Looking for the next VP

Now that it has selected its candidate for president of the Philippines, Ang Kapatiran Party (AKP) is accepting nominations for candidates for vice-president and senators. This offer should be attractive to people who do not have a political party, and who believe in joining a party that strictly adheres to principles of moral uprightness, courage, competence, leadership, and responsible citizenship and parenthood. If you wondered if such an animal exists, well, AKP claims it is it.

What’s more, the AKP shall spend for the nominees’ candidacies, as it will take charge of raising funds through small donations from supporters and the general public and ensure that each candidate’s allocation will not be more than the law allows.

It goes without saying that nominees must become members of the party.

Deadline for nominations is July 15, 2009. Target proclamation date is July 31, 2009, following a short-listing and selection process by AKP’s national electoral committee.

Individuals or groups/organizations may nominate anyone for vice-president and/or senators. Nominations should be submitted to Norman Cabrera, secretary-general of AKP, through fax number (02) 6342137 or email addresses at [email protected] or [email protected]. Cabrera can also be reached at mobile number 0918-9056569. The AKP website is www.angkapatiranparty.org

JC de los Reyes was selected by the party’s electoral committee as its standard-bearer for president a couple of weeks ago. He is the only AKP candidate to win a local seat in the 2007 elections, i.e. as councilor in the city of Olongapo. The three party contenders for senatorial seats did not make it.

JC, who is only 39 years old, finished grade school at the Ateneo de Manila and high school at De La Salle University, and obtained a theology degree from the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. He finished law at St. Louis University in Baguio City, and public administration at UP Diliman.

JC says AKP carries “a well-defined, people-centered platform, which cannot be said of the other existing parties. The first challenge to AKP therefore is to step up its thrust to make our ‘kababayans’ aware of the need for principle-and-platform-based politics where morality must come before political expediency, platform and principles must come before the individual person, no matter how popular he or she may be. The second challenge is to field a complete slate of national ( and local) candidates for 2010.

AKP founder is Nandy Pacheco, who is also founder of the Gunless Society of the Philippines. I will vote for him if he runs for any political position, yes, perhaps even for president. Eric Manalang is the party president.

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The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) was recently awarded the status of ISO 9001:2008 certificate for having complied with internationally-accepted quality management system standards. The award was formally turned over by Anglo-Japanese-American (AJA) Registrars’ vice president and general manager Paul Bagatsing.

Striving for “quality health care” status was expressed by Director Carmelo A. Alfiler during his inaugural speech at the start of his first term ((Jan. 1, 2004-Dec. 31, 2006), and became a top priority project during the PGH centennial celebrations with the theme “100 Years of Leadership and Excellence in Quality Health Care for the Filipino.”

The institution’s status was further enhanced by the enactment of a new UP Charter (now Republic Act No. 9500, signed April 29, 2008), designating UP as the national university and, by extension, PGH as the national university hospital.

In the end, PGH did not only get ISO 9001-certified; it earned the latest 200 version. According to Dr. Alfiler, PGH is the first Philippine public facility to secure the 2008 certificate. “Certainly, PGH is the first Philippine public hospital of its category (national university hospital and premier tertiary referral center) and size (125,000 square meter floor area), at least 40 interconnected and stand-alone buildings, 1,500 bed capacity; 600,000 annual consultations/admissions, 55 clinical and non-clinical departments offering a very wide range of services, with 8,000 health care workers/consultant staff/trainees/out-sourced personnel) to be ISO 900-2008-certified.”

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The internationally-known pianist who plays for presidents of the United States, David Osborne, played the piano at a concert at the Manila Hotel the other evening — and into the hearts of the ladies (and I guess the men’s). His repertoire consisting of jazz, pop and classical numbers, he played for over two hours, and not only did he look handsome, he played as though he would never stop — to everyone’s delight. His fingers (digitally magnified on a giant screen), flitted through the keyboard with power and romance, producing such unforgettable as Autumn Leaves, a Rachmaninoff number that David said he rehearsed many times to play it like Van Cliburn did, Where Do I Begin?, and many others. He asked the audience to request songs he could play, and Bel Cunanan was pleased when David played Rhapsody in Blue, and I was titillated when he did my request, Stardust.

David was very impressed with our local talents. The talents were bowled over. Can you imagine being accompanied on the piano by this heartthrob? Well, he accompanied the terrific sultry contralto Pinky Marquez and violinist John Lesaca and saxophonist Eddie Katindig. He played for the lovely 18-year-old Fame Flores, a knockout with her looks and rendition of Leonard Bernstein’s Somewhere and Our Father. (Let’s watch out how this girl develops.) The Angelos, fresh from their concert tour in Hong Kong, were a fascinating foursome, singing as they did, You Raise Me Up and some Italian songs. Singing on his own was bright little star John Paul Gonzales.

The concert, entitled “The Keys to Your Heart,” was produced by the increasingly getting popular impresario Beth Sison Tagle. Project director was Arch. Nestor Mangio (a close friend of David), director was Al Quinn and musical director, John Lesaca.

Part of the concert proceeds will go to the construction of the Scala Santa Chapel in Monte Maria, Batangas, a project of Fr. Fernando Suarez, CCI, who celebrated a mass before the concert.

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My e-mail:[email protected]