascual of UPSE at 920-5481 or rosemarie.san_pascual@up.edu.ph
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Mr. Jojo Cajita of NSO at 716-0734
Ms. Luming Burgos of Tariff Commission at 924-3123

All Da King's Men
Newsbreak has a story on the people running FPJ's campaign.

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The exquisite embarrassment of being FPJ
Minda News banners the story on how Davao scribes were disappointed over FPJ's ignorance on the Mindanao peace issue. Minda News reports that:

Poe, who is known to dislike nosy reporters, could not elaborate on the subject and lamely answered, “ Hopefully we can solve peace and order. Hopefully we can give peace sa inyong lahat.”

The answer sent a chill among reporters who wanted Poe to elaborate more about attaining peace, Mindanao’s main issue.

Of course, Loren Legarda, the ever-reliable sidekick who has recently replaced Berting Labra, was quick to the rescue and said " Peace in Mindanao at all costs," which is pretty much as nebulous as what FPJ lamely said.

If FPJ's answers to queries made by reporters are to be an indication of his coming administration, then for the next six years we are perhaps going to be in limbo, groping our way in the dark. FPJ's pronouncements on policy issues are just about as helpful as beauty contestants' elucidating the ways on attaining world peace.

FPJ is simply at a loss. And it is horrifying that the people around him, rather that honestly doing something about his perceived inadequacies by perhaps coaching him, are trying to hide the obvious by shielding him from reporters.

Jessica Soho's interview of FPJ amounted to more or less seven minutes and FPJ only consented to elaborate on his siring an illegitimate child. I know that illegitimate children may throw some light on a person's sense of responsibility, but sexual indiscretions in the past are hardly an issue of national importance.

I saw the footage on TV where GMA's Sandra Aguinaldo had an ambush interview with FPJ (with Legarda closely beside him shoulder-to-shoulder). Aguinaldo would throw a question, FPJ would say a one-liner, Legarda would explain. There was a pretty tense embarrassing moment though when this oh-so-subtly cruel and nasty Sandra Aguinaldo asked FPJ if he felt alluded to by GMA's recent pronouncements about choosing a leader of brains and experience. Aguinaldo asked--audibly-- the question twice : Sir, do you feel alluded to?

Apparently, FPJ did not understand what being alluded to meant so Aguinaldo translated it: Palagay nyo po ba pinaparinggan kayo? FPJ then curtly answered negative and Legarda tried to brush aside the awkardness of the encounter with a guffaw.

GMA reporters are really nosy and I think have a tacit understanding to embarrass all the presidential candidates--except Roco. Vicky Morales did the same thing to Presidentiable Eddie Gil, when she badgered the latter with the question about his net worth. Eddie Gil did not understand the meaning of the phrase "net worth" so he gave oblique answers thrice. Morales kept on pushing with net worth that Gil, visibly exasperated, asked Morales what net worth meant.

It is such a sad spectacle to see presidential candidates display their ignorance. The Davao reporters had a taste of it recently in the case of FPJ. We will probably have more and more and more of it in the coming days.

A London Review of Books review essay writes about Sappho, the controversial poet from Lesbos.

What kids think of classic rock music
The Guardian has an article on this. Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit was a hit, while Bob Dyalan in Like A Rolling Stone "sounds like he's just smelled something really bad, like cat poo."

Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991)

What the grown-ups say: "... reflects Kurt Cobain's skilful mingling of Stooges'-style brute yobbism (grinding guitars and yelping vocals), American punk and late 1970s art rock." (NME)

What the kids say:

Ben This is amazing. The bass is amazing. It's brilliant.

Holly I like him singing, "Hello, hello, hello" - that's funny.

Sophie It's making me think about doing bad things like putting snowballs down my sister's back.

Benjamin This would definitely win Pop Idol.

Holly Good, goodbye, goodbye.

Benjamin 12 out of 10. Actually 3000 out of 3000.

Attention span: Whole song.

Better than Busted? "Yes."

Job opening
Adarna House, the leading publisher of storybooks for Filipino children, is looking for a writer for an upcoming project.

Writer applicants must...
- have highly developed writing skills
- have good command of Filipino and English
- be proficient with MS Word
- be creative
- have excellent interpersonal skills
- be a team player
- like children (or at least he/she should know how kids' brains work)

Please submit copies of your résumé and two writing samples, preferably essays, to Adarna House, Inc., Room 102 JGS Building, 30 Scout Tuason St., Quezon City 1103. You may also e-mail them to pdg@adarna.com.ph.

For inquiries, please call 372-3548 local 108. Look for Luwi Infante.

Human error in capital punishment
The only way to prevent the execution of innocent people is not to execute anyone, says this Findlaw column. Scott Turow basically says the same thing in his new book Ultimate Punishment. Read Observer's review of the book:

There will always be cases that cry out for ultimate punishment, but that is not the true issue. The pivotal question is whether a system of justice can be constructed that reaches only the rare, right cases without also occasionally condemning the innocent or underserving. Let Gacy live to save the Hernandezes and Thomases. Let justice be roughly done to save our politicians from posturing, pusillanimity and vote-grabbing. Let there be no more death by state decree.

I wonder how our politicians can countenance the death penalty and trumpet its deterrent effect when all studies conclude that such deterrent effect is a chimera. On a related note, does approving executions amount to a personal sin on the part of the president, a sin that needs to be confessed ? GMA in hell is simply too disturbing. I must remember to ask a priest.

Fallout from Janet Jackson's breast
At first everybody was denying it was planned, but now MTV and Janet Jackson admit that the breast exposure during the Super Bowl halftime show was indeed part of the choreography masterminded by Jackson herself as a publicity stunt to promote her coming single (Click here for the pictures.)

The breast exposure has one-upped Madonna's kiss with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. The question on everybody's mind now is who will take the challenge and, in turn, trump Jackson. There is a need though to detemine first if the American First Amendment protects such "indecency. "Michael Dorf of Findlaw addresses that question.

Because of the decision of the Supreme Court declaring as unconstitutional some of the provisions of Republic Act (R.A.)7942, more popularly known as the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, 23 mining permits in the Cordillera have been scrapped, the Manila Times reports. Business World also reports on how the SC decision throws a dark cloud on the Malampaya project.

The University of the Philippines conferred upon Dr. Onofre Corpuz the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa on January 27. You can read his address during the conferment here.

The Third U.P. Public Lectures on the Philippine Presidency and Administration
(Organized by the UP School of Economics Program in Development Economics in coordination with the Center for Leadership, Citizenship and Democracy of the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance)

Title : The Arroyo Presidency and Administration (2001-2004): A self-assessment of the socioeconomic planning sector
Speaker : Hon. Romulo L. Neri
(Director General, National Economic and Development Authority and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary)
Date : February 5, 2004 (Thursday)
Time : 2:00 PM
Venue : Diosdado Macapagal Hall (SE Auditorium)
Everyone is invited. Admission is FREE.

The miseducation of the Filipinos
Felipe Miranda of the Philippine Star and Manuel Quezon of the Inquirer both write about the miserable state of education in the Philippines.

Quezon is writing off the entire miseducated generation of EDSA I babies. He hopes that the new and more stringent grading system will yield a better educated generation. Writing off a generation as forever lost is pretty dour, but Miranda is even more despondent: "If a political development of the first order were to take place within the year, there will be a properly educated Filipino public by the 2080s."

Belonging to the generation Quezon is writing off, I cannot help but feel a little defensive. Is our generation's condition really that bad? Or was there ever, honestly, an educated generation in the Philippines?

I was tutoring a high school student--a relative--last December, and my aunt was so incensed at his educational inadequacies that she started rattling off an almost exhaustive list of my cousin's faults. My cousin retorted back sharply, cutting my aunt in the middle of her litany: "If you were so good, why don't you answer the math questions in the textbook?"

My aunt was taken aback and was at a loss for words. I could not help but smile then because I know my aunt--who has an education degree although she never taught--does not know the answers. Hell, my aunt couldn't tell a quadratic from a linear equation, much more look for coordinates even if her life depended on it.

I think the point of the above anecdote is this: We are a mess because the generations that preceeded as were no better. And come May 2004 members of the generations preceeding ours will crowd the polls to vote for the star of their generations: FPJ "Da King."

Jose Rizal was complaining about the state of Philippine education during the fin de siecle. As far as I know Crisostomo Ibarra's physics class was well and alive before just as it is well and alive now. The scourge of miseducation is shared by all generations.

Our public school system will never be better. Why? Because our ministers of lofty portfolios simply do not have personal stakes in the system. Their children go to exclusive private schools of prohibitive matriculation. The public education can go to hell tomorrow and their own children would be spared. The resuscitation of our public school system is possible, but, sans the personal stakes, our public officials simply do not feel its immediacy.

I myself attended public schools all my life--and I am not talking of some fancy science schools, but the down and dirty public schools of a second-class municipality. It was terrible.

To give one an idea of how miseducated I am (I am almost tempted to say was): My English teacher in high school announced in the class that Shakespeare invented Cleopatra, and when I and one of my classmates accosted and told her that Cleopatra was, in fact, a figure in world history, she would hear none of it, and so it was that Cleopatra never existed in my English class.

Another teacher also announced rather pompously that Darwin's theory of evolution has been debunked, but she never told us by whom. Another science teacher, who prided herself for being the most learned among the science teachers in that school, was erroneously pronouncing cation as keyshon. She will probably be bringing her unique rendering of the word to her grave without realizing her mistake.

And I was luckier than most kids in my town. I lived in the poblacion so I supposedly had the "best teachers." Just imagine what the public school teachers are teaching in the smaller barangay schools. When we graduated, half of my high school section did not bother with university applications because high school was the furthest level of education they could afford.

Personally, I think of my public school education as a red badge of courage. I've been through hell and I emerged probably intellectually wanting but still--one has to grant--I am not exactly out of the race yet. I remember how I hated family reunions when my uncle would brag about his children getting their education in La Salle and the Ateneo and how brilliant they were. He was so condescending. I was too polite then to point out his children and I were simply incommensurate. My parents were paying more or less 100 pesos for my education while he was paying thousands. If my cousins had a thousand times my IQ, it was but just and proper.

The discrimination I experienced before during those reunions make me only too aware of the massive gap between the education of the elite children and the education of the rest of us.

Public schools do not have the resources, the books, the teachers. Potentially bright minds are going down the drain simply because parents could not afford private schools. Students from public high schools, especially those from the provinces, are lagging behind in academic performance so much so that the University of the Philippines has found it necessary to engage in some form of affirmative action program.

The public school system is falling. Why should the elites care when they can afford private schools? Simple. Miseducation of the Filipino people makes it possible for FPJ to be president, for Bong Revilla to be elected to the Senate. Give the people good public liberal education and there would be no need for People Power. And besides whatever happened to good old noblesse oblige?

Free workshop
Scriptwriting for radio workshop sponsored by Creative Collective Center, Incorporated will be held at University Hostel, UP Diliman. (near Balay Kalinaw) on 4 February 2004 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Mr. Rene O. Villanueva, the multi-awarded writer, Dra. Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, respected psychologist and
professor from UP Diliman and Dra. Junice Melgar, director of Linangan ng mga Kababaihan, are the lecturers.

For details, please call 925-8066.

The end of postmodern literary theory
The Christian Science Monitor brings us the pleasant news that postmodern literary theory is growing passe--and as a corollary, non-lit majors unschooled in Derrida and company, can once again participate in the discussion of literature.

Berlusconi the metrosexual
"I look in the mirror and I like what I see. And I think I am more pleasing to others, too."
--Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi,on his new look after having cosmetic surgery around his eyes and going on a diet. He added, "I am not finished yet, as you can see."

Jose Sison of the Philippine Star summarizes the arguments of the pro and contra side regarding FPJ's natural-born Filipino citizenship.

Democracy versus the free market
Amy Chua, a Fil-Am law professor teaching at Yale (who, if internet rumor is to be trusted, wears leather trousers during lectures), has this thesis that is increasingly becoming popular among academic circles, which she expounded in a number of essays (like this one appearing in the Wilson Quarterly).

Globalization, according to Chua, is simultaneously inundating the developing world with free-market capitalism and democracy. Those two, however, make different sets of people powerful. The ascendancy of the free market means more power to the minorities who dominate national economies (like the Chinese in Southeast Asia, the Lebanese in Westy Africa); the promotion of democracy though gives political power to the majorities. Chua says that when these two groups of people collide you get explosions of ethnic violence.

Market-dominant minorities are the Achilles’ heel of free-market democracy. In societies with such a minority, markets and democracy favor not just different people or different classes but different ethnic groups. Markets concentrate wealth, often spectacular wealth, in the hands of the market-dominant minority, while democracy increases the political power of the impoverished majority. In these circumstances, the pursuit of free-market democracy becomes an engine of potentially catastrophic ethnonationalism, pitting a frustrated “indigenous” majority, easily aroused by opportunistic, vote-seeking politicians, against a resented, wealthy ethnic minority.

Chua offers a new way of looking at what is happening in the Third World. The American audience though is interested because Chua says that the Americans are a market-dominating minority in the global stage, and the resentment being generated by American success is comparable to the resentment being directed against, for example, the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia.

Chua's sexy thesis rings true. The poor and the wealthy are naturally predisposed to collide (didn't Marx say this before?). Two-pronged globalization (free market and democracy) is making those potential collisions deadlier by empowering both the poor and the wealthy.

Chua extrapolated her thesis from the murder of her wealthy Chinese aunt (who gifted her with a gold bar during graduation!) by the Filipino family driver. I wonder though if she is correct in saying that the Filipinos resent the welath of the ethnic Chinese in the Philippines. My opinion is that Filipinos, like Americans, do not resent great wealth; otherwise, with the feudalism and inequality of the Philippines, the communists should have made significant inroads and should be close to a revolution by now.

The above thesis has been developed by Chua into a book: World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability. The book has been hailed by the editors of the Economist as one of last year's best books on current affairs.

History of Southeast Asia
The ASEAN Focus Group's History of Southeast Asia is available online.

Mahathir's Malay Dilemma
After a million procrastinations, I have finally found the time to read Mahathir's controversial Malay Dilemma. First things first: The book is politically incorrect, arguably racist, contemptously prescriptive--and totally wonderful.

Malay Dilemma belongs to that genre of books written during the author's political nadir, like Machiavelli's Prince and Hitler's Mein Kampf. Mahathir wrote the book after he was expelled from UMNO because of an open letter he wrote attacking then Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman for neglecting the Malay community. What is so interesting about reading books of this genre is their extremely reflective--almost meditative--reflection on human nature. For example, Hitler's analysis of the psychology of the poor Germans is so cogent that even a reader fifty years removed from the book's original publication, almost instinctively understands how Hitler enraptured the German public using that knowledge.

Of course, books of this genre are flailed in graduate seminars. In fact, according to Mahathir his motivation for writing the book was the dressing down he got in a graduate seminar when he suggested that the Malays as a race lagged behind the Chinese because of certain race characteristics.

Mahathir thinks that the Malays in Malaysian history had it so good--nice weather, food readily available from the fields, no political upheavals--that they have incorporated a certain economic languor into the Malay culture. The Chinese, on the other hand, are a hardy migrant people who faced famine, political revolutions, and economic displacements in China. So when the Chinese came, their memories of crushing hardships in their own land provided the driving force for their economic enterprises in Malaysia. The Malays, the Bumiputras (sons of the soil), according to Mahathir, were too polite, non-confrontational and socially courteous that they allowed the foreign Chinese to slowly usurp the economic life of Malaysia. And that politeness the Chinese interpreted as timidity. Mahathir also mentioned about the Malays' calling foreigners tuan (master). He said that the foreigners came to believe that, in fact, they were masters of the Malay people.

The Malays are faced therefore with a dilemma. If they allow the Chinese total control of the economy, Malaysia will prosper fast, but doing so would reduce them, the original sons of Malaysia, to second-class citizenship, which, according to Mahathir, is patently not right. The Chinese are foreigners; Malaysia belongs to Malays. If the Chinese want to live in Malaysia, they must follow the rules of Malays.

Mahathir said that the Malays, through a policy of preferential treatment for Malays in business, are only getting back what was taken from them because of their politeness.

What I find amusing is Mahathir's dissection of the Chinese business practices. He observed, for example, that the Chinese are extremely frugal so capital is always boosted by savings. The Chinese also do not pay for labor because family members are employed. Mahathir also talked about the Chinese way of extending credit so as to attract Malay customers. This extension of credit, according to Mahathir, is so successful that Malays invariably abandon their own cooperatives to patronize Chinese stores.

Mahathir wrote the book in 1970. After some years in the political wilderness, he was invited back to UMNO and later became prime minister of Malaysia.

Reading the book I got to thinking about the Philippines' deficiency of books written by politicians (or perhaps I just do not know of them). Certainly, there is no Philippine equivalent of Malay Dilemma. Marcos wrote one about his revolution from the center but it does not have a personal touch (it was allegedly ghostwritten) and reads like a political science paper.

Former Senate President Salonga is writing some, but still nothing beats a book written by an ambitious young man-- like Mahathir-- confronting political ignominy. (If Erap were more intelellectually inclined, he probably would make waves writing a critique on people power and the Philippines' elite democracy.)

There is simply no intensity in Salonga's books, written as they were in the twilight of his career. Salonga's readers do not get a feeling of political immediacy. There is perhaps enlightenment but no sting. Mahatfirs book has plenty of the latter.

A First Things essay discusses Mansfield Park and argues that Jane Austen was a public theologian and a social conservative rallying against individualism.

That's Mr. Poe if you're nasty
After building up the supposed invincibility of FPJ and now that an FPJ presidency is in the opinion of almost everybody just about round the corner, the Inquirer has started its demolition job on FPJ the same way it subtly bulldozed buddy Erap--insider stories on the person's gaffes.

The Philippine Star also reports on the same subject, how FPJ got vexed with the myriad questions being thrown at him. He was asked about his opinion on, among other things, economic program and the death penalty.

Apparently FPJ was irked that some reporters were voicing faults with his economic program when he, in fact, has not announced it yet. Well, he has a point on that. One cannot find fault on something that does not exist yet.

FPJ is not used to ubiquitous inquisitorial reporters asking his opinion on almost everything under the political sun. Even as a movie star he never promotes his movies, guests on variety shows and have reporters ask him questions. He had a royal aloofness and movie reporters did not transgress that. News reporters, on the other hand, are all too ready to expose FPJ's political ignorance as long as it would make good copy.

FPJ is uncomfortable fielding the reporters' questions. He knows nothing about those things and he knows it. I seriously doubt if he read the broadsheets for most of his adult life. He is not politically conversant and is vexed that reporters should expect him to be so.

Miriam says FPJ is having some tutoring from UP professors (probably from the College of Public Administartion), but we have to see yet the result of that tutoring. FPJ still has no witty one-liners on every issue.

Running for president, unfortunately, is like joining a beauty contest. One has to memorize prepared answers for every imaginable question. How do we achieve world peace? What is the essence of a woman? All that crap.

Erap was better coached when he ran for presidency. Whenever asked to comment on a particular policy issue he never had time to ask about from his advisers, Erap would give a wry smile to the reporter and say that rest assured he would always consider "the greatest good of the greatest number." Erap had Jeremy Bentham then to parry the assaults of the reporters. FPJ should find his own handy philosopher--but then again public administration professors are not know to be philosophical.

Marco Garrido writing for the Asia Times on FPJ's citizenship and the possibility of American statehood for the Philippines. Human Rights Watch in its annual global survey says that the war in Iraq is not a humanitarian intervention. The inimitable Arundhati Roy writing for The Nation, lashing the new American century.

Lecture on the Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi
The LEGACY OF MAHATMA GANDHI:
Building a Character of Integrity, Harmony and Peace

by

Pascal Alan Nazareth
Former Ambassador, Embassy of India
Co-Founder and Managing Trustee,
Sarvodaya International Trust
(International Mahatma Gandhi Movement)

at four o'clock in the afternoon of Wednesday, 4 February 2004 at the Rev. Henry Lee Irwin Theatre Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights, Quezon City.

Guests are requested to be seated by 3:15 P.M.

Imelda incarcerated
Read Inquirer's feature on PCGG Commissioner Ruben Carranza:

The PCGG has so far filed close to 1000 civil cases against the Marcoses and their cronies, says Carranza, 43 of them before the Ombudsman. "We only need one conviction to put Imelda in jail."

THe PCGG would need a lot of of support as the coming FPJ presidency does not bode well for those cases . I saw how Susan Roces swooned at the presence of the Great Prodigal Imelda, probably titillated at the idea that she would be one day wearing the shoes Imelda once wore.

If only people would see Imelda in jail, then they would know that indeed she and her husband did something wrong. As things are now, people, especially those who were too young to experience the Marcos years firsthand, are all too ready to give her the benefit of the doubt.

It would also be a great downer for people who hitherto idolize the brazenness of the Marcoses in enriching themselves. It is a real shock, I know, but not a few UP students have this inchoate admiration for the Marcoses, especially the much-vaunted brilliance daw of Apo Marcos, which, Conrado de Quiros, assures us, is more a product of PR than real substance. (Marcos was real smart though in skirting all the rules, but smartness and brilliance are not the same. Everybody can be smart.)

I remember seeing Imelda confronted on TV about the prospect of her going to jail someday. You know what she said? If imprisoned and persecuted, she said, in the characteristic Imeldific just-about-to-cry-over-your-shoulder look, she will end up like Nelson Mandela and win the Nobel Prize. No matter how hard I try, I cannot imagine the Stockholm citation.

DionaText: Cellphone Text Poetry writing Contest
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts in cooperation with the Filipinas Institute of Translation, Inc., Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas and the UP Institute of Creative Writing launch DIONATEXT, a text (SMS) poetry writing contest. The contest aims to popularize and revitalize the tradition of one of the oldest forms of poetry by using modern technology. The diona is a short poem composed of three versified rhyming lines. Each line consists only of seven syllables expressing a complete thought. DIONATEXT entries must be written in Filipino and must express love within the family. Here’s an old example:

magkapatid mang buo,
kundi kapuwa suyo,
parang pinsang malayo.

Contestants must submit their entries through text to any of the following numbers: (0927) 4641814 at (0918) 2252718. Entries must be accompanied by the name and address of the author. Entries must be received not later than 5 p.m. every Friday of the contest week. Every week for the month of February, judges will pick 2 winners (Text Makata ng linggo) who will receive P5,000 each. Eight consolation prizes of P2,000 will be awarded. The winning entries will be compiled in a book which will be released at the awarding ceremonies.

Forum on cellphones and campaigns
Liberal Philippines magazine, the country’s newest political quarterly, and Media G8way, a leader in information technology publishing, have teamed up for a breakthrough event entitled Cell Phones and Campaigns. In this public forum, industry leaders and service providers will discuss the many innovative uses of the cell phone in launching a campaign in marketing, public service, health, education, and even in elections. With 15 million Filipinos using cell phones, indeed this gadget is the way to communicate.

Among speakers are officials from the country’s respected telecommunications companies, content and service providers and technical experts -- several of whom will also provide demonstrations of new and exciting services. We would like to invite you to join us in this public forum Cell Phones and Campaigns to be held on 29 January 2004, 9am in the Skytop of the Hotel Intercontinental, Makati City. Entrance is free of charge.

Howard Dean loses New Hampshire primary
I guess it is now official that Howard Dean will never be the Democratic candidate to challenge Bush come November. Senator John Kerry has scored a double whammy with his win, this time, in Dean's own turf New Hampshire. Kerry carried Iowa and, now, New Hampshire.

I guess it is all for the good of the party as Kerry is widely perceived to be more acceptable and electable by the general electorate. Dean is more idiosyncratic in style, i.e., weird. His " I Have a Scream" speech is now legendary. But I cannot help but commiserate. I can just imagine the heartbreak of hundreds of Dean's youth volunteers, his bloggers and all those who contributed their hundred dollars via the internet. It is Dean among the presidential contenders who has real grassroots support--especially in the internet.

If it is Kerry who has a greater chance to oust Bush from the White House, then so be it. Now that Dean seems to have faded from the scene, the Democratic Party now must buckle up and figure out how to get rid of Bush--for the benefit of the American people and all mankind.

I have recently stumbled on the Global Development Network's toolkit for proposal writing. Not only does it have tips on writing, it also has sections on networking and potential donors.

Newsweek has an interview with Imelda Marcos. She is as histrionic as ever.

Is Stephen Hawking a battered husband?
A report carried by The Times of India asks the question. Apparently, police detectives were expressing frustration that the scientist was refusing to cooperate to explain repeated instances of broken wrists, gashes to the face and throat, lip cuts and heat stroke.

We told Bush so
Fareed Zakaria, the resident pundit at Newsweek, writes about the ascendancy of Shiite Grand Ayatollah Sistani, how he has hostaged the American occupation of Iraq because of US"s lack of legitimacy in the region. Fearful that Ayatollah Sistani would declare the US an invader, the US is kowtowing to Ayatollah Sistani's demands.

Ayatollah Sistani is having an inordinate share of power now because the US unilateral invasion lacked legitimacy and is therefore in no position to antagonize Ayatollah however reasonably warranted--as in the case of the US's plan for a phased transition. (Ayatollah Sistani wants elections pronto.)

The American occupiers are now belatedly realizing the importance of multilateral action, the legitimacy that it bestows. The UN can do unpopular things without being accused of being colonizers. After dismissing the UN as irrelevant and going it alone in the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration is now courting the UN for favors. Zakaria writes:

American policymakers made two grave mistakes after the war. The first was to occupy the country with too few troops, creating a security vacuum. This image of weakness was reinforced when Washington caved in to Sistani's objections last June, junked its original transition plan and sped things up to coincide with the American elections. The second mistake was to dismiss from the start the need for allies and international institutions. As a result, Washington is now governing Iraq with neither power nor legitimacy.

James Fallows annotates US President Bush's State of the Union speech here.

Favorite Songs
Suddenly inspired by Nick Hornby’s list of favorite songs (see previous blog entry), I have taken the time to list my own. Here are some of my favorites:

Hava Nageela, Harry Belafonte
Thunder Road, Bruce Springsteen
Respect, Aretha Franklin
Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien, Edith Piaf
Take On Me, A-ha
Walang Hanggang Paalam, Joey Ayala
I’ll Be There, Michael Jackson
Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Kingston Trio
Kanlungan, Noel Cabangon
Livin’ On a Prayer, Bon Jovi
Father and Son, Cat Stevens
Eternal Flame, Bangles
Esa Noche, Café Tacuba
El Pueblo Unido, Intillimani
Cool Change, Little River Band
Nomakanjani, Brenda Fassie
Forever Young, Alphaville
Kokomo, Beach Boys
All Day Love, Leon Lai
Dancing in the Moonlight, Toploader
No Woman, No Cry, Bob Marley
Let’s Fall In Love, Diana Krall
Xing Qing, Jay Chou

Job opening
The Philippine Daily Inquirer is looking for desk editors. PDI's human-resources management services head can be reached at this email: recruitment@inquirer.com.ph.

Teodoro Valencia Lecture Series on Journalism and Mass Communication
The 16th Teodoro F. Valencia Lecture Series on Journalism and Mass Communication will be held Jan. 30 March 19 at the T.F. Valencia Media Study Center at the Rizal Park. The lectures will be held every Friday 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Selected students of journalism and mass communication from 12 leading universities in Metro Manila will attend the lecture. Among the lecturers will be Manila Bulletin associate editor Ramon Francisco, Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Conrado de Quiros, Philippine Star entertainment associate editor Ricky F. Lo, Abante managing editor Nick V. Quijano, Manila Bulletin and Agriculture Magazine editor Zac Sarian, Philippine Star columnist and Malacañang reporter Marichu Villanueva, Prof. Dr. Ceciliano-Jose Cruz and photo journalist Anjo Perez.

COMELEC: FPJ is fit to be president
COMELEC has declared FPJ a natural-born Filipino citizen and thus qualified to become the president. Business World has an informative report on the decision. This is not yet the end of the matter. We will hear more of this citizenship business in the coming days because the issue has been brought to the Supreme Court.

The Inquirer asks "Who is Ricardo Manapat?" The Observer reviews VS Naipaul's Literary Occasions.

Justice Philippe Kirsch, president of the International Criminal Court, talks about the structure and goals of the ICC. He does not answer hypothetical questions though so all the interesting questions are left unanswered, e.g., the Guantanamo incarcerations and the Iraq invasion.

The joys of popular music
For anybody here who loves popular music and has not yet gone classical, you may be interested to check out the following songs. They are Nick Hornby's favorites, which he individually discussed in his Songbook, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.

Teenage Fanclub, "Your Love Is The Place That I Come From"
Bruce Springsteen, "Thunder Road"
Nelly Furtado, "I'm Like A Bird"
Led Zeppelin, "Heartbreaker"
Rufus Wainwright, "One Man Guy"
Santana, "Samba Pa Ti"
Rod Stewart, Mama, "You Been On My Mind"
Bob Dylan, "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?"
The Beatles, "Rain"
Ani DiFranco, "You Had Time"
Aimee Mann, "I've Had It"
Paul Westerberg, "Born For Me"
Suicide, "Frankie Teardrop"
Teenage Fanclub, "Ain't That Enough"
J. Geils Band, "First I Look At The Purse"
Ben Folds Five, "Smoke"
Badly Drawn Boy, "A Minor Incident"
The Bible, "Glorybound"
Van Morrison, "Caravan"
Butch Hancock and Marce LaCouture, "So I'll Run"
Gregory Isaacs, "Puff The Magic Dragon"
Ian Dury, "Reasons To Be Cheerful"
Richard and Linda Thompson, "Calvary Cross"
Jackson Browne, "Late For The Sky"
Mark Mulcahy, "Hey Self-Defeater"
The Velvelettes, "Needle In A Haystack"
O.V. Wright, "Let's Straighten It Out"
Royksopp, "Royksopp's Night Out"
The Avalanches, "Frontier Psychiatrist"
Soulwax, "No Fun / Push It"
Patti Smith, "Pissing In A River"

CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS
The UP Press is interested in a collection of stories on the supernatural for the UP Jubilee Student Edition. These stories should be short and should have a strong Filipino element. They may be scary, funny, romantic, or action-packed, as long as they deal with the supernatural and are told in the mode of popular literature, i.e., light. We are also open to stories told in comics form (as long as they are done in black and white).

Please submit your contributions to:

Supernatural Story Collection editors
University of the Philippines Press
UP Press Bldg
E de los Santos St., UP Campus
Diliman, Quezon City

Or email uppress@uppress.org. Indicate `supernatural story' in the subject.

Deadline for submission is on February 20, 2004. Manuscripts should be no more than 10 pages long, double-spaced, on short bond paper. Please submit three (3) copies in a brown envelope and include your contact information.

The editors will select 10-20 stories for a total book-length of around 100 pages. The chosen authors will be given a copy of the book and will be included in promotional material during the UP Press Book Caravan and other marketing activities involving the Student Edition line.

Previously published material will be considered. Please make sure to include bibliographic information regarding the initial publication.

Angara to talk in UP
Senator Angara will be at the University of the Philippines to deliver a talk on Choosing the Next President at the Sta Ana Room of the university's College of Law, January 27, 3:30-5:00 PM. Come if you can. It would be a good venue to heckle Angara. It is sponsored though by Sigma Rho, so prepare yourself for fraternity boys.

The original manuscript of Bicol's Sarung Banggi has been burned in a fire in Sto. Domingo, Albay, the Inquirer reports. An archives official at the University of the Philippines tells how microfilm can be faked. Observing the paintings of Mindanao artist Bert Monterona in a Vancouver exhibit, Alan Haig-Brown asks the question "Can a Man Be a Feminist?" in MindaNews. Michael Tan, on the occasion of the Chinese New Year, writes on the confusing diversities of calendars across cultures.

Is Manapat smarter than others?
After wondering for days if the Ricardo Manapat of recent controversy is the same Manapat who digged the dirt on the Marcoses with the book Some are Smarter Than Others, I finally found out that they are, in fact, one and the same. And more: Manapat, it turned out, has been doing work for Ramos and Almonte digging up dirt on their political enemies. Manapat was also behind the questioning of Alfredo Lim's citizenship some years ago. (COMELEC then held that Lim is a natural-born Filipino.) For a background on the recent job positions of Manapat, read this Manila Times story.

Manapat has three documents from the National Archives: the birth certificate of FPJ, the marriage certificate of FPJ's parents and another certificate of a prior marriage of FPJ's father to another woman.

The birth certificate is supposed to show us that FPJ's father was a Spanish citizen and his mother an American. Do such protestations in a birth certificate constitute conclusive proof of one's and one's parents' citizenships? No. So there goes down the drain the much-ballyhooed birth certificate.

The presumption is that FPJ's father was a Filipino by virtue of Philippine Bill of 1902 which granted automatic Filipino citizenship for the Spanish citizens living in the Philippines when Spain ceded control of the islands in the Treaty of Paris. Unless Manapat can show that FPJ's old man actively renounced his Filipino citizenship and vowed allegiance to Spain, the presumption is that he was a Filipino. He served the Philippines during World War II. He even was supposedly the model for the UP Oblation.

With regard to the marriage certificate: Let us suppose that indeed FPJ is an illegitimate son, but his father was Filipino as argued above. There is, as father Bernas recognizes, case law that says illegitimate children follow the citizenship of their mothers. Following case law therefore, FPJ would follow the citizenship of the mother, which was American. However, the 1935 Constitution was clear that children born of Filipino fathers are Filipinos themselves.

Father Bernas therefore holds that FPJ is a natural-born Filipino--but may be a dual citizen of the Philippines and the United States. The legal question for Father Bernas now is: Can a dual citizen be president of the Philippines?

My personal opinion though is that FPJ is a Filipino pure and simple. The case law holding that illegitimate children follow the citizenship of the mothers must give way to the constitutional provision in the 1935 Constitution that children of Filipino fathers are Filipinos. We simply cannot afford to disqualify a front-runner on flimsy legal nitpicking. It is undemocratic. FPJ is not qualified to be president, but he CAN run and win if people want him.

The COMELEC is expected to render its decision this week. If it finds FPJ unqualified to run for president, FPJ is expected to appeal to the Supreme Court. Well and good. FPJ's citizenship must be decided NOW before he becomes president. Imagine the chaos if the Supreme Court were to pronounce a sitting president constitutionally unqualified to be president. The Davide impeachment brouhaha would pale in comparison by at least a thousand degrees.

So is Ricardo Manapat smarter than others? Well, not in this case. He wrote an interesting book though. Read Some are Smarter Than Others and know the dirt on Danding Cojuanco, Lucio Tan, the Tantocos of Rustans and other people.

A short survey of the freedom enjoyed by the the 20 million ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia. Disgust is a disease-avoidance mechanism, according to this Economist article. Columbia Professor Jagdish Bhagwati is interviewed by the Council on Foreign Relations on the subject of free trade. Click here for the transcript.

Starvation diet
I was bowled over by this so-called calorie-restriction diet that some people are on to prolong their individual life spans. Newsweek has an article on its latest issue. Apparently, food-deprived rats lived longer and looked younger than those that ate normally.

The effect has been seen in animals from fruit flies to roundworms to mice: reduce food intake by roughly a third, while maintaining adequate nutrition, and life span goes up by about 30 percent.

So some people are trying it as well. How is this calorie restriction supposed to work to humans? Here's one theory:

... calorie restriction slows metabolism, the burning of glucose for energy. This effect—which presumably serves the evolutionary purpose of conserving calories during periods of famine—is well known to dieters; as they eat less, their metabolic rate drops, and it becomes progressively harder to burn off fat. It's clear that metabolism slows in people on CR regimens; in one study, core body temperature dropped by one full degree. Metabolism, an essential life process, is also a destructive one; it produces free radicals, unstable molecules that can damage the structures of living cells by the process known as oxidation. Antioxidant vitamins and supplements ranging from vitamin C to green-tea extracts have been the rage for decades, though there is little evidence that they have any effect on longevity; calorie-restriction diets reduce oxygenating compounds at their source—a plausible, if equally unproved, mechanism for extending life.

Great website
If you want to listen to radio interviews of your favorite authors, here's the site for you: Don Swaim's audio interviews on Wired for Books. I have just found the site this morning and I was able to listen to a thirty-minute interview with Jeffrey Archer. I never knew Sir Jeffrey Archer was such a lively speaker. He loves making these long sentences in his high-pitch voice that makes him eerily sound like a character in some Victorian English novel. Totally endearing, if I may say so.

The particular interview I listened to was the one where Archer was discussing his novel As the Crow Flies. When I heard Archer discussing the costermonger protagonist in the novel and how the character's ambition propelled him to buying the whole block of property in the novel, I felt so nostalgic about reading Archer novels that if I have time I probably would sit down and gulp more of them. Archer was one of my great reads in high school, my first favorite author. In fact, my first interest in politics and government was sparked by my reading his The Prodigal Daughter. If anybody of you want to read about ambition, drive and stamina, then Archer is the author to read. Great entertainment too.

Job Opening
KAISAHAN tungo sa Kaunlaran ng Kanayunan at Repormang Pansakahan is a social development organization involved in agrarian reform, local governance, and sustainable integrated area development. Its Policy Research and Advocacy Unit is in urgent need of a:

POLICY RESEARCH & ADVOCACY OFFICER


The tasks of the officer would focus on:

- Collating, consolidating, analyzing issues for advocacy and translating these into policy formulation

- Conducting policy researches on key AR/LG issues affecting partner communities

- Advocating and lobbying for specific policy recommendations and the release of pro-AR/LG issuances from both the legislative and executive branches

- Developing and writing position papers, briefers, bills, issuances, letters to the editor and press releases

- Networking with like-minded POs, NGOs, GAs in pushing for policy reforms

- Organizing policy conferences and other advocacy fora

Applicants must:

- Be a graduate of communication arts or any 4-year social science course

- Have at least 2 years experience in related NGO work, preferably agrarian reform, local governance and land use

- Have excellent research and writing skills

- Be willing to travel

For inquiries, please look for Lia or Nina. Interested applicants should send their application letter, résumé and sample written work to:

Atty. Magistrado Mendoza
Executive Director
KAISAHAN tungo sa Kaunlaran ng Kanayunan at Repormang Pansakahan
#3 Mahabagin Street, Teachers’ Village West, Quezon City
Tel. Nos.: 433-0760, 925-4303, 925-4307 Telefax: 926-6042
Email: kaisahan@info.com.ph

Deadline for submission of applications is on 24th January 2004.

U2's Bono has an op-ed on Burma's lonely heroine of democracy Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ateneo lecture
KRITIKA KULTURA
www.ateneo.edu/kritikakultura

in cooperation with the Ateneo de Manila Press, the Ateneo History Department, the Dean's Office of the School of Social Sciences and the Institute of Philippine Culture

Welcomes you to a lecture by

Professor BENEDICT ANDERSON

"The Noli Quantified: Reflections on the Origins of Rizalian Nationalism,"

This will be followed by the launching of the Philippine edition of Prof. Anderson's

The Spectre of Comparisons"

Tuesday, January 27, 4.30 to 6.30 pm, SDC Conference Hall, Social Development Complex, ADMU campus.

Professor Benedict R. O'G. Anderson, until his recent retirement, was Aaron L. Binenkorb, Professor of International Studies and former Director of the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University. He is the author of the highly influential Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (1983, 1991). His other books include Java in a Time of Revolution (1972), Literature and Politics in Siam in the American Era (1985), and Language and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in Indonesia (1990).

The Nation compares the lives and memoirs of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. Quick differences: Vargas LLosa was an early success while Garcia Marquez faced a tough battle in the beginning. Vargas Llosa got a scholarship to Madrid right after graduation from the university, where he apprenticed with an eminent historian. Garcia Marquez dropped out of law school to pursue what in his parents' mind was a thankless profession: journalism and writing. Of course, the rest is literary history.

Needless to say, another difference is in their politics. Vargas Llosa solidly belongs to the right, a disciple of Thatcher, and possibly a neoconservative. Garcia Marquez identifies with the political Left, and a friend of Fidel Castro.

Italian PM Belusconi gets a facelift. Also learn from the linked article that the abrasive Berlusconi is a mere 5'6", small for Italian standard.

The decision of the Supreme Court voiding the billion-peso contract for automated counting machines is now online. Click here.

Call for Papers
New Southeast Asian Cinemas Conference: Where Big Budget Meets No Budget

May 3rd-4th 2004, Singapore

The last few years have seen the emergence of art films from Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore even as authoritarian regimes collapsed, and the ensuing economic downturn signaled the end or near-ending of mainstream filmmaking industries. These films, sometimes little known or unpopular in their own countries, have been making the international film festivals circuit and attracting much critical attention from Cannes to Singapore to Japan, Vancouver and Montreal. Concurrently, there has also been a revival of more commercial films such as Iron Ladies, Ong Bak, Suriyothai (Thailand) and Ada Apa Dengan Cinta (Indonesia) in local cinemas. Globalization, the internet, video piracy and the creation of niche market art cinemas have also meant that films from neighbouring ASEAN countries are being viewed in metropolitan cities like Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. In addition, the development of digital video technology has spawned groups of young eager filmmakers and video activists throughout the region who are producing quick, low-budget films. Confronting budget constraints, those trained in the west in film and video production have also seized the new media to make newer cheaper films.

How are these films breaking from the moulds of their national cinematic traditions? In establishing difference from the commercial mainstream of melodramas or ‘bomba’ cinemas, are SEAsian avant garde films merely reverting to an older Western avant garde cinematic tradition like the French New Wave? Or are there other trends that are equally influential in this deterritorialised space and age? Are we beyond theories of postcolonial Third Cinema? How do filmmakers balance popular viewing desires with their own desire for making art? What makes a Malaysian film uniquely Malaysian? Can these Third World narratives be read as national allegories? If not, how should they be read and in what context?

This conference seeks to showcase and create academic and social discourse among scholars, film critics, buffs and media activists about the multiple new cinemas from the region. We want to create better awareness of film as both an artistic expression and ideological and educational tool and to provide a forum and international networking for participants.

We hope to publish selected papers in an edited book on Emerging Southeast Asian Cinemas after the conference.

We welcome paper abstracts that:
* explore and analyse the complexities and problems of the current industries in any Southeast Asian country: effects of funding, censorship, bureaucratic and state policies in production, distribution, exhibition, etc.
* employ critical approaches from film theory, film aesthetics and reception studies to discuss Southeast Asian films
* focus on sociological, anthropological, cultural, postcolonial aspects (including questions of race, gender, class, sexual/queer identities, ideology) of Southeast Asian films
* discuss independent filmmaking as opposed to mainstream national cinema
* reflect SEAsian diasporic film perspectives of SEAsia
* deal in-depth with specific SEAsian film genres: horror, romance, comedy, melodrama, documentary, war, video essay, sexploitation/bomba, etc.

deadline: February 15th, 2004

Please submit a 250-300 word abstract to Khoo Gaik Cheng: arikgc@nus.edu.sg

BENEDICT ANDERSON, Cornell University
Public Lecture

"The French Connection: Rizal, Decadence, and Revolutionary Anarchism"

Friday, 23 January 2004
2:30-5:00 pm
Pulungang Claro M. Recto
Bulwagang Rizal (Faculty Center)


BENEDICT ANDERSON is Aaron L. Binenkorb Professor of International Studies, Emeritus, Cornell University. He is the author of Java in the Time of Revolution (1972), Imagined Communities (1983), Language and Power (1990), The Spectre of Comparisons (1998), and Violence and the State in Suharto’s Indonesia (2001) among others.

Organized by the UP Office of the President, College of Arts and Letters, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy and the Third World Studies Center.

A Swedish parliamentarian has nominated soccer for a Nobel Peace Prize. Pure hogwash, says this Foreign Policy essay. Soccer deserves a Nobel for Economics.

India versus China? Peter Drucker says it's India as quoted in this International Herald Tribune article.

On FPJ's citizenship once again
Today has a lead editorial and a column by Bernas on this topic. Put them together and you get this: FPJ is a natural-born Filipino.

FPJ's father seems to be a Filipino by virtue of the Philippine Bill of 1902 granting mass naturalization. He also served the Philippine army and was a decorated veteran of Bataan. The issue thus remaining is whether FPJ's being an illegitimate child makes him an American, following his mother's citizenship rather than the father's. Bernas has this to say:

I grant that there are decisions, which say that the citizenship of the child follows the citizenship of the mother. The basis for such a decision could very well be statutory. But there is nothing in our Constitutions which says that recognition of citizenship, based on that of the mother’s, has the effect of stripping the child of citizenship received from the father. I suggest that such a child would have dual citizenship. The next question, of course, would be whether one who has dual citizenship, Philippine and another, is not qualified to become president.

FPJ supposedly taking charge
Former Senator Ernesto Maceda, to counter everybody's opinion of FPJ's proxying for other people (Angara et al) in his bid for the presidency, cites an instance of FPJ's hands-on management style: the KNP's photo shoots.

Maceda went to great lengths to describe how FPJ personally selected the photos for each of the candidates and how he requested a platform on which to stand for Legarda since she's shorter than FPJ. And after this lengthy anecdote of the photo shoot, Maceda concludes:

FPJ was in control. He knows what he wants, what he intends to do.

Don't underestimate him anymore. He is the leader of the opposition team and he is ready to slug it out with two fists blazing away. He is Da King.

I wonder how Maceda came to that conclusion. Personally supervising the taking of pictures does not mean one is also capable of personally supervising a presidency. The two are markedly different. Is Maceda losing his wits or was he simply being cute? (Mind you, Maceda was the man who predicted the EDSA 2 crowd would pack up and ask for Erap's forgiveness in 4 days.)

Maceda is wrong again this time, UNLESS he believes that the coming FPJ presidency would be just one big photo op.

Call for literary works
Dear friends of Manoa journal,

For an upcoming issue of Manoa, I would like to gather international writing from younger authors from throughout the Pacific region, without regard to national boundaries. As you know, over the last several years, we've been focusing on specific countries. I'd like us to break out of this format, at least for now, and showcase a greater mixture of voices, all bound together.

I'm requesting that Manoa corresponding editors and friends please join in collaborating on this issue, which we will call, unglamorously for now, "The Pacific Hemisphere Under Thirty-Five: Younger Writers from Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas." For now, I'm looking for prose only: either fiction or literary nonfiction. (Perhaps we can do a volume of poetry like this later. )

The age "thirty-five" is pretty arbitrary; the impulse here is simply to see what upcoming---rather than beginner or established---writers around the region are doing. I am not seeking experimentation for its own sake, so the work need not be explicitly "post-" anything. Good writing is hard enough to find without putting too many requisites on its form or content. In this case, age, hemisphere, and quality are enough restrictions.

Please look around your region for what you think are the best stories by younger authors and send them to me by no later than the first week of March 2004---or have the authors send them directly.

Send as many as you like, and tell others if you like---but really I'm depending on each of you as individuals that I trust. The works should be previously unpublished---or, they may be previously published provided they have had only limited distribution, not worldwide, and have no unreasonable copyright restrictions on them. The works may be written originally in any language, but they need to be sent to me in translation and will be published in English. All of you who send submissions and suggestions will be credited with editing the book; Manoa's general editor and staff will make final final selections. Of course I would like to have as broad and equitable arepresentation of voices as possible, but that is not the book's goal and will not drive the final contents.

Authors, translators, and contributing editors will receive multiple copies of the book, but shouldn't expect a fee. We are too poor. The book, however, will be beautiful and the content as wonderful and surprising as we (with your help) can make it.

Thanks very much. As usual, you can send things by post to:

Manoa Journal
Department of English
University of Hawaii
1733 Donaghho Road
Honolulu HI 96822 USA

Best wishes and aloha for the new year,

Frank

Frank Stewart, Editor
Tel: 808-956-3059

Job Opening
ICANVAS MEDIA is looking for editorial assistant/ staff writer for their in house operations. The applicant must be good in writing business/ technical correspondences and reports. Please send your sample work and resume directly to choloflorencio@icanvasmedia.com.

Call Cholo at 09179335670 or 9950201 ASAP

Marites Vitug, writing for Newsweek, on Filipinos trading their politicians for movie stars. George Soros, writing for the Atlantic Monthly, on the bubble of American supremacy.

Funny story on a couple running against each other for the post of mayor in Lanao. Onli in da Pilipins.

More on the Sandiganbayan faux pa
Former Senate President Jovito Salonga and UP Professor Florin Hilbay wrote this Inquirer op-ed on the volte-face of the Sandiganbayan granting Estrada the permission to seek medical help abroad. The two opine that "Beyond the inexplicable bases for the resolution of the Sandiganbayan special division is the unimpeachable information that the special division was constituted in violation of the Rules of Procedure of the Sandiganbayan." The op-ed adds that:

Rule XIII, 1(b) of the Rules of Procedure of the Sandiganbayan provides that in cases where no unanimous vote of the three members of a division is obtained, a special division of five should be constituted with the two members being designated by raffle on a rotation basis.

Apparently, the voting conducted last Dec. 18 resulted in Justices Chico-Nazario and Leonardo-de Castro going in favor of the motion and Justice Sandoval dissenting.
As no unanimous vote was had, this should have resulted in a raffle to determine the two special members of the division.

However, Bantay Katarungan has found out that, instead of a raffle as provided for in the rules, the two special members-Justices Diosdado M. Peralta and Norbert Y. Geraldez Sr.-were merely handpicked by the presiding justice.

From whom did Salonga and Hilbay got that unimpeachable information? The op-ed did not say. But it confirms the suspicion by many of us that the turnaround by the Sandiganbayan was motivated by something more than simple judicious rumination of the issues involved.