vhong vhindicated?

on social media some peeps are saying that too much time is being wasted on the vhong navarro story when there are so many other things going on that are more important to nation.  katrina posted this status in response:

no, no. there is nothing stupid, or shallow, or wrong about discussing what truly happened to Vhong Navarro. this is a guy that a mass audience has been watching on TV from Monday to Saturday since 2009. he is someone whose becoming has happened on nationwide television, kicking it off with the Streetboys, and later on doing comedy like none of those other boys could. he has a hit song to his name, hit movies, too. kids watch this guy on TV every day and know of his icon to be about comedy, and wit, and dancing, and fun.

that he has come out looking the way he does is no joke. that the story is about concepts that are the total opposite of his public persona, that it is about rape, extortion, violence, revenge, blackmail, make it an even more important topic for discussion. because the mass audience that watches him on TV every day deserves a discussion about the image of this man they idolize, coming out on TV all black and blue and broken.

there is nothing stupid about this. neither is there reason to think this shallow and superficial. this might seem less important than politics and corruption and the economy (or whatever else), but it is important on the level of culture — and i don’t mean just Vhong as celebrity — but culture as ideology, as the way we engage with the world, and the way things unravel, publicly and otherwise.

this is not any more or any less important than other national issues at this point in time. it is equally important because it is about nation, and it is a discussion that we MUST have because this speaks of and about us. ignoring it would also mean missing the opportunity to engage in a discussion about violence and rape, regardless of whether the latter happened or not.

and really, more important things to discuss? whatever happened to multitasking?

my reaction, when i first saw vhong’s black-eyed and puffed-up face on tv, was consternation: such violence! the guys who beat him up must have been so angry, what’s the backstory?  and then, again, maybe the guys were just high on some speedy drugs, and so, wala lang, trip lang?

now we have two quite different versions, one denying, the other alleging, a rape attempt.  one alleging, the other denying, below-the-waist kababuyan.  the strange thing is, the girl isn’t hiding her face, like the usual rape/attempt victim does, and she has a well-known businessman-cum-personal-body-guard (who admits beating up vhong) doing all the talking for her.  very weird.

meanwhile, i hear the nbi finds merit in vhong’s case.  i’m just glad that there was no knee-jerk response from women’s groups that are usually quick to scream rape! in support of alleged rape/attempt victims.  good job, girls.

Professionalism and the ERC

By Randy David

So complex and demanding are the functions and responsibilities of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) that the law that created it pegged its members’ compensation at the same level as that of justices of the Supreme Court. Every section of Republic Act No. 9136, known as the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (Epira), squarely puts the burden of protecting the interest of consumers and ensuring competitiveness in a deregulated industry on the shoulders of the 5-member commission.

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nardong kupit

In our Amazing Stories, here’s the Story of Boy Pikap and Nardong Kupit:

Ibinunyag ni Nardong Kupit ang umano’y pagmamaniobra ng administrasyon sa impeachment trial ni dating Chief Justice Corona na kaya sya drinive ni Boy Pikap papuntang Malakanyang para hikayating bomoto na i impeach si Corona.

Nataranta si Boy Pikap na nagpahayag nang, “Dati kaming magkasama ni Nardong Kupit (sa) Senado kaya nang iparating niya na mayroon siyang gustong i-take-up sa Pangulo kasama ang Cityhood ng Bacoor at ang kanyang pagiging Pangulo ng Partido Lakas, gumawa ako ng paraan para magkausap sila,”. And sabi pa ni Boy Pikap, he personally drove the vehicle that carried Nardong Kupit, who wanted to meet Aquino.

NARDONG KUPIT ! putik, ang ganda! was my rave response to reyna elena’s status on facebook.  i wished i had thought it up myself.  so apropos a riposte to actor-senator bong revilla’s o.a. dramatics, professing his innocence, alleging persecution, giving what he must have thought was the greatest performance of his life.  I … AM NOT …. AFRAID !  i thought he was going to say: I … AM NOT … A PIG !  ay mali.

NARDONG KUPIT !  for the non-tagalogs: kupit is tagalog for filching, pilfering.  and an anagram of putik, i.e., mud.  nardong putik was a kabitenyo gangster who seemed to have nine lives, thanks allegedly to a powerful anting-anting (amulet), and who was successfully portrayed in the movies by no less than senator bong’s father, also an actor, and senator (1992-2004), ramon revilla sr. (yes, think dynasty).

NARDONG KUPIT !  it was quite a speech, actually.  the parts calling out the prez on festering issues and questioning his tuwid-na-daan again and again were spot-on, but, really, coming from bong revilla, i can only say, AS IF !  as if he were some exemplar of tuwid-na-daan!  if he were, and if he were truly innocent of pocketing much of his pork barrel funds, he should have used that privilege speech to convince us, prove, that none of his wealth is ill-gotten.

instead of showing us signatures a la jose velarde, i mean, a la joker arroyo, he could have shown us a record of his earnings from all the movies and commercials and tv shows he has ever starred in and/or produced.  instead of showing us a passport and airline records a la freddie webb, he could have shown us his bank records, and revealed the sources of any and all large deposits.

and, really, he shouldn’t have brought his wheelchaired dad to the senate.  alam tiyak ng mag-ama that the last time, the first time, something like that happened was back in 1991, and the wheelchaired one was the venerable lorenzo tanada, there to witness the historic occasion when his son wigberto voted along with senate president jovito salonga and 10 other valiant ones against the treaty that sought to extend the occupation of clark field and subic by US military forces.  i remember tearing up, sharing the old man tanada’s unabashed happiness after decades of struggle.

i felt no such sympathy for the aged ailing revilla whose struggles were for his own ever-growing family, never for country, or so it would seem.  there was no sharing his unabashed grief for a sullied name, if that, indeed is what he was so miserable about.  if anything, his presence only reminded of his many mistresses and some 72 children, and the question of his own unexplained wealth, not to speak of nardong putik, now kupit.

Transparency: Relieving the Body of Despair

By Gina Apostol

I was getting my first dose of chemotherapy on the day Yolanda hit Tacloban, November 8. I was doing research on my fourth novel, William McKinley’s World, about Tacloban and Balangiga in 1901. My veins were dripping steroids and taxol, cytoxan and dexamathosone as I was looking at pictures of the dead killed by American forces in 1901. And when I turned on Facebook, I saw this other horror.

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