Potshots

Pak dis shet: Arroyo can run for VP. Stop giving her ideas guys!

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Sen. Manny Villar at the MOPC Presidential Series, Oct. 29: “I’m not perfect. I have a lot of failures in life, I have experienced difficulties. But when you look at me, you are looking at Manny Villar, what you see is what you get. You’re not looking at my mother, my father or the tycoon behind me. You are looking at Manny Villar.”

When I look at Manny Villar, I see his wife Cynthia and her family's fortune, without which would not have made his success possible.

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Dubbed a "labor of love," producers and celebrities in this video promoting Sen. Noynoy Aquino's presidential candidacy volunteered their services, most of them friends of Kris Aquino and Boy Abunda. The star power behind Noynoy is indeed dazzling, with members of the rival Kapamilya and Kapuso networks coming together for the production.

Expectedly there have been various reactions from the public about it. Some love the song, like I do, because I find it very moving, a testament to composer Ogie Alcasid's talent in capturing the spirit of Noynoy's supporters. Others find it detestable (they cringe esp. at the part where Abunda arrives in a banca) and disturbing that the presidentiable would agree to do something that the usual trapos would do, i.e. prematurely campaigning before he's even filed his certificate of candidacy, and asking celebrities to endorse him.

My only question is, isn't Noynoy forgetting something? Like his VP running mate Sen. MAR Roxas for example? Isn't this supposed to be a Noynoy-Mar 2010 campaign? Hmmm...just asking.


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Last Saturday's typhoon was locally named "Santi". The current tropical depression is named "Tino". The names of these weather disturbances should dispel whatever doubts that PAGASA meteorologists aren't fans of May Bukas Pa. Gads.

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BTW, like many Metro Manilans, I went out of town w/ my family for the Halloween break. We left Quezon City on Friday, Oct. 30, at about 9:30 pm and drove to Subic via NLEX/SCTEX. It's astonishing that with the amount of toll paid everday by motorists on both these highways, there are long stretches that are still unlighted. These pose dangers to the numerous drivers and their passengers travelling there daily. I wish the govt agencies overseeing these expressways would attend to the matter of adequately lighting them ASAP.

On the Sulpicio ship sinking...(and Joc-joc too!)

THIS is a rather belated reaction to my friend Jessica's question why Sulpicio Lines hasn't been shut down yet, despite the many tragedies it has been involved in.

It just so happens I had a very interesting conversation recently with an official of the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), an agency under the Department of Transportation and Communications, and tasked to aid and promote the development of the country's maritime industry. For the simple reason that I never introduced myself as a journalist, as the occasion of our meeting was of a personal nature, I shall not reveal his name.

(What the victims of Sulpicio Lines and their relatives need is a lawyer like the menacing manipulative bitch Patricia Hewes, played by Glenn Close in the super series 'Damages'. Afraid!)

But as we discussed the sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars, he said he was pretty sure that "act of negligence", as he put it, will be dismissed like its other cases before. It just so happens, the shipping company has good lawyers, and the victims do not. That's it. (I would also like to venture a guess that the Go family, which owns Sulpicio, is a major contributor to many a presidential campaign, as most business families in the Philippines are.)

As we are already seeing it unfold, many of the victims' relatives are already accepting the P200,000 in compensatory damages offered to them. You can't blame them because these people need money to bury their dead. But the MARINA guy added, this is no skin off the nose of Sulpicio because it's their insurance company which is paying for this and not the shipping company itself, although it did pay the insurance premiums.

He also added that while it is easy to blame the ship's crew for this accident, he said more often than not, it is not a question of competence. "Sometimes the crew do not have a choice. The shipping company, their bosses tell them, 'leave the pier and don't come back.' What will they do? They have no choice but to follow." The MARINA guy also said, for sure the shipping company's management received the notifications from PAGASA, the weather bureau, but probably chose to ignore it. "It's plain greed," he stressed, as he blamed Sulpicio's managers for not heeding the warning and alerts on the typhoon, just so company could make a day's revenue.

The MARINA official said if only the relatives of this year's victims band together, hire a good lawyer, and file a class suit, "they will win!" Mapapasara ang Sulpicio Lines, he averred. And it's about time it was closed, he said, because all the tragedies that the shipping line has been involved in, he said, can be traced to the company's negligence, despite protestations of Sulpicio's lawyers.

So if any great lawyer out there is reading this, perhaps it's time to step forward and help the victims of Sulpicio Lines' and their relatives get the justice they deserve. They need a bitch of a lawyer like Damages' Patricia Hewes to sue Sulpicio's pants off. This isn't exactly a losing proposition for legal eagles out there you know. At the worst, even if they lose the case, any lawyer who takes up the cudgels for these victims will have made a name for himself/herself already.

UPDATE: Sulpicio loses 10-yr-old case

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AND speaking of belated reactions, the Court of Appeals has just issued a freeze order on the bank accounts of Joc-joc "Fertilizer scam" Bolante, and a few others. Too late the hero. Betcha by golly waw! empty na 'yang mga accounts na 'yan!