Importance

Sports reporter Gabby Malagar and I started our careers as journalists together. At the time, which was some three decades ago, give or take a few years, we covered our beats mostly on foot. Sometimes we took jeepneys, but only occasionally, when in a real hurry.

There were several reasons for this. News organizations at the time seldom had company-owned transportation for editorial use. Neither did they provide transport allowances. And paying with your own money for commutes puts a foot squarely through a loan shark's door.

Amid such spartan circumstances, the extreme good fortune of a taxi ride can be exhilarating, especially to a guy like Gabby, whose sports coverages pushed him to a certain level of prominence that allowed him to rub elbows with the dignitaries of sports.

As Gabby would later admit to me, on those rare occasions when he can summon enough resources, as well as the courage to spend those scarce resources to go for a taxi ride, he would make it a point to slam the door hard when he disembarked.

I asked why. "To attract the attention of people and make them notice I had taken a taxi ride," Gabby replied without any twinkle of mischief in his eyes. He was earnest. I realized it bolstered his stock in the circle he revolved in to be seen taking a taxi to work.

And this brings me to the real point of this article, which is importance --- the importance people give to others, as well as the importance people expect from others. Where the extension and the expectation meet, I think, plays a crucial factor in human relations.

This is the reason why I believe Joseph Estrada has been emboldened sufficiently enough to launch another bid at the presidency. Either this, or Estrada simply has no shame. In which case this country and its people will only have themselves to blame if they vote for him again.

Whether Estrada is sincere or not, he truly has a disarming way with people, especially the poor. He has a way of making them feel important. And maybe they are just being suckers for his charm. But then again, when you are as poor as they are, a little charm cannot harm.

When you are scraping the bottom of the cellar, any gesture of warmth gives a sense of acknowledgement, maybe even recognition. To people who have nothing, that is enough to make them feel important. And it doesn't even have to cost a cent.

When Estrada works the crowds and pumps flesh, the poor are electrified. And when the poor are electrified, the tingling sensation can be lasting. For most of them, that will be the only tingling sensation they will ever have in their miserable lives.

 Those of us who know better, and are able to look at this with detachment, are quick to realize somebody is being had. Yet, in all fairness, can we truly look at the poor in the eye and tell them to their faces?

We cannot because for the first time in their lives somebody made them feel important. It does not matter if they eventually know they are just being used. In fact I think they know they are being had. But the feeling of importance, as I said, can last a lifetime.

So it is the feeling they remember and not the truth and the duplicity. It does not matter if the errand required a taxi ride, or whether dinner had to be foregone just for the reward of importance when people turn and nod in recognition at who slammed the taxi door.

I do not know why we have to continue putting up with the antics of Joseph Estrada. But he strikes fear in my heart because of his ability to latch on to a sector that does not care beyond feeling a little important in their insignificant lives.