GMA to survive Year of the Earth Rat

GOOD GRIEF! this is what Joseph Chau, feng shui (geomancer) consultant of the Mandarin Oriental answered me when I asked him if the presidentita would still remain in power this year. According to him, this is because the main gate of the Malacañang Palace faces the Southeast, which is the luckiest direction in the Year of the Earth Rat. "So if Malacañang is lucky, the master is lucky too," he said. Do I hear groaning out there? Ah well...

He did say though that there was a sickness star hovering above the Northwest where the Palace is located, so the presidentita should be careful about her health. Well we've seen her in and out of St. Luke's hospital quite a number of times last year, and I'm not counting her husband's near-death experience. There have been quite a number of rumors just what disease has been plaguing the scary resident by the Pasig River, especially since her primary care physician is a liver specialist.

(Joseph Chau, master geomancer and resident feng shui consultant of the Mandarin Oriental Manila, gives the press a lowdown on what's in store for us in the Year of the Earth Rat.)

Chau added that because of Malacañang's luck, he doesn't see any "major problems" for its chief resident this year. And he adds that the Philippines is lucky as well and has been on this prosperity path since 2004, which will last until 2009! But why don't we feel it Mr. Chau? It seems only the presidentita is lucky! Hay naku!

Anyhoo, the little one's critics may be comforted by the fact that Chau was the geomancer that predicted Joseph Estrada would remain in power. In fairview, the master geomancer did not have Erap's exact birthdate and birth time which would have given him a more accurate reading of the then Palace resident's (mis)fortune. In the same manner, this year's prediction for GMA is just based on a general reading of Malacañang after Chau looked at maps, and not of the presidentita herself.

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Other points raised by Chau in the brief chat I and a couple of other reporters had with him yesterday:

• Lucky zodiac signs are : the ox, tiger, dragon, monkey, and dog. Those who were born in the year of the Rat, Horse, Rabbit, Rooster, and the Goat will have a tough year.

• Good investment areas (stock market and business in general) : mining, entertainment (TV and movies), real estate, transportation, and logistics. He advises newspaper publishers/editors to play up entertainment stories on their front pages to ensure profitability.

• Businesses that will find the new year to be more challenging are garments, boutiques, and book stores. "There are just more competitors for them so they should work harder."

• Young men, especially those below the age of 50 should begin businesses in the Year of the Earth Rat.

• While he didn't directly answer my question of whether Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton would win the U.S. presidential elections in November, he said it will be a "cultural" decision for Americans. I take this to mean that Americans will have an easier time voting a white woman into office than a African-American male. (Btw, I noticed in the recent news stories by ANC, there were actually more Fil-Ams supporting Hillary than Obama. This is not a surprise as Pinoys have always identified themselves with WASPs, desperate to be like them especially in the color of their skin, that the gluthatione bottles are just flying off those drugstore shelves. Besides most Fil-Ams supported Bill Clinton as well when he first ran for office, even when he was considered a virtual newbie in the beltway.)

• The November elections would also spell relief for the U.S. and it's economy will pick up, helping strenghthen the greenback as well. That should be welcome news to a lot of our exporters and OFWs cringing at every day's uptick in the peso's value.

For a summary of Chau's predictions, click here