Flip-flopping flips

So Vice-President Tito Guingona puts on an agonized face and flips over to the FPJ camp. Big deal! That doesn’t qualify as a political tectonic shift in these islands. Since time immemorial politicians have resorted to this flip-flopping to retain their position or their influence in the short run. If we look back at our history, President Quezon started the Filipino tradition of flip-flopping over the issue of the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Bill and the Tydings-McDuffie Act. They were just the same banana. El Kastila just wanted to get the credit instead of granting it to Don Sergio Osmeña. Then came Ramon Magsaysay flipping over from the Liberal Party to the Nacionalista Party. Not to be outdone, Ferdinand Marcos flopped over, too, in 1965. Much to Maning Pelaez’s chagrin. Recently, GMA flipped from "Isang bala ka lang" to "Ate Glo" to "Ina ng Bayan". There, too are the flips of Senator Biazon to the Lakas slate, the flop of Sonny Osmeña from Erap’s arms to GMA, and Miriam Defensor Santiago from the KNP to Lakas. Again to Sonny Alvarez’s dismay. With this record, the Philippines should have produced several Olympic champions in gymnastics and acrobatics by now. Sadly, we prefer to keep our acrobatic prowess in the bedroom. If we don’t stop flipping, we will all flop.The tragic flipside of this is that if the political elite doesn’t stop flopping, the poor will flip and ultimately we all pay the price. "Flip-flopping flips", that’s what we’re beginning to be known for all over the world.

New RP Export

Previously, we reported that we have exported our Local Government Code to future Iraqi bureaucrats as a signal gesture of partnership with the US. Now, US Armed Forces sources informed us that the combined counterterrorist program that was successfully developed in Basilan against the Abu Sayyaf Gang (ASG) in 2002 is being exported by US soldiery. Using the concept of a global counter-insurgency campaign, the fight-the- terrorists and help-the-inhabitants blueprint is being exported in order terrorist-infested regions like Afghanistan and Indonesia, among others. Maybe, it should be exported to help Madre España root out its terrorist and separatist cells. Who would think that Basilan would be the classroom/ laboratory used to train counterterrorist forces to fight Bin Laden? Stranger and stranger, this partnership. But at least, we are exporting some good in the world. Even if the general public isn’t aware of this non-traditional export.

Cubao Quarantine

Earspies disclosed that the KNP went to Cubao to campaign last week. Led by Jackie Ejercito-Lopez, they planned to distribute leaflets in Farmers Market and other Cubao establishments. Imagine their surprise when Araneta Center guards stopped the KNP group from entering the premises. In fact, a guard even shouted at Jackie.The Aranetas must have seen the movie "Thirteen Days" recently. It showed how the US Navy quarantined the island of Cuba from Soviet ships and submarines during the 1962 missile crisis. It is justifiable to keep out nuclear-capable missiles, but leaflets? Some fiefdoms in this country are really Terra Incognita.

Funding Update

Our Palace spyring revealed that Lakas’ first release will be on April for governors, congressmen, and mayors. The big release will be 20 to 15 days before May 10. So contractors and service providers to Lakas should direct their collectors to be extra assertive on those dates. In the meantime, the KNP is still having difficulty prying funders’ purse strings loose. Donors have been disillusioned by Erap’s people in 1998. Hundreds of millions of pesos that were unaccounted for were pocketed.

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