Friday, November 30, 2007 Malilong: Bogus media people, presidential wannabes By Frank Malilong The Other Side
A NUMBER of bogus media men reportedly showed up for the Christmas party that President Arroyo hosted at the Malacañang sa Sugbu last Wednesday. They were probably expecting that Mrs. Arroyo would give them P500,000 each as Christmas gifts. Who did they think they were, congressmen and governors?
I also thought so, myself (that cash not just wine would flow during the party), but I decided not to go because I could not find a bag that is big enough to contain half a million pesos cash but small enough to hide under my polo barong.
I did not relish the idea of being caught on camera lugging a paper bag and having to explain that it actually contained goodies instead of cash. Some people might suspect that I was, like you-know-who, only joking.
Seriously now, you couldn’t blame the pseudo media men, especially those who have been around since the seventies, for thinking that Santa Claus would show up at the President’s party to give money to those who have been naughty and nice. The former First Lady, Imelda Marcos, used to do that during her and Ferdinand’s reign, I was told.
And it didn’t even have to be during Christmas or any special occasion. According to my source, every time Imelda visited Cebu, many media people, some legitimate but mostly bogus, would line up at the VIP hall of the Mactan International Airport terminal building to receive their payola.
There were separate paymasters for print and broadcast “claimants.” Some of these paymasters must have been around last Wednesday, which explained why those with no known media outlets showed up.
The happy news is that not only were they disappointed; more importantly they are a vanishing tribe. May their kind perish completely and permanently.
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They’re, of course, denying that this early they are already looking towards 2010 but make no mistake about it: they are positioning themselves for the presidential elections. By “they,” I mean Senate President Manuel Villar, Sens. Mar Roxas, Loren Legarda, Ping Lacson and Richard Gordon and Vice President Noli de Castro.
Villar and Roxas deserve special mention because they have both recently made bold steps to strengthen their respective political parties. Villar made sure the Nacionalista Party’s anniversary made a big splash while Roxas got himself elected president of the Liberal Party in ceremonies reminiscent of the days of the two-party system.
Both are also billionaires, a fact that did not escape the attention of the irrepressible Sen. Miriam Santiago, who described the two as “elephants” while referring to the rest as “ants.” These days, you need at least a billion to make a serious run for the presidency, said Santiago, a former presidential candidate herself.
If I were to choose now, I’d vote for Roxas. The other candidates I like are (in order of preference): Lacson, Legarda, Gordon and Villar. I will definitely not vote for de Castro especially if she is Mrs. Arroyo’s candidate. I’d rather go for Esteban Escudero.
And it’s not necessarily because de Castro is said to be incompetent for he can grow into the job. It’s just that I saw him up close during the last senatorial campaign and what I observed was unsettling. The fellow is haughty. People like him are dangerous when they wield so much power.
