glorietta, media, and blogs

it was not unexpected that the philippine national police would find for a gas explosion, not for an explosive device. matagal na nilang sinasabi that evidence was pointing to a critical build-up of gases that could have been prevented if the guys in charge were doing their job.

but it was unexpected that the police would recommend charges only against the engineers, operators, and fire prevention officers who were immediately responsible for safety measures, and not against the mall owner nor city hall. unexpected because matagal na silang naghi-hint that the the pnp was not beyond charging even ayala land and mayor binay for command responsibility if warranted. kaya na nga panay ang press release ng ayala land before this, contesting findings of a gas explosion and negligence.

puno‘s excuse:

“. .. it was just that repairing the malfunctioning sewage system was not the job of the owners while those who had been charged had immediate responsibility for the repairs of the sewage system.”

pero kaya nga tinawag na “command” responsibility, di ba. kahit hindi ka directly responsible for repairs, pero kung mga tao mo ang pumalpak – june july august pa lang daw me problema na ang sewage system – ibig sabihin may pagkukulang ka rin. kasi kung on-top-of-the-situation ka, kung maayos ang palakad mo, wala sanang pumalpak, wala sanang namatay at nasugatan.

i smell a rat. maybe a backroom ex-deal (puno style) between ayala and malacanang. hmm. maybe re charter change? or maybe that is still to come, and nagpapapogi lang ang palasyo sa mga ayala.

not that i’m completely sold on the negligence charge.

i was expecting that anc, as is usual with important developments, would have some resource persons, maybe an engineer or two, to share their expert opinions, but no, not this time. later in the evening ricky carandang devoted the whole hour of the big picture to the same story, but again we had to listen to the same pnp guys rehashing what we had already heard, with ricky just clarifying the double blast, the ayala investigations, and the rdx angle.

the biggest let-down of all, not just from anc but from all media is that no one has yet asked the BIG question posed by some bloggers and, i hear, science e-groups, soon after the blast: conceding, for the sake of argument, that it was indeed not a bomb but a gas explosion. WHAT IF it was not a matter of criminal negligence but, rather, a matter of creative criminal engineering? surely it is humanly possible to orchestrate such a blast? what would it take? why is it not being considered by the police as a distinct possibility?

nakakadismaya our media. no time to read, no time to research, no time for critical thinking. paano kasi, ang he-hectic ng buhay. bread trip. one show after another, one deadline after another, no time to read read read and google and surf the internet, much less to turn on to pinoy blogs, where some of the discourse is remarkably (happily) higher than in broadsheet and broadcast media.

enough of erap!

i was all for erap’s pardon because of the questionable circumstancesof his ouster by gma, but it was always on the condition that he would not run again for public office, least of all the presidency. after all, he’s been there, been that, and he did a lousy job of it, so why should he be given another chance, pray tell?

the daily tribune’s alejandro lichauco says that erap is the only relevant presidentiable because he is the only one who is addressing the issue of poverty, and that if elections were held today erap would run away with it because poverty is the only issue that matters with the masses.

ano ba yan. poverty has always been an issue, and what did erap achieve in the two and a half years before he was kicked out? nada. so now he’s going to china to get lessons on how to lift the masses from poverty? haha. magkaintindihan kaya sila ng mga intsik? o baka naman type lang niyang pakabahin ang mga kano?

speaking of the kano, interesante ang kuwento ni manilabaywatcher anna de brux. diyata’t may kinalaman ang kano sa pagkakatalsik ni erap? hmm. siguro nga kaya siya pupunta sa china: para ma-praning si bush. ganyang ganyan ang style ni imelda nuong mid-1970s, nakipagsosyalan sa mga komunistang mao tse tung at fidel castro, sabay irap sa amerika. kuno.

but to get back to erap and his plan to run for president IF it’s the only way to unite the opposition. methinks he overestimates his popularity. fielding him as the sole oppositionist vs. gma’s annointed one is not a formula for success, rather it would be a reason to boycott elections.

the pattern has been set. erap messed up the first time, he’ll mess up again bigtime.

new year high

both our kids were off to the beach – one to montemar, the other to boracay – for the new year with their significant others, so cholo and i, after decades of hewing to supposedly good-luck traditions that never really guaranteed good luck, decided we were old enough to break out and do something different, something previously unthinkable, which was to hole up in a small makati av. hotel to escape the nerve-wracking noise and awful soot of firecrackers, feast on room service, usher in the new year quietly, for a change.

just in case cable tv got boring, cholo brought his portable dvd player and laptop. i brought a bottle of chardonnay and two books i was in the middle of, carlos fuentes’ terra nostra (what a story about spain’s phillip ii ), and rainer maria rilke’s in praise of mortality. not that i even got to open either book.

the unexpected treat was a 15th floor view of city lights. almost a 180-degree area around the makati bridge – no, not facing ayala or luneta, which would have been fantabulous, but what we got was wonderful enough, facing mandaluyong and san juan and ortigas all the way to quezon city. what a sight. as midnight approached, the fireworks grew more and more frenzied and spectacular. we wondered if we were missing something by missing the noise, should we go down and drown ourselves in the pandemonium outside kahit sandali? we stayed, deciding to be kind to our aging eardrums, okay lang the muffled sound effects, besides we’d miss the climax of the show, which was splendid, magical, fireworks of all colors and shapes shooting up from the dark to a kaleidoscope sky.  what a treat.

siyempre i remembered a friend who used to work with government who now lives in a penthouse in an ayala av. condomnium with a breathtaking 360-degree view of the metropolis. i bet she was having a party. i would, in her place. share the view from above.

forecast 2008

from llewelyn’s 2008 sunsign book, based on certain angles three heavy planets are making to each other in the coming year as they proceed along individual orbits. you don’t need to know where your sun or moon or ascendant is to benefit from this reading:

2008 at a glance

the planets move through the heavens at different rates of speed, interacting with each other many times a year or, in the case of the slow-moving outer planets, only in certain centuries. for example, the moon transits each sign in 28 days. pluto’s time in a sign is measured in decades. and all but the sun and moon have retrograde periods, where they appear to stop, move backward, pause again, and move forward. the most well-known of these is mercury, which is retrograde three or four times a year.

because of these different rates of speed, it is impossible for all but the fastest moving planets (sun, moon, mercury, venus, and mars) to contact each of the outer planets (jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune, and pluto) every year. any year in which saturn, urnaus, neptune and pluto contact each other is usually a momentous one in some way. and that is exactly what makes 2008 a very unusual astrological year.

year there is a configuration involving three of the outer planets — jupiter, saturn, and uranus. jupiter, which is the focal point of this configuration, will contact both saturn and uranus, which will contact each other, forming a scalene triangle in which the three sides are 60 degrees, 120 degrees, and 180 degrees.

it is rare that any three outer planets align like this. these three last formed this particular configuration in 1829. and the next occurrence will be in 2146.

jupiter represents expansion, saturn represents contraction, and uranus represents the unusual and the unexpected. when all this diverse energy is active during one period, as they will be in november 2008, you can expect major events in the world, in your personal life, and in the lives of those around you.

jupiter will form a favorable contact to saturn that signifies a positive mix of expansion and restriction; one balances the other, and each keeps the other in check–a good mix of optimism and pessimism. jupiter will also form a favorable contact with uranus, which signifies opportunity and luck. this is the fabulous opportunity that comes out of left field. you will find yourself moving in new directions to take advantage of jupiter’s growth potential through the houses of saturn and uranus.

that sounds terrrific, and it is. the catch is the stressful contact between saturn and uranus. the energy of these two planets couldnt be more different: saturn is restriction; uranus is freedom, change, the expected. this means that you will in some way encounter a hurdle as the universe challenges you to break from from restriction, as jupiter encourages you to look to the future and to envision the possibilities. a cautionary note: think and act carefully. action taken this year will probably be irreversible.”

imagine if we were a more enlightened race. then we would be thinking not of self but of nation, and how to make the most of the terrific vibes of 2008 to make sure the changes are truly beneficial to the majority and not just to a few. but who knows, maybe it’s not too late. for all our flaws, we are also a race capable of surprising ourselves.

happy 2008 y’all !