Desecrating our National Anthem

The headline says: "Mudslinging heats up in Mandaue." They’re now slinging sun-hardened mud. Ugh!

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It’s hot this month (April) but Pagasa says it will be hotter in May. This is caused not by the election heat but by the transition of the dry season to the rainy season.

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Jorge Solis, who was KO’d by Manny Pacquiao, said the Pacman’s punches didn’t hurt him. He said his wife could punch harder. Jorge’s way of lessening da missus’ anger over his loss.

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Solis didn’t like a wire service report that he "kissed" the canvas. Latinos, you see, kiss señoritas not the canvas.

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Some candidates are using private planes and helicopters in their provincial sorties. Maybe that’s in response to the Comelec’s appeal for them to conduct a high-level campaign.

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My friend and media collage Art Abregonde is running for the Cebu City council (North). Art and I have been friends since way, way back. And I know he can hack it well as alderman if given the chance. Can’t vote for Art because I’m from the South District, the district which Rep. Tony Cuenco says is not for sale. But for me it’s Art for Art’s sake.

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Raffy Uytiepo, my marathoner friend who writes a sports column in this newspaper, says he’s turning 60 soon. No retirement, he says. He’ll continue running ... that is, running his popular Casa Ilongga eatery at Robinson’s Place.

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Raffy says he’ll mark his 60th birthday by running around Camiguin island which has a circumferential area of 60 kilometers. It’s not a run-of-the-mill kind of birthday celebration, is it?

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A cultural group has questioned the way some of our singers – mostly from showbiz circles – sing the National Anthem.

"It doesn’t conform with the accepted/mandated manner of dishing out the music," the group said. "Some do it rock, others sing it like it’s a kundiman ... It must be fast and crisp."

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There is a law against this stylist manner of singing the National Anthem. "Many have desecrated the Anthem with their pinaarte nga pagkanta hangtod nayabag," observes Undo my neighbor in Pili-Kanipaan.

A clear violation of law, Undo, but no singer has yet been rapped to face the music.