Pros and cons

Netnet Camomot

SHOPPING is not my best friend. I tend to stick to clothes’ brands whose sizes my body has already memorized, thus, going to a night market where trying on clothes is not allowed can be disastrous to my mostly black wardrobe.

Last Friday, there I was again, looking for black tops care of my favorite brands. Upon arriving at the hotel, I showed my purchases to my sis, and she started laughing–all the tops looked exactly the same. Different brands but same style.

Well, what can I say? I’ve become a tired shopper. I’ve never liked shopping for clothes. I’d rather buy books and piggies–hey, no need to try them on, and it’s a great escape from reminders of body weight, the mile-wide hips, the age that makes one look funny in clothes for teenagers. Mini-skirts, for example, have expiry dates–they’re not friendly to women of a certain age. In other words, di puede magpakita ug kigul ang gors.

But I’ve always preferred wearing slacks. No dresses and long gowns for me. That’s why I avoid formal occasions if I can.

June and July, however, are the months when Rotarians are holding their inductions and turnover ceremonies where formal wear is required. That’s when I ask the host club if puede cocktail dress na lang? Or how about our Club’s barong uniform? But wearing a short dress or a pair of slacks in a sea of long gowns and coat and tie will make one look like, hmmm, Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte in a sea of barong-clad politicians.

So, I guess it’s now OK to be informal in a formal occasion with Duterte setting the pace with his informality and, uh, invectives.

There won’t be bare-chested drunks on the streets but everyone now feels freer to say putang ina. No minors roaming the streets after 10 pm but they won’t be reprimanded for saying yawa. No littering but you can say, Shit. No smoking but you can say, Motherfucker. No fucking on the streets because that could be loitering? But you can say fuck whenever you want.

This will be the most informal administration Pinas will ever have, with press conferences being held in Davao for now, which, by the way, is a refreshing sight for Mindanaoans who had often wondered if the guys comfortably ensconced in Malacanang have already forgotten the southern part of the country.

But Duterte’s peeps temporarily suspended the presscons to, hmmm, avoid misunderstandings between the incoming prez and the media? This is one president who doesn’t care about bad press, otherwise he would have minced the words he has been blurting out for everyone to hear.

There was a call for media to boycott his presscons. But how to boycott the incoming prez’s presscons? That’s the question.

Duterte has been in the news since that time when Pinoys were urging him to run for president. Now that he’s going to be the country’s president, ayha na nuon i-boycott ang iyang presscons. Ayay.

So, with his own team stopping the presscons, it’s now time to go back to JaDine, KathNiel and AlDub. Sigh.

While loitering, er, walking on a sidewalk in Manila, my sis saw an actress who played a role in a JaDine film. If only she could get her name right. Haha. She said that was Donnalyn. Then, Shy. Then, well, they all look the same. And that’s the problem when people look the same–you can’t tell one from the other. You know, like the black tops I bought–they all look the same!

That’s why Duterte is a refreshing sight and sound. He could be shocking to many who are not used to hearing so many invectives in one sentence, but he’s one person who says it as it is. I gotta feeling, though, that his actions are way much calculated than the words he says. The words are merely there to distract you from the real story behind the headlines.

Let’s give him six years. After all, he won, and many Pinoys want him to be the country’s president. Obviously, they’re tired of the pa-cute and pa-tweetums, and the sugar and spice and everything nice. Only a few peeps can remain sweet sixteen forever. The rest of us have to keep moving forward amidst a sea of not-so-sweet challenges.

Once he’s president, I guess that will be the time for me to add more colors to my wardrobe–the yellows, oranges, violets, greens, you know, as a sign of wishful thinking for unity in Cagayan de Oro politics. Yup, wish ko lang. But we can dream, can’t we?