Did Irving Berlin really compose his song for Imelda?

More and more anti-GMA "surveys" and "polls" are emerging, even surveys taken among students. Who’s funding them? It’s evident that La Gloria and her Administration’s "experts" don’t know how to counter-attack without running afoul of either public perception or the courts.

It’s easy, of course, to assail someone in high office. Since most of the news is normally generated in this metropolis (not the less contentious and "faraway" provinces), many of Metro Manila’s cities and towns have traditionally been "opposition" bulwarks.

Yet, despite her troubles, La Presidenta must consider herself fortunate that two of the most crucial cities are under the leadership of pro-GMA Mayors.

A few days ago, this writer met with Quezon City Mayor S.B. (Sonny Belmonte) and Manila Mayor Jose "Lito" Atienza. Over lunch we talked about old times – Sonny and I had covered the police beat together in the "Manila Chronicle," while Lito Atienza had been one of the young Liberal Party members who survived the Plaza Miranda "grenade" attack of August 21, 1971.

The LP leadership had been grievously wounded in that attack mounted by New People’s Army assassins dispatched to create havoc. Former Senate President Jovito Salonga had his two hands shattered and his entire body peppered with shrapnel. The late Senator Serging Osmeña was "clinically dead" when he arrived at the hospital. But he survived. The late Senator, afterwards Speaker Ramon V. Mitra, carried pieces of shrapnel in his body till the day he died, years later, of cancer.

In the murderous attack ten people died and over 100, on or near the grandstand died. The third grenade proved a dud, otherwise there would have been more casualties. Many others, including Eddie Ilarde were hurt. (We lost our Manila Times cameraman).

Since it was his miting de abanse, LP candidate for Manila Mayor Ramon Bagatsing – who died only a few months ago – had his leg amputated just below the knee. (In indignation, Manilans went to the polls and elected the injured Bagatsing Mayor by a wide margin, in a race in which he bested the incumbent Mayor Tony "Yeba" Villegas). Yeba, for his part, had no part in the bombing which had been carried out by two NPA operatives dispatched – ex-NPA Commander Victor Corpuz testified when he defected – by Communist Party Supremo Jose Ma. Sison.

Lito Atienza reminded me during the luncheon-meeting that it was lucky for me to have declined the official LP nomination for Mayor, which had been offered me by the late Senate President Gerry Roxas, the late Congressman Valentin Loyola, Hermie Atienza and the top brass of the party directorate. That would have been my miting de abanse – but I had suggested they nominate Bagatsing instead. His successive terms as Mayor attest to his success in that position.

In any event, Sonny Belmonte and Lito Atienza have been holding the line for GMA in what might have been politically dangerous areas.

She’s got another bastion in Marikina City where the Mayor, Mrs. Marides Fernando is doing so well for her constituents that Marikina, aside from recapturing the title of Shoe Capital of the country, is increasingly upmarket. We need not mention that her husband is one of the most effective officials of the Administration, Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando.

While not universally loved by the Metro Manila Mayors (including Makati’s Jojo Binay), Fernando keeps on going, trying to put some discipline and order into the chaos and anarchy which is Metro Manila traffic. The "Pink Panther", as he’s dubbed, is off on one of his latest projects, stamping out B.O. (Body Odor) among FX drivers, and the drivers of other public utility vehicles.

At our Tuesday Club meeting this week in the EDSA Plaza hotel, Bayani was mercilessly ribbed by his fellow members on how he was going to implement the "armpit aroma" test. Would his MMDA traffic enforcers stop each PUV vehicle and conduct a kili-kili test by utilizing their nostrils, or had the MMDA invented a magic wand which could be put to any armpit and detect any suspected offensive odor on a scale of one-to-ten?

At least Bayani Fernando is doing something, unlike the many blowhards in government or in the public who simply talk endlessly about improving our society.

* * *

Talk about chance encounters. Last Wednesday, my old friend Ralph Peter Jentes, a longtime Manila resident and bon vivant, invited me for lunch at his restaurant, the "Schwarzwalder" in the Atrium Building in Makati.

Peter, who used to be General Manager of the prestigious Grand Hyatt Hotel in Hong Kong, actually comes from the region in Germany whose cuisine and other Swiss and German recipes are offered in mouth-watering variety in his restaurant. He’s from that Disneyland-pretty city, Freibourg in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest).

But that’s not the point of my story. Who happened to be there at another table in the glassed in, more private section? No less than Madam Imelda Romualdez Marcos in her signature terno with butterfly sleeves, this time in brilliant purple (lavender?).

When I greeted Imeldific, she had an interesting tale to tell.

She told me that what I had written about the famous Russian-born American composer, Irving Berlin, having composed "Heaven Watch the Philippines" was not only true, but Berlin had composed that song in just a few minutes – in her presence.

The former First Lady and ex-Superma’am recounted that she had been a young girl at the time (my guess would be 13 or 14, but I never ask a lady’s age). Berlin had come to her house unexpectedly, directed there by the conquering General and Liberator, Douglas MacArthur himself. Their family, she recalled, were living on Real  street in Tacloban, Leyte (now renamed Romualdez street, of course). When the Americans landed to expel the Japanese, US Navy Admiral Chester Nimitz had established his HQ down the same street. MacArthur himself went walking daily along the street, and had heard Imelda singing "God Bless the Philippines" to the tune of Berlin’s song, "God Bless America" which was very popular with the G.I.s fighting in both the Pacific and Europe.

When Berlin arrived to entertain the troops in Leyte, he had asked MacArthur who could join a chorus to sing his songs among the local population. MacArthur sent him to the Romualdez house where she recounted, the young Imelda had sung "God Bless the Philippines," for him.

"No, young lady," Irving Berlin had wagged a finger, "That is ‘God Bless America’ – I know because I wrote that song." When Imelda insisted it was "God Bless the Philippines," Berlin had laughed, and retorted. "Here – I will compose another song, just for you and the Filipinos, and you can come and sing it to our boys tomorrow night."

Thereupon, Berlin sat down at a desk, and started humming and scribbling. He wrote out the musical notes, put words to them, then polished up a copy for Imelda.

"Can you read notes?" He had asked her. Yes, she replied. "Here, then, take this song, study it, memorize it – then sing it for us tomorrow!"

Imelda had enlisted the help of her father, she reported. Her father Vicente Orestes Romualdez, a younger brother of the great Supreme Court Justice Norberto Romualdez, Sr., was good at the piano, she said, so they rehearsed the tune together.

Would you believe? Imelda started singing "Heaven Watch the Philippines" right there in the Schwarzwalder restaurant – which may have startled the other tables, but by golly, she sang it well.

And here are the words, as she sang them, and many of us recall them: "Heaven watch the Philippines, keep them safe from harm! Bless their sons and their precious ones, in the city and on the farm...Friendly to America, may they ever be ... But Heaven watch the Philippines and keep them forever free, keep them forever free!"

I confess it was a poignant and touching moment, even for one who had been imprisoned and persecuted during martial law. Imeldific, even in adversity, has lost nothing of her charm. But the years of dictatorship have been so oppressive that the innocence of the young Imelda Romualdez had long withered into a thing of the past.

How many tragedies might have been prevented had she remembered, and sang to her husband, Apo Ferdinand Marcos, the final lines of that Irving Berlin song: "Heaven watch the Philippines, and keep them forever free."

* * *

In retrospect, are we really free today – including "free" of foreign meddling and exploitation?

Our government ought to wake up and investigate the phenomenon of so many foreign nationals who’re neither tourists, short-time visitors, or investors, who’re violating our Philippine Constitution (more than the Cha-Cha movement). These foreigners flout both the Constitution and other Philippine laws by practicing their professions in fields exclusively reserved for Filipinos, as – in glaring example – in the accounting and auditing professions, involving local firms with international partners.

This practice is not merely in blatant defiance of our Constitution but an arrogant instance of deliberate disregard for Philippine immigration, labor and tax laws. Yet these big shots are much-publicized in the Business pages, creating for themselves the aura of being too powerful to touch. It’s time we taught them a thing or two.

There are those who pose as consultants and enjoy a luxurious lifestyle in our gold-plated Villages, perhaps even flaunting "diplomatic" status, yet never remitting anything to our government from the fat paychecks they receive. In the context of our sovereignty, why are these influential foreign accountants and auditors permitted to operate in this country?

Let me cite a few of the laws they violate. There is the Illegal Alien Act which prevents foreign nationals from overstaying in the country without the necessary permits. There are also Philippine Labor Laws that require interested practitioners of certain professions – foreign and local alike – to acquire the essential documentation and licenses before they can strut their wares in this country.

Tax Laws also exist which require individuals to pay a specific amount of taxes based on the nature of their business or profession. How come such high-profile individuals can get away with what they’re doing? Despite their infractions, some of them go around lecturing other people on the importance of "good governance" in business and politics. Sanamagan.

Regulation is one way of controlling the infractions of illegal aliens. We have a Bureau of Immigration who should keep track of these illegals. We have a Department of Justice who ought to inquire into their activities and, if needed, file cases against these intruders. Finally, we have a House of Representatives and a Senate who’re active in initiating inquiries and probes "in aid of legislation" who might usefully turn their gaze on such infringements.

Need I say more?

* * *

THE ROVING EYE. . . It was a generous gesture on the part of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud to have arranged a special plane to convey 339 Filipinos freed by his order from prison in various regions of the Kingdom, home to Manila. According to our friend, Saudi Ambassador to Manila Mohammed Ameen Wali, the special plane took off from the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, with more than 200 of our OFWs aboard yesterday – and is due in Manila today. It was underscored in the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia press statement that the OFWs had been freed in response to the request of GMA – so, in this light, it has been a successful state visit. As for oil – well, that still remains to be seen. Everybody’s hungry for oil on this planet, with the price of crude soaring above $75 per barrel.