Of Idiots and Liars

After hearing the first few minutes of Alan Peter Cayetano's privilege speech before the Philippine Senate on September 16, 2008, I can't understand why the other senators (or senate-tors, as Benjamin Abalos would say) tried so hard to prevent him from doing so. Peter Cayetano rose on a matter of personal privilege... and proved that he is either an idiot or a liar.

Senator Lacson, in a previous privilege speech regarding the alleged insertion of an additional item amounting to some two hundred million pesos in the 2008 national budget, made an issue of Peter Cayetano's seemingly cavalier comment that the additional 200 million pesos tacked onto the bill was just loose change. Peter Cayetano took offense.

In his privilege speech, Peter Cayetano said that his off-the-record comment to the news media was taken out of context and given a sinister meaning. And so, he set forth to lay the proper context to his comment.

He claimed that Senator Manny Villar earned 20 billion pesos in the latter's company's went public via an initial public offering (IPO) some years ago. He further claimed that 200 million pesos, although a big amount in itself, is relatively very small to the twenty billion pesos that Senator Villar earned in a clean and honest manner. Therefore, according to Peter Cayetano, Senator Villar would not be interested in benefitting from a mere 200 million pesos in the national budget. In that way, 200 million pesos is just loose change.

Logicians call what Peter Cayetano laid out a syllogism. Syllogism is a method of proof in logic where two premises are established to reach a conclusion. In this case, the premises are: 1) Senator Villar earned a huge amount of money when his company went public—in other words, he is very rich; 2) Two hundred million pesos is not a lot of money—mere loose change—compared to the 20 billion pesos he earned when his company went public so he would not be interested at all in padding the national budget by that amount. The conclusion then, is that Senator Villar has nothing to do with the insertion of an additional line in the 2008 national budget

The thing is, both the premises are wrong. Consequently, the conclusion is a fallacy.

First, Senator Villar did not earn 20 billion pesos when his company went public. Apparently, Senator Villar's company raised that amount in the IPO. Generally, the proceeds of an IPO is additional capital for the corporation and not income for the owner of the company. In fact, doing an IPO is one of the popular ways by which a company raises additional capital that it can use to expand its business. Capital is not the same as income. Of course, some investors may cash out their investments in a company when it goes public via an IPO. Senator Villar may have cashed out some of his investment in his company during the IPO but surely, not the entire proceeds. Doing so could have violated several provisions of the Corporation Code as well as SEC rules, at the very least.

Peter Cayetano might have confused capital and income because his father, the late Rene Cayetano, admittedly earned millions from trading BW Resources stocks. That was income. Most if not all of the money raised in the Camella & Palmera Homes IPO was capital. A lawyer should know the difference.

Second, there is no such thing as being too rich. Martha Stewart who was worth at least a billion dollars at the time she traded on inside information regarding the biotech company ImClone served time in federal prison for what experts calculated as only about $70,000 difference in the sale price of ImClone stocks.

The conclusion is also wrong because one does not have to actually receive the 200 million pesos to gain unfair, and ultimately, financial advantage or benefit from it. A politician can take credit for the program where the additional funding was used, as they often do.

Now, Peter Cayetano should find himself in what logicians call the “horns of a dilemma.” That is just a fancy way of saying that one is between a rock and a hard place. One is left with only two options, both of which are bad. On one hand, he can admit that he did not know the difference between capital and income and come out a fool. On the other hand, he can say that he knew the difference between capital and income and admit that he lied about Senator Villar earning 20 billion pesos from the Camella & Palmera Homes IPO.

Maybe Peter Cayetano was thinking about an American politician when he made that flippant comment about 200 million pesos being just loose change—the politician whose comment went something like this: “A billion here, a billion there. Pretty soon we're talking about real money.”

Peter Cayetano should probably emulate his fellow senator Lito Lapid who seems to have taken Mark Twain's words to heart. It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it.

The Rational Consumer

I had finally bought a new tube of toothpaste today. I had been using toothpaste from a tube that has been “empty” for the past five days. A tube of toothpaste is not really empty until you have split is open with a pair of scissors and wiped the last traces of toothpaste for one last brushing session.

These past five days, the trace amount of toothpaste that I was able to squeeze out of an empty tube had been sufficient to clean my teeth. That means that during the times when there was a lot of toothpaste still left in the tube, I had been using more than what I needed to clean my teeth. That was actually quite evident because most of the toothpaste just ended on the basin, still in unused clumps, when I rinse my mouth afterwards.

If it were just toothpaste, this is would be a waste of time on the mundane but we also behave in this manner in other things with far greater consequences. This thing with the toothpaste is just an illustration of how we do not behave as rational consumers.

In business school, we were tested on how rational we were as consumers. Assume that you are in a mall and right next to you is a convenience store where you can buy a can of soda for $11 while you can also get the same soda for $1 at the end of the mall which is about 500 meters away. Where would you buy the can of soda?

Now assume that you are in the same mall and next to you is an electronics store where you want to buy a digital camera which would cost you $5,010. The same camera is available at an electronics store at the other end of the mall which is about 500 meters away and would cost you $5000. Where would you buy a digital camera?

The rational consumer would buy both the can of soda and the digital camera at the far end of the mall. Ten dollars for a 500 meter walk is still $10 dollars whether you are buying a can of soda or a digital camera. Of course, the really savvy consumer would have parked at the other end of the mall if he knew stuff there were $10 cheaper. But I digress.

The irrational consumer, on the other hand would trudge 500 meter to save $10 on a can of soda but would not do so for the same amount of savings when buying a high ticket item.

There are more common forms of irrational consumer behavior such as putting money on a savings account which earns 2% interest per annum while maintaining a credit card balance which charges about 4.5% interest per month.

Going back to the toothpaste issue, I just realized that I had been irrational in my use of toothpaste. I had been using more than what is needed when there is still plenty of toothpaste left when I should always be using only what I need.

This business school flashback is courtesy of the recent drop in oil, and consequently in fuel, prices. The rapid increase in gas prices have forced use to use what is only necessary. When gas prices go down, we might be tempted to backslide and once again use what is available, much more than what we only need.

The Politics of Obfuscation

Once upon a time there was a poor young man scavenging along the beach for shellfish to eat and whatever cast away things that he could use when he came upon a rusted clump. It didn't look promising but he thought that if it was just all rust, he could toss it away later. If there was still some usable metal within the rust, he could sell it at the recycling center for a few centavos.

When he reached the hovel he called home, he worked to get the rusty crust off whatever was inside the clump he found. Lo and behold, there was what appeared to be an oil lamp....

To make a long story short, out came a genie who granted him three wishes. He asked for wealth, good looks, and to really impress the women, he asked that he should be able to drag his penis along the ground when he walked. The genie then transformed his legs to mere stumps.

There are many variations to this anecdote. There's one where an American, seeing the success of foreign cars on American soil asked for a foreign car dealership. In the blink of an eye, he found himself the owner of a Cadillac dealership in the middle of Tokyo.

And then there's the story of the man who bought shoes at a shoe store because it was a “half off sale.” He only got one shoe, instead of a pair.

The point here is that ambiguity leads to confusion and sometimes, tragedy. Furthermore, if we are not vigilant in the manner by which other people use ambiguous language to mislead us.

We have always played fast and loose with our ambiguous and misleading language. News coverage of the recent dismissal of former Court of Appeals justice Vicente Roxas mentioned that he was a bar exams topnotcher. Being a bar topnotcher means topping the bar, that it, getting a grade higher than everyone else.

The term “barrister” refers lawyers in England and members of the Commonwealth State who have qualified to, and are allowed to appear before magistrates. Here we use that term to refer to law school graduates who are preparing or taking the bar exams. The proper term for those is “under bar” or bar examinees if they are currently taking the exams.

The problem with not being very exacting in our use of language is that we allow those who are more creative in their use of words to mislead and hoodwink us.

During the height of the rice crisis earlier this year, rumors were swirling around that Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap's father-in-law was unduly and unlawfully taking advantage of the situation. Secretary Yap issued a statement stating that his father-in-law was not in any way involved in the wholesale trading of grain. Of course, that did not really answer the issue of whether or not his father-in-law was taking undue and illegal advantage of the rice crisis. His father-in-law could have been involved in the grains retail trade, or numerous other activities related to the grain trade. Somehow, people just left the issue at that.

Just yesterday, the Armed Forces released a video of what appeared to be child soldiers undergoing training in arms and warfare under the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF immediately issued a statement categorically stating that none of their regular soldiers were children and that they do not recruit children to join their ranks. The MILF used a lot of words to say nothing at all.

The accusation based on the video is that the MILF is training children in the use of arms and in warfare. When the MILF stated that there are no children in the ranks of their regular troops or among their combatants, it only means that the alleged child soldiers do not join the ranks of regular troops and combatants until they are of age. And when the MILF avers that they do not recruit children, it does not say anything about whether or not they refuse children who volunteer to join their ranks.

Our Long Descent Into Barbarism Begins

The Philippine Military recently released a video of an alleged MILF training camp where what appeared to be children were being trained in the use of arms and in warfare. And the MILF has promptly denied this. Well, not exactly. The MILF did not deny providing military training to children who have volunteered to join their ranks. What the MILF denied was having children in the ranks of their regular troops and actively recruiting children to join their ranks.

Given the atrocities committed by members of the MILF in recent months, and now the allegations of violating the rights of children, one would expect that the present administration would move to declare the MILF as a terrorist organization.

But the Philippines is Wonderland and Gloria Arroyo is the Queen of Hearts. Nothing makes sense. What, you ask, would one have to do to be declared as a terrorist organization here? Atrocities and wanton human rights violations aside, one only need to be of no use to Gloria Arroyo. The MILF is fortunate enough that the current administration can use them to make and end run on charter change in order to perpetuate Gloria Arroyo's hold on power. The New People's Army, which is arguably less vicious, but probably less willing to be manipulated by the current administration has found itself on that terror list. That may be giving the NPA more credit that is due them. It may only be that the NPA has no claim on ancestral domain to dangle in front of Gloria Arroyo.

This is just great. (Sarcastic.) Not only do we have the dubious distinction of ranking second only to Iraq in terms of number of journalists killed, or for being up there in the corruption index, now we have joined the ranks of Somalia, Sierra Leone, and other African countries that have child soldiers.

Of course Gloria Arroyo's overly generous accommodations are not limited to the MILF. One only need to look at the incompetent, corrupt, and abusive people entrenched in government positions to comprehend the extent of her “generosity.”

The Glorietta 2 Blast In Retrospect

I was in Glorietta Mall last Thursday (September 4, 2008) when smoke emanated from Glorietta 2, the scene of an explosion almost a year ago and sealed off soon afterwards, alarming shoppers.

The Philippine National Police along with the National Bureau of Investigation and several foreign consultants have long concluded that the blast was a result of a gas explosion. Some parties were charged while others were exonerated. However doubts still persist on what actually happened simply because the authorities have not sufficiently accounted for the actual events that led to the explosion. In a nutshell, the authorities said that the septic tank backed up so sludge accumulated in the basement. The sludge produced methane within the confined spaces of the basement and an initial explosion was triggered byt a spark from a circuit breaker box which was also located in the basement. The initial explosion ignited the diesel in the tank of the back-up generator which was also located in the basement, which then resulted in the bigger, secondary explosion which did most of the damage in and around Glorietta 2.

The reason why doubts still persist regarding the blast is because the authorities used flawed reasoning in drawing their conclusions.

Immediately after the blast, there were rumors that it was a terrorist bombing. There were also speculations that the blast was a result of a gas explosion. It is evident that from the very beginning, the authorities were only looking at two possibilities: either a bomb or a gas explosion. And so, when a bomb was ruled out as the cause, it had to be a gas explosion. And that was very much the way the authorities supported their findings.

The trouble with the finding that a gas explosion was the source of the blast is that so many things are still left unaccounted for. The most glaring gap in the findings is an explanation for the absence of any burn patterns resulting from a gas explosion. Another issue left unexplained is how, assuming that there was a primary methane gas explosion, the primary explosion was able to ignite diesel, which is not volatile, in a closed tank.

It seems that the main assumption that there are only two possible causes of the explosion is flawed. There is also such a thing called chemical explosion where two or more chemicals react violently when mixed that they cause an explosion without necessarily causing fire. I vividly remember that Glorietta 2 housed barbershops and styling salons. These establishments regularly use hydrogen peroxide and ammonia in diluted form. It is not unlikely for these establishments to pour excess chemicals down the drain on a regular basis. In concentrated for, hydrogen peroxide and ammonia can be very volatile and explosive. It may be unlikely that these chemicals mixed and accumulated to a critical level and exploded but such scenario is within the realm of possibility that should have been explored. A chemical explosion would certainly explain the absence of any burn pattern in the scene.

A Growing, Festering Cancer

The Supreme Court resolution regarding the investigation by the special panel on the briber scandal in the Court of Appeals case regarding the controversy involving MERALCO and the GSIS came out on yesterday, September 9, 2008. The Supreme Court removed Vicente Roxas from the Court of Appeals, suspended Jose Sabio for two months, severely reprimanded Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez, reprimanded and admonished three other justices who were part of the controversy, recommended the institution of disbarment proceedings against PCGG chairman Camilo Sabio and for the Justice Department to study the criminal charges that may be filed against businessman Francis De Borja.

In a way, it may be said that a cancerous growth has been removed from the judiciary but continuing on this analogy, more needs to be done. As anyone who had cancer or knows someone who did, removing a cancerous growth is only the first step. First, one must make sure that all the cancerous growth have been removed. Then there is also a need to determine if there are other cancerous growths elsewhere. If so, those have to be treated as well.

On the issue of whether or not the all the cancerous cells have been removed, most people are of the belief that that is not the case. Only one of the justices of the five who have been found to have varying degrees of culpability have been removed from his position. We are talking here of the Court of Appeals, the second highest court in the land. While negligence or ignorance of the rules and procedures may me excusable in lower courts, we require a higher standard of behavior, if not ethics, of the higher courts. All this talk about members of the judiciary being like Caesar's wife is not idle talk. At least it should not be. Not only must judges be pure, they must also appear to be pure, just like Caesar's wife.

Jose Sabio entertained, or at least did not shun attempts to influence his decision, a clear violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct. Worse, he thought there was nothing wrong with his brother calling him and trying to convince him to rule one way as he did not allow himself to be influenced. I do not believe it is ignorance that led him to believe this. Even a first year law student would know that such behavior is unacceptable. Hell, any person with some sense of decency and fair play would find such actuations contrary to everyday, run-of-the-mill rules of fair play. It was possibly hubris, thinking that the standards set out in the Code of Judicial Conduct were open to one's interpretation.

The other justices who were found wanting also got off easy, to the detriment of the judiciary. It bears reiterating that the Court of Appeals is second only to the Supreme Court as the highest judicial authority in the land. It is already unconscionable that justices with malice in their hearts or mush in their heads have reached this high in the judiciary, it would be much worse that after finding out who these are, they are merely given slaps on the wrists. Any case that would later on come before these erring justices would be tainted with suspicion. And suspicion has a funny way of rubbing off on those around it. Second chances are good but with the integrity of our judicial system at stake, let these justices get their second chances somewhere else.

The Supreme Court should take this opportunity to do a major housecleaning in the Court of Appeals and elsewhere in the judicial branch. How likely is it that all the bad eggs in the Court of Appeals found their way to just one division? Not very likely. Rumors of impropriety reek around labor cases so the the Supreme Court may start with the Court of Appeals division handling labor case, down to the National Labor Relations Commission and the labor arbiters. The Supreme Court might as well extend the housecleaning down to the rank and file like clerks of court and sheriffs who seem to be much well off financially than the officers of the court that they serve.

Unfortunately, if history is any indication, the Supreme Court would just rule that the matter of corruption has been resolved as in two previous occasions when members of the Court of Appeals have been dismissed. We'd then be clamoring again for a clean-up of the judiciary once another scandal erupts in the judiciary.

SEX!!!!

Now that I got your attention....

One of those American late-night talk show hosts put it succinctly regarding Britney Spears: You have to be a particularly bad mother to lose a child custody case to a lazy, no-talent, freeloading scum like Kevin Federline. In the case of the Philippines, you have to be a really awful president to make Erap Estrada look [in no way good but certainly] better.

There was definitely corruption in the Erap Administration and it went all the way to the top. Gloria Arroyo did him one better (actually, several times over worse) by destroying institutions which will not be able to recover long after she leaves office (hopefully) in 2010. To wit:

Gloria Arroyo destroyed the integrity of the election system by, among others, appointing Benjamin Abalos as its chairman. Where do we begin? His transgressions are numerous yet he has not been called to account for even one. He make a mockery of the judiciary by continually insisting that the bidding for the polling machines was on the up-and-up when the Supreme Court has already ruled that it was attended with irregularities. He then thumbed his nose at the Supreme Court by refusing to return the machines to the bidder and to get the money that had already been paid to them. Why the Supreme Court never disbarred, suspended or even reprimanded him in the face his contemptuous actuations is just baffling. He must have been busy trying to “generate foreign investments for the country” so he neglected all his important duties in the COMELEC. Ben Abalos must have a direct line to the devil. Even Cory Aquino, who initially appointed him to his launching pad to different government positions would only go as far as expressing support for Jun Lozada, the person who exposed his alleged nefarious activities in brokering the ZTE-NBN deal. With him being held accountable for these huge scandals, it's no wonder that people also overlook lesser offenses such as his alleged support of his son-in-law's candidacy while a COMELEC commissioner.

Gloria Arroyo has also cheapened the presidency by acting as a witness to the contract between NiHao and GeoGrace, and their Chinese counterpart companies. This is akin to Erap's claim that he only acted as guarantor to pal Jaime Dichaves when he signed the PCI-Equitable Bank papers.

At least Erap fired then Customs Commissioner Pedro Mendoza when the later pointed a pistol in a threatening manner (Can you do that in a manner different than threatening?) at another person in a hotel. PASG chief Antonio Villar, despite the fact that he may have caught smuggled goods but no big-time smuggler to date, will likely go without even the proverbial slap on the wrist for the mauling incident involving his bodyguards and a businessman in a hotel. Groundwork to exonerate him is already being laid by the palace. They have made it very clear that the bodyguards involved in the incident were not personal bodyguards but assigned by the Philippine National Police, all 56 of them. It really does not make any difference whether they were personal or assigned bodyguards. In whose behest do you think those bodyguards beat up that businessman?

Incidentally, the official reason given as to the big number of bodyguards assigned to him is that he receives a lot of death threats. Of course, he receives death threats. He confiscates smuggled goods so those smugglers would not be pleased. If he also arrested those who smuggled the goods that he confiscated, maybe there would be less people making threats against him.

Gloria Arroyo lessened the integrity of the Office of the Special Prosecutor when men who were doing their jobs like Simeon Marcelo were forced out when they were prevented from going after wrongdoers who may be close to her. Current efforts to oust Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio may appear comical if not for the fact the he remains the last ray of hope for the office.

Gloria Arroyo's appointment of Raul Gonzalez as Secretary of Justice is just another example of appointing people who would do her bidding, even to the detriment of the nation. The man has already stared down the dark abyss, galloped down the valley of death when he had to undergo kidney transplant operations, and returned to work with nary a change of heart (maybe he should have also undergone heart transplant operation as his is three sizes too small). He kept right on going after those who opposed Gloria Arroyo while doing nothing against transgressors who are close to her. Noli Sugay, the Manila City Administrator under then mayor Lito Atienza who was accused of shooting a jeepney driver in the face after an altercation would most likely go unpunished now that the case has passed from people's memory. The fiscal who found probable cause in the libel case against Jake Macasaet nine years after the complaint had been filed would unlikely face any sanctions. Jake Macasaet is not exactly a Gloria Arroyo supporter, you see.

We should keep a vigilant eye on the PCGG as it would still be business as usual for the commissioners despite the fact that the Supreme Court has recommended disbarment proceedings against PCGG chairman Camilo Sabio. Again, the groundwork to justify Camilo Sabio's retention as PCGG chairman is already underway. The palace has already stated that the PCGG chairman does not have to be a lawyer. Therefore, even if Camilo Sabio is stripped of his privilege to practice law, he can stay as PCGG chairman.

PCGG commissioners serve at the pleasure of the president who may dismiss or ask for a commission's resignation when she has lost trust and confidence in them. When a commissioner has been stripped of his privilege to practice law, that should be enough for the president to lose trust or confidence in him. In fact, even a hint of impropriety by a commissioner should be enough for any decent president to lose trust and confidence in him.

In Camilo Sabio's case, what we have is more than a hint of impropriety. He admitted to committing acts which the Supreme Court itself has adjudged to be improper. Of course, the operative term here is ANY DECENT PRESIDENT.

Who's Afraid of the Philippine Catholic Church?

The Reproductive Health Bill is inching along in Congress and the Philippine Catholic Church has mobilized to oppose the passage of the bill. Does the church really need the government to enforce its dogma?

I don't understand the Catholic Church's opposition to artificial contraceptives. First of all, there's no biblical basis for what kind of contraception is acceptable or not. Even if there is, we don't have to follow everything in the bible. In the bible, women are treated as chattel. You don't hear the Catholic Church advocating a return to such outdated and barbaric practice. Even the church's practice of allowing only men into the priesthood is not based on the teachings of the bible.

Someone once told me that the rational for the prohibition on artificial contraception is that sexual intercourse, in the view of the church, is solely for procreation, not for other things such as pleasure. Thus, if married couples want to plan their family, they can only do so by abstinence or by the rhythm method. I used to joke that Catholics believe only two things: the rhythm method and bingo. When rhythm method does not work, BINGO!

But I digress.

Anyway, this view of rhythm method as an acceptable form of family planning flies into the face of the tenet that sexual intercourse should solely be for the purpose of procreation because couples who practice the rhythm method have sexual intercourse for some purpose other than procreation, most likely for pleasure. And when you really think about it, there's nothing natural about the rhythm method, more so with abstinence.

I have not read the Reproductive Health Bill but I am sure that nothing in it condones abortion which is still a crime.

Some congressmen have already backed away from supporting the bill probably because of fear of the backlash from going against the Catholic Church. This fear is misplaced. Think about it. The Catholic Church can not even convince its flock, UNDER PAIN OF ETERNAL DAMNATION, not to use artificial contraceptives. Do you really think that the church can convince its flock to vote for one candidate instead of the other? It's like the rooster thinking that the sun only rises because he ordered it to do so with his crowing.

Random Thoughts

The headline on one of business papers today (September 8) read “Exporters Not Yet Rejoicing.” I did not read the article but it is apparently about the weakening of the peso against the U.S. dollar. It is probably just a literary device employed by the editor but it seems hint that exporters are entitled to be jubilant about their business prospects. All the while, I thought that the main function of business is to employ limited resources to meet consumer demands while making a decent return on their investment. Once in a while, businessmen may be “laughing all the way to the bank” but it is not imperative for government policy to guarantee that they do.

I came across an internet ad touting the advantages of converting one's vehicle to run on water. The ad stated “Reduce your fuel costs by as much as 70%.” I guess the water-powered vehicles have to run on special water that costs at least 30% of gasoline. Maybe it's one of those designer water. Maybe it's water that can only be found in Saudi Arabia.

Last week, Malaya Editor Jake Macasaet was arrested based on a warrant issued in relation to a complaint for libel filed against him some nine years ago. A search warrant is issued after a finding of probable cause by the fiscal. Probably cause simply means that the fiscal has determined that a crime has probably been committed and that the accused probably committed it. In libel, all that a fiscal needs to determine is if it is probable that someone published or caused the publication of what is probably libelous material. Jesus Christ! It took some pinhead fiscal nine years to determine that a material published was probably libelous and that editor of Malaya was one one who caused it! What did he do, read each and every copy of the newspaper? Don't hold your breath for Secretary Raul Gonzalez to sanction such seeming incompetence on the part of his subordinate.

I Grieve

Mang Pandoy passed away last week. He was plucked from obscurity in 1992 when then president Fidel Ramos made him the face of poverty. He was given some money, a piece of land, several jobs and scholarships for his children. Sixteen years later he died, by most accounts a destitute, from tuberculosis—a disease which at one time was considered terminal but these days considered to be largely treatable.

I grieve for Mang Pandoy because people took advantage of him. I also grieve for him because he squandered numerous opportunities to better his life and that of his family. By some account, he was given P200,000 at one time. In all likelihood, he did not invest that money wisely. He also received money from the various jobs given to him. Of course, those were token jobs but they generated substantial salaries that a more savvy individual could have put to better use. His children were unable to take full advantage of the scholarships given them because they did not have money for transportation and other related expenses, It was said that Mang Pandoy sold the land he received to augment his children's education-related expenses. During his last days, he was diagnosed to have tuberculosis but his family did not bring him to a hospital because they did not have any money for his hospitalization. I know of people of lesser stature who were accommodated in the Lung Center. Why his family did not think about bringing him there is now moot. At the age of 63, Mang Panday passed away.

I grieve for Mang Pandoy because he is us. Other nations have taken advantage of us, that's for sure. More tragic is that we've also squandered numerous opportunities for greatness.

In 1986, we proved that we could drive away a dictator through peaceful means. We gave a new meaning to “People Power” which would become a model for ousting tyrants and dictators the world over. But we dropped the ball after that. Much has been said about our failure to make the Marcoses accountable. Less discussed and at least equally disheartening is how we squandered the perfect opportunity to start clean. It now appears that we replaced one set of crooks with another. Ben Abalos got his start in government disservice when he was appointed officer-in-charge of Mandaluyong. People make mistakes. What is imperative is that we correct those mistakes. Cory Aquino expressed her full support for Ben Abalos when he resigned his post as COMELEC chairman amid the NBN-ZTE scandal. Her subsequent expression of support for Jun Lozada is not sufficient atonement for Ben Abalos. Denunciation is not enough but it would be a good start.

When the “Hello Garci” scandal broke out after the 2004 presidential elections, we also squandered an opportunity to rid ourselves Gloria Arroyo because we allowed others with their own self-serving interests and agenda hijack our cause.

When Erap Estrada was finally convicted of plunder, we enjoyed a very brief moment of greatness as a nation who finally found the will to hold an erring president accountable, until Gloria Arroyo hurriedly granted him pardon out of political accommodation.

I grieve for Mang Pandoy because like him we have glimpsed greatness. But like him we also seem to be destined for a sad but largely preventable demise.