Tuesday, October 10, 2007 Malilong: If Pulido is a puppet, who are his masters? By Frank Malilong The Other Side
I WATCHED championship basketball at the Cebu Coliseum for two consecu-tive days last week after an absence of about ten years. I initially didn’t want to go; on the second day, I needed no coaxing. Watching the games turned out to be a very pleasant experience.
The best-of-three series between the University of the Visayas and the University of Cebu deserves special mention not only because my favorite team won but because of the way it was played. Both teams displayed a big heart and lots of spunk, never giving up even up to the last few seconds when the outcome was no longer in doubt.
What was truly remarkable, however, was how the players and team officials acted after the final horn sounded. UV was gracious in victory; and UC took its defeat with dignity. The winners celebrated but didn’t gloat while the losers conceded without a murmur of protest.
I wish that we could learn from those young basketball players. How better this part of the world would have been if our politicians only learn how to face defeat with the innocence of little children. Alas, we may no be able to see that in our lifetime. *** For the past two weeks, I have been receiving press releases from Ruel Pulido, whose previous claim to fame was his having lawyered for some Magdalo soldiers. The latest came yesterday and it announced his filing of graft charges against Speaker Jose de Venecia and his son Joey.
This is the same Pulido who recently filed an impeachment complaint against President Arroyo for alleged betrayal of public trust. I deleted his previous mails from my inbox but if I remember correctly, he also announced his complaint against the President through a press release.
There is no rule in our canons of professional ethics that prohibits Pulido from crowing about the cases that he has filed or is filing. The practice is, however, unusual and one can only ask what Pulido’s game is. To quote an opposition congressman, where is the guy coming from?
Significantly, the opposition has distanced itself from Pulido’s impeachment complaint that anti-Arroyo solons likened to the ones that Marcos lawyer Oliver Lozano filed in the past, meaning it was never meant to go anywhere at all except the trash can of the House of Representatives.
Even Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago suspects as much. Santiago is fiercely loyal to the President and yet there she was declaring that Pulido’s complaint is a ploy to shield Mrs. Arroyo from a true and real impeachment complaint by the opposition.
And now comes Pulido’s announcement of his graft complaint against the de Venecias. Is this for real or is just another ploy? Is Pulido acting on his own or is he a puppet on a string? Who are his masters?
***
Tonight at seven o’clock, Fr. Jerry Orbos will preside in a healing mass at the Sacred Heart Parish church. With him is Fatima Soriano, a 14-year-old girl who was born blind and who was once thought to have a terminal case of kidney disease.
We all need healing not only of physical ailments but also of our resentments, anger, anxiety and all the emotional baggage that we continue to carry. A session with Fr. Jerry could be what the doctor ordered. See you at the Sacred Heart tonight.
