Out of my mind

The following is my column for today July 31, 2006 at the op-ed section of the Manila Standard Today . WE HAVE been driving for what seemed an eternity (in truth it had only been 30 minutes or so) along this dark, long and twisting stretch of road deep in the heart of Pangasinan when the breathtaking view suddenly hit us from out of nowhere. Looming below us was a dramatic tableau of structures and lights set against a panorama of an endless sea. At the nucleus was this mammoth machine bathed in lights and a giant chimney spewing white smoke. From where we were, the gigantic machine looked very alive and pulsating with action. The fact that it was after midnight made the scene quite surreal and reminded me very strongly of Close Encounters of the Third Kind; I kind of half-expected Richard Dreyfuss to materialize and announce to us that the spaceship has just landed. This was my first impression of the Mirant power plant in Sual, Pangasinan. Mirant is one of the independent power produ...

I completely forgot that Philippine Idol was debuting on ABC 5 tonight. Fortunately (in this particular instance at least) I have neighbors who must be deaf since they always watch TV with the volume turned up so I was able to tune in. What can I say. We are truly a country with a surplus of talent and grit, although alas, it is now an established fact that the two do not always go together. I am tempted to rant at ABC 5's cheap sensationalizing of the antics of the weirdos and circus characters that paraded themselves in front of Ryan, Pilita and Francis M. but there is no denying the fact that whether we like it or not, we do have those types of people in our midst. There is only so much TV people can do to egg people to display their worst behaviors so many of those spooky and loony capers we got to witness tonight must have been the (sur)real thing. So here's what I learned from watching the maiden episode of Philippine Idol: 1. There are people who will go to such idiotic ...

Around this time every year, the Department of Health begins coming out with those "reminders" about the imminent rise of certain seasonal epidemics. I never really paid attention to these dire warnings in the past - they were things that happened to other people. Well, what do you know, this week some varsity players of the College where I teach were struck down with dengue fever. They needed blood transfusions. And what is more, their dorm is actually just three houses away from where I live. Which means the mosquitoes that gave them dengue is probably very close relatives of the ones that swarm our garden. So it was panic time today in my house. Actually more of a hybrid of major theatrical production and an exorcism. The pond had to be emptied (darn, I have to buy new fishes again next week), the canal had to be - how shall i say this delicately - poked and pumped and well you get the drift, and the whole house and garden had to be smoked out. I hope they are done b...

The following appears as an op-ed column at the Manila Standard Today , July 26, 2006. GREAT performance. Generally well-crafted speech. Delirious cheering and applauding from the gallery. Good cast. Impressive PowerPoint presentation. Good measure of comic relief thrown in to break the ice. It can be argued that she was preaching to the choir. She was cocky at certain points, and awkward in some (was she interrupted by applause, or did she pause for one?). But at the end of it all, I just wanted to do a Cuba Gooding impersonation in that Jerry Maguire movie; I felt like hollering, “show me the money!!!” The President premised her talking points on the phrase “we now have the money to…” What she seemed to have meant is that with the new tax measures and the intended stringent monitoring of tax collection efforts, we will have the money to fund all those ambitious projects. There is a significant difference between actually having the money and having the means to collect or produce tha...

Because the government did not declare a holiday and it turned out that I had to go see my doctor, I watched the Sona from my doctor's office while waiting for my turn to be examined. As it turned out, the Sona was shorter than the waiting time; which I think is more reflective of the state of the medical profession. Anyway. My expectations were actually few and low. And I prepared myself for some awful metaphors and production surprises to make up for lack of content. But surprise, surprise, the Sona was actually not all that bad; perhaps because it focused on plans and promises rather than on achievements. But then again, the most major achievement (which is nothing to sneer at if we come to think about it) of this administration is the fact that she is still President despite all the threats and all the plots and all the demonizing. I don't want to preempt my column for tomorrow so I will focus today on some interesting sidelights of the Sona. * Where were the protocol offic...

The following appears as an op-ed column at the Manila Standard Today, July 24, 2006. IN THE last few days, media people have been tripping all over themselves in a futile effort to rouse public attention to today’s main event, the President’s State of the Nation Address to Congress. Thus, we have been treated to a continuing coverage of the transformation of the Batasan into a veritable fortress, updates on the crafting of the speech and its content, and everybody else’s opinion on it. It is a telling commentary of the real state of the nation that for most Filipinos, the buzz last week was on a rather inconsequential issue of whether or not today was going to be a holiday. Malacañang even had to go out on a limb to announce that it had no plans of declaring a public holiday like it did last year. I have this nagging suspicion that a holiday declaration would have been received more favorably than whatever good news the President is set to announce this afternoon. But the nondeclarati...

(The following is my column today at the op-ed pages of the Manila Standard Today ) I KNOW. Those billboards that litter the skyline along Edsa, the South Luzon Expressway, North Luzon Expressway and other major thoroughfares of this country do more harm than good. Having them on our streets is like having tabloids as wallpaper in your living room. Only, the latter presents more interesting possibilities—one can actually read them at leisure, claw at them when one is bored, and draw horns and vampire teeth on the faces of those annoying people in the news. On the other hand, those billboards conceal whatever little remains of our natural landscape. Billboards distract drivers and take focus away from the more important reasons why they are on the road, among them: to practice how to switch lanes in a split second, learn how to break traffic rules without being caught, and how to overtake that darn ambulant vendor pushing a cart of peanuts. Drivers are on the road to learn more importan...