Punishing Makati for Jojo’s defiance by dropping the ‘Lito’ bomb

"Heaven Watch the Philippines" is the real name of the song American composer Irving Berlin wrote to honor the wartime bravery of our country. The Russian-born immigrant songwriter (1888-1989) who composed "God Bless America" was actually born Israel Baline, but he acquired his now-famous name from a music publisher’s printers’ error.

When he decided to pay tribute to the courage of the Filipinos after Bataan and Corregidor, and to hail the guerrilla resistance movement, he penned a Tin Pan Alley tune which went, "Heaven watch the Philippines, keep her safe from harm …Bless her sons and their precious ones in the city and on the farm; friendly with America may they ever be, but Heaven watch the Philippines and keep her forever free …Keep her forever free!"

The song was in the Hit Kit series which American G.I.s carried when they went to war, but it has completely been forgotten. It never became too popular, even here, although one article said it was sung by a pretty little girl named Imelda Romualdez who was brought along by her father to a party given to the liberating American G.I.s in Leyte. True or false?

In any event, Heaven watch the Philippines (!) is a prayer we must all recite today.

Today will be a day of clashes and turmoil, since radical groups like Bayan, Kilusang Mayo Uno ("The May First Movement") and other Leftist organizations have declared they’re planning to march on Malacañang as well as try to stage a rally in Mendiola, the battleground chosen by the shouting pro-Erap masa who attempted to storm the Palace on May 1, 2001, soon after La Gloria took over the Presidency.

Last night, PNP Director (General) Vidal Querol of the National Capital Region Command stated on TV that the Manila government had given May Day demonstrators only a permit to rally in Liwasang Bonifacio and beside the Bonifacio monument near City Hall, not to go to Mendiola. This means the police and the military will meet any marchers with a barricade of nightsticks and steel. Will the militants insist on pushing through, even the Legions of Linggoy Alcuaz?

The radicals would like nothing better than a bloody clash. The militants, unless they chicken out, may push their minions into the fray as cannon fodder to stoke a "rebellion."

However, I don’t wish to sound alarmist. Today may yet prove peaceful, if common sense prevails over radical opportunism.

Incidentally, Irving Berlin, the US composer, was always better known for his music in the movie, Easter Parade (starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire). His all-time hit was "Alexander’s Ragtime Band" which hit the jackpot in 1911 – would you believe – and sold two million copies by 1915.

He wrote over 800 songs and movies, among the most memorable: "Top Hat" (1935): "White Christmas" (1954); and "There’s No Business Like Show Business" (1954).

By golly, he dished out great music until he died in 1989 – aged 101.

* * *

Call it massive retaliation.

There’s no doubt La Presidenta GMA intensely dislikes Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, head of the Binay Dynasty (much like the Boss Daley Dynasty in Chicago). This is because Binay always grants opposition groups and radical organizations rally permits to hold anti-GMA demonstrations and protests right in the heart of Metro Manila’s financial district, the country’s equivalent of Wall Street. The favorite anti-Gloria rally center is the corner of Paseo de Roxas and Ayala Avenue, and, worst of all, Jojo himself leads some of those angry demonstrations.

Binay was a stalwart of the campaign of the late FPJ and remains an unrepentant oppositionist. But what’s this?

In order to punish Binay, why should GMA also decide to also punish the citizens, businessmen and residents of Makati? She is reportedly endorsing, as early as 11 months before the election, Senator Lito Lapid for City Mayor of Makati!

Binay may not exactly be God’s gift to the educated and elite sector of the nation, but many in the business and middle class segment of the Makati population are already groaning that dropping Lito Lapid on Makati is equivalent to Harry S. Truman having dropped the Atom Bomb on Hiroshima.

The critics say that it’s bad enough the literacy level in the Senate was, unfortunately, lowered by Lapid’s entry in the upper chamber when Lapid was virtually "forced" to run for Senator in the 2004 polls by GMA so he could attract votes for her. (Was "Hello, Lito" worse than "Hello Garci"?)

However, literacy is the least of Lito’s problems. Right now, Senator Lapid is deeply enmeshed in charges involving two major scams exposed by no less than GMA’s half-sister, former Pampanga Vice-Governor Cielo Macapagal-Salgado, and incumbent Pampanga Vice-Governor Yeng Guiao.

Cielo is the complainant against Lapid and several Pampanga officials in a serious action regarding the alleged anomalous purchase of a huge tract of land in San Fernando City when Lapid was Governor. Her complaint is the subject of an anti-graft case pending before the Sandiganbayan.

In another instance, Vice-Governor Yeng Guiao is pursuing a complaint against Lapid before the House committee concerning the multi-million pesos quarrying scam in Porac (Pampanga) which Guiao maintains has deprived the province of millions of pesos in income. Porac and Angeles City sources aver that somebody who looks like Lapid owns an immense, palatial residence in Porac which is bigger than several Forbes Park mansions put together.

Sanamagan. I didn’t realize that "quarrying" is such big business.

By the way, Porac sand – what remains of the lahar spewed forth by the Mt. Pinatubo volcano 600 years ago – is much prized in the making of precision lenses and glass.

When this writer and Johnny Ponce Enrile were cadets training in the Infantry Training Group (ITG) in Camp Floridablanca in 1950, our company, "G" Company under 1st Lt. Joe Bass (later a renowned fighting colonel), used to march through sand as thick as the desert sands of the Sahara. We felt like we had enlisted in the French Foreign Legion as our boots kicked up clouds of dust and sand. (There were even little "sandstorms" throwing grit in our faces).

We never suspected this detested sand was so valuable.

Coming back to Lito Lapid being pushed to run for Makati Mayor by an Avenging La Glorietta – can you imagine him dealing with the diplomats who have their Embassies and residences in Makati? Oh well, at least he does know some English, as a foreign language.

Admittedly, Lapid was popular as a film action star, and may have vote-getting "power" among his movie fans, but think of the consequences of the Lito "bomb."

* * *

THE ROVING EYE: . . .Definitely, Italy has turned Left. The victory of former European Commission President, Romano Prodi over former Centre-Right Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has resulted in the triumph of a coalition of the Left. The Lower House of Italian Parliament has just elected Fausto Bertinotti, a hardline member of the Refounded Communist Party as Speaker of the House. The Senators last Saturday confirmed Franco Marini, a trade union leader (but in contrast to Bertinotti a moderate centre-left politician), Speaker of the Senate. In short, the Italian government is now Red at worst, and Pink at best. Mr. Prodi will take over, formally, in two weeks unless President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi helps accelerate the process of his appointment. Berlusconi is still firing away, protesting his defeat, but it’s all over. Guess the Italians will be leaving Iraq sooner than their target date of arrivederci in December.