Never in my wildest dreams

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would go to a party given by the Eugenio Lopezes to launch the book of Juan Ponce Enrile’s memoirs.

Well, I did last Thursday night at the posh Rigodon Ballroom of The Peninsula Manila. It was fun hobnobbing with the mixed crowd and I don’t mean mixed only in politics but also mixed in marriages with mistresses and wives all smiling, applauding the man and his memoirs. I think the atmosphere or to quote a former president “ambience, pare” was a memorable experience. (I have not read the book to do a proper review but I have some inkling of what it is about. I am told that in the book Enrile admits he is not a saint, that he stayed too long with Marcos and he wants now to put his role in public service in context).

Having said that it does not mean that there is no room for a serious consideration of the Enrile launch. Political reconciliation is all very well, but it depends on how it is used. And that we still have to see. Personally, I think a cocktail party is not the suitable venue for serious reconciliation. On the contrary, the whole affair trivialized what would have been a good occasion to put the issues of contention and political differences on the table and decide how best to structure governance and politics in the Philippines to move the country forward. That is necessarily about principles, but if not then “reconciliation” becomes pointless. It would be shallow despite the speeches of high-flying rhetoric. I do not want to sound like a society columnist but the party, being what it was, was about who was there and the delightful array of cheeses and fruits. There was hot food but I skipped that for a glass of red wine and people watching.

Like my colleague Boo Chanco, I had my own surprises to tell. First, of course was Imelda Marcos, with whom I am inevitably linked because of the Untold Story. I was just a few feet away from her so I could watch her reactions with a hawk’s eye without her seeing me. I must say that she took criticisms of martial law and her husband stoically. What else could Imelda do, she was sitting at the back of wife Mrs. Cristina Enrile, certainly not the place she was accustomed to as the former First Lady of grand entrances and central seating.

To me, the Lopezes hosting the party was the more shocking part of the event. Oscar Lopez, now the family’s patriarch, gave a good speech because he did not evade martial law history and what it did to his family, about friends when they were in power as the country’s premier oligarchs but then avoided them when martial law was declared and put the family out of power. He had a carefully written speech that would have clarified why they were now launching Enrile’s book. But there was so much talking in the ballroom and his voice was too weak to project his message. That was unfortunate. Because of the many pages, he got lost when it came to giving it a conclusion and he had to abruptly say thank you and leave the stage. Oskie, as we fondly called him at the Manila Chronicle where I had once worked is the historian of the family. I did my own reconciliations and shook hands with Mr. Lopez when he sat down. I didn’t even know that I stood right at his back and did what was correct — shake his hand and his wife Connie’s.

Later I saw the next generation Lopezes, shook their hands and said, “If you can reconcile with Enrile, I can certainly reconcile with you.” (That story has still to be told.)

Others with whom I shook hands and able to say a few kind words were Vice-President Jojo Binay, former President Joseph Estrada (who I was told brokered the Enrile-Lopez affair) and his only “wife” Mrs. Loi Estrada, former Vice-President but durable Teofisto Guingona, Speaker Sonny Belmonte, Francisco Tatad (infamous reader of Proclamation 1081), Nelson Navarro, the book editor (my distant relative through a common Chinese ancestor), John D. Forbes, president of the American Chamber of Commerce, whom I could not immediately place except that he was Evelyn Forbes’ husband (I hope he was not peeved), Sen. Loren Legarda who was sore when I saw her last for calling her taksil (traitor), Red Cross Chairman Dick Gordon and wife Kate (he was constantly in the video presentation) I teased him about being promoted as an UNA senatorial candidate (?).

Also there was Agapito “Butch” Aquino, a dear friend and comrade in arms in revolutionary days whose eyes were closed when I came upon him because he said he was concentrating. On the way out, I saw Ronald Llamas, the left-leaning political adviser in the Aquino cabinet. I sat next to him at the equally well-attended 78th birthday party of Sen. Ed Angara’s the night before and greeted him “long time, no see.”

I was especially pleased to see Chito Sto. Romana, who deserves to be our ambassador to China. We might have avoided the series of diplomatic faux pas and able to cobble a credible China policy because of his background and knowledge of that country. But then the Philippines is not a meritocracy. (More on meritocracy as a political system tomorrow).

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Just two days before the Enrile book launch I had attended the opening of the 27th fair of the Association of Negros Producers. I learned from Belle Cunanan that all the beautiful products and delicious foods on exhibit was a result of the horror of what has come to be known the “Child of the Sugar Industry.”

I saw the picture of the boy named Joel featured in magazines while abroad. As Bel describes the picture it could have come from Ethiopia in its darkest days — a poster child for hunger with “skin and bones and huge sagging eyes.”

But being abroad — it was all it was to me then — a picture no matter my indignation. It was especially gratifying to know that a picture could have had such an effect. “The conscience of the well-heeled class of Negros were pricked as they got together, and said they had to do something about the poverty and hunger. That was how the ANP began, which today symbolizes excellence in products, many of which are farmed out among the poorer families to be crafted,” Bel said.

Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Maranon with his wife was there to endorse the ANP entrepreneurs. The exhibit goes on till Sunday at the Rockwell Tent.