Hullabaloos

By Rolo B. Cena
The Gulf Files
Dumaguete Star Informer
26 September 2010

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Sun Tzu, in the 1910 translation of his The Art of War by Lionel Giles said: “There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can even be heard.”

In Musicology, the concoction of these notes creates a melody, which, when penned with the lyrics, produced the classic taste of art called music. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart once quipped: “Music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.”

For a period now, national broadsheets and local journals have been posting what seemed to be old-musical-notes-for-a-new-song versions of claims, testimonies, or even hullabaloos of the melodramatic soap dish entitled Jueteng. These notes have been interwoven to produce, in our local honor yet, another masterpiece.

Musical note number 1: The Officials: Retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz announced that trusted officials of the Aquino Administration are receiving payola from the illegal numbers game, commonly known as Jueteng. In the Senate hearing, the prelate named Retired PNP Chief General Jesus Verzosa, Undersecretary Puno, Incumbent PNP Chief General Raul Bacalso, et al as among the officials who partook in the proceeds of the multi-billion numbers game

Archbishop Cruz, who heads the “Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Jueteng” claimed that the popular game had turned into a “political monster” under the Aquino Administration. Putting my two cents in, the retired bishop certainly is wrong; the game was once the monster of the previous administration as far as way back Marcos’. During the Arroyo regime, the people claimed that the illegal numbers game was blessed in the name of the father and of the son and of the mother Arroyo. It financially backed their political dominance. The same caricature was drawn during the Estrada’s. It was existing during FVR’s; it was mellower during the time of Aquino and Marcos though.

Musical note number 2: The Key: Senator Mirriam Defensor Santiago, in an interview over DZBB aired that “a local official close to President Aquino 111, who ran on a platform of change in the May elections, is the key to the continued operations of Jueteng in the country.”
In the Senate hearing, the 75-year old prelate already named those who are active in the business and even vowed to drill down to arrive at the complete list.
If Pres. Aquino is serious in weeding out this form of evil, he should start from his own campaign, not from others’. And now that names are out and the lives of the whistle-blowers are once again in danger, can Noynoy guarantee the safety of these people who have turned state witnesses?

Musical note number 3: The Vatican of Jueteng: Pampanga Archbishop Paciano Aniceto said some priests in the archdiocese of San Fernando are “relatives, close friends and beneficiaries of Jueteng operators” – justifying the claim of former Senator Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. on Pampanga as the “Vatican of Jueteng.”

He further said that those engaged in the Jueteng operations are members of the parish communities. They donate funds to run fiestas, foreign trips and build churches for the diocese.

Just a snap: what did the prelates do to this claim? Are they comfortable being tagged as the Vatican of jueteng? What a grotesque way of assassinating the church and an apparent insult to its holiness, huh?

Musical note number 4: The Denial: PNP Director General Raul Bacalzo denies the allegation that he’s on the take from Jueteng lords as claimed by Jueteng whistle-blower Sandra Cam of the Krusada.

In the Senate inquiry on Jueteng in 2005, whistle-blower Sandra Cam recalled, a fellow whistle-blower Wilfredo Boy Mayor mentioned that a certain Boy Tangkad who has since been identified as businessman Delfin Gener used to deliver Jueteng money to General Bacalzo.

The administration is asking for proof. Who can? Boy Mayor and Boy Tangkad were killed on separate occasions after the blow? If they can speak from their graves, will the houses listen to the second-round allegations of their cohorts?

Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are. Tactically, the two must be exterminated by their co-predators from the arena.

Musical note number 5: The Three Kings: A group who called themselves Junior Police Officers is ready to testify under oath that a group of security officials known as the “Three Kings” has taken over the collection of grease money from Jueteng operators under the Aquino administration.

In the biblical times, the Three Kings, who re-routed their journey back to the East to elude Herod the Great in order to save Jesus from the latter’s adverse plan, have acted as agents of change. The “three kings” these young soldiers of change are revealing are agents of doom.

Doesn’t it take one to know one?

Hullabaloos, that’s how we call them! Whether or not the hullabaloos of Pres. Aquino can be classified and elevated by Levi Celerio, Atang de la Rama, Jovita Fuentes, Antonio Buenaventura, Lucrecia Kasilag, Lucio San Pedro, et al – to classical art depends on the libretto he will be printing and the rapidity of the crescendo he will be orchestrating for his public-presumed sweeter version of good governance.

Music, no matter how distasteful to others’ ears must be sung and heard to give justice to the composer, more so, to the orchestra who brings it to life.