The jukebox and the toady

by Lito Banayo
from MALAYA

Imelda Romualdez Marcos had a very condescending view of the utility value of a now deceased politician to her husband, the then Pres. Ferdinand Marcos. Him she likened to a jukebox: “Barya lang iyan, kakanta na kung anong tugtog gusto mo”, or so it was then bruited about.

I recall that story about Imelda and their “jukebox” after reading Press Secretary Cerge Remonde’s reaction to the DOJ’s filing of charges against Senator Panfilo Lacson before the regional trial court of the City of Manila, over the Dacer-Corbito double murder case.

The Inquirer reporters, Donna Pazzibugan and TJ Burgonio caught Remonde’s salivating ululation in one very appropriate adjective — “rhapsodic”.

Wrote the two: “Cerge Remonde waxed rhapsodic, and quoted the judgment of Malacanang’s mouthpiece from Cebu: “All of us should breathe a collective sigh of relief that finally this issue that has festered (sic) the soul and the psyche of this nation for so long is moving, and the wheels of justice are finally moving”.

Breathtaking in its shameless pandering to the baser motivations of his senor y senora. Did they ask him to react? Was it Senor Don Miguel now exacting what he hopes would be his pound of flesh after all the founded accusations thrown at him by Lacson, and hardly containing his joy at the shameless subservience of Devanadera and her parrots, asked Remonde to sing hallelujah? (By the way, Jovencito Zuno is about to retire as Senior State Prosecutor. Maybe the head of the investigation panel which charged Lacson despite clearly perjured testimony and shards of hearsay. Prosecutor Ong, will be summarily promoted.)

“The accusation of the camp of Senator Lacson that the filing of this case is politically motivated is sounding already like a broken record – a broken record of the warped CD’s of the present.” (Hello? Warped CD’s?) Where did Cerge study his philosophy and letters? Junquera Street astride old Colon in Cebu? (Wala pang masscom nung kapanahunan ni Cerge.)

Comes now the part where undisguised vendetta is played, “rhapsodically”, on the jukebox: “He should face the music, as squarely as people he has accused has also faced his accusations”. Ah! so des ne? Gigil na gigil si Don Miguel sa galit kay Lacson! Magkamag-anak pa naman ang mga kanunu-nunuan nila! (In case you didn’t know, the Lacson clan originated in Molo, Iloilo where the pancit molo are not noodles but delicious dumplings upon equally delicious broth. The rich Lacsons remained in Iloilo, or moved to Negros, and one of them married an Arroyo, from where Senor Don Jose Miguel sprung. The poor Lacsons sought greener pastures in Cavite, or Bataan, Tarlac, y otras provincias de Luzon. The father of Panfilo was a lowly jeepney driver in Imus, Cavite, with a rich-sounding surname.)

Now Remonde twits Lacson and infers that his senor has faced his accusations squarely. Aw, c’mon, Remonde, getting younger and mas pobrecito brother-in-law Ignacio to face the accusers and claim to be Jose Pidal — that’s facing accusations? Filing a slew of libel suits for every criticism, slight or grave, aired or printed in media, is facing his accusers squarely? Why, this writer was slapped a libel suit for calling Remonde’s master “el esposo gordo”, which, for the linguistic edification of Remonde, means “ang bana nga tambok”, or in Tagalog, “ang asawang mataba”. How should I have called Remonde’s master — payat? niwang? flaco? (In court Don Jose Miguel bristled and said he was insulted by my descriptive. And then a riposte: “As if the respondent himself is thin”. Touche!

The late Bubby Dacer should have taught Remonde some basic lessons in communications. Bistadong-bistado ka Cerge. Your principal’s “slip” is showing, just as your sipsip sucks.. With his ululations over “justice” and his braying at Ping, he just proved that the wolves of Malacanang are aching for the “kill”, and Cerge is their salivating jukebox. But since Dacer is no longer around, maybe Cerge can take communications lessons from Mon Tulfo.

* * *

At about the same time, Matias Defensor, representative of the hapless residents of what ought to be the “enlightened citizenry” of Quezon City, clearly pandering to the base motivations of his mistress and master in Malacanang, wrote last December 22, 2009 (couldn’t this guy even spare Christmas?) to the Judicial and Bar Council, urging his colleagues to nominate the successor of Chief Justice Reynato Puno now, as in “Now Na!”, long before the magistrate retires on May 17 this year.

Malacanang’s toady, who happens to be the chair of the Committee on Justice in the lower house, wants the JBC to nominate Puno’s replacement a good five months before, so that his Dona Gloria can pre-empt the next president come June 30, and undercut his appointing authority. Nothing could be more shameless.

Gloria should be reminded about what Carlos P. Garcia, the president her father Diosdado defeated, did just before he left office in 1961. Garcia appointed some 300 people, the most celebrated of which was a new Central Bank Governor, clearly to spite Gloria’s papa Diosdado. This is not to denigrate the quality of Garcia’s appointee, the brilliant Dominador Aytona, who likely would not have agreed to “decontrol” the economy and “devalue” the peso from 2 to 1 to an immediate 3.20 to 1 dollar, which Macapagal wanted, and which, economic historians note, resulted in the decline of the Philippines from what used to be Asia’s second wealthiest country. The point is, Garcia was morally wrong to make “midnight appointments”. Today, Gloria would also be “legally” wrong to make appointments, as these are proscribed under Article VII, Sec. 15 of the Constitution, which states that “Two months before the next presidential elections and up to the end of his/her term, a President or Acting President shall not make appointments, except temporary appointments…”

But then again, since when did legal or constitutional prescriptions stop Dona Gloria from doing what she wants? Least of all, any vague notions about being “morally right”. To the amoral Dona, the only rule of thumb she follows is “A, basta!” What the Dona wants, the Dona must get. If she wants Justice Renato Corona, her former chief of staff and spokesman who called the masa “mga mabaho”, to become the “chief”, he must get it, because Noynoy will certainly not appoint such a man Chief Justice even of an already depreciated Supreme Court.

If Gloria wants to name him acting Chief Justice, she certainly can do that, but the president after her can also undo that and name anybody else to lead the highest tribunal. But it seems, that is not what she has written in her amoral mind.

And the right dis-honorable representative of the third district of Quezon City plays his bountiful part, as instructed — that of being her toady.

* * *

Someone who was quietly “great” died last week, as quietly as he had lived, piling achievements one after the other when he was an educator, and this writer grieves with the family and his other admirers and friends. Dr. Raul de Guzman, Dean of the College of Public Administration, where once I studied, passed into the Great Beyond. Through his efforts and organizational skills, where the university sought out the best and the brightest to compose the faculty of what is now known as the National College of Public Administration and Governance, what started out as institute has become the most credible institution of higher learning sought out by government in the crafting and re-drawing of public policy.

Hail and farewell!

(banayo_at@yahoo.com)