Estremera: Expect no mercy

IT WAS one of those segues into childhood memories over some brew, particularly, who were the popular actors and actresses during our time.

It started with Dengdeng admitting yet another blooper when in the course of her work (she's with ABS-CBN and deals a lot with actors and actresses) she was discussing who this and that entertainer could be brought over to this and that event and her colleague suggested, "Jovit."

Post your reaction to the Manila hostage crisis

"Moya?" Deng asked, while everyone groaned.

For the clueless, Jovit Moya is a so-so young actor when That's Entertainment and Kuya Germs' wards were still the toast of the town sometime in the 1980s. Her colleague was obviously referring to today's toast of the town, "Pinoys Got Talent" 2010 grand winner Jovit Baldovino. That's a gap of almost three decades, just in case you didn't notice.

What followed was a loud discussion of this and that so-so actors and singers and whoever, all drawing blanks from my memory... not because I forgot, but because I wasn't really much into showbiz when I was young. I do recall my classmates collecting Tiger Beat magazines especially those with Phoebe Cates, Scott Baio, Shaun Cassidy, Leith Garret, and Jimmy and Christy McNichol, with one particular classmate raising hell if anyone even hints that she likes Jimmy McNichol.

I was out of loop because at that time, I was alone in my preference: rock. I loved the music of Led Zepellin, Kiss, Steely Dan, Black Sabbath, The Who, and Nazareth, and no one else among my classmates shared the same like. And so while they swooned over Scott Baio on the latest Tiger Beat magazine, I slink away and gawk at the poster of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page in my room, pullout posters of Jingle chord book.

"... if you're in a corner/And you can't find no way out/Don't look around for no help/No, no there won't be any around..." Nazareth sings in their song, "Expect no mercy".

And thus amid all the hullaballoo that we are in the middle of, almost-forgotten lyrics are resurrected and become relevant. Like a last song syndrome, the song goes on and on...

"So you think you got a case/And you think you know the score/No you don't wanna listen/You can't be told no more/But wait'll you get out there/You better do it right/'cause the streets are lined with things that kill/And they're hidin' in the night..."

Huwag magmagaling, the lyrics say, just wait until you are out there. And yes, expect no mercy.

A tabloid newspaper headlined that President Benigno C. Aquino III had just failed his first test. And we say, the fiasco that the Luneta Grandstand hostage-taking became was just a reminder, make that grand announcement, that the President is just as good as his people and the Filipinos.

All he said in his state of the nation address (Sona) were nothing but his vision and directions. But between a vision and perceived directions is a whole country that has been mired in abject corruption, impunity, a civil society that only speaks up when it is according to their agenda, and a million others who would rather not have anything to do with goverment or would willingly shell out a hundred or two just to make things easier for themselves. All these brewed and fermented among us in the past decade and have become worse now because in addition to all these, we also have a presidential sister who just has to be the center of it all. And yes, I mean "the center of it all" and not "at the center of it all", that's just for emphasis.

Kris notwithstanding, the time for self-flagellation should by this time be over, one week is enough to rant and rue and thump our chests in despair. Blaming will not bring us anywhere. The same if we keep on listening to Kris.

Yes, it was one grand foul-up from the president to his communications group to the cabinet members to the police, the Manila mayor, the media, the kibitzers. There are a lot of could'ves and would'ves. But all are now for naught because the deed has been done, the dead cannot rise again. The foul-up is now all out there for everyone to see and be dismayed about. Let us not drag out the drama and face the world.

As Filipinos who are concerned about our country and our people out there who are now the center of ridicule if not hate, let's stop the could'ves and would'ves and bring this to the level of involvement demanding what should be done, right here, right now, and let's not be merciful about it.

Because, "if you're in a corner/And you can't find no way out/Don't look around for no help/No, no there won't be any around..."

Expect no mercy, expect no mercy... Expect no mercy, expect no mercy... saestremera@yahoo.com