Showbiz and politics

"Wife confirms JPE affair with Gigi" -- Headline. Hala! Don't forget the 11th commandment, sir Tokayo. You know what it is.

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BIR Kim Henares assures doctors BIR is not singling them out. But she says: "Bato-bato sa langit ang matamaan huwag magalit." Hehe. Ang mga natamaan nagkabukol, eh.

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A group called Economic Intelligence Unit (EIB) says Singapore is the world's costliest city. So what? Me and my friends go there only through the catchy print ads of the airlines in the PhilSTAR.

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It says here that the pig is the most well-fed animal in the Phl. It is fed well by the raiser. Why? Ask the lechoneros why.

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A San Mig import guarantees the Mixers easy journey to the playoff with him in the lineup. Being hopeful is not bad but my Mom used to say, quoting the Bible, thus: "Man proposes, God disposes."

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Showbiz personalities are being talked about right now as probable running mates of presidential bets in 2016. The tabloids are naming names...like Governor Vilma Santos-Recto, Sen. Grace Poe (herself a presidential timber), Kris Aquino. Kris, the tabs says, is being eyed as Sec. Mar Roxas' running mate should he decide to seek the presidency.

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It says here that there are some 100,000 (another source says 10,000,000) motorcycles running on Vietnam roads at any given time. All for legit purposes like transporting goods and even home appliances. Some tourists are allowed to use the motorbike as a single-passenger taxi. Something like but not really like our habal-habal.

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A Vietnamese journalist hasn't heard of the so-called "riding-in-tandem" criminal common and well publicized in the Phl. He said criminality is low in Vietnam. Maybe they have gotten fed up with the killings during the Vietnam war.

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Violence almost always erupts every time lot owners want to use their "squatted" lot and the houses and other structure therein are demolished. In a way the lot owners are partly if not wholly to blame.

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My friend Andy Corominas, the transportation tycoon, said to me when he was still alive: "Never give a prospective squatter a chance to use even an inch of your lot...If you do, you'll wake up in the morning with that initial squatter occupying not just one inch but several square meters and claiming them as his own."

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Another lot owner of my acquaintance whose one-hectare lot in Negros has never been invaded by squatters used the same anti-squatter technique as my friend Andy. "If they call you names, pabungol-bungol lang," he said, adding: "Mahal ang tambal sa hayblad."