Now that she looks healthy

It was quite a relief to hear that all of the 300 Filipinos who are crew members of service staff on the unfortunate Costa Concordia cruise ship, are safe. Reports say that the Pinoys constitute about a third of the entire crew of the luxury vessel. And it’s a known fact that vessels of almost every country in the world have Filipinos in their crew. I think that is because, being a country composed of thousands of islands, we also have several schools producing seafarers.

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The Costa Concordia was carrying European vacationists, among them honeymooners who will probably tell their story to their children and grandchildren. As of late yesterday, six had been reported dead with ten missing among the passengers and crew. It was also noted, however, that the missing could have been rescued, but only not accounted for yet. Let’s hope so. Meanwhile, the latest in the news is that the entire vessel has already sank into the ocean.

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Really, our Pinoy sailors are among the most sought after by companies with seagoing vessels. Some of my friends and relatives who had gone on cruises in recent years, fondly recall how happy they were to find out that so many compatriots were on the staff of their vessels. They remembered being pampered by the Pinoy employees whom they even invited to their cabins when they were off duty to listen to their stories about life at sea. They also cannot forget the special treatment and assistance their fellow Pinoys gave them that made their trips unforgettable.

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I think that is very understandable because those workers are homesick and are very happy to meet fellow Pinoys and talk about home. The same is true with musicians especially bands and vocalists, who are often on long-time contracts abroad and cannot come home as often as they wish. At a journalism conference in the Pelangi Island in Malaysia that I attended with some community editors from Mindanao, we came across a group playing nightly at the resort restaurant. How excited they were to learn that we were from the Philippines! Soon they were dedicating their sons to our group and it was a bit embarrassing, but other customers seemed to enjoy it and even applauded us. And, surprise! Two of them were from Negros Occidental, I think they came from Hinobaan and Kabankalan. Small world, no?

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The Manila Bulletin boasted a scoop yesterday by having not one, not two, but THREE exclusive photos of the former president as she left the chapel of the Veterans Memorial Hospital after mass the other day. Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been avoiding the media ever since she had been under hospital arrest, and it was a truly enterprising achievement for the reporter to get the pictures.

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The shots showed her still wearing the neck brace, but it was obvious that whatever ails her does not affect her posture because she wore high-heeled sandals, and looked quite healthy, and happy, with the former first gentleman right behind her. I’m afraid the judge on her case may see that photo and declare that she does not need to stay in the hospital anymore. And where does she go next? Will she join former Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos in that Police Headquarters detention area?

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She has also been well enough to prepare a lengthy critique of the governing style of her successor, slamming the way he has been managing the country’s economy, and also hinting that he had been her student at the Ateneo and he had not impressed her even then. But isn’t she impressed now at his doggedness and singlemindedness in running after those he perceives to have done this country wrong? The title of her piece could have been a masterstroke, “It’s the economy, Student”, if it didn’t sound like a take on the election cry of her supposed classmate, Bill Clinton, who rode on the slogan “It’s the economy, Stupid!” Well, ‘tis the season to set aside originality, plagiarism is the order of the day, even Supreme Court justices do it. And those who do all get away.

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Yesterday was Day One of the historic impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona and, I could have said I-told-you-so in the way his defense lawyers seemed to be browbeating the prosecutors. I’m puzzled, though, why sitting Judge Senator Juan Ponce Enrile would not allow private prosecutors on the side of the congressmen to speak, while those private lawyers on Corona’s side had the privilege. But I think Rep. Neil Tupas should review his quotations because he said Corona succumbed to “pieces of gold,” when it should be “silver,” and also said “porridge” instead of the Biblical “pottage”. But that’s nit-picking, everybody knew what he meant.*

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