Now it’s survey vs. survey

Although some members of his family had been saying that they were discouraging former President Joseph Estrada from running for mayor of Manila, reports yesterday said that Erap has already transferred residence from Polk Street in San Juan, to Manga Avenue in the city. What was that again about those who talk and quack like a duck?

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Aside from the transfer, another confirmation of his seriousness to challenge long-time mayor Alfredo Lim is his having snatched the latter’s vice mayor, Isko Moreno, and brought him into his camp. Well, as another saying goes, birds of the same feather… Like Erap, Moreno is also a former movie actor, so they speak the same lingo. Another thing Erap is banking on is the fact that he is a true Manileño, having been born, as he claims, in Tondo. Even if May 2013 is still more than a year away as of today, the election fever is rising already.

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It looks like a battle between survey outfits now. In the past few months, the most popular groups conducting polls were the Social Weather Station and Pulse Asia, both of whose results appeared favorable to the administration. So now comes a new company, calling itself the SratPOLLS, that has also started making its own. And guess what the results from the new kid on the block are. It says its independent survey shows that President Aquino is exacting revenge on Chief Justice Renato Corona for the Supreme Court decision on the family-owned Hacienda Luisita.

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Few people knew how very ill former Senator Jovito Salonga is until news came out that policemen who went to his residence to serve a warrant, found him too weak and bedridden, with tubes stuck into him. How sad to think of this brilliant lawyer and government official being so helpless now. His son has disclosed that Salonga is not only physically ill, he also suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease as well as dementia. This will indeed be a shock to his many admirers all over the country.

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What will you bet that the Tulfo-Baretto brawl is stealing the scene from the impeachment trial of the country’s Chief Justice? Wherever you go, since the airport melee involving movie actress Claudine Baretto and her husband Raymart Santiago, and media personality Ramon Tulfo seems to be the favorite subject. The reactions are varied, some say Tulfo deserves it for feeling so high and mighty, but most were aghast at the brawling capacity of Claudine.

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Now the matter has reached the courts and who will blink first? Will this end in apologies and reconciliation, or will it also drag through the courts in the normal way? But one thing is sure, it will not be Tulfo’s career that will be affected most. The sight of Claudine Barreto joining the fray, and reportedly screaming abusive words both at the airline employee and at Tulfo, will not be forgotten by moviegoers. Of course she can count me out because I have never seen any movie of hers, nor am I likely to see one ever.

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But why are movie people so combative nowadays? Before the Tulfo-Baretto affair Sunday, there was the mommy of the redoubtable Ruffa Gutierrez, Annabelle Rama, who was also quarreling with former actress Nadia Montenegro over a child abuse case or something. Then it was Annabelle’s daughter, Ruffa against former movie queen Amalia Fuentes and the matter, I understand, has also gone to court. Look out for when Annabelle comes out like a tigress defending her only daughter. But all that is grist for the movie tabloid mills.

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Friends and admirers of Julio “Julito” Jimenez will be saddened to know about his passing away yesterday afternoon. Julito had been suffering from the Big C for sometime now, but the gallant person that he was, he always tried to assure us that he was all right, as he still did when we visited him at the hospital a few days ago. My heart goes to dear Pacing and their daughter Maria Rosa, who flew home from Canada and was able to spend a few days with her beloved daddy. I pray that dear Julito is now with the Lord and united with his dearest son, Charlie. His mortal remains are now at the Social Hall of the Redemptorist Church.*

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