A listening ear

I’ve been writing about my own observations about people’s choices premature though they are at this time, for president, in the course of my travel to the countryside. You can’t fault me if what I heard from the mouth of probinsyanos is different from your choice. This is a free country. And election day is still six months away, one can change one’s mind as the propaganda war goes on to fever pitch.

Back in the asphalt jungle, meaning Metro Manila, the electronic and print media are some of my sources of information on presidential bets, and the latest entry in their list of wannabes is  former Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. The reaction among the tennisters at the UP Diliman Tennis Club is, either, “Good, we will have criminals driven off the streets,’’ or, “My golly, he’s a dangerous man, one can get killed by mere suspicion of wrongdoing.”

There’s the interesting report of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s emergence as the netizens’ top choice for president in a Facebook-based poll.

According to the fiery senator’s media bureau, the latest results of the survey on Facebook page Pinoy History showed that 48.36 percent of respondents want Santiago as president in 2016, despite the fact that she is the only presidential aspirant who has yet to release campaign ads.

She said that social media has led to an extraordinary change in voting attitude among Filipinos, as she emerged as netizens’ top choice for president in the Facebook-based poll.

“Social media is the key to winning the 2016 elections. Traditional politicians can always pay for advertisements, or even pre-election surveys, but no amount of money can silence Filipinos on social media,” Santiago said.

What’s driving many crazy is the circulation in social media, including cellphones, of the startling similarity in the images of the late President Ferdinand Marcos and presidential candidate Grace Poe – from the wide forehead to the nose and cheeks and smile. Could they be father and daughter? If a DNA test conducted on vice presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos proves positive, I wonder how that would affect their election. Is it possible that we would have two Marcoses becoming president and vice-president ? A sister and a brother? Nah!!

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Our condolences to the family of Carmencita Tiongco Aguilar, a well-loved political scientist professor, who passed away on Nov. 25. She was born in Molo, Iloilo, in 1937.

At St. Peter’s Memorial chapel on Commonwealth Ave., Quezon City, we had a chat with her husband, lawyer and CPA Aramis B. Aguilar, whom she left behind exactly on his 86th birthday. We leafed through the album of photographs taken during the 60th wedding anniversary of the couple, a few months ago, showing them snuggling close to each other, with happy smiles.

Attorney Aguilar recounted the beginning of their love story. The Tiongcos of Iloilo and the Aguilars of Bacolod were close family friends. Attorney Aramis said he was 12 years old when he first saw Carmencita, then 3, and he knew that she was going to be his wife. Such was his devotion to that idea that he never courted any girl, “Oh, I only had close friends, but no girlfriend,” he said, smiling between tears. He was working, with a commerce degree from a school in Bacolod, when the girl of his dreams moved to Manila; he followed her, and enrolled in and finished law at the Ateneo de Manila in Padre Faura. He was 27 and a commerce graduate of a school in Bacolod, and she, 18, when they tied the knot. While practicing law, he allowed Carmencita, who was already the mother of three of their eight children, to finish her college studies.

Carmencita took up political science at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, where she made her mark as an educator. According to daughter Mylene, her mother’s colleagues said at her wake that she was “a teacher and mentor,” and was “very nurturing, mothering and firm, and pushed her students to do their best.”

Professor Carmencita’s influence shone bright and clear. She served as president of the Women’s Rights Movement of the Philippines, and of the International Federation for Social Scientists, one of the arms of Unesco. She set up the Association of Social Scientists, Educators, Researchers and Teachers (ASSERT).

Mylene, a legal researcher at the Court of Appeals, said her mother wanted to train teachers and educators, set up seminars around the Philippines. “She did not want teachers outside Manila to be left out (of developments in the teaching field).”

Despite her involvements, she did not neglect her children, “She was always around, she considered her family her priority,” said Mylene.

Her children are Channette, a music educator who lives in Arizona; Glenn, an insurance executive in Canada; Mitzi, a professor at the UP College of Fine Arts; Mylene; Melanie, an architect; Christine, a dentist, and Anne and Pinky who both live in Australia. Altogether the children have given Carmencita 18 grandchildren.

As a mother, “She was a disciplinarian. We always knew she felt it her duty to raise useful and good citizens. She encouraged us to pursue higher education.”

She was the family’s “ benchmark for courage and discipline.” Her resilient spirit she must have developed at an early age. She  lost her father during the Second World War. She was only 4 years old and had two sisters, one aged 2, and the other, a baby. When the family had to flee from Japanese soldiers, she carried a bag of rice and bottles of water, and she never complained.

The University of the Philippines recognized Carmencita and her two sisters, children and grandchildren for constituting three generations of UP alumni.

Carmencita was a governor of the Philippine Constitution Association (PHILCONSA),at whose meetings she always spoke her mind on issues.  Among those regretting her demise were Justice Lolong Lazaro, Congressman Martin Romualdez, Nelia Gonzalez, Saeed A. Daof, Aniano Disierto, and others.

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I was in Gingoog in time for the commemoration of my late father’s birthday anniversary last week. He was such a gentle and firm man who gave my late mother all-out support,, and as a matter of fact, strongly agreed with local residents to have her run for a seat in the city council. She won as the first woman kagawad of the Gingoog legislative council. It was her vote that clinched the decision to have the city market moved to the northeastern side, resulting in the expansion of the city and its trade and commerce.

Watching the political moves in and around the city, I was reminded of the campaign strategy that my mother’s supporters waged in the local elections of the 1950s. Mama had very little financing support; the opponents had much of it, even hiring celebrities from nearby Cebu City to perform at its campaigns. My brother, Warto, was the innovative high school tyke. He mobilized the young boys in town to borrow pots and pans from their kitchens, and banged on them as they went about town. The commotion brought everyone out of their houses to see what was going on. It was Warto and his band of supporters, and they read the words on the bandera  two boys carried: “Vote Mrs. Corazon Torrevillas for councilor.” And people voted for Mama.