These special operations in the Philippines

The truth?

Hardly would you know that when it comes to national affairs, maybe uniquely here in the Philippines. You need to discern more, sift well the shaft from the grain. With at least seven years working as a journalist some years back, you don’t bite the bullet from what you read or hear in the news.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not against my kind of profession before. Journalists simply report. They write what the legitimate sources say, even if they feel what the sources blurt out are doubtful. They simply attribute what’s new in an event or a running drama.

I had long wanted to express my thoughts about the running ZTE-NBN issue. Most of what I thought or felt came to be how the subject had developed. As this drama started, I had the feeling this was just another “special operations” by some “news creators” (propagandists). The man-in-the-spotlight (Jun Lozada) was nothing but another pawn in game politics. He was simply a propaganda tool, and is still continues to play his starring role.

When he started his campus tour after the last box-office Senate probe, it became obvious. In his tour, he had nothing else more to say but just reinforce the propaganda he was used for. When news came he was coming to Cebu, my first reaction was: “Oh please, spare us. We’re not dumb here. Unless you have something new to bare, then fly in.”

As it turned out, it was just another tour. Lozada even had the gull to insult Cebu Archbishop Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal. Somebody should have told him the various role the good prince of the Catholic Church did since he came to Cebu to ensure peaceful solutions to various conflicts. Shooting the Cardinal from his hips came out to be a blessing in disguise. It unmasked who he really is, the role he was made to play that sadly impressed many among the still naive new generation.

And there’s holier than thou Leah Navarro, leader of the Black and White Movement, who maligned our Archbishop as “congressmen in a cassock.” The Cardinal could just pray: “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sinned against us.” The more-of-Black movement does not really want the truth. It only has motive. Ms. Navarro must have forgetten the essence of her Metro Manila Music Festival award-winning song “Pag-Ibig,” not the government housing agency but LOVE. At 40, her song rings well in my mind with complete lyrics.

Going back to the subject, it is sad that we Filipinos are subjected to many special operations that the Navarro group and many other civil society groups either willingly or unwittingly participated in. Now comes the revealing report in The Manila Standard of my INQUIRER contemporary Christine Herrera: Palace victim of Lacson sting operation.

Wala gyu’y aso nga makomkom, noh? Sa kadugayan, mabatyagan ra gyud ang kamatuoran. Apan unsa pa man ang nagpahipi likud sa mga balita?

Sad how this story in Philippine politics resulted in. From the glory we gained as a nation from our 1986 People Power, look at how we have become with the following pass-on email joke story. It’s about doing business, the ZTE-NBN style:

Three contractors are bidding to fix the White House fence. One from the Philippines , another from Mexico and an American. They go with a White House official to examine the fence.

The American contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil.

“Well”, he says, “I’ll figure out the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me.”

The Mexican contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, “I can do $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me.

The Filipino contractor does not measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers: “$2,700.”

The White House official, incredulous says, “What?, You did not even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?” “How do you expect me to consider your service with that bid.”

“Easy, the Pinoy explains”, “$1,000 for you, $1,000 for me and we hire the guy from Mexico .”

The next day the Pinoy got the contract.