In defense of Loren

From the very beginning, most of the investigations and hearings at the Senate had always been conducted in a most entertaining and even amusing fashion.

More than 40 years ago, Armi Kuusela, the Finnish Miss Universe who married a Pinoy (the late Virgilio Hilario) was called to the Senate and was asked if she was really using a certain milk brand (I don’t know if it was Darigold) for which she was paid as a product endorser.

Since most Filipinos were still crazy about beauty queens that time, the Senate Hall at the old Legislative Building was filled to the rafters with spectators. Well, that Senate investigation yielded no concrete result. And if you look back, that was really just a lot of taxpayers’ money wasted on a day’s entertainment.

I guess the Senators then could still afford to play clowns because those were days of plenty. But not today. Not when the country is sinking deeper and deeper by the day into the depths of poverty.

But last Friday, when Col. Victor Corpus was grilled at the Senate, some of the senators still came out like a bunch of jokers - no, not the court-jester types, but Joker, the nemesis of Batman and Robin.

Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, however, was the biggest joke of all. Col. Corpus had already apologized for presenting the wrong picture of Kim Wong. So enough. But Sen. Biazon went on and on and on. As if he had never committed a single blunder in his entire life.

When Col. Victor Corpus apologized for his mistake in one of the episodes of Front Page on Channel 7 some time ago, I thought that was already enough. It was an error that was immediately rectified anyway. We should have all been happy Col. Corpus was man enough to have admitted to his mistake.

But Senator Biazon and other senators obviously did not see it that way. Once more, they wasted time and taxpayers’ money during last Friday’s Senate inquiry.

And now I don’t know anymore what to make of this country. I don’t know what to make of our government. And I don’t know what to make of government asset Angelo "Ador" Mawanay.

When Mawanay first came out to spill the beans on Panfilo Lacson a few months ago, I thought he looked quite credible. But now, I certainly don’t buy his claim that he delivered to Sen. Loren Legarda 1,000 units of Nokia 3210 cell phones worth P8.9-M in December 1998. I think this is preposterous. Or, as Sen. Robert Jaworski said in last Friday’s Senate hearing, "propesterous." To begin with, the Nokia 3210 model came out in the market only last year.

Now, I’m not coming to Senator’s. Legarda’s defense because she is my friend. I’m just writing this piece to say what I know and what I know of her. And I think I know a lot about the lady senator.

To my knowledge, Senator Legarda is a mechanical idiot like me. Her mind is brilliant, all right. But she doesn’t know how to drive a car (although I do) and wouldn’t know how to tamper with mechanical devices. As far as I know, the only thing she could do with a cell phone is to make calls. But to send text messages? She probably wouldn’t learn how to do that in a hundred years. She just can’t stand cell phones - period.

Now, if you were to buy something by the bulk (or even one piece of item), you definitely have to know and like what you are buying.

So don’t expect Senator Legarda to be buying that many cell phones – not even for gifts. In our years of swapping presents, I noticed that Senator Legarda is the type of gift giver who would only give you something she herself likes to use or enjoys using. And a cell phone is certainly not one of her favorite things. If there is a landline available, expect her to rely on the PLDT for her phone calls - not necessarily because she is scrimping, but because cell phones give her a headache.

Oh, and by the way, Senator Legarda may be thoughtful and generous. But she’s not the type who would give even her closest friends outrageously expensive presents. Okay, she’ll send you a basket of ripe mangoes - or perhaps a Tupperware-full of adobo. But that’s it. For special occasions - like birthdays and Christmas, she may send you toiletries. But nothing as expensive as a cell phone. (Actually, she was a lot more generous when she was still working with ABS-CBN. But when she became a Senator, she probably became more conscious of her expenses and stuck mostly to the more economical food products.)

Of course, I agree with the observation of many that she should have been in better control of herself in last Friday’s Senate inquiry. For that, I think she deserves a little spanking. But I do understand where she’s coming from. After all, she went up the media ladder and onto the halls of Senate on the strength of her credibility and principles.

Let me just share with you this story on how much people relied on her credibility.

In 1995, after three years on television, I realized I had to invest on something because show business - as we all know - is the most unstable profession this side of the world. I didn’t want to stay liquid since I knew quite well that the little money I had would just be eventually eaten up by inflation. I felt I had to invest on something more concrete - like real estate perhaps.

In one of my casual conversations with Loren Legarda in one of the ABS-CBN dressing rooms, I mentioned to her that I was looking for an affordable condominium unit I could invest my money on (well, the little that I had). It just so happened that her brother-in-law, Conrad Leviste, was building a condominium unit in San Juan. Although she had nothing to do with this business, she introduced me to one of Leviste’s agents.

It turned out that there were other people in show business - on television, specifically - who also got units in this condominium building. Among them were Mel Tiangco, Noli de Castro, Michael de Mesa, Alice Dixson, Claudine Barretto and Ali Sotto.

Actually, it was a pre-selling scheme. You pay a fraction of the whole amount as downpayment and you continue paying a certain amount every month for the next three years. Although this arrangement was tough on my pocket, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and got myself a hole-in-wall unit (that was all I could afford).

But even if we had already paid a downpayment, the building had yet to be erected. It was a risky investment. For a very long period of time, in fact, Ali Sotto and I continued to worry because we could be paying for something that could just go down the drain. Our worries would only go away every time we’d remind ourselves that we got into this arrangement on the strength of Loren’s credibility. Although - again - she absolutely had nothing to do with this business. In fact, when she got a unit herself, she was also threatened with penalties everytime she was late in her monthly payments.

After three-and-a-half-years, the building was eventually finished and Ali Sotto and I - and all those who got units through Loren’s referrals - were just too happy that we found ourselves a good and sound investment. For this, we would always be grateful to Loren’s credibility. May it remain untainted because Sen. Legarda is only one of the very few people we trust in this supposedly respectable body called the Philippine Senate.