Malilong: Awkward situations

EVERY now and then especially after I joined the ranks of the 20 percent discounters, I had been in situations where I met a friend and was sure that he was a friend or at least an acquaintance but could not remember his name. Thank God for “bay,” “pre,” “parts” and other generic forms of address that can mask embarrasing bouts with amnesia.

It doesn’t work all the time though. Like yesterday, when I met a colleague while doing our early morning routine at the oval. We warmly exchanged hi’s as old friends would but the situation turned awkward when I introduced him to my other friends because I could not remember his name. Happily, he quickly recognized my discomfiture and tactfully hinted that he was called Earl. Thus did I remember Earl Bonachita, former president of our Cebu City chapter of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.

President Duterte, I’m sure, did not have any problem remembering Jinggoy Estrada’s name when he saw the former senator sharing the same stage with other senatorial candidates in Legaspi City, Albay the other week. The President raised Estrada’s hand, a gesture that can only be understood as an indorsement of the latter’s candidacy.

People were quick to see the irony in Duterte’s public show of support for Estrada. He has consistently railed against corruption and has fired a few officials whom he has suspected of violating his policy of a clean government. And yet there he was, indorsing someone who has been accused of pocketing millions of pesos from his pork barrel.

Duterte was initially defiant to the criticism. Estrada was only accused, not convicted, of plunder and therefore should be entitled to the benefit of presumption of innocence, he argued. He was right in that respect but then the people whom he fired had not been charged in court yet.

A few days after, when Duterte released his preferred list of senatorial candidates, Estrada’s name was no longer in it. Explaining the omission, the President said he just felt obliged to raise Estrada’s hand because he was there. “Nandoon siya eh,” he said. “Alang-alang naman na hindi ko siya... Even for just one single day, masabihan mo ng kandidato mo 13 lahat. What is that to a friend? We know he has suffered. We know that he was in prison.”

We all experience being confronted with awkward situations from time to time. How we react defines us. In my case, I dallied until I got help yesterday at the oval, and it was not right. Duterte was more decisive, I think, but whether his reaction was appropriate is still open to debate. He thought win-win but I don’t think it ended up that way.

Win-win was what we had Friday night, thanks to an amiable restaurant owner. Sugbufe is a modest eat-all-you-can restaurant by industry standards, located behind the north bus terminal. We booked a table for 15 people last Friday but due to some mix-up, we could no longer be accommodated when we arrived as the place had already been exclusively reserved for an insurance company.

Other owners would have insisted that it was not their fault especially since we had no written or texted confirmation and we would have had no choice but to leave, hungry and grumbling. Wilson Choi, whom we had not met until then, proved to be of a different kind, however, looking for a solution instead of offering excuses.

The food was good, by the way.

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