The FPJ/KNP circus masked men . . . unmasked!

With the election canvass moving so painstakingly slow in Congress… most people here ask… what’s happening to this country? It seems that the ire of the nation has now been focused on recently reelected Sen. Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel, Jr. who instead of showing gratitude to this politically weary nation, continues to foot drag the canvassing in Congress. In Cebu, few people doubt that all this is part of a sinister plan of the sore losers in this election to further destabilize this country for their personal and obviously selfish ambitions.

Just a week ago, masked terrorist-looking men were paraded by the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) lawyers led by Atty. Rufus Rodriquez at the Sacred Heart Center purportedly to prove that there really was massive cheating here in Cebu in the last May 10 elections. As we wrote earlier no one among our media practitioners in Cebu was able to interview any of the masked men and when there was a chance for me to get that interview, I decided that it was pointless because, we’d never know whether the person we would be interviewing was one of the men paraded in that KNP circus.

Now didn’t we say that all this was just a KNP circus designed to discredit Cebuano voters so as to discredit the huge margin of votes enjoyed by Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA)? Well, there’s a new twist to this caper worthy of an FPJ Productions movie. What else could it be?

Anyway, a certain Jerry Baltazar Moralde, who claimed to be one of the drivers that the KNP hired for this caper, has now openly signed an affidavit because of a "bothered conscience" that the ten masked men presented by the KNP at the Sacred Heart Center were paid P4,000 for that short masked appearance, which they divided equally amongst themselves… which amounts to P400 per person! Not bad for doing practically nothing, except hiding one’s face from the prying eyes of the Cebu media and the public.

Moralde even suspects that the masked men were drug addicts, with the way they behaved. The van driver admitted that he was paid P2,500 for 10 hours service. Now that he has come forward… we have reason to believe that his life may be in danger… after all, what would desperate people like Rufus Rodriquez do now that his shenanigans have been exposed? Because of the dangerous situation, Moralde has been whisked off by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to Manila.

Frankly speaking, I thought that the KNP Circus has already left town, but apparently the show ain’t over yet… there seems to be a new twist to this FPJ Productions. As expected… the KNP is now saying that the van driver was "abducted" by the NBI… nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s face it, the KNP chicanery has been exposed for its obvious purpose… and apparently no one is buying their yarn. Now the KNP is not only faced with having supported a losing candidate… they’re also losing face in the process.

Even Cebu’s beloved Ricardo Cardinal Vidal agrees that there was no massive cheating in the scale that the opposition wanted to portray. But then, we already know what the opposition wants… and that’s only to cast doubt and discredit Cebu’s elections in order to show to the nation that the margin that allowed Pres. Arroyo to win over FPJ isn’t believable.

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Let’s turn away from the election scene and on to a potentially explosive political battleground… that’s the idea of taxing text messaging or SMS. I fully subscribe with the observation of Sen. Joker Arroyo that the up and coming 13th Congress would never approve the administration’s proposal to impose tax on text messaging, because even if it passed Lower House with Rep. Jose de Venecia retained as the House Speaker, this would only "gather dust in the Senate" as Joker emphasized… saying that the three senators who head important committees are four-square against it.

No doubt, it is quite tempting for any administration strapped for cash to look to tax something that remains "untouched" by taxes. That the Philippines has earned the reputation of being the "Texting Capital of the World" gives us a sense of pride… that Filipinos are in the cutting edge of texting technology and the telecom industry has even turned cellphones into a basic consumer commodity.

For instance, Globe Telecom’s Handyphone card can now be purchased even in the lowliest sari-sari stores… not because the sari-sari stores have shifted into the telecom business, but rather it is because the pre-paid cards have become a common commodity that the common man wants to acquire. Just a few years ago, cellphones were only for the rich and the elite… today, almost everyone has a cellphone and its usage is limited only by the size of his pocket… meaning, a person can get only enough load for his daily use… and voila’ he’s connected to his friends wherever they are!

This phenomenal growth in the telecom sector naturally has caught the attention of our legislators who without thinking that they are already being taxed… are now thinking of taxing text messaging. At this point, the suggestion by many insiders is; "don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg". Indeed, the telecom industry’s economic growth has also brought business to some collateral businesses… like newspapers or television, which have thrived because of the tremendous advertising that the telecoms bring.

But aside from Joker telling us that the key senators holding important positions are against it… perhaps this early we should already inform our Congressmen that by next elections… three years from now, perhaps more than 50 percent of our people would already have cellphones and therefore, texting could truly become a political tool and when a texter sends you a warning message not to vote for this senator or congressman because he caused your text messages to be more expensive than it used to be… then better believe that that’s the end of this politico’s political life!

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8 p.m.