Sealed with a kiss

***

The judge, Larry Hicks, was also miffed when Mayweather snubbed his summons for deposition, giving all sorts of excuses. However, he was found out to be just going around having fun. An additional $774.10 for court costs was also imposed on him. Peanuts, Mayweather will probably sneer, since he has been making a lot of money fighting beatable boxers in the past years. Well, he is lucky he didn’t get another jail sentence like what another judge meted him for beating his live-in partner.

***

Also winners in their court case were the Filipino nurses in a hospital in California who filed a complaint against their bosses for preventing them from talking to each other in Tagalog in the hospital, and even when they were not on duty. The nurses claimed that they were the only ones being prevented from using their national language and other nationals were free to speak in their native tongues, like the Mexicans, the French and others. I recall that this case was widely publicized when the nurses first took action on it, but probably the hospital authorities did not think their complaint would get anywhere.

***

Well, they underestimated the Pinays. They must not have known that Pinoys are noted for protesting strongly against any attempt to curb their freedoms. So they got hit by Pinay Power, when the nurses stuck to their guns, and eventually won their cause. Now the hospital has to pay them $1 million. I don’t know how many nurses there were, but for sure, that will mean a lot of money for each of them. I hope they do not ridicule their bosses in Tagalog.

***

When my uncle, the late artist, Jess Aiko, was still alive, he was very good friends with the noted Filipino teenaged genius David Cortes Medalla, who earned a master’s degree from Harvard University at the age of 17. Once David was a house guest of Jess, together with a British friend, whom we also got to know. One day, the two of them quarreled and David began using cuss words. The poor mild-mannered Briton pleaded, “David please, if you must curse me, curse me in English so I will know what you are saying”! That mollified the genius, and they soon both started laughing.

***

At last, the strong lady from Burma – Myanmar, if you will – has been able to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor that had long been awarded to her by the American Government. Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been under house arrest in her own country for 15 years, and has only lately won her freedom, was finally able to travel to the United States where the medal, the highest recognition from the American government, had been waiting for her since 2008. Of course she had already received another prestigious award, the Nobel Peace Prize, before this, but the fact that she is now free to receive this next one is more symbolic.

***

The sulking fellow justices of Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno are getting their way. They have ordered the Justice and Bar Council to release the results of the psychological tests she underwent that reportedly showed a very low rating. The justices, no doubt, want the public, and especially President Aquino, to see what kind of personality Teacher’s Pet has. But what can disclosure of her psycho tests do, now that she is occupying the position they all coveted? Can anybody be impeached for having a low psycho rating? Is it in the Constitution?

***

Sealed with a kiss. That is what happened to the appointment of former Senator and DOTC Secretary Mar Roxas that everybody feared would not be approved. After all her fuming and fretting that she would veto his appointment, just a little nudge at her ego from Senator Vicente Sotto, was enough to make Senator Miriam Santiago relent and come up declaring, “My high intelligence quotient dictates that I should reconsider, and I therefore withdraw my motion”. After which she gave Mar a kiss! I only hope that she isn’t now hearing voices.*

back to top