That’s entertainment: Pinoy style

The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) handwriting experts have already come to the conclusion that the signatures of Jose Pidal and First Gentleman Mike Arroyo as revealed Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson’s expose’ in a Senate privilege speech are not one and the same person. Well, to add to the exciting drama, suddenly Jose Pidal has surfaced and he really is Ignacio Arroyo, the brother of the First Gentleman. Now why in heaven’s is he using the name Jose Pidal in a bank account that’s for Ignacio to explain? Meanwhile, based on these revelations, it seems that the expose’ of Sen. Lacson is turning out to be a very embarrassing dud!

But Sen. Lacson seemed unfazed or unembarrassed by twist of events and produced his own version of "Clarissa Ocampo" in the person of Mr. Eugenio "Udong" Mahusay Jr., the godson of the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo who in a television interview revealed that he helped the First Gentleman deposit the amounts in the banks exposed by Sen. Lacson. Then right the very next day, Udong calls his brother P02 Jojo Mahusay to get him out of the safehouse prepared by Sen. Lacson fearing for his life. Frankly speaking, I’ve always doubted Mr. Mahusay because he was making those accusations while reading from a paper as if all this was all scripted. A week after that dramatic event, we still don’t know whether Udong was kidnapped by which group?

Last weekend, we got a deluge of text messages from my friends asking me to watch the expose’ of Mon Tulfo on RPN-9 at 6 p.m. on Saturday. Well, I’m sure that a curious million Filipinos tuned in on that station to hear what Mon Tulfo had to say. Well, it turned out to be that alleged confession of the dying Kit Mateo by ABS-CBN. We know that there’s no love lost between Mon Tulfo and Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, after all, Tulfo was implicated in Sen. Lacson’s privilege speech as one of the First Gentleman’s corrupt media friends. So Tulfo’s "expose’" was a mere tit-for-tat… quid pro quo.

So who was this Kit Mateo fellow? Is he really an alleged hitman working for Ping Lacson? That’s exactly what the television drama that Tulfo tried to portray. No doubt, that show was meant to expose that Sen. Lacson as the man whom many fear him to be… a ruthless killer. If you’re wondering why we’re all watching this on glorious television and not hearing it as part of a courtroom drama? That’s because all this is a part of the media circus that makes up what the Philippines is all about… That’s entertainment Pinoy style!

Last weekend, my good friend, Choy Torralba of Angel Radyo forwarded to me a text message he got from Cerge M. Remonde of RPN-9 purportedly coming from Sen. Ping Lacson. Let me quote that text in full: "Cerge, dis is ping lacson. I wrote u a ltr 2 inform u dat d so-called dying declaration of mateo w/c ch9s airing 2nyt s already subj of court cases dat I filed agst tulfo. Further, mateo had retracted in a sworn stmnt w/c I attached in dat ltr. Tulfo even wrote abt it in his column 2day. 4 ur aprec8tn lang. My lawyer thinks d showing of d same s patently illegal. U may not treat me as ur friend anymore but pls don’t make an enemy out of me."

I asked Choy Torralba if that message really came from Sen. Lacson? Well, he merely told me that the cell number in Cerge’s phone matched that of Angel Radyo’s phone number of Sen. Lacson, which they use to interview the Senator. Depending on whose side you are on, you can look at this message as a threat or a warning on the person of Cerge Remonde for airing that Tulfo expose’. However, you can also look at it as coming from a dismayed friend. Let’s just hope that nothing worse will come after this.

What’s happening to this country? Even the newsreels are far more interesting to watch than the latest telenovelas from Mexico simply because our local TV programming or the movies have become boring, while true-to-life seems to be the vogue. We saw it on live TV during the Oakwood coup; we saw that spectacle in the Senate with Ping Lacson doing a demo job against the First Gentleman. Then we got entertained by the Mahusay caper and then, Jose Pidal suddenly appeared… then as expected Mon Tulfo gets back at his nemesis.

No doubt, Filipinos throughout the country are well entertained by the recent events happening in this country because it is far better than watching any current albeit boring telenovelas. However the joke is really on us. While we’re tuning in on our television or radio sets or reading the newspapers on the unfolding day-to-day events, it is distracting all of us from the real problems of our country. It’s time to get back on the economic track, more so that the peso has further weakened vis-à-vis the US dollar thanks to this zarzuela!

Mind you, a frustrated Ricardo Cardinal Vidal to issue a pastoral letter complaining that "Too much politics is destroying the country." Exasperated, the Cardinal said, "Enough is enough! Will the politicos heed the good Cardinal’s call? With elections fast approaching… that’s going to fall on deaf ears!

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Last weekend, Cebu played host to the 53rd Asia-Pacific Conference, a four-day International Jaycees conference. We joined the fabulous Japan night at the Fort San Pedro which is vying to host the JCI World Congress in Fukuoka in 2004 and what a great night it was. It was as if Asia or the world never experienced the SARS virus or that there was still an on-going terrorist threat. Yes, when the Jaycees held their World Congress in Cebu (there were only a total of 2,500 registered guests, down from the expected 4,000) Cebuanos came out with smiling faces and open arms welcoming the return to tourism… one of Cebu’s greatest economic strengths.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8 p.m.