‘Sayang’

The wife of a Cabinet member is being used by her husband to talk with businessmen asking for permits from his office.

The husband so far has been able to project a clean public image.

(Are we reminded of someone else in the past?)

A Chinese-Filipino businessman, who apparently was speaking for his colleagues, told this columnist the woman demands anywhere from P50 million to P100 million for a compliance permit.

That’s excluding the permit to do business, which is another P50 million to P100 million, depending on the size of the venture.

Rumors among their business group say that one of them coughed out a total of P500 million for his venture to be approved.

Poor Digong! Some of the people close to him are doing monkey business behind his back.

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This columnist couldn’t agree more with Senator and presidential aspirant Ping Lacson on his one-word reaction to a photo of Rodrigo Roa Duterte during the presidential debate on GMA-7.

The other presidential candidates described Digong as a lider (Isko Moreno), pangulo (Manny Pacquiao), president (Leni Robredo).

Lacson had an answer different from and much more eloquent than those uttered by his rivals: Sayang. In English, “such a waste!”

As a close friend, admirer and one of the first to coax him to take a crack at the presidency, I would tell Digong to his face how Lacson described him on TV – if given the chance.

Yes, “wasted opportunities” for a very charismatic leader whose ability to charm the masses could only be matched by the late President Ramon Magsaysay.

Except for a few, his choices for advisers were a flop from the start.

Digong doesn’t know the extent of corruption in his administration, because he’s being blindsided by those close to him.

The drug problem remains the same as it was before he became president: Digong just scratched the surface with his war on drugs, because he hasn’t rid the country of the big drug traffickers and their protectors in government. What his administration eliminated were just the street pushers.

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I know that I’m courting disfavor with Digong and his advisers for the above-comments, but what can I do?

Journalism is the only profession I’m good at, and I love my job more than anything else.

To paraphrase President Manuel L. Quezon, my loyalty to my friends ends where my loyalty to my profession begins.

Digong knew that when he offered to hide me from a very powerful and influential individual, who harassed me no end for exposing the smuggling activities of his paramour.

Before my exposé, the individual and I were very close friends, and I was an unofficial adviser to his wife.

The harassment was so intense Davao City Mayor Digong Duterte took pity on me and said he would risk the ire of the individual and his wife just to protect me.

By the way, now it can be told: It was that individual’s wife who asked me to write the exposé that later got me into trouble.

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Being true to my profession, I’ve been pilloried because of my stand on certain issues that went against public sentiment.

Let’s forget about Hubert Webb, who was convicted of murder and rape and served time at the New Bilibid Prison. He was later acquitted by the Supreme Court; they found him and his co-accused innocent.
I’ve talked about the Vizconde Massacre issue too much.

In 1995, I went against the public belief that Flor Contemplacion, a Filipino domestic helper who was executed by the Singapore government, was innocent.

I was crucified by my readers and even some of my colleagues at the Inquirer – the same way they did on the Vizconde Massacre issue – for saying that Contemplacion was guilty and deserved to be hanged under Singapore’s laws.

The overwhelming public sentiment on the Contemplacion issue was such that the administration of President Fidel V. Ramos was nearly toppled.

The people’s majority thought Mr. Ramos didn’t do enough to defend the “innocent” overseas Filipino worker.

As a backgrounder, Contemplacion was found guilty of murdering her friend, Delia Maga, and Maga’s ward, three-year-old Nicholas Huang.

(My intensive research revealed that the motive was jealousy; they had the same lover.)

If memory serves, in the aftermath of the Contemplacion issue, the secretaries of labor and of foreign affairs were made sacrificial lambs to save FVR’s butt.

Even the mayor of Davao City at that time, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, who was not yet my friend, joined the mob when he burned the Singapore flag in public.

I recall describing the mayor’s action as “OA” (over-acting); it was the start of our friendship.

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And now for the lighter side of the news.

President Digong did not have adverse side effects from the Sinopharm booster shot he received recently, according to acting presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles.

Of course, the President did not have any adverse reactions, but only a good one. I should know.

This is not endorsing the Sinopharm vaccine, which is hardly available in the country as only top government officials and the military in China are inoculated with it.

The side effect on a man who gets vaccinated with Sinopharm is to have an intense erection every morning for one to two weeks.

I was one of the few fortunate ones to have the Sinopharm vaccine that was smuggled into the country in 2020.

I told Digong about the beneficial side effect of Sinopharm during my visit to the Palace.

“Bong, magpaturok na rin ako ng Sinopharm (I want to have myself inoculated with Sinopharm),” Digong told Sen. Bong Go, his former aide-de-camp.

The above anecdote is not a joke.