Foolish start

SENATOR Leila de Lima is now out on bail after six years of detention at Cramp Crame.

De Lima could do no wrong, that is, according to her fans which perhaps include Sen. Risa Hontiveros. The Pinoy could almost see the yellow team heaving a deep sigh of relief.

Is that the yellow team that needs drama to propel someone to the presidency? Ninoy’s assassination for Tita Cory’s presidential victory, Tita Cory’s death for PNoy’s presidential victory. Oops. So insensitive naman of the Pinoy who makes such unfounded guesses, but will they now use De Lima’s case in promoting someone to the position of a presidential candidate in 2028? Hmmm.

The senior Pinoy needs an Einstein kind of memory to remember Martial Law, Ninoy’s assassination, and the 1986 People Power.

The Marcoses’ major return to Malacanang, with Ferdinand Senior’s Junior as president, proves that the Pinoy has become an expert in moving on.

But who can blame the Pinoy? He needs to survive after all, and playing games with the rich and powerful can be the best way to survive. He will dive into the black hole of kissing a**es so he can savor the fruits of his labor later. The only way he can escape from the wheeling and dealing here in Pinas is to leave the country and move to anywhere but here. There’s that word again: move. Moving on. Moving forward. Forward march? Hmmm. I don’t think Malacanang likes anything that has “march” in it, especially if it’s accompanied by kapit-bisig.

Still, if you have decided to stay and live in Pinas, then better learn how to appreciate what you have here: the beach, for example, is only a few minutes away unless you live somewhere in the middle of a huge island like Mindanao.

But if it’s Camiguin, then the beach is right here, there, and everywhere.

There are situations that the older Pinoy has to hand over to the young Pinoy to solve. Which makes me finally able to understand why my parents were shocked upon learning I was guarding Channel 4 at the height of the 1986 People Power.

After all of Mama’s warnings for me to never study at a university where I might morph into an activist, I was still there at Channel 4, care of the nuns of the ladies’ dorm that Mama chose for me because that’s where she stayed, too, during her school days. She and Daddy could only heave a deep sigh of relief when I told them that I was fine after my People-Power participation. Ah, kids.

That was me decades ago—a kid. A clueless kid. And now that the Marcoses are so back, they’re already grooming a relative to be president in 2028, who were we fooling then in 1986? Who fooled whom? Hmmm.

I have a friend whose most favorite song is “Foolish Heart,” heartily dedicated to his high school sweetheart. “Foolish heart, hear me calling/Stop before you start falling/Foolish heart, heed my warning/You’ve been wrong before/Don’t be wrong anymore.”

“You’ve been wrong before/Don’t be wrong anymore.” The best mantra for the 2028 presidential election.