2009 Newsmakers: The pride and the horror

MANILA, Philippines - If there was any doubt that the year about to end at midnight tonight was a horrible year, one should only look at the three top news stories that dominated headlines and shook the country in 2009: the Maguindanao massacre last November, storms ”Ondoy” and ”Pepeng” in September into October, and the death of democracy icon Corazon Aquino in August. And as if those weren’t enough, Mayon volcano has been acting up, leading to a possible big bang to cap the year.

Yet for all the horrors of the year just past, there was the proverbial silver lining provided by the world class wins of boxer Manny Pacquiao, pushcart classroom innovator Efren Peñaflorida, and film director Brillante Mendoza - all of them proudly Filipino in their resilience.

For sheer gruesomeness, the murder of 57 people, mostly media and women, in Maguindanao on Nov. 23 while en route to file a certificate of candidacy of a gubernatorial candidate tops the list, the deed so vile it elicited worldwide condemnation. A state of emergency in the region was declared, and later martial law in the province that lasted a week. Indicted as prime suspect was a scion of the Ampatuan clan, who was said to have been displeased when the rival Mangudadatu expressed desire to be governor. This, however, goes deeper than rido or clan wars, to a yet unplumbed culture of fraud and violence.

On Sept. 26 Metro Manila suffered its worst floods in decades, getting more than a month’s worth of rainfall in a matter of hours, as Ondoy gave us a preview of the great deluge. More than 70 people were killed and almost half a million displaced by the flood that had residents clambering up roof tops and electric poles, cars floating upside down, crops and homes destroyed.

Not a week later Pepeng hit the northern provinces, making impassable roads and bridges and doing damage to life and property. The typhoon was stationary on the South China Sea for a week before making a curtain call, flooding Pangasinan and even the mountains of Baguio.

The country and the world said goodbye to former President Cory Aquino on Aug. 1 after her more than yearlong battle with colon cancer. It was a bittersweet farewell as her passing revived memories of the original people power revolution in 1986 that ousted a dictator, complete with mammoth like funeral processions that snaked for hours under the sun and rain, earning plaudits for the four guards who stood steadfast accompanying her to her final resting place, as well as for her only son, namesake of the martyred senator, who shot up opinion polls as most likely our next president when the first automated elections are held next year.

But it wasn’t all bad news in this otherwise horrible year, as the Pacman recorded a pair of stirring triumphs, crushing Ricky Hatton in two rounds and Miguel Cotto in 12, before gearing up for a battle to win a seat in Congress and against steroid-conscious Floyd Mayweather inside the ring in 2010. Peñaflorida was hailed CNN hero of the year for his work bringing the classroom to street children, rescuing them from a life of vagrancy, scavenging and other dead ends. Mendoza won best director in Cannes for ‘Kinatay’, the first Filipino to garner such honor, beating the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodovar and Lars von Trier.

In our troubled south, the Abu Sayyaf again made the news, kicking off the year with the kidnap of three Red Cross aid workers in January: Swiss Andreas Notter, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba. Lacaba and Notter were freed in April within weeks of each other, and Vagni was freed after six months of being transferred from one hideout to another by the bandits. In October Columban priest Michael Sinnott was kidnapped, presumably by a Moro Islamic Liberation Front lost command, walking free a month later. Not getting as much publicity was the kidnapping of teachers in Basilan and surrounding areas, with at least one of them, Gabriel Canizares, getting beheaded by the Sayyaf for failure to pay ransom.

In May it was the time for the swine flu or A(H1N1) virus to hog the news, prompting a scare because of the reported deaths due to the strain abroad where it was declared a pandemic. Local infection was consigned mostly to foreign students and balikbayans, as a number of schools shut down for a week or two to avert the contagion and companies offered vaccines against the flu and the sale of facemasks and alcohol went up. The health secretary concluded that the Filipino strain of A(H1N1) was not virulent and so manageable, and his assistant devised a hygiene routine patterned after the song ‘Jai Ho’. There were more than 5,000 reported cases of swine flu and some 30 deaths, as the country waited for the first donated shipment of vaccines to arrive before yearend.

Off and running

Raising a few eyebrows though the move was telegraphed for months, President Arroyo filed her certificate of candidacy (COC) to run as Pampanga congresswoman, setting precedent as the first chief executive to run for lower office, and in the process resetting in motion the long drive towards Charter change and the European model parliamentary government.

Another first: ex-president Joseph Estrada also filed his COC for a second chance at the presidency, the validity of his candidacy likely to reach all the way up to the Supreme Court: Whether ‘no reelection’ referred to sitting presidents and not to deposed presidents who had served less than half their terms.

One who would never run for president, and not just because he was declared a nuisance by the poll body, was one nicknamed ‘Manok’, who breathed his last around Christmastime.

Year of the Tiger also saw the ghosts of past crime stories coming to roost. Convicted statutory rapist former congressman Romeo Jalosjos walked out of Muntinlupa jail in March after spending some 12 years inside, his sentence commuted for good behavior, which may have included building various amenities behind bars that benefited other inmates aside from encouraging the usual livelihood projects. Jalosjos was regularly visited by some of his scholars, younger than even his original victim, who by now must be in her mid-20s.

In June former police official Cezar Mancao was extradited back to the country after years abroad, to finally shed light on the almost decade-long unsolved murder of publicist Bubby Dacer and his driver. Mancao’s former underling Glenn Dumlao was also extradited a month later for the reopening of the case, and indications were that former president Estrada and his police chief Sen. Panfilo Lacson were behind the rubout. It seemed to be mostly posturing, however, as the story was relegated to the inside pages and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez was reassigned elsewhere and soon to run for an elective post in his hometown Iloilo.

Perhaps the top non-story of the year was the Hayden Kho and assorted partners sex scandal, a timely diversion from the pressing issues of the day. The Kama Sutra being investigated by the august halls of Congress was certainly a sight to behold, complete with water dousing, cyber rhetoric, and pirated DVDs selling like kwekwek on the sidewalks of Quiapo. Last we heard, Dr. Kho had lost his license to practice medicine and had set up a wholesome bar, while the careers of at least two of his partners were flourishing wholesomely.

Transition (+): Joe Capadocia, Francis Magalona, Mrs. Ted Failon, Anabel Bosch, Dondi Ledesma, Susan Fernandez, Ernie Yee, Muelmar Magallanes. Fr. Miguel Bernad SJ, Alexis Tioseco. With research by Marichu Villanueva