Former Central Bank Governor Jaime Laya of the Bulacan Foundation says, "I hope the focus would be on investigating and solving the serious problems raised by the rebel soldiers, not only in punishing them."
Why are we so hung up on good looks? The play Bongbong at Kris, created by the late banker and award-winning playwright Boy Noriega, became a hit after the 1986 people-backed military uprising. Philippine Star reader Crystal Alcones has her own Trillanes and GMA suggestion, e-mailing this message: "Haay Naku! There is so much that confuses the minds of the Filipino people – poverty, drugs, unemployment, graft and corruption, peace and order, budget deficit, peso deflation – and now the latest puzzle giving us biggest headache is this: Who is today considered as the ‘crush ng bayan’? Is he Dao Ming Si of F4 or is Lt. S/G Antonio Trillanes of Oakwood 5/Magdalo 5?"
Right or wrong, the Magdalo group’s July 27 mutiny has fired the imagination of people nationwide who are fed up with the terrible state of corruption in the Philippines. Many have vented out their fury against the iniquities in our state, against the military, the police and other institutions, but why was the Magdalo mutiny seemingly more popular?
A few days later, GMA trotted out a photogenic classmate of Trillanes from nowhere as a new member of the fact-finding body, presenting him and his beautiful wife with the name Carrots for media photo-ops. It is said that this airline pilot ended up as the "class goat" with the lowest academic grades in their Philippine Military Academy (PMA) batch, unlike the Magdalo mutineers who were school topnotchers.
While the late President Ferdinand Marcos was known for surrounding himself with intellectually-superior officials, political observers have told The Philippine Star that the President seems to enjoy the company of good-looking men in her cabinet, pointing out to her "favorites" such as Finance Secretary Lito Camacho, Agriculture Secretary Cito Lorenzo, Energy Secretary Vince Perez, the bachelor Trade and Industry Secretary Mar Roxas.
Bulacan Governor Josie de la Cruz says, "When we were her Ateneo students, Cito Lorenzo was already the favorite of ma’am." Fortunately for GMA, these men with telegenic looks have generally performed better than her other officials.
This writer has all along theorized that in our society, a former Spanish colony that places a disproportionately high priority to form or porma, physical good looks is a powerful advantage. Just look at the excess number of beauty and modeling pageants throughout the archipelago. But the Philippines is not alone in this beauty craze, the rest of the world becomes more beauty-obsessed every year.
The eastern European Jewish migrant Estee Lauder was poor, but she parlayed her physical beauty and entrepreneurial genius into a multi-billion beauty conglomerate. Another poor eastern European Jewish immigrant, Helena Rubinstein, in the early 20th century established the beginnings of another beauty business giant. In the West, other famous names in the mega-bucks business of beauty include Elizabeth Arden (who pioneered the first modern beauty salon in 1910), Max Factor and Revlon.
In 1909, Eugene Schueller established the French Harmless Hair Colouring Co., which eventually became L’Oreal, one of the global leaders in beauty products. In 1911, German pharmacist Paul Beiersdorf of Hamburg City gave the world the first ever cream to bind oil and water, which today sells popularly in 150 countries as the world’s biggest personal-care brand Nivea. At about the same period, Arinobu Fukuhara came out with eudermine lotion as Japan’s first cosmetic product based on a scientific formula, thus becoming the first product of Shiseido.
According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, where former Trade Minister Roberto "Bobby" Ongpin is now deputy chairman, America’s Avon cosmetics group expects its 5,000 boutiques and 2,000 beauty counters in retail malls throughout booming China to register $160 million sales this year (representing a phenomenal 30 percent growth per year). Avon’s ethnic Chinese president Andrea Jung expressed optimism that China sales will soon reach $1 billion per year.
Despite China’s not being overly conscious on form over substance, the rise of its new telegenic President Hu Jintao will definitely go a long way in helping refurbish this new economic superpower’s global image.
Saddam and Osama had the misfortune of being born with bad looks and they were unlike other people who did something to rectify their bad looks with cosmetics or other remedies. Maybe their bad looks soured their social and emotional lives, causing them to become villains out to sow hatred and ugliness worldwide. There is a Western civic project called "Operation Smile," which has doctors volunteering to operate on people in the Third World born with facial defects, because they believe that better looks can radically change their miserable lives and give them hope.
Unfortunately for the hardworking and herself not bad-looking GMA, Estrada still retains his rugged cinematic good looks which has been part of his inexplicable charisma with the masses. The President should not fret or jump with righteous indignation because she herself possesses innate good looks due to her good genes and discipline. She once said that her regular exercise includes doing the treadmill and badminton daily, despite her hectic work schedule.
In the Senate, a face with the powerful advantage of good looks is Senator Loren Legarda Leviste. In the Lower House, Ilocos Norte Congresswoman Imee Marcos has inherited her mother Imelda Marcos’ good looks. If the bright and humble Irene Marcos Araneta should decide to dabble in politics, her beauty would no doubt boost her electoral strength. The Philippine Star columnist Kris Aquino has become one of the prettiest faces on national television. Sources told this writer that Kris recently went to PGA Cars to choose a P4 million BMW luxury car as the payment of Dr. Vicki Belo for her endorsement of her beauty clinic.
Revlon founder Charles Revlon once said that the beauty business is the selling of "hope in a jar." This crisis-weary nation does not need leaders with physical beauty or empty-headed celebrities. What we need are true leaders who can inspire hope with their inner beauty, their integrity, character and their vision!