Netnet Camomot I’VE been saying this since last March: OK, this is my last hurrah as Rotary club president. And yet, there I was again last week, telling our club secretary Kim Daguman, OK, Kim, this is my last hurrah as prez. And she replied, That's what you said the last time. Well, I can't stop. As long as June 30, 2016, the last day of my term, is not around yet, I'll keep on going and going and going. My view: You're club president only for one year, you're not going through this again, thus, better make the most out of it, so, you won't look back and say, Darn, I should have done that! But there's absolutely no feeling of, I should do this again for one more year. Unlike the politician who wants to extend his years of public service. One year is more than enough for me. What choices have I made? Take one look at my room and you'll know. The mess on top of the center table, closets, and cabinets say it all. I have to choose Rotary work, er, passion over cleaning up that mess. But if there's one thing I'm regretting as prez, it's this: not being able to sponsor a Rivermaya reunion starring Rico Blanco. Our Rotary club had a bad experience with a concert once upon a time and our financier has decided we're better off sponsoring movie block screenings. If there's a Rotary club president-elect here in Cagayan de Oro who's also a Rivermaya fan, that's one project you can have for your term, and you'll have my support, promise. Like as if there's not enough mess in the room, I had my old clothes brought here uptown from the downtown bodega. That's three suitcases of clothes added to my present set of clothes. Old as in when I was slimmer. Now that I'm slimmer again, I figured, time to try on the old and see if they fit the new. The new that now prefers black and navy. The old were colorful and sometimes flowery. O my gas. So not me anymore. It's definitely time to make a change. Change. That's what people are looking forward to now that the Davao City mayor will be occupying Malacanang soon. Change as in, "The only thing that is constant is change." And not change as in sukli. But now that change is the word, you may ask the cashier for the exact change when your payment is above the amount due. If the cashier starts confusing you with, Naa kay 25 cents, para tagaan nako ka ug piso, tell her, Excuse me, Duterte na ang presidente, tagai na ko ug exact change. What was shocking in the last election was not the loss of the former Makati mayor. That was expected, after all the cases that were filed against him. What was shocking was the “vice presidentiable” who as of this writing is still second to the leader of that particular count. Who would have thought way back in February 1986 when we were guarding Channel 4 during People Power that the dictator's son would end up in that position? We drove the whole family away, and yet, here we are 30 years later, trying to fathom why he's almost winning as a vice presidentiable, and if he can sustain his popularity till the next election, he can be president! Juice colored. These are crazy times. Some people say blame it on the millennials who have no idea who the Marcoses are. But there are non-millennials who voted for him, too, for reasons mostly the same as that of the millennials: that there was discipline during martial law, that there was less crime during martial law, that only the Marcoses and their cronies were using the national treasury as their piggy bank unlike now when anyone with greedy hands can have his share. Well, there was no press freedom then, that's why most Pinoys had no idea about the crime that was happening next door, and if they did know, they had to keep their mouths shut, or else. Due to recent developments in the vice presidential race, there's now a renewed drive to educate young Pinoys about the Marcoses and martial law. These should have been done before any of them could make a comeback. But three of them--wife, daughter, and son--have been back in the government for many years now, and the son is almost there in Malacanang through the tight race for the vice presidency. Their huge contribution to the country now is what their governance has done to Ilocos Norte which some Pinoys tend to refer to as their reason for choosing the son to be their vice president. If they can make it in Ilocos Norte, they can make it anywhere. Kind of what happened to Rodrigo Duterte: if he can make it in Davao, he can make it anywhere. Replace one letter in the word "change," and you'll get "chance." Everybody deserves a second chance. That's probably what happened to the Pinoys' selective amnesia on Philippine history, more particularly on the Marcoses' part in that history. Second chance, or can be the last hurrah. If the son does become vice president, we have to give him that second chance. After all, these are different times. There's press freedom, there's social media, and there's Duterte as the president. We can all work together and make this country, hmmm, great again. Besides, I'm a fan of John Lloyd Cruz. "One More Chance." "A Second Chance." Oh, well.