just saw news video of governor joey salceda glibly saying: “she may be a bitch, but she’s the luckiest bitch around!” he wasn’t joking, oh no he wasn’t, because first he stopped, namutla, covered his mouth with one hand, ay, me tv coverage nga pala! (or something to that effect) – so kung walang tv coverage he would have said it anyway? then it would have gotten around anyway, and maybe he would have denied it a la neri, haha, as in, i don’t remember saying that.

now he’s saying it was a joke, a bad joke, calling her a bitch in an “intellectual discourse” with a group of economists and businessmen in ateneo. i heard laughter from the audience, i saw ciel habito et al grinning broadly, maybe even chuckling out loud, but surely not because nakakatawa yung sinabi ni salceda (nakakagimbal nga because it sorta corroborates “evil”) but because nakakatawa si salceda! akalain mo, NADULAS SIYA, mwahaha, i mean, L O L !

what it was certainly was a freudian slip of the tongue. how priceless! something he has been thinking, maybe even saying in private (again a la neri), but has been suppressing in public because, really, there’s conflict involved that puts his integrity, and his job, into question. why is he working for a bitch, even if she’s a lucky bitch, a bitch is a bitch, i.e., “an offensive woman, malicious, spiteful, domineering, intrusive, unpleasant.”

bakit siya nadulas? ah, his psychological well-being was at stake. the effort to suppress something significant that deserves to be shared, or bottling up emotions that deserve to be released, can be too much for the psyche. comes a time when the higher self takes over and moves one to speak one’s truth, no matter how radical, no matter how dangerous, no matter how bad the timing. lalo na’t the cat’s out of the bag about the economy. sabi nga ni ciel habito, the economy is “growing” not because of but in spite of gma. i’m sure kahit sinong ilagay natin diyan, the economy will “grow,” thanks to ofw remittances. (lucky bitch indeed.)

so is economic adviser salceda in hot water with the “evil” na “bitch” pa? there’s news that he has apologized not just once, but three times by text, and no reply. naku. if i were salceda, magre-resign na lang ako, be true to his higher self.

speaking of texts, the one re noli de castro and the girlfriend and dasma house is not true, sey ni lito banayo.

also got a text warning against fund-raising scams for jun lozada using the name of a mother superior, and another that shares lozada’s phone numbers so i can ask him the truth about the patriotic fund, how much did jamby pay him to lie? why did he ask gaite for money when binay contractor ernie canlas gave him P3 million before leaving for hongkong? at anong pinag-usapan nila ni joey de venecia nung sundan siya nito sa hongkong? at kung ano ano pa.

it’s up to lozada kung gusto niyang patulan ang walang patid na insinuations and accusations being hurled at him. as far as i’m concerned, none of it detracts from his testimony on the allegedly evil but lucky bitch.

i had been thinking along the same line as manila standard today columnist antonio c. abaya (no relation to the tony abaya who accompanied jun lozada to fely arroyo’s residence, and who is the husband of anabelle abaya, one-time presidential spokesperson in fvr’s time) regarding noli de castro as the constitutional alternative to ate glue should romy neri find the balls to tell all once and for all.

So, given the stark emptiness of the Philippine political landscape, is there any reason for Romulo Neri to break his silence and divulge all the sordid details he knows at first hand about corruption in high places, and thereby cause the House of Arroyo to come crashing down?

“We can only appeal to his patriotism. He can take some comfort from the fact that if President Arroyo is forced to step down, the constitutional successor is Vice President Noli de Castro, who is neither a “trapo” nor a communist nor a military mercenary, and has no known—to me, anyway—connections to any of the three.

“He lacks social pedigree and political kingdom, as Jun Lozada himself describes himself, and he definitely has no vision of a new order. But we have to make do with what we have. And who knows, given the right inputs from the right advisers, he may be able to craft and articulate that vision of that new order, between 2008 and 2010?

“At any rate, he couldn’t possibly do any worse than the pedigreed Arroyo or the self-styled king of the masa, Erap. If the middle class, the business and professional communities, civil society, the Churches and the idealistic elements of the military support this constitutional process, it would be a painless solution to our dilemma.

“The pedigreed presidential wannabes will certainly resist such a scenario since it would threaten their presidential ambitions in 2010 if De Castro turns out to be a good leader in the next two years. But what can these presidential wannabes say? They are either for or against the constitutional process. If they are against, then they have no business running for any office.”

but wait. manuel buencamino posted excerpts from raul gonzalez’s business mirror column “that man, noli” where ate glue’s justice secretary is all praise for the vice president and thinks he’s going to make a good president.

“The recent SWS survey has confirmed this perception because Vice President Noli topped the SWS survey, beating such declared presidentiables as Senate President Manny Villar, Sen. Loren Legarda and Sen. Mar Roxas II….

“I would like to impress upon the public that during Cabinet meetings, VP Noli is always in my radar screen, and I see that the Vice President has the intelligence, the clear grasp of the problems and is equipped with the stature of leadership, which a national leader must possess.”

oh no. totoo nga yata ang tsismis na nakikipag-negotiate na ang gma camp with noli, you know, in case the shit hits the fan, she’ll make way for him but he promises her and fg immunity from suit and all that jazz.

worse, a couple of reactions to mbuencamino raise warning flags. one says: “If you only knew/know what he did at the office of the vice president. He is one person who only thinks of himself. Ask the people who know him.”

another shares a text message that has been circulating: “If you think VP Noli de Castro is a good alternative, you should continue reading. The P200 MILLION house & lot bought by VP Noli de Castro 2 months ago was given to his girlfriend Lucille Ortille. He acquired the property from Lucille Carlos & the exact address is 2256 Paraiso St Dasmarinas Village Makati City.”

hay naku. paano na nga ba. since we want to do this the constitutional way (the world will call it mob rule, but at least it’s constitutional), we might not have a choice. but maybe the people could impose certain conditions? noli has to promise transparency in all transactions involving public monies? how about promising to take the arroyos to court a la erap? the people should draft / craft a “we, the people” kind of document for noli to sign. this way we take people power to a new level. i know, i’m dreaming . . .

to my surprise, watching news video of the greenhills mass for jun lozada, in particular the singing of bayan ko, brought goose pimples. what a rare sight. the church-going middle-class with fists raised, many with great gusto, some self-consciously, and a few who just wouldn’t, or couldn’t, yet. oh, and one who flashed the L (laban) sign instead. never mind, they’ll get around to it, once they’re mad enough, and engaged enough, in the struggle for nation.

so is this a triumph for the communist left, that the raised fist has become the signal, too, of middle-class resistance? i think not. i think it’s mostly just the appeal of that palaban posture — it feels right (never mind that it’s left) and feels appropriate to the situation, as in dramatic and fraught with tension. ideologically, however, the middle-class is more rejectionist (RJ) than reaffirmative (RA) of joma sison, which is a great divide.

so how do we tell them apart, the true leftists from the bourgeois middle-class? i’m not sure about RJs, but certainly RAs raise left fists, burgis churchgoers raise the right.