MANILA -- Years into his retirement, Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. would move around in a wheel chair. His doctors had asked him to refrain from flying to the provinces to talk about federalism which believers and critics said was a radical change in the system of government. But nothing really stopped him from moving around.

“I am allowed to travel only around Metro Manila,” he told this newsman over lunch at his favorite Japanese restaurant in Quezon City. Sometimes, he felt weak, sometimes, he felt strong. “There are good mornings and there are bad mornings,” he said. But always, he was up and about before dawn.

Until he was brought to the intensive care unit early in October, his mind remained sharp, always focused, except that he had difficulty hearing with his left ear. He would remember in vivid details the things he and his family had gone through during the martial law years of President Ferdinand Marcos. He fought Marcos relentlessly, it eventually led to his arrest and detention, all a result of his refusal to embrace the dictatorship. If only for that, Joker Arroyo called him the face of martial law — or the poster boy of defiance to Marcos’ one-man rule.

Nene’s story

Unless asked however, Pimentel hardly talked about his role in the fight against the Marcos dictatorship, if only because he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. He had written a book titled “Martial Law in the Philippines: My Story.” And it is all there, he said. Months before the book went off the press in June 2006, he showed us the manuscripts asking us to take a good look. We didn’t say anything, except to whisper that indeed a good book emerges from an upheaval in one’s soul.

The book narrates Pimentel’s martial-law experience, a story of courage, daring and much faith to stand up to the dictator when it was extremely dangerous to do so. It talks about the Marcos dictatorship from the point of view of Pimentel, then a young lawyer-turned mayor of Cagayan de Oro City, and how his family based in Mindanao managed to endure it.

He wanted to talk now about federalism, a topic he had tackled with as much passion as dictatorship since we first met him in 1983, even when no one was listening -- not as an ideologue, but as a personal conviction, having experienced as a young mayor the agony of waiting for the Palace to release funds for his city.

He was one of the three original federalism proponents from Mindanao, long, long before other people cared to know. The other two were Reuben Canoy and Homobono Adaza.

“Things would change for the better in a federal system,” he told a breakfast forum at Club Filipino in San Juan in August 2018. “The LGUs will develop itself to stand on their feet. No more waiting from Malacañang to move, like you are waiting for Godot.”

Nene’s federalism

Nene Pimentel believed, as he had always believed, in federalism. He was federalism’s best salesman, undoubtedly. Even people who had misgivings about federalism were willing to listen because it was Pimentel talking, because they believed he had the purest of motives.

One Sunday morning in May 2016, Pimentel sent us a text message inviting us to lunch to talk about it with some urgency. “Hurry up, my son, I am old, we don’t have much time.” He showed up, with an aide, a nurse and a secretary in tow. Again, he was in a wheel chair. But he was in his element talking, as if he had a prepared long, carefully written speech.

At 85, he noted that the renewed public interest in federalism came in late in his time when he was weak and ailing. But even so, he wanted people to remember him as the one bridging the people to the good news of federalism.

“Remember me as a bridge builder,” he said.

Before nighttime, he sent us an email, as promised, a copy of a 1900 poem titled “The Bridge Builder” by American author Will Allen Dromgoole, often quoted to promote the idea of building links for the future and passing the torch along for the next generation. The last three stanzas were his favorite which explained, he said, why an old man like him was pushing for federalism. He signed the letter, “Nene.”

The poem in full:

The Bridge Builder

An old man walking along a highway,
Came at the evening cold and gray
Upon a chasm vast and deep and wide
Through which was flowing a swollen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The swollen stream held no fears for him.
But he turned when he reached the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You’re wasting your time in building here.
Your journey will end with the closing day;
You have crossed the chasm deep and wide;
Why build you this bridge at even-tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head.
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There follows after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way.

This stream, which has been as naught to me,
To that fair youth may a pitfall be.
He too must cross in the twilight dim —
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”

‘Let the people decide’

He had written a book on federalism, which he said was a far different version from the one the party he founded has released. The one closer to his was the report of a panel he and former Chief Justice Reynato Puno submitted to Malacanang. Never mind the difference, he said, everything would be part of the public discourse.

“The people will decide,” he said. “It is best that we gave birth to the idea.”

Would people care to listen, we asked, given the public’s short-lived excitement. “Jesus began with 12,” he replied.

By any standard, a shift to federalism is a radical change in government. But Pimentel was radical, by any standard.

A few days after President Corazon Aquino named him head of the ministry of interior in March 1986, Pimentel kicked out of office all the governors, board members, mayors and councilors, triggering an uproar against the government. He wanted to rid the government of all the thieves and warlords -- the first and possibly the most daring attempt to abolish all existing dynasties across the country. It was so radical people thought he would lose in the first senatorial elections after the dictatorship in 1987. Luckily, he won.

Years into Senate, Pimentel introduced a bill, which was later called Local Government Code, seeking to devolve the powers of the national government to the LGUs, which did not sit well with his former colleagues at the Aquino Cabinet, some of whom called him a communist.

He ended up getting only the approval of three secretaries, including Health Secretary Alran Bengzon, another outspoken Cabinet member. Not enough, he said of the bill that made people call him the “Father of the Local Government Code.”

Not bad either, he said, looking back. “I wanted it all, but my former colleagues in the Cory Cabinet didn’t like it,” he recalled. The law caused the devolution of health powers services to the countryside. It was a game changer for local executives.

At the height of the US bases controversy in September 1991, Cory Aquino personally called him to convince him to vote in favor of an extension of the US military bases in the Philippines. She later joined a pro-bases rally outside the Senate building for everybody to see.

Inside his room, Pimentel saw on television the woman who wanted him as her running mate in the 1985 snap presidential elections. It was raining outside. But he voted against her wishes. “It was one of the saddest days in my life,” he said.

Pimentel first entered politics as a delegate in the 1971 Constitutional Convention. He was detained four times after Marcos declared martial law in 1972, each time nearly breaking her family’s hearts.

“Naturally, Marcos did not have me in mind when he proclaimed martial law,” he said. "As a small-town dabbler in politics, I was surely outside his political radar screen. Still, I had this problem with one-man rule and perpetuating one’s self to power.”

Joker Arroyo recalled Pimentel did not enjoy the incarceration. “If experience is the best teacher,” Arroyo wrote in Pimentel’s book, “Nene seemed impervious even to life’s simplest instruction.”

“Indeed, as far as Nene was concerned, life was not trying to teach him the obvious, which was to quit, a lesson he couldn’t learn,” he said.

Lessons for Marcos

“On the contrary, it was Marcos who just couldn’t learn — in election after election that the dictator stole from Nene and the Filipino people — to uphold the Constitution and the laws. Nene wasn’t just being bullheaded. He was just being persistent, like a tireless teacher of mentally challenged students of democracy like Ferdinand Marcos.”

Pimentel’s passing would leave a great void in Philippine politics, like a few good men who have gone ahead of him. Men of great virtues and little vices, they all died quietly. Among them: Jose Diokno in February 1987; Lorenzo Tañada in May 1992; Jovito Salonga in March 2016; Ramon Mitra in March 2000; and, Arroyo in October 2015.

“My marching days are over,” he told this newsman over another hastily-called lunch a few weeks before he was brought to the hospital. “I am running out of time,” read the text message before we arrived at his favorite restaurant. True enough, he showed up ahead of us.

Without much ado, Pimentel gave us the manuscripts of an unfinished book titled “His Crown of Thorns: The Impeachment, Trial and Conviction of Chief Justice Renato C. Corona.”

We accepted the copy. “Read it, read it, then let me know.” Pimentel’s instructions came as clear as his thoughts, as clear as his convictions.

Sudden death

But when we were ready to let him know, Pimentel slipped into the night, leaving us the unfinished book and a huge memory of his greatness.

Every man has his time, every time has its man. We will remember Pimentel and his time, and we will remember him for standing up for his fighting faith. And we will remember him with that poem titled “The Bridge Builder."

The President fears local governments would be vulnerable to the spread of drugs under a federal form of government

MANILA, Philippines - It all boils down to the campaign against illegal drugs.

President Rodrigo Duterte said this was his other reason for abandoning his campaign for a federalism shift during his term.

Aside from acknowledging that Filipinos aren’t ready for the shift, Duterte, on Monday, October 28, said a federal form of government now would leave local government units vulnerable to the spread of illegal drugs.

“Itong federalism maganda 'to. But if you leave it to just the local governments to do it, madelikado especially sa drugs,” he said during a speech in front of new government officials in Malacañang.

(This federalism is good. But if you leave it to just the local government units to do it, it’s dangerous, especially with drugs.)

“Papasukan ng drugs 'yan. Walang control. Buti dito may maghawak eh,” he continued.
(Drugs will get in. No control. At least here we have control.)

The President repeated that he does not think Filipinos fully understand federalism.


“I do not believe that the Filipino people have really embraced what federalism is. It will be a good setup someday, but today when we are all in a quandary of how to solve even the smallest [problem],” said Duterte.

A shift to a federalist form of government was among Duterte’s biggest 2016 campaign promises. It was among the major reasons why he ran under PDP-Laban, a political party led by staunch federalism advocates.

In 2018, he formed a Consultative Committee to draft a federal constitution which they delivered July 2018 in a Malacañang ceremony.

The House of Representatives had been supportive of amending the 1987 Constitution for federalism but the Senate was lukewarm about it.

But a year later, Duterte began floating the possibility that the federalism shift won’t happen during his term.

In July 2019, he said he was fine if Congress did not pursue a federal constitution as long as they would amend provisions in the existing charter to strengthen safeguards against corruption.

Despite this, the Department of Interior and Local Government said it would continue its awareness campaign on federalism. – Rappler.com

AMONG the foreign policies that the Deegong adopted from his predecessor are the “Three Pillars”: preservation and enhancement of national security; protection of the rights and promotion of the welfare of overseas Filipinos; and promotion and attainment of economic security. Not mere motherhood avowals, previous administrations always operated on the overarching acquiescence to the nuances dictated by our close traditional ties with Mother America, though the same were unspoken. But this would soon change in the opening gambit of DU30’s regime; perhaps as a vehement reaction to outgoing United States president Barack Obama’s criticism of the drastic methods to stop the proliferation of illegal drugs.

The possible transformation of the country into a narcostate has always been the fear haunting the president. His singular desire to eradicate drug cartels, pushers and users inevitably resulted in a collateral issue of human rights transgressions; and focus on the latter is what pissed off PRRD. The Deegong’s personal distaste for Obama fed into his declared antipathy towards the US for some unspecified affront hardening what was already a complicated relationship. And PRRD’s personality and biases were the major impelling factors embodying the architecture of our independent foreign relations — masquerading as “national interest.”

Pivot away from America
And thus emerged DU30’s version of an “independent foreign policy,” a concept already enshrined in the Constitution, but now could be construed more as a pivot away from Mother America than towards any country or alignments. The Philippine-US bond has always been a “love-hate” one; a latent manifestation of intermittent neglect by America of its first colony. Perhaps America has taken its ties with its original protectorate for granted, confident in the fact that millions of Pinoys have emigrated to the US and millions more are either green card holders or temporary workers in the US or are the vilified tago nang tago (TNT or illegal workers).

Pivot to China and Russia
Touching a sensitive chord in the Filipino’s amor propio, this allowed him license to shift his sights towards the other suitors in the region — China and Russia — a nice touch as these were America’s global competitors. It was no less a maudlin and yet naively erotic performance when the Deegong in his attempt to cut our umbilical cord with America, declared pompously that it was a “triumvirate of the Philippines-China-Russia against the world,” or something to that effect.

The Yellows, of course, who had all along detested anything Dutertesque would consider such declaration as “kahilas,” meaning cringe-worthy in the Visayan vernacular, with China and Russia sheepishly humoring and playing along with this parvenu to international comportment. But many of the Filipinos were, in fact, singing the praises of the President for this perceived foreign relations coup. Yet, the dynamics of this emerging concept is still being delineated as a subtle shift away from a century-long ‘subservience’ to a treaty-bound America toward a “neutral” path.

But this “pivot” has dire consequences, particularly for China when we poked its eyes over our triumph at The Hague arbitral court, in effect negating their nine-dash line. But DU30 had to gamble and set aside this advantage for ambiguous gains in mendicancy for Chinese investments in infrastructure and long-term concessional loans. But as a matter of shame to some, the militarization and incorporation of the West Philippine (South China) Sea by China and the islands we claimed as ours will be on Duterte’s head and such dysfunctional and irreparable legacy will be a permanent blight to his name beyond his term into the next generations.

The genius of Trump
In retrospect, the Deegong’s choices may have been the right ones, considering America’s insufferably clueless President Donald Trump’s recent moves on Syria, Turkey and the Kurds. Trump unilaterally decided to pull out US forces ahead of a Turkish offensive into northern Syria in what was described by this megalomaniac as a “strategically brilliant move,” abandoning in the process the Kurdish militia, the US’ partner in that region in defeating the Islamic State. Trump did this without consulting the Pentagon and the State Department. This in turn creates a vacuum that could allow Turkey and Russia to partition the formerly US-protected Kurdish area.

All these as offshoots of presidential whim and caprice abruptly negating a five-year US policy. The United States will pay for this heavily in the future.

Lessons to learn
Looking back, DU30’s unilateral and personal decision to veer away from a historically deep-rooted partnership could be serendipitous as the US, with Trump as its president, is proving to be an unreliable ally. And this could be a lesson well worth learning in our engagements with the behemoths by our borders. The Philippines has always relied on our treaty with the US, more as a psychological security blanket than anything else. It should become obvious by now that America will not come to the aid of the Philippines, nor will it be forced to do so in hot conflicts. Under our treaty with the US, both are to come to each other’s aid when attacked. The Chinese are much too wily to cause a shooting war. Tragically, DU30’s pronouncements and body language have been translated as appeasement of China.

Worse, we may have inadvertently allowed China an opening and enabling it the use of China’s weapon of choice: slow strangulation of its neighbors by the application of its vaunted economic clout and bully tactics. We have today in the Philippines reportedly tens of thousands of Chinese immigrant workers flooding the country. Initially, they worked in the rapidly growing Philippine online gambling operations as online gambling is prohibited by the Chinese government. And this influx of Chinese in the service sector may begin to put a stress on government services and even the private sector. We are more attuned to sending out overseas Filipino workers to foreign lands than allowing migrant workers here in our midst. Already, there are reports of the arrest of Chinese syndicates (foreign and ingrown) running prostitution dens exclusive to Chinese migrant guests.

The question now is how we will navigate the rough global realities using our independent foreign policy to serve our national interest in light of China’s behavior and America’s unpredictability. The arbitral award we won is not recognized by China and the unilateral nine-dash line it imposed as historical fact is meant to be the impetus and triggering mechanism to usurp territories — by virtue of her might. And surely, we can’t ask the US — which must perforce look the other way — to fight our wars and regain Kalayaan in Palawan and the Pag-asa (Thitu) Island. It is not to their interest.

Which brings us to the core lesson. For our national interest, Duterte needs to understand that developing and adopting foreign policy or any policy for that matter needs a better collective appreciation of realities, not those solely emanating from one’s personal whims. A substantial part of good governance — the process of decision-making and implementation — must involve a coterie of professionals DU30 must recruit. And his job is to listen, absorb, discriminate, engage — then act.

MANY years after Sen. Nene Pimentel published his book Martial Law in the Philippines: My Story in 2006, we got to talk about some of our friends who were no longer with us. “Lit, write also a book about your take on our experiences together. There are some details that I forget…tingalig mahinumduman pa nimo ‘tong mga ni-agi”(maybe you will remember some past details). I told Nene (he never wanted me to call him by his formal name, the first time I met him in 1967) that I had already started to write a book in 1998, but couldn’t quite finish it. Aside from our talks on some of the details, I never did show him even excerpts. The reason was simple. I couldn’t finish writing my book — for strictly personal reasons. But I thought, I would publish in my column some excerpts of this unfinished book. It’s the best I can do for a friend who passed away on Oct. 20, 2019.

I met Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. in the summer of 1967, while I was then only 22 years old. I was introduced to him by Rey Teves, a very close friend who practically lived in our house as an older brother to my nine other siblings (Rey has a whole chapter in my book — if ever it is published).

Nene, Rey and I were recruited to the Christian Social Movement (CSM) by Raul Manglapus — who like Nene was among some of the few great men in the Philippine political firmament — whom Rey and I idolized.

As my experiences with Nene span more than five decades, I thought to highlight, a chapter in the late 1970s in my unfinished book, on the founding of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).

The bridge builder
PDP can trace its immediate beginnings in the early 1981 when the mayor of Cagayan de Oro, Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. (AQP) broached the idea to Samuel “Sammy” Occena, his colleague at the 1971 Constitutional Convention from Davao City. Sammy with some members of the Konsumo Dabaw board shortly after met with leaders and organizers from Cagayan de Oro at the Davao Best Restaurant in August of 1981 to start shaping the political party.

It was an enticing idea that a Mindanao-grown political party was to be established. Over the next several months, a flurry of activities ensued with leaders from both cities hammering out the details of the party platform. The Davao group was tasked to come up with the themes for a basic membership seminar (BMS). Rey, Cris Lanorias and I, with inputs from “Inday” Morada Santiago, chief executive officer of Kahayag, a Mindanao-based nongovernment organization (NGO), soon came up with an acceptable draft. A caveat was arrived that no one could be accepted as a member unless he adheres to the principles of the party and undergoes a three-day BMS. Activities accelerated the next few months, expanding to Davao del Sur with “Dodo” Cagas, and Davao del Norte with Baltazar Satur. Similar efforts were underway in Cagayan de Oro and Northern Mindanao. At the same time, Pimentel started recruiting in the Visayas from among his colleagues in the 1971 Constitutional Convention.

The idea of establishing PDP was in no way a spontaneous act by NGO activists and oppositionists. This was a logical consequence to a long simmering anger against the injustices of several decades exacerbated by the repressive Marcos regime. The Philippine socio-political-economic system was dysfunctional.

The Mindanao opposition
Nene provided the spark that ignited the idea at the right moment. He was this charismatic city mayor, a feisty lawyer and an activist leader who started to shine in the 1971 Constitutional Convention.

In 1972, when Martial Law was declared and Manglapus went into exile in the US, our CSM group sort of drifted apart until Nene reentered the political scene.

We met late one evening in my residence in Davao City in 1979. He was then a practicing lawyer in Metro Manila who already cut his teeth in the political firmament pre-martial law. His standing was enhanced after he ran under the Laban Party of Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. in 1978, and the year before when they endured the full brunt of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos’ anger. The noise barrage in Manila during the 1978 elections led by Ninoy Aquino inspired us in Davao. This emboldened those who were anti-Marcos/Martial Law and saw reinvigorated efforts to organize for what we believed was the beginning of the fall of a dictatorship. The old CSM/Young Christian Socialist Movement began to reconnect with us — Manny Cruz, Mon Tagle and ‘Bote’ Jose.

* * *

Our Davao group was then fiercely parochial as to the type of leader we wanted to lead us. After the likes of Raul, we preferred one from Mindanao. We had our sights on two other major names, Reuben Canoy and Homobono Adaza — both from Northern Mindanao. We had from southern Mindanao the likes of Zafiro Respicio, Sammy Occena and Dodo Cagas, but they had not acquired the type of gravitas that the three Cagayan de Oro-based politicians possessed. With no major elective charismatic leader in Davao in sight, we were left with NGO leaders — tyros in local politics.

* * *

The Pilipino Democratic Party (PDP) formally came into existence in February 6-7, 1982 in its first convention in Cebu City, where the party constitution was ratified. Ribomaphil Holganza, the convention secretary-general with the enthusiastic support of Antonio Cuenco, the convention chairman and the Visayas delegates proposed the name Katipunan. This was the first big issue confronting the convention as a caucus of its leaders couldn’t settle it — until the convention decided to drop Katipunan, retaining Pilipino Democratic Party but keeping the logo/image of Lapu-Lapu. It was also agreed that the Filipino version Partido Demokratiko Pilipino, with a cognomen, Pilipinas Dapat sa Pilipino may be used. Pimentel the prime mover keynoted the convention with a rousing speech titled “The Bridge Builder.”

With the inauguration of the PDP in Cebu in 1982, the opposition in Northern Mindanao was in disarray: Canoy with the SDP, Adaza with the MA. But we in Davao kept our hopes alive with Pimentel and the PDP.

PDP-Laban merger
By the time the question of a coalition of the PDP and Laban surfaced shortly after the first convention, the Davao group was fighting a losing battle. The notion that Mindanao needed to be strengthened first before expanding was no longer tenable. The political realities unfolding then called for the Mindanao and Visayas PDP to work with the Metro Manila opposition. Davao’s underlying objection was the entrance of Peping Cojuangco and Monching Mitra and the possible watering down of the ideological purity of the PDP. The Cojuangcos were members of the oligarchy and Monching was known to be a close ally of Danding Cojuangco. The preeminence of Cory Aquino after Ninoy’s death somewhat assuaged our fears but she was an unknown factor. We knew nothing about her ideology.

The party’s second national convention in Cagayan de Oro on Feb. 5-6, 1983 ratified the PDP-Laban merger but curiously, the constitution was not amended, for lack of material time or was simply forgotten in the excitement of the moment.

And thus, was born, the PDP-Laban with Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. as our leader.

THESE past weeks, the airwaves have been dominated by the spectacle generated by the Senate blue ribbon committee hearings that started with the Bureau of Corrections’ (BuCor) Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) anomalies, then segued into the illegal drugs inside the prisons run by high-value prisoners, culminating into a probe of the involvement of the police. As always, this Senate committee’s main purpose is to investigate government anomalies in “aid of legislation,” trusting that the results of these hearings will be used as inputs in the drafting of new laws or amendment of old ones. As the hearings are widely covered by national TV, there is something mesmerizing about a TV camera when directed towards a grandstanding politician. This induces a Jekyll and Hyde behavioral change as this could be worth millions of pesos in media exposure.

The current hearings started as a reaction to the public outcry over the impending release of the rapist-murderer mayor Antonio Sanchez of Calauan, Laguna. Under the GCTA Law, those convicted of heinous crimes are excluded from being considered. The investigations revealed that money allegedly exchanged hands for the convict’s inclusion, and so too with those thousands freed during the terms of the BuCor chiefs, now Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Nicanor Faeldon.

Drug trade at Bilibid
The probe exposed the rampant trade of illegal drugs in the prisons where convicted drug pushers and drug lords have been given the run of the place. The high-value convicts were practically in control with the collusion of prison guards. This has been denied by the former BuCor chiefs.

The inquiry further uncovered that some of the illegal drugs were sourced from police officers. This is an altogether different breed of uniformed officers with this latest moniker entering the lexicon of common criminal usage: “ninja cops.” Picture the ramrod no-nonsense stance of a Philippine Military Academy (PMA)-trained police general, and as shadows fall, is transformed into a practitioner of the occult. Such is the image of the more than a dozen police officers, now arrayed before the senators. They confiscate illegal drugs and recycle the same within the prison’s walls.

Ninja cop coddler
Thus, the Senate blue ribbon committee stumbled upon a criminal conspiracy involving the highest leadership of the Philippine National Police (PNP), with Director General Oscar Albayalde no less being named as the alleged ninja cop coddler.

But this is not a simple story of just one general. Albayalde (PMA ‘86) denied all accusations. I cannot recall an instance when a general was accused of crimes by his peers. In an eyeball-to-eyeball konfrontasi, Director General Aaron Aquino (PMA ‘85) testified that Albayalde interceded for 13 “ninja cops,” reputed to be his chosen people. Aquino’s testimony was corroborated by retired general and now Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong (PMA ‘82), former head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

By now volumes have been written in the dailies, broadsheets and social media and video capture from the Senate hearings replayed in You Tube and Facebook, that my recounting of this sordid narrative will be superfluous. This article will not examine the guilt or innocence of these public officials. This will be an apt topic for another time.

The doctrine
This part delves on nuances impacting governance and the role of our President in unfolding events and his crusade against corruption. To recall, DU30 has been very emphatic that he will “…not tolerate any corruption in his administration and he will dismiss from office any of his men (women) who are tainted even by a ‘whiff of corruption’; and he is ready to sack any public officials even on the basis of false allegations of corruption.” (Inquirer.net, March 30, 2017.) Thus was born the Duterte Doctrine of a “whiff of corruption.” This mantra was a keystone of his anti-corruption initiatives barely a year into his regime. This was welcomed chiefly by the DDS and Fist Bumpers, which saw the need for an iron hand to eliminate the single biggest festering sore underlying good governance. The constitutionalists, liberal democrats and human rights advocates were skeptical but had no collective voice as the Deegong effectively castrated the vanishing opposition.

He then demonstrated the specifics of this doctrine by firing the secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for “loss of trust and confidence.” Imputations of corruption and illegal payoffs were added to the menu of charges. The head of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) was likewise sacked. Both were disposed of with a minimum of fuss and investigation, unable to formally defend themselves and leaving their good names and reputations shattered. There followed several more over the next few months simply on a “whiff of corruption.”

Erosion of the doctrine
Then the Duterte Doctrine began to erode. In August 2018, P11 billion worth of shabu (an illegal drug) was smuggled through the Manila International Container Port in magnetic lifters, which were later found empty and abandoned in a Cavite warehouse. Gen. Isidro Lapeña (PMA ‘73) Bureau of Customs Chief was implicated in the smuggling. It was untenable for Lapeña to stay on as Customs chief. He was rewarded with a Cabinet position as chief of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority by PRRD. Lapeña was part of DU30’s security team during his presidential campaign.

But the incident that may yet plunge the doctrine into a chasm of incredulity is his dogged attempt to defend Albayalde, the alleged coddler of the ninja cops. The contradiction is in DU30’s insistence that strong and clear evidence be produced on the general’s involvement, despite the testimonies of Generals Aquino and Magalong. This is a drastic departure from his “whiff of corruption” refrain in firing Ismael Sueno of DILG and Peter Laviña of NIA. The President did not fire Albayalde, but the latter has resigned.

Rule of law axiomatic
I will quote from my column of Aug. 31, 2018:
“There is no question that the President has the power to terminate from [the] government bureaucracy anyone who fails to serve at his pleasure. But the President must be subject to the minimums of fairness and the etiquette of dismissal, for no apparent reason than that the process is widely regarded as civilized behavior. But more importantly, there is a greater overarching principle that covers the conduct of the mighty, the powerful and the humble — the Rule of Law.

“In a democracy under which we claim we practice, prudent laws are its foundation and the glue that must bind a civilized society. It is imperative that the laws laid down by government must be followed by all its citizens. The simplicity of the concept of the rule of law is oftentimes made complicated by those authorized to uphold it.

“From another standpoint, nations with weak leaders breed weak laws and will find themselves in a quagmire of corruption and lawlessness. Nations with prudent laws but governed by leaders void of political will to implement such laws may only cripple the primacy of the rule of law. But strong leaders with political will must understand that all are equal under the dominance of the Rule of Law; none above. President Rodrigo Duterte must aspire to be one of the latter.

“By these precepts, the Duterte Doctrine is defective.”

WE just came from a hectic vacation in Iloilo, Roxas, Jawili and Boracay. We flew roundabout Davao-Cebu-Iloilo by Philippine Airlines, as the Cebu Pacific direct flight schedule for Davao-Iloilo was inconvenient. I was to acquaint my wife Sylvia with the delights of each area’s famous seafood cuisine on this gastronomic tour. We decided we needed to do this with urgency, while still ambulatory and can still remember each other’s name. We rented a van at the Iloilo Airport to take us around the city for sightseeing. Iloilo was more beautiful than the last time I saw it. The Esplanade was something that Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio can emulate for the Piapi district and Quezon Boulevard in her city, or in the Bankerohan area beside the Davao River. All it takes is the vaunted Duterte “political will” or short of it, punching her way through the quagmire of informal settlers.

Coastal Road turo-turo
But as to the main purpose of the tour, I will reprint my Facebook post: “Lunch in the Iloilo Coastal Road resto was a disaster! No diwal, no lobster, no fat alimango, the oysters were catatonic and the pasayan were anemic. And while eating, you have to compete with the ubiquitous flies. This is what I get for relying on a gourmet, our hired van driver to Roxas, who convinced us to eat at his favorite place. Hahaha! We definitely went to the wrong place. The Iloilo I knew was elegant, grand and snobbish! Well, win some, lose some. Babawi na lang kami in Roxas tonight with Jimmy.”

Jimmy San Agustin, my grade and high school classmate was the perfect host in Roxas, backed up by Tony Santos — his coffee buddy, an amiable man who gave us a 10-cent tour of the 770-hectare township right in Roxas City, owned by his son-in-law married to his graceful daughter Tina. He showed us the image of Christ on the highest promontory of Roxas, boasting that the statue was taller than the Cristo Redentor in Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro. Tony could be the perfect tour guide except for some minor flaws; “I don’t know!” was the standard answer to the four or five questions about the interesting sights and statistics: height of the Christ statue, name of the sculptor, how much it cost, who made the development plan of the township, etc. But this good and likable man gave us a river tour of his fishpond holdings.

Intermarriage of cousins
Jimmy has to rely on his three wonderful ladies, wife Baby and daughters Liza and Mariel, to give us a better grasp of the history of the place. The first thing one learns in Roxas and the province of Capiz is that the landed gentry are practically all related. The San Agustin-Balgos families are kissing cousins of the Tirol-Kimpo-Carpio-Gonzales-Santos-Roxas, just to name a few. To preserve their vast landholdings, the old families in the Philippines intermarry. I suspect some incestuously, with offspring hidden in the proverbial attic rooms, just like the old European bluebloods.

But back to that which we came for, the crustacean offerings at Jawili, Jimmy’s idyllic beachfront resort with cascading waterfalls behind his property on the road to Kalibo, are to die for — fresh and succulent, raw oysters, fat crabs, pasayan, various seashells and cockles and yellow-corn-kernel-sized lato (seaweed). Apparently such abundance is chiefly caused by Capiz fronting the Sibuyan Sea to the north of Panay Island, where Jawili and other coastal towns are strategically located towards Caticlan, the jump-off point to Boracay.

Boracay – a political will
And Boracay is something to admire after the Deegong decided to close it for six months last year to clean up the area. As the country’s premier seaside resort, it had “become a cesspool” and an environmental blight with open sewers and untreated sewage leaking out to sea. Trash was everywhere and untrammeled beachfront construction of hotel, stores, bars and restaurant flaunted commerce over public order. This is a microcosm of the Filipino at his undisciplined worst. After DU30 exercised his stern leadership and political prerogatives over the objections of the merchants, hoteliers and local politicians — a certain sense of discipline has now descended on the resort island. Roads are being improved and sidewalks have been laid over for pedestrians. But the wide beaches with the famous white fine sand is still the main come-on. This is one of the Deegong’s successes in applying his iron fist toward the pre-eminence of the rule of law.

The culture of impunity
If only he could apply this toward the second part of this article. This time I write in anger at the impunity being displayed by our uniformed men sworn to protect the people and the Constitution. Even in the languid days in Boracay, one couldn’t escape the headlines of the torture and death of a Philippine Military Academy (PMA) plebe and the culture of abuse inculcated early on our cadets, our future protectors who follow the lead of officers like Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Gen. Oscar Albayalde, who see nothing wrong with hazing.

A declaration by Senator Bato, a PMA graduate himself and former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), admitted that hazing was one of the factors that made him “tough and disciplined” as an officer. “Tine-train ang mga tao diyan para maging warriors (People are trained there to become warriors).” Now we know where DU30’s “berdugo of tokhang’ acquired his chops and his cavalier attitude toward human rights abuses!

General Albayalde, the current PNP chief, noted that “hazing is a matter of personal perception, parang (just like) accusation. These are all matters of personal perception on how you will accept it as a person and how you will accept it as a cadet.” Huh!? And this he said after the death by torture of a PMAyer. This statement is simply vague and inane — hopefully not reflective of the best of that military academy.

Albayalde explained that he was even thankful to his squad leader at the PMA, a former major general, for helping in molding him into what he is now. Which begs the question: What is he now? He has been summoned before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee for his alleged protection of 13 policemen subordinates who were accused of being “ninja cops,”or cops who sell back in the market the illegal drugs they confiscate from drug pushers, dealers and smugglers.

With these current crop of generals and leaders, graduates all of the premier military academy from which President Rodrigo Duterte has been recruiting for leadership in his Cabinet and government agencies, one begins to question whether there is madness to his method, or just simply madness

And these are the type of people whom the President must rely on, brainwashed in the classrooms and marching fields of Fort del Pilar, instilled with the tools, method and mindset of torture protected by their own code of omerta — just like any secretive mafiosi.

The corps often boast that as officers and gentlemen, “they do not lie, cheat or steal.” True, but they may have absorbed the esoteric art of “torture and mind perversion.” We didn’t buy into this!

DILG Usec Jonathan Malaya says the new constitutional reform campaign includes equality provisions

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Tuesday, October 8, said it was relaunching its campaign pushing for amendments to the Constitution.

In a statement, DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the agency submitted proposed revisions that included “equality provisions” to the House committee on constitutional amendments last week.

He added that the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for Federalism and Constitutional Reform was still drafting the proposed federal constitution because it has not “found common ground” with the other members-agencies.

Malaya said the amendments were requested by House committee chair Representative Rufus Rodriguez.

The new campaign, dubbed Constitutional Reform (CORE), was in line with President Rodrigo Duterte's challenge that congress should work on amending key provisions to implement amendments that would “remove endemic corruption” and the huge gaps of economies between regions.

The CORE amendments aimed to include the so-called the Mandanas decision of the Supreme Court allowing the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of local government units to be sourced from all national taxes, and not just those collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

The task force also proposed the following amendments:

• that the distribution of the IRA to the LGUs must take into account their needs, their level of own-revenue collection, and their organizational capacity;

• that the Regional Development Council be transformed into the Regional Development Authority, with the powers and funds to implement regional projects and programs without the approval of Manila

The task force also supported proposals to lift open up the economy to foreign investments.

“You are good if you can uplift Filipinos from their current condition. But you are greater if you bring them to a condition beyond where they need not be uplifted.” – Lito Monico C. Lorenzana (LMCL), Centrist Democratic Party of the Philippine (CDP) Founding Chairman

I’M prepping up to write a treatise on Centrist Democratic Party’s arduous journey from a fledgling “Successor Generation” movement to a nascent political party and interpolate the “Centrist” concepts of some of the brilliant minds, our mentors, who started it all and my own ideas built on experience from the “roots of the grass,” as political action officer. I hope to draw the attention and persuade idealistic segments of society and the public at large that the way to good governance and participatory decision-making is through Centrist Democracy’s brand of political technocracy and to which they are invited to join as party members. Will it be relevant to present realities? With the flowering of the initiatives, will national redemption be at hand? Can it leave a legacy that will shape a secure and prosperous future for the succeeding generations? The essay hopes to give pragmatic answers as well as insights from party stalwarts, fodder to the grist mill, hoping that the by-products would contribute to the development of real political party institutions and advance the cause of nation-building. This article will just be a glimpse of that work.

Centrist Democracy’s roots can be traced from as far back as the French Revolution in 1789 when “democratic passions were unbridled throughout Europe” and supported for the greater part by Catholic Church’s teachings. It was then called Christian Democracy, with the application of Christian principles in ordering society’s political, economic and social life. In the Philippines, the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) in 1950 and Federation of Free Farmers in 1953, started out as associations exhibiting “definite Christian democratic orientation” and, with the Church, worked for reforms. The birth of the Christian Social Movement, the major political repository of the Philippine version of Christian Democracy, under the guidance of the initial movers led by the preeminent Raul Manglapus and the support of Filipino Muslims in Mindanao, soon paved the way for what would become Centrist Democracy, although unraveling political events in the country preempted the flourishing of the Centrist movement. There were many groups who followed the Christian democratic path although none were able to rise to national prominence. We hope that this generation, comprised of knowledgeable and patriotic young Centrists, imbued with Christian values and principles will rise to the challenge and bring about genuine reforms in this country, an economic laggard behind its mostly non-Christian Asian neighbors.

CDP started as Centrist Democratic Movement, a federation of young professionals and sectoral groups which have attracted a good number of adherents who believe in democratic ideals tempered with social concerns. The proponents, comprised of the founding Chairman Lito Monico C. Lorenzana and several others sought accreditation from COMELEC which granted them a national political party status in September 12, 2012 under the able guidance of Congressman Rufus B. Rodriguez who eventually became its National President. I boarded the political ship just as it left port so to speak, to field candidates for the 2013 midterm elections, an experience which left an enduring impression and paved the way for my eventual entry in politics and the first electoral exercise where I actually campaigned for party candidates. It was like finding a missing thread that would be intimately woven to complete a patchwork quilt defining my life’s work.

One of the party’s goals is to institutionalize political reforms to eradicate the patronage-oriented parties which dotted the political landscape. Unlike most political parties with leanings to conservative standards and strong liberal (capitalist) inclination, CDP follows the “mixed economy” principles of a Social Market Economy (SME), the political ideology which ensures the rise of Germany from the ashes of two devastating world wars. The essay I am about to write will have a good portion discussing the subject including the Centrist Democracy’s adherence to a truly functional democracy and the rule of law, the principle of subsidiarity and decentralization and a sustainable political party system to ensure effective governance.

Centrist Democracy hews close to the Christian ideals promoting human dignity, which in the words of Dr. Peter Koeppinger, one of the guiding pillars of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Germany, also means self-determination. According to him “all must be free to determine the course of their lives and be able to take care of themselves; it is freedom of personal development, initiative and decision-making”. The Centrist way is by no means the be-all and end-all in the political discourse and offers no quick fix to the nation’s ills. Nevertheless, as we are facing political problems, just so we proffer political solutions. A close friend and colleague, Ben Contreras, a mayoral candidate asked: “If our government is being ran by people from the Centrist Democratic Party (CDP), do you think we will be better off than under PRRD?”. I answered unequivocally, “under the present unitary, centralized system, with an aberrant political and electoral system, unbridled corruption and oligarchic control, uncontrolled political dynasty and patronage, (with) no transparent and accountable government bureaucracy, ignorant citizenry and bribable officials, a categorical NO”. There has to be institutional reforms which will usher a society and government that uplift human dignity, tempered with the rule of law, social justice and genuine people empowerment.

This is a centrist’s challenge to my age, to the youth, the Church, the politicians, the civil society organizations, the government officials, to those who hold the welfare of mendicants, the poor and the “hungry poor” in their hands, the people displaced by war, the landless, the indigenous people whose future are made uncertain by land-grabbing oligarchs and to the people’s protector, the vanguard of the defenseless, an impartial military establishment who will ultimately decide if they follow the rule of law or take matters in their own hands or support a revolutionary government and lay more chaos in the land: take responsibility and help shape the future of this country for our posterity’s sake. Do it the centrist way.

THIS article is a departure from my usual fare of extracting political content behind the headlines for analysis and instead delves into my other concerns, which of late have been occupying my days: my grandchildren and the specter of death. Both are interrelated in some intimate way that only those grandparents with young grandkids with an age gap of almost 70 years between them can truly appreciate. The first instance was prompted by my grandson Oliver who just turned four years last month saying, “Lolo, when you die, I will have your watch” (an Apple smart electronic watch). Straightforward, articulate and refreshingly shocking that only a 48-month-old can dish out.

Electronic gadgets
In this age of the Internet and social media where half of people’s waking hours are occupied with electronic gadgets, computers, tablets and the ubiquitous smartphone, habits are drastically altered. From the time one wakes up, to the time one goes to bed to sleep, these gadgets are the first we reach for and the last we set aside. At my advanced age, I too am afflicted. Worse, I see my grandchildren so occupied with these gadgets that their parents (my own children) find it difficult to allocate the time between their usage and other childish endeavors. Still, because of peer pressure in school and their comparing notes on the latest in “Minecraft,” this has become problematic. It was cute years back when my own children began to learn to master simple plastic electronic devices from Fisher Price — spelling aids that “talk”; and cuter still when my three-year-old grandchild Claudia began to understand and tinker with her parents’ smartphones and tablets. And even take photos of brother Javier. Now, when I visit my five grandkids after a long flight from the province, I only merit a “Hi! Lolo” before going back to their gadgets. The children’s predilection for electronic gadgets is reaching epidemic proportions. Behavioral scientists, psychiatrists and clinical psychologists must be having a lucrative practice dealing with phenomenon — when they have time, of course, to look up from their own gadgets themselves.

Face-to-face relationships
But this is not an article about electronic gadgets and my grandchildren per se. They are now the problems of their parents. After a maximum of three hours of engagement with my five grandkids (ages 3 to 7 years), especially my American ones (Max, Sylvie and Oliver), their play, quarrels and demands, I undergo physical and emotional exhaustion myself. But I love them terribly still, while I repair to my refuge — my computer, my iPad and my smartphone.

These musings therefore are about the need for imparting to my grandkids real relationships — physical, psychological and, more importantly, face-to-face, flesh-upon-flesh encounters with friends and people. This is perhaps a nostalgic outreach to a time before Charles Babbage, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and a host of pioneers who fused software and hardware to create the computer, peripherals and the ubiquitous smartphone. We hanker for that period even beyond the creation of the “network of networks” that morphed into the Internet and the worldwide web, that have now reduced human interactions through the streaming of the cold data language of the 0s and 1s — although the trade-off in communications are instantaneous and global.

My dying friends
What impelled me on the second part of these reflections on my current four-score-less-five-years existence was last week’s terrible news from social media (Facebook) that a good and close friend had passed away; Cris Lanorias, my colleague in the NGO community for the better part of four decades, a taciturn fellow and a good man. What a way to learn of a man’s demise. Nelly, his wife, decided when my spouse Sylvia and I went to visit just a few days earlier that we should not see him in his state, bedridden and emaciated, and we respected that. I had this nagging feeling though that I might never see him again. It may have been a premonition. Looking back, I wish that I had said goodbye.

There was a sentimental reason why. Cris was part of a group of five friends who established a close bond long before the internet, before the smart phone, even before the laptop; idealists all, who met in the late 1960s and early 1970s, all “provincianos,” to help found various NGO groups — Konsumo Davao (Davao’s first Consumer Protection Organization) and TACDRUP (a multidisciplinary NGO dealing with farmers and the poor) — and the PDP-Laban (a political party with Sen. Nene Pimentel). Rey Teves was the first to go, of pneumonia. He never learned phone texting. Zafiro Respicio followed, of stroke and heart complications, he didn’t own a smartphone; Cesar Ledesma of cancer, had an ordinary cellphone; and Cris, who didn’t have any electronic gadget. I am the last of the five, conversant with all these gadgets and into FB, Messenger, Viber and What’s Up!

Reaching out
It dawned on me that I could be next. What a morbid thought! Will my passing be announced also in FB, Messenger, Viber or Twitter? I have other old friends from way back, from my professional life in business, from my stint in government. But none more intimate than the ones where I now find solace and warmth — the batch 1960 from the Ateneo de Davao high school, a motley group of individual egos now tamed by age. We meet every Wednesday afternoon with our wives and widows for coffee and conversation in aircon malls to update ourselves on the issues of the day. Classmates from out of town and abroad make it a point to visit and join this weekly coffee reunion when in town. These keep our minds active though the conversation keeps coming back to everyone’s current cocktail of maintenance medicines; the recounting of old incidents we keep repeating but we forget we are repeating and thus are presented as refreshingly new; and recurring old jokes whose punch lines keep escaping us. And thus, we make fun of our early onset of dementia, warding off Alzheimer’s that we assure ourselves we don’t have. We try to perish the thought of who among us will be left to share coffee and clubhouse sandwiches in the next 30 years or so – our target!

Until the next flight
But paradoxically, we oldies also use our smartphones, clicking photos and posts to our FB pages, Messengers and Vibers to announce such gatherings and photo records for those who are far away. But we are not enslaved by these machines. Now our attrition rate is accelerating that so many of us have gone ahead making widows of our love ones. The weekly Class ‘60 interaction has assumed a tinge of urgency compelling us to meet more often, traveling together locally while we are ambulant and can still remember and keep schedules; knowing full well that we may be in the cusp of eternity or in more mundane language, “magnificently kidding around in the waiting lounge at the departure area.” Until next Wednesday, but don’t use your boarding pass before then.

THIS article is a departure from my usual fare of extracting political content behind the headlines for analysis and instead delves into my other concerns, which of late have been occupying my days: my grandchildren and the specter of death. Both are interrelated in some intimate way that only those grandparents with young grandkids with an age gap of almost 70 years between them can truly appreciate. The first instance was prompted by my grandson Oliver who just turned four years last month saying, “Lolo, when you die, I will have your watch” (an Apple smart electronic watch). Straightforward, articulate and refreshingly shocking that only a 48-month-old can dish out.

Electronic gadgets
In this age of the Internet and social media where half of people’s waking hours are occupied with electronic gadgets, computers, tablets and the ubiquitous smartphone, habits are drastically altered. From the time one wakes up, to the time one goes to bed to sleep, these gadgets are the first we reach for and the last we set aside. At my advanced age, I too am afflicted. Worse, I see my grandchildren so occupied with these gadgets that their parents (my own children) find it difficult to allocate the time between their usage and other childish endeavors. Still, because of peer pressure in school and their comparing notes on the latest in “Minecraft,” this has become problematic. It was cute years back when my own children began to learn to master simple plastic electronic devices from Fisher Price — spelling aids that “talk”; and cuter still when my three-year-old grandchild Claudia began to understand and tinker with her parents’ smartphones and tablets. And even take photos of brother Javier. Now, when I visit my five grandkids after a long flight from the province, I only merit a “Hi! Lolo” before going back to their gadgets. The children’s predilection for electronic gadgets is reaching epidemic proportions. Behavioral scientists, psychiatrists and clinical psychologists must be having a lucrative practice dealing with phenomenon — when they have time, of course, to look up from their own gadgets themselves.

Face-to-face relationships
But this is not an article about electronic gadgets and my grandchildren per se. They are now the problems of their parents. After a maximum of three hours of engagement with my five grandkids (ages 3 to 7 years), especially my American ones (Max, Sylvie and Oliver), their play, quarrels and demands, I undergo physical and emotional exhaustion myself. But I love them terribly still, while I repair to my refuge — my computer, my iPad and my smartphone.

These musings therefore are about the need for imparting to my grandkids real relationships — physical, psychological and, more importantly, face-to-face, flesh-upon-flesh encounters with friends and people. This is perhaps a nostalgic outreach to a time before Charles Babbage, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and a host of pioneers who fused software and hardware to create the computer, peripherals and the ubiquitous smartphone. We hanker for that period even beyond the creation of the “network of networks” that morphed into the Internet and the worldwide web, that have now reduced human interactions through the streaming of the cold data language of the 0s and 1s — although the trade-off in communications are instantaneous and global.

My dying friends
What impelled me on the second part of these reflections on my current four-score-less-five-years existence was last week’s terrible news from social media (Facebook) that a good and close friend had passed away; Cris Lanorias, my colleague in the NGO community for the better part of four decades, a taciturn fellow and a good man. What a way to learn of a man’s demise. Nelly, his wife, decided when my spouse Sylvia and I went to visit just a few days earlier that we should not see him in his state, bedridden and emaciated, and we respected that. I had this nagging feeling though that I might never see him again. It may have been a premonition. Looking back, I wish that I had said goodbye.

There was a sentimental reason why. Cris was part of a group of five friends who established a close bond long before the internet, before the smart phone, even before the laptop; idealists all, who met in the late 1960s and early 1970s, all “provincianos,” to help found various NGO groups — Konsumo Davao (Davao’s first Consumer Protection Organization) and TACDRUP (a multidisciplinary NGO dealing with farmers and the poor) — and the PDP-Laban (a political party with Sen. Nene Pimentel). Rey Teves was the first to go, of pneumonia. He never learned phone texting. Zafiro Respicio followed, of stroke and heart complications, he didn’t own a smartphone; Cesar Ledesma of cancer, had an ordinary cellphone; and Cris, who didn’t have any electronic gadget. I am the last of the five, conversant with all these gadgets and into FB, Messenger, Viber and What’s Up!

Reaching out
It dawned on me that I could be next. What a morbid thought! Will my passing be announced also in FB, Messenger, Viber or Twitter? I have other old friends from way back, from my professional life in business, from my stint in government. But none more intimate than the ones where I now find solace and warmth — the batch 1960 from the Ateneo de Davao high school, a motley group of individual egos now tamed by age. We meet every Wednesday afternoon with our wives and widows for coffee and conversation in aircon malls to update ourselves on the issues of the day. Classmates from out of town and abroad make it a point to visit and join this weekly coffee reunion when in town. These keep our minds active though the conversation keeps coming back to everyone’s current cocktail of maintenance medicines; the recounting of old incidents we keep repeating but we forget we are repeating and thus are presented as refreshingly new; and recurring old jokes whose punch lines keep escaping us. And thus, we make fun of our early onset of dementia, warding off Alzheimer’s that we assure ourselves we don’t have. We try to perish the thought of who among us will be left to share coffee and clubhouse sandwiches in the next 30 years or so – our target!

Until the next flight
But paradoxically, we oldies also use our smartphones, clicking photos and posts to our FB pages, Messengers and Vibers to announce such gatherings and photo records for those who are far away. But we are not enslaved by these machines. Now our attrition rate is accelerating that so many of us have gone ahead making widows of our love ones. The weekly Class ‘60 interaction has assumed a tinge of urgency compelling us to meet more often, traveling together locally while we are ambulant and can still remember and keep schedules; knowing full well that we may be in the cusp of eternity or in more mundane language, “magnificently kidding around in the waiting lounge at the departure area.” Until next Wednesday, but don’t use your boarding pass before then.