Life lessons

IN the past few days, Big Sister and I, as well as a niece, have been doing guard duty at the hospital where Mama has been confined due to a liver ailment that has caused her to turn yellow.

We consider ourselves still fortunate that despite her age of 84, Mama is still a sprightly old gal who dictates her own terms on life. Given that she acts her usual gregarious self even in the hospital, one could easily mistake her to be well, especially if you don’t look at her complexion too closely.

In fact, as we were waiting in the emergency room on Sunday for a hospital room to open up so she could move in, a fellow patient commented to me, “’Yung pasyente mo nagli-lipstick pa!” Mama had just finished eating her favorite mamon and had her compact before her as she gingerly applied color on her lips. The other patient, who had been complaining of a tummy ache all this time, was visibly entertained and at the same time incredulous at the sight before her.

Since I’ve been used to Mama acting this way in public spaces (and I must confess, I may have inherited the same mannerism), it was nothing extraordinary to me. But I suppose to other people this wasn’t normal behavior, especially for a senior citizen. All I could say to the other patient in reply was: “S’yempre naman. ’Di porket nasa ospital ka, pwedeng pangit ka na. E paano kung gwapo ’yung doktor n’ya? Dapat maganda s’ya at ready for anything.” The other patient giggled.

But this is one of the major lessons that Mama has imparted to me and my other siblings. We always need to be properly dressed and made-up anywhere we go. I’ve taken this to heart and to this day, I never leave the house without putting on at least some lipstick and eyeliner. One of Mama’s more famous but funny teachings is “to never go out with a butas na panty. What if you slip and fall? The entire world will see your puwet!” Or, “What if you get rushed to the hospital? Your doctors will see your old panty! Nakakahiya!”

Also, she always stresses that being appropriately attired speaks of your upbringing and your family background. What you wear and how you act in public is a reflection on your parents and your family. “Ano na lang ang sasabihin ng mga tao? Aarte ka ng ganyan tapos anak ka ni ganito or some famous person? What will the people say about how your parents raised you?”

My Mama is still somewhat old school in terms of being prim and proper, and trying to live a life of respectability. But she does have a liberal streak and a modern outlook on life, unlike her fellow seniors.

While she is generally outspoken with her views, she doesn’t pass judgement on a person’s religious beliefs, morals (or the lack of it), and lifestyle choices. In fact, I’ve always said that Mama would have been the perfect mom for any budding bading.

What does intensely ruffle her feathers are, without fail, the Japanese. I can’t blame her really, as she as a 13-year-old along with her younger cousins were almost shot to death during World War II by Japanese soldiers fleeing from the arriving Americans.

No matter how many times I tell her that I’ve met so many nice Japanese and that Japan is such a gorgeous and fascinating country, I cannot convince her to change her mind about the Land of the Rising Sun. (The only time she thinks about the Japanese in friendlier terms is when she goes to Muji or Saizen to shop. She hasn’t visited Uniqlo yet, so let’s see if that makes her let her guard down further, hahaha.)

Unlike my father, Mama hasn’t really been hospitalized for any illness except when she had to give birth. And even then, she didn’t spend more than two days in the hospital as she delivered all four us siblings naturally. The only time she had to go to the hospital was when either one of us kids or Pop had a medical condition that needed surgery.

But this is really the first time that Mama is in the hospital as a patient. So for someone who is used to going to the malls, or having lunches with her amigas, or playing mahjong with her buddies, lying in a hospital bed is extreme torture for her.

For the most part, we take turns in entertaining her as she is extremely upset that she doesn’t have her regular ANC programming on the cable TV service the hospital subscribes to.

We hope her condition improves immediately after she undergoes a medical procedure for her ailment. As I listen to her crabbing about her ridiculously bland hospital food incessantly while I’m writing this, I can’t help but be amused that despite this experience, she still has kept her spirits up.

Nothing defeats her. She is one awesome woman.

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I’d like to extend my sincerest condolences to the family and friends of Rep. Salvador “Sonny” Escudero III, who recently passed away after a two-year bout with cancer.

I met Escudero when he was reappointed agriculture secretary during the time of President Fidel V. Ramos. Escudero was a kind man...smart, witty and definitely knew his stuff. Trained as a veterinarian, he was one of the very competent and professional government officials I knew.

As a member of the infamous Karambolistas on DWIZ, Escudero was typically the voice of reason and calm amid the often loud (and hilarious) opinions of the rest of gang.

Despite his slight stature, Escudero was a real giant of a man, and he served his country well. Thank you, sir, for all the good work you’ve done.

(My column, Something Like Life, is published every Friday in the Life section of the BusinessMirror. This piece was originally published on Aug. 17, 2012.)

Don't say I didn't warn you

Philippines Moves to Fight Pig Ebola
Dec. 19, 2008

But health officials say it is too early to rule out a possible threat to humans, and expressed concern over the fact that this incident, first revealed in an Oct. 30 teleconference between the Philippine government and U.S. health authorities, wasn't made public until a news conference for local media in Manila last week. (Read the rest in Wall St. Journal.)

(Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap)

What a coincidence, but shortly after reading this, I received a phone call from a leader in the local hog industry who was calling about a totally unrelated matter, but after peppering him w/ questions about the issue, admitted that they tried to dissuade Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap from publicly announcing the Ebola Reston virus outbreak.

If not for the insistence of the World Health Organization, OIE, and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the DA officials would've kept quiet on the issue, leaving the public in the dark about possible risks to our health. Salamat Arthur Yap, ang galing mo talaga.

UPDATE (Dec. 20, 2008,11:58 AM): I've just been told that a similar WHO story was supposed to have been published in a major broadsheet today but was killed, not just by the editors, but by the WHO officials themselves. The WHO officials were supposedly afraid to offend the presidentita. Tsk, tsk...when even a global org such as WHO turns on its tail on a vital issue such as this, and gets caught up in the politics of a country it's in, then it is useless. Afraid to offend Malacañang but not afraid to risk the health of Pinoys, ey? Tsk, tsk.

A reaction from Rhoda Poliquit

THIS is a reaction to an earlier item I wrote on Barry Poliquit, who has been found guilty by the Senate two years ago for his alleged involvement in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam (click Senate report here). It comes from his wife, Rhoda. We yield this space to her in the interest of fair play.

Hi, Stella...

Long time no see. It's been, what, 16 years? Somebody gave Barry a copy of your blog entry, and I thought I should send you a comment.

Some things have changed, and a lot of them haven't. The kids have grown - the eldest finished Computer Science at AMACU in 2005, the second, Biology at UPLB last April, while the youngest is a Statistics sophomore in UP Diliman. The girlfriends get more airtime than the mom does, haha, and I miss my babies on weekends.

We still live in the little house I got through a 15-year GSIS loan after I was appointed as Director at DAR in 1990. I have moved on to another specialization, though, on counter-terrorism, crisis management, contingency planning, border security, risk analysis and national security management. Not bad for a psych grad with a pre-med minor, huh?

Sorry about that, but we laughed ourselves silly this morning when we read the PDI article that focused more on Barry's PE degree than any of the other issues at yesterday's 6-hour Senate hearing. It's a long-standing joke in the family, with the kids using it as an excuse so they wouldn't have to follow my career choices for them. ("Bakit pa ko magpapakahirap sa engineering, eh si Dadz nga...")

The Barry you knew at DENR is still the same one you saw at the Senate hearing yesterday, except for the thicker waistline (which he hates) and bigger jowls (which is genetic, you should see his dad). He had good times with Doc Roque at DENR because he believed in the man's talent and sense of purpose. He left DENR in 1993 because of differences in principle with the bosses there, and worked for Congressman Edward Matti for a while. He applied for a job at NABCOR in 1997, was appointed AVP for project management, but also resigned three years later. He has always been like that - he just ups and goes when he doesn't feel happy with the job anymore.

So I wasn't surprised when he told me he was leaving DA because of the controversy on the farm inputs fund, even though he liked Field Operations and enjoyed working with the Regional Directors (from whom he learned a lot). He was relieved from Field Operations on September 1, 2004 and given a new assignment on the development of agribusiness lands.

Maybe the Senators found his answer unusual ("I left because I felt I wasn't going to be effective anymore"), since the stereotype government official "na may pwesto/poder" in their mind is "kapit-tuko" (from first-hand experience, perhaps???)

Even in GSIS, he considered resigning (despite the salary) because his first assignment was a desk job, and he felt like the proverbial square peg in a round hole. It was becoming more difficult to wake him up and send him out by 6:15 AM (we live in Batasan Hills) so he wouldn't be late. I'd lend him my driver every so often because his car got rear-ended one morning - he dozed at the wheel.

So the designation as VP for physical resources was a Godsend (bless you, Atty. Winston Garcia). It was like throwing a turtle into water. Now, he happily leaves the house at 5:45 AM to make a 7:00 AM meeting with the building engineers to walk through the renovations being done, and animatedly gives instructions to the maintenance supervisors at 10:30 PM at the height of a typhoon. It's a well-known story in GSIS that he cheerfully vacuumed the carpet on the 7th floor at 1:30 AM, working the graveyard shift side-by-side with the construction and interior decoration crews so they could meet the deadline for transferring Atty. Garcia's office. He really likes what he's doing.

He's still the same "kengkoy" person you knew from way back. He doesn't SCUBA dive anymore, but he still wears the diver's watch I gave him in 1989. His biggest frustration was not being able to join his old mountaineering buddies Art Valdez and Fred Jamili on the Everest Team - they started talking about climbing Everest that summer in 1984 after we all came down Mayon Volcano. The kids finally believed our mountaineering stories when we took them to dinner with Art, Fred, Leo, Pastour, Karina and Noelle.

Let's have coffee one of these days... my treat.

God bless always,

Rhoda

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I worked at the DA for three years, even before Barry ever joined the department, and have kept myself updated w/ the goings on there even after I left. I am aware of the farm programs that the department under its different administrations have implemented (some of them actually the same banana, under a new name reflecting whoever is the new President). But there has never been a more questionable DA program than said Farm Inputs and Implements Program of former U/Sec Joke-Joke Bolante. In fact, as the Senate report shows, there is no record at the central office that the program has ever existed.

So if Barry knows something, he should tell all.

Is anyone watching?

ARE any of you still watching the hearings in the House of Representatives (Impeachment complaint vs. GMA) and the Senate (starring Joke-Joke Bolante and the fertilizer fund scam)?

I gave up at the last House hearing where former Speaker Jose De Venecia was shooting his mouth off regarding the money allegedly distributed by the presidentita to the congressmen to shut them up in the last impeachment complaint.

I don't doubt that what JDV is saying is true, and even whatever else he is claiming to have happened in China while the presidentita, her husband and he were playing golf w/ ZTE executives. It's just that, too late na dava? Why only now JDV? Just bec. you were still Speaker, you kept quiet all the while your son Joey and Jun Lozada were being grilled over the barbeque pit on the ZTE Broadband issue? Tsk, tsk. How convenient.
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I did sneak a peek at this afternoon's hearing at the Senate. I was curious to find out Ibarra Poliquit's involvement in this fertilizer fund scam.

(Barry Poliquit is currently VP of physical resources of the GSIS.)

You see I knew an Ibarra/Barry Poliquit almost two decades ago when he was just a staff assistant at the office of Undersecretary Celso Roque at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Roque, a former UP professor, I thought ran a tight ship, and handled the environmental concerns of the department. So even in the late '80s, we were already talking and writing about global warming, and debt-for-nature swaps, etc. Our environmental officials were pretty much ahead of their time compared to their counterparts in the U.S., Japan, and Australia.

Going back to Barry Poliquit, I knew him when he was thinner and was one of the people whom I knew who was already into scuba diving even before it became a rage in the Philippines. He was married to Rhoda Poliquit, who worked in the Dept. of Agrarian Reform then. He also struck me as one of those guys in the DENR who knew his stuff and was willing to share good environmental stories with us reporters.

In my 23-year-old mind, Barry didn't look like someone who would engage in nefarious activities involving gov't funds. Even though he was much older than I, he appeared as someone who still retained his youthful idealism despite the corruption in most government offices.

After I left the beat, I lost touch w/ Barry and his wife, and only heard of him again during the reopened Senate investigation on the fertilizer fund scam. According to the media reports, he was assistant secretary at the Dept. of Agriculture and had helped Joke-Joke Bolante, then Usec, oversee the implementation of the fertilizer fund program. Today he was being grilled on his apparent inadequate monitoring of the program w/c led to the purchases of overpriced fertilizer by their field office.

I wonder what happened to Barry. What changed? Did the corruption eventually get to him? Did it become an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" type of situation for him? Or did I just read him all wrong when he was still at DENR?
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After googling Dr. Celso Roque to find out what had become of him, I found out that he had passed away on June 30, 2002. Dr. Roque, who was such a masterful storyteller (he always had entertaining stories for us reporters), usually held court at Trellis, the original purveyor of sisig in the metro.

Among the DENR officials of his time, he was really the coolest cat. I could listen to him make kwento for hours, and learned a lot about enviromental issues from him. He is remembered as having pioneered the environmental movement in the Philippines. I raise a glass of wine in his memory.

Where in the world is Cito Lorenzo?

THE testimony of former Agriculture U/Sec. Joke-Joke Bolante yesterday was certainly a joke on the Senators and the Filipino people as he stood his ground and denied there was any anomaly involved in the release of some P728 million to congressmen and local government units in fertilizers and other farm inputs under the Dept. of Agriculture's Ginintuang Masaganang Ani program.

Bolante tried to pin the blame on his former boss Luis "Cito" Lorenzo, then agriculture secretary, whom Bolante said ordered the release of the funds. Which has given rise to questions anew, "Where in the world is Cito Lorenzo?"

Lorenzo was booted out of DA because the presidentita lost heavily in Mindanao during the 2004 presidential elections. Then he was kicked upstairs as presidential adviser on countrywide development with the task to create 1 million jobs nationwide. Take a look at this news story in 2004 based on an interview w/ Sen. Nene Pimentel:

POLITICS IS BEHIND LORENZO'S OUSTER FROM CABINET, SAYS NENE

MANILA, July 12, 2004 (STAR) By Jess Diaz - Politics is behind last week’s resignation of Agriculture Secretary Luis "Cito" Lorenzo, opposition Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said yesterday.

"It’s politics. It’s the culprit behind the forced resignations of Cito Lorenzo, Joey Lina (former secretary of the interior and local government) and (Social Welfare Secretary) Dinky Soliman," he said.

Pimentel said President Arroyo forced the agriculture secretary to quit because she lost in the areas in Mindanao where the Lorenzo family runs agricultural plantations and agriculture-based businesses.

"She lost in these areas, where she expected to win. And she’s taking it against Cito, who has performed creditably as agriculture secretary," Pimentel said. (Read more here.)

After that stint, w/c I believe was just for a year, and telling journalist-friends about how he was able to achieve his mandate of creating one million jobs, Lorenzo then kept to a low profile. Perhaps he could no longer take the heat from the brewing controversy that came to be known as the fertilizer fund scam.

Last we heard, Lorenzo then involved himself in Gawad Kalinga and became its adviser, such that in March 2007, he even gave an inspirational talk in St. Louis, Missouri during the premiere of the Cesar Montano-starrer "Paraiso", a film supposedly on the poor in the Philippines and GK's projects. So if the Senate wants to get in touch w/ Lorenzo, then all it has to do is call up Tony Meloto.

Why Lorenzo was never summoned by the Senate during its first investigation into the fertilizer fund scam, I wouldn't know. If he was summoned, he never showed. So the questions still linger, did he have a part in pushing for the release of funds w/c have been cited as the source of the presidentita's campaign kitty, she who was then running against the very popular veteran artista Fernando Poe Jr.?

When Lorenzo took over as DA Secretary in December 2002, my sources told me then that he wanted to get rid of Bolante or re-assign him somewhere else. The talk already then was, Bolante was assigned to the DA for a specific purpose. (Someone who had worked w/ Bolante before had wondered to me then what he was doing heading DA's finance department when his background was actually in marketing. Bolante used to be an official of Prudential Life which he helped set up w/ well-known pre-need plan pioneer Francisco Alba.)

But it is a well-known fact among the business and political communities that Bolante was a "bata ni Mike", referring to the First Gentleman, and Bolante's fellow Rotarian. This meant that even if Lorenzo tried, he wouldn't have been able to shove Bolante out the door.

Look, it is also widely known that the Department of Agriculture, including some key agencies like the National Food Authority, is a hot bed of ahem, income-generating projects. Maybe not for the farmers and fishermen that these agencies are pledged to serve, but for the officials who head them. (Why do you think the DA keeps insisting there's a rice shortage and needs to import the commodity, when all rice farmers in the provinces will tell you they have a lot of rice? And don't let me get started on the purchases of those jute sacks for the NFA rice.)

Also, even prior to the presidentita's time, I've already heard stories from former DA officials how they were made to carry "bayong-bayong ng pera" during election time, for distribution to voters. And mind you, these were not officials during the time of Marcos but under Presidents after him. So the DA does have a long history of illicit election-related activities w/c I believe continues to this day. (Come on, why even name a program after the initials of the President? Ginintuang Masaganang Ani, erg.)

I don't know Cito Lorenzo personally, but I know he basically has a strong agribusiness background having headed Lapanday Holdings Inc., and belongs to a rather well-respected family from Mindanao. (Read this 2001 interview with Lorenzo in Phil. Business.)

I haven't heard anything negative about him either from the business community even from the older CEOs who only have kind words for their younger colleague. Would Lorenzo tarnish his and his family's reputation by pushing a program w/c he knows would just be used as an election scheme for his boss in Malacañang, in exchange for what? a 20-percent commission? Ang cheap naman. Although it's true, there are some people who would it for less.

It's time for Lorenzo, wherever he is, to come home and speak up. If he is really a "man of honor" as his friends and defenders say that he is, then it's time for him to tell the Filipino nation the truth.

(Photo of Cito Lorenzo from http://www.kalatas.com.)

Senate hearing on the fertilizer fund scam

FINALLY Joke-Joke Bolante makes an appearance at the Senate reconvening to re-investigate the P728-milllion fertilizer fund scam.

People note how Mr. Bolante's tone and demeanor have changed from one who usually goes around strutting and making sure people know who is boss, to one so meek and mild as a mouse. (BP 140/overacting pa din!) (He has been described by those who know him as "cargante", a braggart, and someone who will jump at the chance to lash out at his staff or subordinates. They say the grilling by the Senators yesterday was suffering already for him.)

Noticeable also how he stammered and stumbled on even easy questions like the true nature of his "illness" and who recommended him to his position as U/Sec finance of DA), an indication that he is lying. Of course we all knew he was going to cover up the role of the presidentita in this scam. After being holed up at St. Luke's for a week, I'm pretty sure FG Mike's lawyer drilled into Joke-Joke that he better testify that her royal smallness didn't have anything to do w/ the sordid affair.

And all these Senators talking their heads off, will something come out of these hearings other than new sound bites for the TV/radio news? (Thank you Sen. Santiago for making our day as usual.)

Ang pagbabalik

PEOPLE who know him say Joc-joc Bolante looked tired and defeated. He left the Philippines haughty and arrogant, bragging about his endless Rotary meetings here and abroad, and his closeness to the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, a fellow Rotarian. Then he returned late last night at the NAIA, his hair now gray and weighing considerably less because of his prison diet. One of his ex-friends monitoring the unfolding events on TV called it karma.

But the old dog still had a few tricks up his sleeve. He was videotaped inside the plane, on his way out, looking very fit, and wearing a slightly incensed expression on his face (probably because of the cameraman). Next we see him at the corridor leading from the tube, seated in a wheelchair, his left hand casually placed on his left breast, as if expecting a chest pain. The media was in a frenzy...those who managed to get inside the landing outside the tube elbowed each other to get a better shot of the former agriculture undersecretary pinpointed as the architect of the P725-million fertilizer fund scam, which was thought to have helped raise funds for the election of the presidentita.

After being wheeled into a waiting ambulance which drove into the Villamor Airbase then out into EDSA, turning into Aurora Blvd., and finally stopping at the St. Luke's Hospital in Quezon City, he is next seen lying on a stretcher, sans oxygen mask and tank, his hand still clutching his chest, being rolled into the one of the elevators. Not once did I believe he was in pain, despite his apparent history of hypertension.

First I wondered, like many of my media colleagues, why Joc-joc was being brought to a Quezon hospital considering that he lived in the South, specifically at No. 20 Ma. Christina St. Ayala Alabang. I asked someone who was familiar w/ his history if she had any ideas, and she told me that the accused fertilizer scammer knew a lot of doctors at St. Luke's as his father had been confined there. I had my doubts and told her that Joc-joc would probably be seen by the family physicians of the presidentita's family. They would try to get to him, send a message to shut up, and at the same time, assure him of their "protection" by providing him with the best health care their money could buy. (I hear that Joc-joc has used up a lot of his funds for his legal defense in the U.S. that he has been trying to sell his other house in Alabang – he has two, thankyouverymuch – as well as his cars which included a bimmer and a late model Mercedes Benz.)

As it turns out, Joc-Joc was visited by FG Mike's cardiologist, as per the latest news from GMA TV. Since they couldn't get him at the airport, they had to try to reach him through the hospital. Hay, super obvious naman ang mga plano nyo presidentita! Well, so much for the Malacañang statement that Bolante's arrival is considered a "non-event."

Those who know Joc-joc feel for his family, most of all. They say his greed did them in and he never once thought about how his actions would affect his family. A few years ago, I met his wife after attending Mass at St. James Church in Ayala Alabang (this was when he had already fled for the U.S. supposedly accompanied by a good friend), and she struck me as a simple, kind and down-to-earth person. She had no airs like her husband has been known for. People close to the Bolante family say she is probably the last person who would know what her husband had been up to. And for her and the kids to be dragged down by this controversy, well, kawawa naman sila.

(Btw, one businessman I recently interviewed told me that the Joc-joc just loved name-dropping. Mayabang talaga. But to his credit, my source added, if Joc-joc knew you were an Ilonggo like him, he would always be friendly and go out of his way to make you feel welcome. Hmmm...misunderstood lang kaya sya? Ngek.)

Anyhoo, check out these photos from Manolo Quezon's blazing coverage of Joc-joc's arrival.

Fertilizer scam all over again? (Part 1)

ILOILO CITY—Aura Drew Escanlar was all set to take the nursing board examinations in December 2004 when she decided instead to put up a piggery.

What changed her mind was an offer from the Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor). Called “the poor man’s financing institution,” the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) credit-guarantee arm was giving out loans in the form of piglets and feeds, with a buyback scheme that assured borrowers some income.

Escanlar used her parents’ savings to build pigpens and buy piglets, and signed up for the Quedancor Swine Program (QSP). Less than a year later, Escanlar lost almost everything. The income from the buyback scheme was always delayed, and the feeds came late or were not delivered at all. After 50 of her piglets died, Escanlar stormed the Quedancor regional office here. “You have turned my farm into a graveyard,” she told Quedancor employees. (Read all about it in BusinessMirror.)

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CORRUPTION, scams, scandals...this is will be the enduring legacy of the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo administration. Salamat presidentita.