Weather-weather friends and human fortunes
October 15, 2006 | 12:00am
A man convinced of his own merit will accept misfortune as an honor, for thus can he persuade others, as well as himself, that he is a worthy target for the arrows of fate. – 17th century French writer Francois de La Rochefoucauld
How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is. – German philosopher Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
One unforgettable mangling of the English language by ex-President Joseph "Erap" Estrada was his describing the changing fortunes of people as "weather-weather lang yan." In Tagalog, it’s called gulong ng palad or "wheel of fortune." Many people consider it to be destiny, fortune, kismet, mya-un, lot, portion, even predestination. But for Christians, it could not be any other thing except God’s divine will, and I agree.
Elizabeth Yu-Gokongwei told me her husband John Gokongwei Jr. likes to quote the late realty taipan Tan Yu who once said that the world is round, that a person or family is not always on top, that sometimes we’re down and out, while those down might someday rise to the top. So never lose hope and never give up! For those on top, be always humble, not hambog (arrogant)!
I ponder the bewildering changes in people’s fortunes when I think about ex-Senator Loren Legarda, who was declared by the Comelec the loser of the 2004 vice presidential race, but who on October 5 emphatically presented her case that she was cheated and vowed to pursue her election protest despite the high costs. She said this at the monthly dinner forum of the Anvil Business Club’s young Filipino-Chinese entrepreneurs in Greenhills, San Juan.
During the free-wheeling dialogue on politics, economics and other sundry topics, Loren confirmed longstanding rumors that she had finally separated from her husband ex-Governor Tony Leviste and that she is now a single parent to her two sons. Despite these political and personal setbacks, she confided that she is in "a stage of blissful struggle" and she, indeed, looks more beautiful now than before.
Loren said without bitterness: "Life is a series of stumbles, but what’s important is how one recovers, then laban na naman (fight again)! I have made wrong decisions in my life, but I always take responsibility, I don’t despair or regret. I look forward to a better future with a lot of prayers, with a lot of support and sympathy from well-meaning friends and family members. I’m an optimist and I prefer to look at the positive side of events, no matter how negative. We must believe tomorrow will be better."
At the Anvil dinner, Loren asked why various friends had invited me to dine with her three times while she was in power, but I never wrote a column about her, yet here I had invited her to be the special guest at the Anvil dinner when she is already out of power.
I wish to confess to ex-Senator Legarda that I’m usually averse to writing about politicians, because they’re masters at hogging the front-page headlines anyway. Also, I’m not a fair-weather kind of friend and I have a really soft spot in my heart for underdogs or downtrodden or defeated people.
When President Estrada was in power, I made it my hobby to sometimes poke fun at his foibles in my columns and I often said I didn’t vote for him. However, when he was toppled, I was the first person in the media to get an exclusive Erap interview for The Philippine STAR at his Veterans Medical Center detention suite.
Same with my former Ateneo economics professor President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, when she was still in the opposition before EDSA 2. I empathized with her and once even brought her all the way to Calbayog City, Samar to be honored publicly by her former political critic, then Mayor Reynaldo Uy.
Immediately after GMA assumed power as a result of EDSA 2, I sincerely believed that, in a true democracy, it was essentially the duty of people in media to be critical and not be her public relations agents. I believe frank, non-personal and constructive criticism of the President can help prevent her personal hubris and also help uphold the truth.
When Speaker Joe de Venecia Jr. lost the 1998 presidential election to Erap, I remember visiting his Dasmariñas Village, Makati residence for lunch. I brought along Ilongo taipan Alfonso Uy to the nearly deserted de Venecia house, which used to teem with all sorts of politicos, businessmen, power brokers, name-droppers and all kinds of people. The house was then eerily quiet and empty, except for another guest: GMA Network, Inc. major shareholder and fellow Pangasinan native Menardo "Nard" Jimenez. I wouldn’t be surprised if even his own kin had by then already gone over to Erap.
At the height of the Speaker’s power, I couldn’t forget his wife Gina Vera-Perez de Venecia once exclaiming that she had so many guests, she had to lay out full buffet tables of food five times a day!
Now the weather-weather has turned bright and sunny for Speaker De Venecia. During the recent October 1 National Day dinner of China Ambassador Li Jinjun, he asked me, in front of various business VIPs, why I no longer visited him and his wife at their residence when he and his wife consider me their good friend. Speaker, when you’re retired or out of politics, you always can count on me as your true friend.
Another example of the weather-weather phenomenon, and how humans are fickle "friends," is ex-President Fidel V. Ramos. I’ll never forget attending two big weddings right after then Defense Secretary Ramos was resoundingly defeated at the LDP party convention by Speaker Ramon Mitra Jr. and how people practically ignored or avoided the loser. At the wedding reception for then Congressman Joe de Venecia’s son Joey at then Westin Philippine Plaza Hotel and separately at the Manila Cathedral wedding of Tan Yu’s son Elton See Tan, people seemed to be avoiding FVR and his wife Ming. But when FVR won the presidency in 1992, he became lionized and the immediate object of every kind of sipsip, while once on-top-of-the-world Speaker Monching Mitra just faded away into the sunset.
After two years in the election protest doldrums, ex-Senator Legarda on October 12 held an almost debut-like dinner party at Manila Polo Club in Makati City to launch a coffeetable book on her life. It was a big gathering of celebrities, the media, artists, business VIPs, and many political luminaries from Senator Juan Flavier (who told this writer to write in my column that he seriously plans to become a dance instructor after his term ends so he can embrace more women daw and get higher pay), ex-Tourism Secretary Vicente Carlos, Bantangas Congressman Dodo Mandanas, ex-Press Secretary Rod Reyes, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile to Senator Nene Pimentel.
Is Loren now on the comeback trail and gunning for the Senate in 2007? She responded to my query with an enigmatic Mona Lisa smile, promising to announce her political plans when I invite her again to another Anvil dinner. Whatever her future, my advice is for her to dance to the music but never be fooled by the superficial praises and insincere chumminess of this world’s too many weather-weather "friends"!
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How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is. – German philosopher Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
One unforgettable mangling of the English language by ex-President Joseph "Erap" Estrada was his describing the changing fortunes of people as "weather-weather lang yan." In Tagalog, it’s called gulong ng palad or "wheel of fortune." Many people consider it to be destiny, fortune, kismet, mya-un, lot, portion, even predestination. But for Christians, it could not be any other thing except God’s divine will, and I agree.
Elizabeth Yu-Gokongwei told me her husband John Gokongwei Jr. likes to quote the late realty taipan Tan Yu who once said that the world is round, that a person or family is not always on top, that sometimes we’re down and out, while those down might someday rise to the top. So never lose hope and never give up! For those on top, be always humble, not hambog (arrogant)!
I ponder the bewildering changes in people’s fortunes when I think about ex-Senator Loren Legarda, who was declared by the Comelec the loser of the 2004 vice presidential race, but who on October 5 emphatically presented her case that she was cheated and vowed to pursue her election protest despite the high costs. She said this at the monthly dinner forum of the Anvil Business Club’s young Filipino-Chinese entrepreneurs in Greenhills, San Juan.
During the free-wheeling dialogue on politics, economics and other sundry topics, Loren confirmed longstanding rumors that she had finally separated from her husband ex-Governor Tony Leviste and that she is now a single parent to her two sons. Despite these political and personal setbacks, she confided that she is in "a stage of blissful struggle" and she, indeed, looks more beautiful now than before.
Loren said without bitterness: "Life is a series of stumbles, but what’s important is how one recovers, then laban na naman (fight again)! I have made wrong decisions in my life, but I always take responsibility, I don’t despair or regret. I look forward to a better future with a lot of prayers, with a lot of support and sympathy from well-meaning friends and family members. I’m an optimist and I prefer to look at the positive side of events, no matter how negative. We must believe tomorrow will be better."
At the Anvil dinner, Loren asked why various friends had invited me to dine with her three times while she was in power, but I never wrote a column about her, yet here I had invited her to be the special guest at the Anvil dinner when she is already out of power.
When President Estrada was in power, I made it my hobby to sometimes poke fun at his foibles in my columns and I often said I didn’t vote for him. However, when he was toppled, I was the first person in the media to get an exclusive Erap interview for The Philippine STAR at his Veterans Medical Center detention suite.
Same with my former Ateneo economics professor President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, when she was still in the opposition before EDSA 2. I empathized with her and once even brought her all the way to Calbayog City, Samar to be honored publicly by her former political critic, then Mayor Reynaldo Uy.
Immediately after GMA assumed power as a result of EDSA 2, I sincerely believed that, in a true democracy, it was essentially the duty of people in media to be critical and not be her public relations agents. I believe frank, non-personal and constructive criticism of the President can help prevent her personal hubris and also help uphold the truth.
When Speaker Joe de Venecia Jr. lost the 1998 presidential election to Erap, I remember visiting his Dasmariñas Village, Makati residence for lunch. I brought along Ilongo taipan Alfonso Uy to the nearly deserted de Venecia house, which used to teem with all sorts of politicos, businessmen, power brokers, name-droppers and all kinds of people. The house was then eerily quiet and empty, except for another guest: GMA Network, Inc. major shareholder and fellow Pangasinan native Menardo "Nard" Jimenez. I wouldn’t be surprised if even his own kin had by then already gone over to Erap.
At the height of the Speaker’s power, I couldn’t forget his wife Gina Vera-Perez de Venecia once exclaiming that she had so many guests, she had to lay out full buffet tables of food five times a day!
Now the weather-weather has turned bright and sunny for Speaker De Venecia. During the recent October 1 National Day dinner of China Ambassador Li Jinjun, he asked me, in front of various business VIPs, why I no longer visited him and his wife at their residence when he and his wife consider me their good friend. Speaker, when you’re retired or out of politics, you always can count on me as your true friend.
Another example of the weather-weather phenomenon, and how humans are fickle "friends," is ex-President Fidel V. Ramos. I’ll never forget attending two big weddings right after then Defense Secretary Ramos was resoundingly defeated at the LDP party convention by Speaker Ramon Mitra Jr. and how people practically ignored or avoided the loser. At the wedding reception for then Congressman Joe de Venecia’s son Joey at then Westin Philippine Plaza Hotel and separately at the Manila Cathedral wedding of Tan Yu’s son Elton See Tan, people seemed to be avoiding FVR and his wife Ming. But when FVR won the presidency in 1992, he became lionized and the immediate object of every kind of sipsip, while once on-top-of-the-world Speaker Monching Mitra just faded away into the sunset.
After two years in the election protest doldrums, ex-Senator Legarda on October 12 held an almost debut-like dinner party at Manila Polo Club in Makati City to launch a coffeetable book on her life. It was a big gathering of celebrities, the media, artists, business VIPs, and many political luminaries from Senator Juan Flavier (who told this writer to write in my column that he seriously plans to become a dance instructor after his term ends so he can embrace more women daw and get higher pay), ex-Tourism Secretary Vicente Carlos, Bantangas Congressman Dodo Mandanas, ex-Press Secretary Rod Reyes, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile to Senator Nene Pimentel.
Is Loren now on the comeback trail and gunning for the Senate in 2007? She responded to my query with an enigmatic Mona Lisa smile, promising to announce her political plans when I invite her again to another Anvil dinner. Whatever her future, my advice is for her to dance to the music but never be fooled by the superficial praises and insincere chumminess of this world’s too many weather-weather "friends"!
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