The athletes are coming

Filipinos should stop complaining about the number of candidates they have to vote for during elections. The last time we had an electoral exercise, there were many complaints about its being synchronized, so that we had to vote, not only for our local officials but for congressmen, senators, and even barangay heads and councils. Egypt held an election this week and voters looked as if they were going to be punished because the list of candidates was printed in a booklet consisting of 13 pages!

* * *

But the people came in droves to cast their ballots because they felt this was the first time in years that they were given a chance to elect their leaders. Oh, they had many complaints, about having to wait in line for hours, about election precinct staff coming late, about having to stand under the sun and getting hungry until their turn came, and more. But are those much different from our own? One thing I noted, though: is that there were no reports on cheating or killings. At least not up to the time I stopped watching TV.

* * *

Now, which is which? The Supreme Court announced yesterday that the temporary restraining order on the travel of former president Gloria Arroyo had not been suspended. Immediately another report came out from Malacañang saying the TRO is now moot and academic, with the filing of the charges and the issuance of an arrest warrant against the former president. And then the doctors of Mrs. Arroyo at the St. Luke’s Hospital were summoned, but shortly after, the Supreme Court says that they can no longer be summoned because they had gone to the Regional Trial Court already.

* * *

Ah, we are all being led in a merry dance in this case, and possibly in all the others that may be filed later. There is also this group calling themselves the Morong 43 that had been arrested on suspicion of being New People’s Army members, who are now demanding compensation of P15 million from GMA for what they allegedly suffered when they were detained. I hope they will agree to being called copycats for claiming exactly the same amount as the families of the victims of the Maguindanao Massacre in Ampatuan country.

* * *

It is somehow amusing to see judges, police and even military men and lawyers going around “window-shopping” for the proper place to detain the former president. Who will make the final decision? The St. Luke’s Hospital is obviously going to be nixed, not because her suite there reportedly costs P50,000 a day, but because it is a private one. Also checked out were the Veterans Hospital, the National Orthopedic Hospital, the Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical Center, and, ugh!, the detection quarters of the Southern Police District, but, surprisingly, not her La Vista residence, where her lawyers want her to be “house-arrested”.

* * *

But her transfer to any of those places may not happen very soon as a new report says she is now suffering from another ailment involving her colon, which may require further hospitalization and even an operation. Well, who will not have stomach upsets with so many problems milling on one’s mind? Even if another former president had also undergone a similar experience, it could not have been as bad, because the father of that other president, Joseph Estrada, had not also been a president of the country, so there is no family honor or tradition to uphold.

* * *

Several stars of international sports are expected to come to the Philippines in the next few days, and it is ironical that they come when we have just gotten a beating in a regional sports competition. Well, maybe their presence will inspire our athletes to strive harder. I hear that one of my favorites in the National Basketball Association, Paul Gasol, is arriving tomorrow in Manila, and football great David Beckham is also expected next week. Sports fans will have a heyday chasing after them. I think they are following the footsteps of Kobe Bryant who has been in the country several times already. And maybe the NBA VIPs have time to go visiting because their games had been suspended due owners-players conflicts.

* * *

So now Floyd Mayweather is daring Manny Pacquiao to meet him in the ring. Hmmm, it seems to me he only came out after seeing the close fight between Manny and Marquez. Well, as some cynics say, he has either ran out of excuses or of money. Let’s see if he will still demand another kind of drug testing this time.*

back to top