Exchanging Spikes

By Rolo B. Cena

Random

Dumaguete Star Informer

28 August 2016

The exchange of spikes between President Digong Duterte and troubled Senator Leila Delima that has been going on for weeks now has actually become a trending phenomenon.  First off, it has gone unruly. Secondly, some issues become too personally sensitive.  Thirdly, it has become partisan.

Arguably though, the President has been rowdy for losing some sense of respect to women.  While these allegations are yet to be investigated, the manner by which he brought to the table these allegations is unbecoming of him as the chief executive of the Country; more than that, the manner by which he brought these allegations to the public has somehow polarized some of his followers for being too ungentlemanly; the information has become uncontrollable that social networking sites made unimaginable feastings on them.   

The allegation that the Senator is sexually involved with her driver is too privately personal.  While it has been alleged that the driver is the bagman for the payolas she was (?) allegedly receiving from those drug lords inhabiting inside the National Penitentiary, the President should have been very discreet in the manner by which he spread the issue.  Accusing Senator Delima as an immoral woman and as an adulterer is below the belt, if not beside the political point.

This trading of barbs reminds me of an old wisdom that says “Only the wicked gamble at the wicked.”

The exchanges of their hullabaloos have become factional.  Each time tirades are thrown tribal supports are visibly accorded in support to each other.  Their respective camps have been articulate about each other’s supposedly dignifying rebuttals.  Each one is getting support from whom their own team, followers, and political parties.  Getting advantage is the lady Senator for getting support from the Catholic Church.  But this is something that is not giving us a good signal:  Instead of them working together, they chose to build the wall thus the division.

In the interest of the Country’s image before the world, it would be best for the two of them to preserve silence for now while keenly preparing all sort of evidences to refute each other’s claims on the issues each one holds against the other.  For one, the President could have been more prudent in his pronouncement on the alleged involvement of the Senator if indeed he has evidences against the latter.  Two, the Senator could have been tactical in her kinesis vis-à-vis her responses to the issues raised against her; the “snippets of truth” that she claimed might be used against her should the investigation proceed as planned by the administration.  Three, the two could have been more critical and responsible in their respective attacks and releases as they had frustrated their respective followers.

After all, “the real gentleman is as polite to a little girl as to a woman,” if I may borrow the line from Louisa May Alcott, the famous American novelist and poet.

When former Davao Mayor ran for presidency bannering his dictum “change is coming,” the people expected that change would freely come as a flux.  As it is now and if I may put my two cents in, change has become so unmanageable and uncivilly: The moves are so bizarre that these violates human dignity without regard to human rights that the lady Senator claims, the right to live that the Catholic Church is advocating and the right to be human that ordinary human beings espouse.

The President does not own one’s humanity; no politician ever does.

Drug traffickers in general are liquidated without due process.  More than that, the name-shame is worse than being orally defamed in public.  Public officials’ misconducts are bannered as simply as chitchatting in the corner store.   Ordinary minds can now suspect that marauders are convicted before due process.  Assuming these people are criminals, violators or perpetrators, still they their own humanity, which is the very foundation of due process.

It is a known circumstance that drugs are everywhere, that violators increase their numbers, that violators are protected, that violators are believed to be the same politicians that promise the suns and stars to their constituents, and a lot more. Yet, there is always one best way to condemn them.  It is also a common belief that most public officials violated rules, misappropriated public funds, and entered into anomalous transactions, and a lot more.  Yet, there is always one best way to let them pay for their violations.  And he knows better; he has been a prosecutor.

He maybe the bravest leader our Country has ever produced but that does not give him the authority to deface our fellowman’s humanity.  He may be the best solicitor his prime has made of him but that does not give him enough reason to skip channels, breach protocols and circumvent the law.

Most of the flukes that people are experiencing, feeling and seeing now are actually the same scenarios most people experienced, felt and knew in the late sixties and early seventies before the day the archipelagic Philippines was encased with fear.

Have you just said why did we choose them?

Rewriting Vitruvius

By Rolo B. Cena

Random

Dumagutete Star Informer

August 7, 2016

When the Vitruvian Man was drawn, great Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci never had met nor talked to the famous Architect Vitruvius for the project. Da Vinci simply based his drawings on the notes of the Architect.  The drawing, which later was hailed to be a classic masterpiece, depicts a man in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and inscribed in a circle and square.  Sketched in a piece of paper, the drawing actually purports to display the proportions of man.

33-year old Australian Nicholas James “Nick” Vujicic, was born with phocomelia, a rare disease characterized by the absence of limbs.  His is mainly torso with a small foot on his left hip that he uses not only for daily tasks but also for occasional round of golf, football and skateboarding.  When he was a young boy as Nick revealed, he was bullied from age 6 to 12 that at the age of 13 he suffered depression.  Today, Nick is considered as one of the most sought-after motivational speakers conveying his modern-day moving masterpieces before a multitude of people, young and old, able or disabled.

Michael “Mike” Siaron was a 29-year old tricycle driver and was a suspected peddler.  He was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in July 6, 2016 along the streets of Taft & EDSA.  His cadaver, which was left in the street covered with a provocatively inscribed cardboard only President Duterte can rationalize through his “kill list,” was cuddled by his live-in partner Jennilyn, that only Michelangelo can understand and sculpt.  Thereafter, Mike gained international media mileage for being the first grassroots killed out of the kill list whose story was sensationalized by international media and social networking sites.  Jennilyn on the other hand made her social networking debut when the cuddling of the invisible man now made visible captured the lenses of photojournalists who splattered the story in best celestial canvass.

The classic Vitruvian Man, or better known as the “proportions of man,” which is the very essence of the master-piece drawing of Leonardo da Vinci, parleys not only how the Supreme Being created physical human bodies using the science of proportions; it also implies the social and economic proportions of man in relation to its habitat.

Nick is limbless but active.  Surely, kids of today’s genre would always exchange a tête-à-tête with colleagues to chatter about his peculiar exposition.  Notwithstanding its bizarre portrait appears the most desirable proportion of talent to deliver inspiring messages, the exceptional wit to create twists and turns to inspire and the stupendous confidence to face a crowd and merely open his mouth to motivate.  Along with that grotesque body is the blissful provision of a wife who is superlatively understanding and loving.

Mike is able but sickly.  Arguably, his minute structure invites predators to bully the prey that he was.  Physically complete and sane, he was peddling for a living – that is, using the locally made “trisikad” ferrying passengers from corner to corner in the metropolis for a meager ten peso-ride.  Despite the odd proposition, he managed to rent a shack with his partner, a tiny storeroom along a garbage-strewn creek rented for P500 per month.  Notwithstanding the incongruence comes another heavenly endowment of a woman as understanding and loving as she could be until that fateful day.

There are always proportions in asymmetry that only the likes of Vitruvius, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Nick and Mike understand and believe; proportions that speak about rejuvenating art, reassuring wisdom, and unifying order:  For one, art is seeing the invisible, the invisible that is articulated in abstracts, weirdest of melody, harshest of verses and offensive of dialogues that only those with the vision can see, feel and understand.  Two, the intellect, no matter how rich it can be, is always as reassuring as knowing that the sun rises after each night falls.  Three, all instructions are always geared towards simplifying and putting things in proper perspective.

And Vitruvius, through the creative imagination of Da Vinci captured the proportions and symmetries of humankind despite the obvious of all odds and oddities.   Beyond the bestowed physical proportions of man is the incongruent of intellect, the bizarre of emotions, and the shortsighted of vision:  Incongruence because man, being the supreme of all creation endowed with superego still continues to indulge; bizarre because he continues to introduce the most uncanny of human activities that destroys; and shortsighted because he ignores evil doings and forgoes the vision of a perfect and rationalized being.

There is harmony in asymmetry that only a visionary can see.  Sadly though, these creatures are becoming extinct.  If only Vitruvius detailed alternative notes, perhaps Da Vinci could have sketched a different proportions of man where there are no poorest of poor and weakest of preys.

Imagine!

Grassroots

By Rolo B. Cena

Random

Dumaguete Star Informer

July 31, 2016

Touching base with the grassroots has always been an effective channel to find talents:  Talents whose credence in their fields may and would later become highlights or pride of the country.

“Tayada sa Plaza” was once again launched in July 24, 2016 at the grounds of Dumaguete’s Quezon Park.  Running for years now since Mayor-Elect Remollo initiated the program 13 years ago, the initiative intends to showcase the grassroots talents from different schools of Dumaguete City, including out-of-school youths.

Grassroots have always been there as the source, or more than that, as the inspiration.  Take the case of self-made grassroots talents like Miss Lea Salonga, whose humble beginnings dates back to her singing ventures at the age of seven.  Local stage shows and talents searches paved the way for her.

In 1989 when Cameroon Mackintosh, the producer of Miss Saigon launched its search for talents in the Main Theater Lobby of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, chose Lea Salonga to portray the role of “Kim,” the former never knew his production would make the latter a big name in West End theaters and later in Broadway, a high-end brand of theater talent and a by-word in theaters and films in and out of London, New York, Manila and other parts of the globe.

Flipping the other side of the coin, touching base with the grassroots may not be as good as what it does to finding would-be arts icons.  Take the case of the present administration that uses the grassroots in creating the “kill list” of drug lords, peddlers and users.  It may actually have benefited the administration for now for it is able to produce the list that becomes the basis for their all-out war against drugs.  Contrariwise, the glitch is that these people may be feeding erroneous or malicious information to whoever is in-charge of collating these names; worse, these grassroots are also giving grassroots.

Rationally, if the exercise produces the list of those politicians, businessmen, and personalities who are believed to be nvolved, then I would salute to the move.  As of even date, we still hear people say that there are those who are still freely doing that, although the onus of proof is on these people claiming to know them.  However, validation must be the key here.

Tweaking it more!

In June 2016, when President-Elect Rodrigo R. Duterte waged war against drugs, he knew he would make his war a big initiative in the political arena of the country, a brand of political will and a by-word in the drug-torn streets of cities, towns and municipalities where they circulate the prohibited drugs.

The Catholic Church has a different view of the action, though.  At present, they are staging nation-wide protest through the regular masses as a way of expressing their own defiance to the move.  Understandably, they oppose killing, as that is not how God plan to discipline his believers, so to speak.  But somewhere along the thin, red line, realization must dawn upon all of us now because the menace is no longer an archipelagic problem; it has become a global.  And somewhere along the line, the separation of the Church and the State must be fully understood, if not underscored or observed.

We have to bite the bullet!

Albert Einstein, the famous Physicist-Scientist of all generations once suggested that if he’d solve a problem in one hour, he would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and 5 minutes solving the problem.

Make sense, right?  Defining the problem must be the first thing to do:  scrutinizing the problem, identifying the root cause, dissecting sub-causes, analyzing cause and effect, plotting alternative courses of actions, and finally, implementing the best alternative course of action to solve the problem.

Unless this suggestion from the world’s famous and most admired scientist does not make sense, then the President can proceed amidst allegations that he and his team is actually not hitting the cherry bull’s eye.  After all, the number of big names identified and announced is inversely proportional with the number of grassroots already killed.  What a way to underscore the grassroots in the war known as drugs navigated by the country’s famed and powerful!

When Lea Salonga was listed in the cast of “Miss Saigon,” Mackintosh never knew she’d become a star.  After the first run of the play in the West End, Mackintosh realized he started to make the name Lea Salonga bigger than any celestial object in the universe.  She was a grassroots. 

In contrast, when fellow grassroots listed Michael Siaron as a drug peddler in the “kill list,” they never knew he’d stole the sixty-second spotlight and a page in several morning dailies. After Michael was shot and killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen near Pasay Rotonda on EDSA in July 6, 2016, the public realized that the salvaging gained ire and sympathy.   Surely, the public and his fellow grassroots realized that the puny suspect shouldered the consequence of the game maneuvered by the rich and mighty.  He, too, was a grassroots.

Or, you might have a better way, let him know!

Twisted Thoughts

By Rolo B. Cena

Random

Dumaguete Star Informer

17 July 2016

The UN-backed Permanent Court on Arbitration in The Hague ruled that China has no historic title over South China Sea and that it violated the sovereign rights of the Philippines with its actions in the strategic waterway.  Conversely, it ruled in favor of the Philippine’s claim over the group of islands.

Beginner’s luck!

Nope, credit of course goes to the preceding administration for formally filing our claim in 2013.

Before his assumption, President-Elect Rodrigo Duterte accused Senator Trillanes of undermining the country’s claim over Spratlys to China.  In an article published in one of the national dailies, the President lambasted the outgoing senator by accusing the latter of making series of trips to China meeting several Chinese dignitaries reportedly for the Spratlys negotiation.  The allegation in fact states that the Senator in his favor made the negotiation with the green light from his immediate head.

Twisted?

My two cents in:  Assuming for the sake of argument that the claim was true, what a twisted moral values the legislator could have.  It is not surprising to learn the behavior though knowing that it was him who led the military staff-off in a posh Makati District in defiance to the authority of the astute Lady President now detained Pampanga Representative Gloria Arroyo.  Again, if it were true, it would be a total disregard of the mandate given to him by the voting populace and disrespect to the peace-loving persona of the Filipino people in and out of the archipelagic Philippines.

Twister!

The defiance made by China on the Ruling promulgated by the United Nations may come in too heavy a cyclone for the new President and for all the Filipinos.  For one, China has been a long-time economic partner of the country.  Starting with the Barter Trade during the pre-Spanish or Pre-War era, the commerce and trade between our neighbors has actually proliferated and has been contributing to the national economic growth of the Country.  Two, the cultural support given to us by its government and the strong influence evidenced by its presence in the consumeristic lives of the Filipinos are felt and seen every where.  Three, there is no denying the fact that no matter what has happened since the Luneta hostage taking in 2010, thousands of Filipinos are still engaged by China’s select household names for overseas employment.

Twist!

The Ruling promulgated by the United Nations over the dispute does not end the melo-dramatic episode that has been taking the spotlight since 2013 in the prime time slots.  The promulgation is just the beginning of a very compelling plot of hate-love-friend- enemy twist of the story.  For one, with the kind of behavior Chinese government has shown and continues to show to the world that she is a supreme being of sort, expect a trending behavior of power and retaliation.  More than that, we can expect another kind of bullying in the coming days.  Two, the military buildup and activities China has undertaken is an apparent indication, and if I may opine, a proactive and tactical move of getting ready for another tranche.  Three, the structures built in the West Philippine Sea is a seeming disregard and disrespect of our existence as a noble race coming from a sovereign nation, that by historical and legal fiction, owns the disputed lands.

The challenge now is how can an International Court execute its decision or order without resorting to a more abrasive effort given the defying stance China exhibits today with the end in mind of maintaining peace and order in the Southeast Asian region; how can it sustain its ground knowing for a fact that one race has twisted the story that consequently twisted set of values that propelled a twisted claim for a property.

The decision of the supreme Tribunal is one thing.  Making it run in two completely different cultural grounds is another story.  Relatively, it will be a tough balancing act for President Duterte and his Cabinet to execute the ruling.    

While we have the backing through its Ruling by the United Nations, support from Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan, the fact still remains that China has been defying orders and has at present defied, or junked, for a better term, the decision of the supreme Tribunal.  The behavior suggests that they can and will continue to bully another race, creed or culture, much more, an Authority that all States of the World respect and decision uphold, just to stand by their claim of ownership over a territory they had no ownership of, to begin with.

Let’s see how can major players – the Philippines, China and the United Nations correct some twisted thoughts and make the law run for the countries.  Truly, we cannot expect something good out of twisted thoughts especially when these thoughts are the consequent results of using twisted values that run the conscious minds of the Leaders.

It is in fact happening right now, right here.  Good luck, Philippines!