Netnet Camomot
TOMMY Manotoc has a new column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Sports Section, with the title, “Heart, Soul, Sports.”
I’ve been reading broadsheets again and I do see PDI’s new look, which is a familiar one—the desperate matrona trying to copy her 16-year-old granddaughter.
Cherie Gil once had this role in a movie where she said, “You’re nothing but a secondate trying hard copycat!” And that’s what PDI seems to impart to its readers now—the secondate trying hard copycat. I loved the old look, and there’s this rule that says, Don’t judge a book by its cover. Wait, no, that’s not the rule. It’s this: Don’t change the cover if the book is blurting out the same BS anyway.
Nope, I’m not saying PDI is nothing but BS. I’ve been its fan since the ’80s when it was only one of the few daring papers that went anti-Marcos. And I’ve remained a fan since then even if my reading has morphed into flipping the pages quickly, the way you check out a flip book with images that could resemble a cartoon movie if you flip its pages at the speed of 435.31 km/h.
Then, there was that day when the house help brought the day’s newspapers to the room, and I noticed PDI’s new look. Since I didn’t have time to read it then, I merely took a glimpse of the front page and that was enough for me to ask, Why?!
Work and the recess in between work have taken me away from reading, but I do find the time to read the news now, and that’s how I discovered Manotoc’s column, and also his column photo which makes him look old and tired.
A column photo is not exactly what I notice first—it’s the writing that matters. But PDI has made these photos more prominent than usual, giving you this feeling that the future will have them filling up half of a column’s space.
Anyway, the more popular Manotoc is Borgy, Tommy’s son with Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos.
One look at Borgy and you’re like, Pag-sure mooi! He doesn’t have his dad’s nor his mom’s looks. He was once the most popular male model in Pinas. I don’t know if it’s true up to now—I’m no longer young, thus, not updated on what still clicks with the young.
Tommy and Imee once had a stormy, er, exciting relationship, complete with conspiracy theories starring Imee’s dictator-dad. Google that if you’re interested to know the details.
What the millennials are interested in nowadays is not Borgy I guess, but Imee’s bro Bongbong who was once the “crush ngbayan” in our younger days, er, our elder cousins’ younger years—denial pa more. Hehe.
I have Bongbong’s Panorama cover in a kaban in the bodega. Yes, I was collecting clippings even then. Panorama was then the Sunday magazine of Bulletin Today which is now the Manila Bulletin.
Then, the 1986 People Power kicked the Marcoses out of Pinas and into Hawaii where they hibernated for a while. The hibernation ended when Tita Cory decided to let them return to Pinas. Or the people close to Tita Cory convinced her to let them return. Gosh. Who knows the real story behind these headlines?
Thus, Bongbong was able to run for vice president in the last election.
With the winner, LeniRobredo, now in her fourth month as VP, you can’t help wonder if Bongbong would have been the better choice. That is, if you can forget about his dad’s dictatorship and martial law, and his mom’s 3,000 pairs of shoes, which have become the excess baggage the whole family carries around wherever they go, so that even the proposed burial for his dad at the LibinganngmgaBayani has inspired the older generations of Pinoys to bombard Pinoymillennials with Philippine history.
Now, we have a president that loves to blurt out BS, er, PI, and Bongbong and Imee recently traveled with him. Which inspired question marks to float above Pinoys’ inquisitive minds, as they asked, Why is Imee out of country while Lawin is bombaringIlocos Norte with cows and carabaos? Well, anyone can now lead a province or even a country from far far away, thanks to the Internet. No worries there, unless her minions are so inept, they can’t function without her presence.
But I guess there’s nothing like “live”: live coverage, Facebook Live, live concert. Anything less than live is still appreciated but the enthusiasm is considerably also less. Besides, bad words like PI can be edited out of a non-live event, thus, resulting to less spontaneity and may attract ennui. Ho-hum. Try listening to a seminar right after lunch, let’s see—not pronounced as the Spanish word for milk—if you can remain awake. But once the speaker inserts PI in his talk—voila! You’re awake na!
So far, so good, though, with the way the new administration and the affected provinces prepared for Lawin, enabling them to contain the damage and not make it reach Yolanda’s nth-degree level.
It’s La Nina season, and we can now relate with this Sting song: “Turned on the weather man just after the news/I needed sweet rain to wash away my blues/He looked at the chart, but he looked in vain/Heavy cloud, but no rain.”
That’s how it was on Wednesday afternoon, “heavy cloud, but no rain,” until of course the rain fell. A rainy afternoon is the best time for hot choco, a strawberry-jam-and-cheese sandwich, and contemplating on where your heart and soul are going. As for sports, I don’t read that section at all, unless Sen. Manny Pacquiao has added one more world championship belt to his waist.
