Teresita Ang-See, spokesperson of the Chinese-Filipino community, called up Thursday to apologize for what she called the "unfair and unkind" remarks of one Harry C. Angping. The latter in a long and insulting letter published in the Op-Ed page of The Philippine STAR last week raked me over the coals. Mr. Angping figured that his official stamp as congressman from the third district of Manila gave him aplomb and his letter the fire of the dragon. Isn't it the Year of the Dragon?
In effect, this is what he said: That this writer was a Chinese-basher, that my remarks about the Chinese were "repugnant and nauseating", that much of what I wrote about the Chinese and the Chinese-Filipino issued from "unfounded fears and illogical conclusions" and, ergo, "only weird and demented people succumb to these." This guy Angping is completely off-base. And no wonder, Tessie Ang-See had to set the record straight. She assured me many in the Chinese community here did not agree with Angping's utterances, in fact were unhappy about his letter.
Yes, I did inveigh against Stanley Ho and I said his "Chineseness appears to mirror the worst traits of the Chinese shadow world." And I also wrote that it was "the new wave of new Chinese" settling in our midst that bothered me and many Filipinos a lot. Their perceived closeness to President Joseph Estrada raised my hackles as did the fact that many of them engaged in smuggling, gambling and other rackets. Let me emphasize that anew -- a new wave of Chinese.
That was fair. And Tessie Ang-See agreed that was fair. She said the Chinese-Filipinos, particularly those long settled in the Philippines, were also ashamed of this new breed. Not only Filipinos are being victimized by them, Tess Ang-See said, but Chinese-Filipinos. Tessie was particularly wroth on smugglers bringing in rice, sugar, and other staples and commodities from abroad and selling them much cheaper than established Filipino and Chinese-Filipino merchants. "We all suffer, Teddy," she said.
Mr. Angping seems to have a special love or liking for Stanley Ho and falsely accuses this writer of linking the gambling empire czar from Macau with the Chinese-Filipino. I did no such thing, Read my column again, mister. I said Ho was and is Chinese, but the kind of Chinese we Filipinos do not want, the shadow Chinese, the pompous preacher, who rattles off all his awards and decorations from the Vatican and the Pope. As though that would atone for all the ills, the despicable effects, prostitutes and Triad hoodlums that Ho's gambling has spawned in Macau.
I do not like Stanley Ho, mister, get that straight. And my feelings are shared by many Filipinos including Jaime Cardinal Sin. But that doesn't mean I don't like the Chinese, the Chinese-Filipinos who have assimilated and integrated into Philippine society, many of whom are my friends, colleagues and associates. Or China. Read that column again. I even praised Chinese-Filipinos who have made it in our society, for they had struggled hard, worked hard, climbed up the cliff.
Egad! I even criticized in that column my fellow Filipinos who didn't work hard enough, who wanted to get rich overnight, who loved fiestas and frolic "still unable to unlock our trapped genius as a people." The trouble with you, Mr. Congressman, is that you don't read, and if you do, you don't read straight. And precisely, Tessie Ang-See, who knows me very well, who had read this column through the years, was all the more displeased by your letter. She knows and remains grateful that I laid this column on the line for the many Chinese-Filipinos, victimized by kidnapping, by truant and greedy Customs, BIR and police agents, rascals and chiselers of every sort.
I grieved with the Chinese who were kidnapped and killed.
I joined that slow, agonizing funeral procession for Charlene Mayne Sy, sorrowed with her parents at the funeral parlor, angry, furious even that a girl so young, only 16, so winsome and innocent, had been kidnapped. And worse, when she was in the kidnap car with her snatchers, and they were espied, police opened fire, raking and killing everybody inside with a hail of unnecessary gunfire. The agents of the law could simply have blocked and surrounded the kidnap car. The police pulled out the dead. They pulled our Charlene's body as though it was a sack of potatoes and dumped her on the sidewalk. I wrote about that with the white-knuckled ferocity.
In my time, I have read books and books, tomes and tomes on China. And in this space, I have expressed my admiration for Chinese culture and civilization. So where does this congressman Harry C., Angping come from?
Mister, your are nuts.
Our ears have been keening lately. Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is beginning to speak on issues quite outside the pale of her office as secretary of social welfare and development. For much more than a year and a half, she was a clam. You couldn't get her to talk about anything political, any issue that was shaking the country, nothing, really nothing. She was a sealed vault in something like a nunnery or a monastery. Not even a whisper on Concord, graft and corruption, cronyism, crime and violence, the state of the country, not even the state of her political health.
She was playing it safe, cozying up to President Joseph Estrada, clinging to him even he was battered to his knees by national surveys showing his popularity or approval ratings plunging like a plugged kite. Scandals of every sort erupted in and outside the Palace but Gloria remained silent and serene. Not even the presidential pardon of Norberto Manera, the priest-killer who now rides around in a Mercedez Benz, could move GMA to utter a single word of rage.
But now she is talking on the oil issue, the Ex-Oil bill. She has sunk a wisdom tooth on globalization, the cares or steps we have to take as a poor nation to avoid being hostage to the rich and powerful. She's like a little bird pecking in the immediate vicinity, making sure that what she pecks does not offend the Big Boss, namely Erap Estrada.
Nonetheless, it's a beginning.
I know, we know, her supporters know Gloria is looking for the appropriate time to break her bonds with the president. As they say in politics, everything is timing. When the time comes, she is quoted as saying, she will hit the road with political Armalite, bomb and hand grenade. Which means Erap Estrada will be the main target, and politics in the Philippines returns to the barricades.
But when? In a month? In two months? In three? Gloria Macapagal Arroyo should know by now, should be convinced by now that the president is stuck in a mudslide. He has not delivered as he had promised. Things and events are going awry, like Jerry Lewis hilariously loose in a China shop and almost everything is tumbling down. The thing is to straighten up the president's act, dust off the broken pieces and get presidential. But whatever they do, almost every day gets worse. There's a big splattered egg on the president's face because of the Manero pardon. And there will be more, according to his critics.
Gloria's problem is this. She may wait too long. and when finally she moves, she herself would already have been badly hurt by the falling candelabra. There is no such thing as high approval ratings, fixed, nailed and riveted once and for all. Already, she has fallen 10 points from 70 to 60. The time is probably just around the corner for her to escape the shadows now enveloping Erap Estrada. When that time comes and she till hesitates, she will be viewed not just as a wimp, but an opportunist who missed the train. She misses that train, and she can bid the presidency goodbye.
The times are looking for a hero or a heroine who can call a spade a spade. Look at the members of our so-called august Senate. Once this chamber boasted of such immortals as Ninoy Aquino, Pepe Diokno, Lorenzo Tañada, Claro M. Recto, Jose Laurel, who could latch on to hovering clouds and beyond them, even the stars. Today? Touch the lapel of any senator, man or woman, and it smells of rank opportunism. Not one stands out, not even Sen. Nene Pimentel, once a sterling crusader, now a middle-roader. The only exception could be Sen. Raul Roco. Watch him.
Gloria is a whiz in economics. And it's time she spoke out for the economy bleeds. It is listing like a battered ship in a storm, pummeled by gale force winds, and if we don't watch out, it will start to sink. If Gloria remains paralyzed by inaction because her presidential antennae do not bristle and show her the way, then she will shrink like the classic mimosa, swaying sadly to a breeze as it wilts and weeps out the rest of its life.
Acting the hero or the heroine when the opportunity is gone is like enlisting in the military when the nation has long gone to war. Those courageous and hardy enough to lead the fight, brave danger, risk their lives and struggle through shot and shell will lead the nation. And nobody else.
The presidency is not for the faint of heart.