Her way

Netnet Camomot .

EVERY Pinoy can sing, thus, proving that Pinas is indeed a free country. There’s the singing a la “Tawag ng Tanghalan” (TNT). And there’s what Urban Dictionary describes as “to rat on someone, or to report on them, usually to the police.” Of course, you prefer the first description but please avoid singing “My Way” which has caused murders in videoke bars.

TNT has had its share of contestants from Cagayan de Oro, which proves that it’s a free city? Well, aside from that, it’s also a city with many talents, among them Cagayanons who can help solve the city’s traffic and flood problems. I guess the city government’s approach is one step at a time, one day at a time; slowly but surely; patience is a virtue.

Meanwhile, in a land far far away, a Cagayanon discovers that her favorite hotel finally has a convenience store at the lobby. For at least ten years, we’ve been wishing for a convenience store there for the hotel guests’, uh, convenience. So, it’s about time. Kind of patience is a virtue indeed.

Patience requires a lot of waiting. If you can’t wait for the city government to solve whatever you believe should be their problem, then, you may transfer to another city where you’ll again wait for its government to solve its problem.

Listening to President Rody Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) also requires patience. It was almost 50 minutes, not 35 as he promised. But this time he read his speech and there were no expletives. Yay!

However, President Duterte reading a speech sans p***ng in* is not his usual self. As expected, some people said it was boring. In other words, the president has proven that he’s more effective when delivering an extemporaneous speech, when he blurts out whatever comes to mind, and doesn’t mind the reaction he gets from the Pinoy who makes the sign of the cross and says, Susmaryosep, the moment Duterte says an expletive.

Now that the Sona is over, the Pinoy is now busy interpreting the speech. Oh, well.

No need to interpret his war on drugs, though, as he specifically mentioned this: “Let me begin by putting it bluntly: the war against illegal drugs is far from over.” He promised “it will be as relentless and chilling, if you will, as on the day it began.” Brrrrr.

As for human rights’ advocates, he said, “Your concern is human rights, mine is human lives. The lives of our youth are being wasted and families are destroyed, and all because of the chemicals called shabu, cocaine, cannabis, and heroine. Human rights to me means giving Filipinos, especially those at the society’s fringes, a decent and dignified future through the social and physical infrastructures necessary to better their lives.”

If some politicians are still earning moolah from illegal drugs, it’s time for them to ponder on what’s truly essential—life or money. Because Duterte has proven that he doesn’t make pa-cute in his war on drugs.

But the impact of the Sona was somehow overpowered by the power play at the House of Representatives where former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is now the new House Speaker, the first Filipino woman to hold such a position, as if her colleagues have forgotten “Hello, Garci,” the neck brace and wheelchair, and her hospital arrest. If ever she runs for president again in 2022 and wins, the world will be finally convinced that the Pinoy definitely has selective amnesia.

Selective amnesia is what alleged pork barrel scammers and former Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla are probably wishing for, too, so they can go back to politics and serve—ahem—the country again.

Politics is all about power. Service is right there at the bottom of its priorities, but this fact is hidden in between the sound bites and the pa-cute speeches.

With the May 2016 midterm elections so near—and yet so far?—political maneuverings are now as obvious as the suspicion that Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio doesn’t like former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez that much. Thus, his ouster. Which may sound like oyster, an aphrodisiac that’s supposedly comparable to Palawan’s tamilok.

I don’t know if Carpio loves to sing, “My Way,” now that she has proven she can be as powerful as her dad in switching the country’s political ways. But the Pinoy does look forward to Carpio’s political future, on where she goes after her mayoral stint in Davao.