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Netnet Camomot .

A FEW weeks ago, President Rody Duterte told Pastor Apollo Quiboloy that traveling from Cubao to Makati would be “five minutes na lang.” I hope that won’t require a helicopter because if it does, only Quiboloy, Pastor Joel Apolinario, and the filthy rich Pinoy could afford that. But presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that the president’s five-minute promise would be a “Surprise! He has something up his sleeve.”

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The 15-kilometer Skyway Stage 3 is what’s expected to reduce travel time from Buendia in Makati to Balintawak in Quezon City (Biz Buzz, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 6/19/19). But I’m not sure if that’s what Panelo meant about the president having “something up his sleeve.” Skyway Stage 3 will be completed this year.

As for Cagayan de Oro, will a skyway solve its traffic and flood woes? Or how about gondolas a la Venice. Which can be found in Taguig, by the way, at the Venice Grand Canal Mall, complete with a singing gondolier. The gondolier in Venice, Italy can be stern and the only time he’ll talk is when he’s scolding, er, reminding his passengers to keep their hands inside the gondola and to keep still, no unnecessary motion, please!

Good basis, too, for a minimalist lifestyle—no unnecessary anything, which is torture for me and my piggy collection. Even most of the books have to go since 30 is Marie Kondo’s maximum number of books to keep. Travel, however, may inspire the collector to buy pa more, and shopping becomes a dilemma of whether to buy or not. But when in a tour, the tourist doesn’t have the time to return to a store or a place, so, it’s better to buy an item right there and then, if it sparks joy.

Travel is educational—with lessons learned on purchased items, and regrets on items not bought—but that depends on the tourist’s curiosity.

Curiosity may also lead an auditor or potential whistleblower to find the truth and nothing but the truth, and Pinas is so much in need of that curiosity. Such as, aren’t you curious about what happened at Recto Bank? First time I heard of Recto Bank, what came to mind was, Will it find ways, too? Only to find out it’s not that kind of bank.

Pinas has hit-and-run cases, no thanks to reckless and/or drunk drivers. And now, its fishing boats are also morphing into hit-and-run victims, no thanks to foreign fishing vessels. But this particular incident is seemingly being downplayed by Duterte, and his reaction is encouraging the Pinoy to wish that it would be given the same presidential inquiry as the one that the Kabus Padatoon (Kapa) Community Ministry International has been attracting.

What is it about China, anyway, that makes the Pinoy quiver? Well, aside from the fact that everything can be made in China, Pinas has been receiving loads of financial assistance from China, and it’s the Pinoy’s character to be beholden to anyone who helps him gain access to money and/or power. Utang na loob and all that jazz. Now you know how graft and corruption can flourish in these 7,641 islands. The political candidate asks for campaign funds from the rich who expects perks once the candidate wins. That’s why financing the campaign of a potential winner in the elections is some form of survival in Pinas. It’s whom you know, perhaps also what you know, that is, if you’re privy to the candidate’s personal life, secrets which you can then dangle over his head as threats in case he wins and fails to provide the perks.

A politician may feel threatened by his personal secrets if he’s not strong enough to face the truth and nothing but the truth, and these may keep him from leveling up to a higher political position.

There are political positions that are allegedly easier to buy and the politician trapped by personal secrets may prefer to stay in that lower level where at least he can rub elbows and have photo ops with those in the higher level during special occasions where he can squeeze his thick face into.

If ever a politician’s secrets are revealed, can he dismiss that as fake news? Since “86 percent of internet users have been duped by fake news—most of it spread on Facebook” per a survey for the Centre for International Governance Innovation on Dec. 21, 2018 to Feb. 10, 2019 (“86 percent of world’s internet users say they fell for fake news: poll,” Agence France-Presse, 6/12/19).

The gullible may believe fake news with that same passion he has for giving donations to Kapa. The “blessing” or “love gift” a.k.a. payout may not arrive soon, though, as Kapa tries to prove to the government that it’s not into investment scams.

Kapa’s prayer rally at General Santos City’s Acharon Sports Complex on June 13 had Kapa founder Apolinario saying, “If God is with us, who can be against us?” Which reminds me of Joan Osborne’s song: “What if God was one of us? / Just a slob like one of us / Just a stranger on the bus / Tryin’ to make his way home?”

In the “Young Sheldon” TV series, a spin-off of “The Big Bang Theory” or how the nine-year-old Sheldon Cooper was as a little boy, the young Sheldon (Iain Armitage) is at a Sunday church service with his family when Pastor Jeff (Matt Hobby) says, “Sometimes people say to me, ‘Pastor Jeff, how do you know there’s a God?’ And I say, It’s simple math. God either exists or he doesn’t. So, let’s be cynical. Worst-case scenario, there’s a 50-50 chance, and I like those odds.” And this prompts Sheldon to raise his right arm and say, “That’s wrong.” And Pastor Jeff then asks him to “come on up here and tell me how I’m wrong.”

So, Sheldon sits on the steps to the altar, and proceeds to explain his thoughts: “You’ve confused possibilities with probabilities. According to your analogy, when I go home I might find a million dollars on my bed or I might not. In what universe is that 50-50?”

Pastor Jeff: “So, what do you think the odds are that God exists?”

Sheldon: “I think they’re zero. I believe in science.”

Pastor Jeff: “So, you don’t think science and religion can go hand in hand?”

Sheldon: “Science is facts. Religion is faith. I prefer facts.”

Pastor Jeff: “A lot of famous scientists believed in God—Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, even Charles Darwin.”

Sheldon: “So, Darwin is right about God and wrong about evolution?”

Pastor Jeff: “Now you’re getting it.”

If only the gullible Pinoy can be as inquisitive as Sheldon, then, the likes of Kapa won’t succeed in Pinas.

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