Dilemma

Netnet Camomot

I WAS listening to the radio the whole day Friday and wondered, Why am I so relate na relate with these songs? Songs of the ’90s. Which, by the way, are now considered as classics.

For my generation, classics meant the ’60s. Or the ’50s? ’40s? Are we that old? Oh my.

So, to hear a DJ saying the ’90s songs are classics, makes my generation’s knees ache pa more. Yes, we can now feel our age. That’s why learning about the alleged lover of a 50-ish former Justice secretary/incumbent senator has some of us focusing more on his role as a lover rather than his being an alleged bagman.

News on his collecting bribes from drug lords right inside the New Bilibid Prison is still not enough to shift our focus to the senator’s possible involvement in the drug trade, because even the president himself said he’s not sure where the money went. But he does know where it came from, and he says he has the evidence and witnesses to prove all his allegations are true. And one of the witnesses could be the alleged lover himself.

In this age of CCTVs, the truth behind this collection allegation must be easy to verify and confirm. But, for now, the president and the former Justice secretary/incumbent senator would rather exchange thought bubbles through media, with the former even hinting at some sex videos, starring her and the alleged lover. If ever that video surfaces, we’ll finally know the meaning of below the belt.

The senator does have her believers and loyal support group. But in one Facebook live coverage where she was delivering a statement addressed to the president, all she got was a mob of angry emoticons. Whew.

Whether true or not, the allegations, including the blurred Xated photos supposedly of her and the alleged lover, are now stuck in the minds of her non-believers. It’s the kind they can’t simply unthink.

These stories are not new, however. They were already spreading way back in 2014 when the senator was a justice secretary in an administration friendly to her. She should have cleared that up before running for a Senate seat this year because, well, the other political party’s presidentiable might win.

Any potential candidate with at least one story that’s better left hidden should always hesitate before running for public office. Unless he has revealed his true self right from the start. Or he has balls to help him face anything that’s thrown at him. If he doesn’t have any, he has to find other ways of serving the madlang pehpohl. For that’s what public service is all about, right? To serve the madlang pehpohl.

The president has revealed his true self right from the start. He doesn’t mince words. He says PI—not Philippine Islands—whenever he feels like it. He has a colorful lovelife. Thus, when some people began to say, Look who’s talking!, to the way he was treating the lady senator, the first thought that came to at least one Pinoy’s mind was, He has never hidden the fact that he has many women, so, yes, he does have the right to urge some supposedly pretentious people to wake up already.

Technology can be scary—cameras are all over the place. It’s advisable to go out with people you trust and to remain sober always. There are lovers who do take videos of their intimate moments but for their own eyes only. Until the love goes pfft, and there goes the video, uploaded everywhere. Talk of awkward.

In the olden days, an awkward moment for ex-lovers could be accidentally meeting each other but with their new partners. Nowadays, that’s no longer awkward as proven by Jennifer Lopez who had photo ops with her choreographer-boyfriend Casper Smart, ex-hubby Marc Anthony and his wife Shannon de Lima. Yes, de Lima.

Their ages: Both J. Lo and Anthony are 47, Smart is 29, and de Lima is 28. Should Smart and de Lima end up with each other then, considering their ages? Well, reality has other plans. The age difference is working for both pairs, let’s not disturb their peace.

Meanwhile, the Pinay de Lima is in a dilemma—aside from no less than the country’s president throwing the kitchen sink at her, there’s chika she and her alleged lover broke up. That must be the reason the president is confident in having him as a witness against her. Is that even worse than a divorce hearing?

Is the lesson here not to make pa-cute and pa-sweet if you’re not cute and sweet at all? Hmmm.

Facebook Live is one way people are now showing their stories. Well, true or not, it’s still a story. But since it’s live, there’s this tendency to accept it as the truth, like the video of a black guy seated on a car’s passenger seat where he’s bleeding after a cop apparently shot him. His girlfriend live-streamed the incident as it unfolded.

But live streaming is not always gory. There are concerts hosted by Billboard, there’s a sing-along at New York’s Bryant Park, a National Book Store contestant for its one-minute book shopping spree. And then, there’s Bekimon. Yes, I watch and write comments whenever he’s live streaming. He cries while talking about his life, or he would color his nails, or have a makeup tutorial using what he describes as cheap makeup—eyebrow pencils he bought from street vendors?—while in the background, we could see built-in shelves filled with huge packs of chicheria.

The best live streaming, though, is that of the New York Times’ crossword puzzle. One of its employees would fill in the answers, while we, the audience, would post our answers as comments. One has this nice feeling of teamwork as we all finish the puzzle together. This usually happens early in the morning of Thursday, and I lose sleep over this. Now, is a crossword puzzle also a classic?