We’re Done! But What’s Next?

At last, we’re finally done with the draft. And all we have to do now is wait if the Mayor still wants us to make revisions or if we have to add more stuff into his life story.

We’ve been receiving a lot of help, especially from a foreign scholar by the name of Elizabeth Medina. She’s a Chilean writer (with a hot daughter whom Arnold craves so much; the nerve of that MARRIED guy). She’s been editing our work, and is still doing it as I write this. So, before the Mayor sends his biography to the presses, we have to stop him quick and show to him the recent draft edited by a master.

We gave to him the draft yesterday. We had lunch in Starbucks (Arnold said it’s been a long time since he’s been to one; yo también) located somewhere in South Luzón Tollway, La Laguna area. The Mayor has become more like a barkada. He’s so friendly, I’m telling you guys. He doesn’t act like some intimidating rich person. He’s one of the humblest persons Arnold and I have ever met. He still wants a Tagalog version, but the good news is he’s not planning to simply translate our hard-written work into English. He will still publish our work, and have another edition in Tagalog. The problem now is where to look for a translator.

Although Arnold and I speak Tagalog fluently, we couldn’t really write that well. We’re not trained how to. And I don’t think our country’s educational system has any specialized training for the students on how to write creatively and professionally in Tagalog. We tried to translate some sentences in Tagalog, but to no avail. It’s much easier translating English into Spanish and vice versa because they’re cognates. And they both have strong Latin roots.

Now, we wait for the Mayor’s cellphone call for more updates. And we’re both thankful that his oportunista friend was nowhere in sight yesterday. Hopefully, we’d never bump into him again. Well, if Arnold’s car will do the bumping, why not? LOL =)

Anxiety

Some time ago, my friend Arnold, who was a Team Leader (equivalent of a supervisor) in our call center resigned from our office. As of this moment, he’s a full-time writer/historian. We’re currently working on our first book which is about the biography of our town’s mayor. Not really something that one might call scholarly since it’s basically an “ego-booster”, so to speak, for the said politician. But despite all that, this politician’s a nice guy. And he’s the one who gave us our first break to get published. We’re not from some fancy school. We don’t have scholarly credentials aside from the four-year-degree diplomas we got from our respective universities. And we don’t have other connections to get published. This “break” we did on our own because we’re the ones who went to him in the first place — well, not to ask him for us to write his biography, but to write the history of our town.

I envy Arnold because he’s working full time on this project. Me, I still have to fight away the sleepiness after my night shift. Good thing Arnold gave me the password to his internet access here in the office. But the problem is, right after my shift at 10 AM, my head either dreams about the land of sleep, or the land of porn (hyuk-yuk-yuk!). I sometimes rest my head on whatever CSR desk I choose, fall asleep, and then wake up an hour or two with an aching back. Like what I’ve said before, I can’t afford to leave this job especially since my wife’s pregnant again (ang sipag namin, ¿no?).

So that’s what has been keeping us busy all these weeks. We’re trying to beat a self-imposed deadline because the mayor wants his biography to be launched just in time for the town fiesta this coming February. According to my partner Arnold, who’s got friends in the printing business, it takes up to two months just to publish even a minor book! Man, this politician mustn’t have any idea at all about the length of time it takes to publish a book! Now, we’re in a time quandary. But still, I think we’re doing progress.

We only got to start out last 29 August, making this project –as I’ve boasted once to Arnold– one of the most fastest-written biographies in the world. Another problem we have is that the Mayor is one of them “unlettered guys.” He’s not an avid reader. He didn’t even finish the samples of the book we’ve written about him. And worse, he wanted his book written in Tagalog. He told that to us when we’ve already written much about him.

Arnold and I weren’t trained to write in Tagalog. I think most Tagalog-speaking Filipinos today aren’t well-trained to write in their vernacular. ¡Caramba! I believe the case is much worse for other non-Tagalog Filipinos. Are they even being trained to write in their vernacular. Look at F. Sionil José. He’s an Ilocano, but he’s not articulate in his native language, being trained in English. And he admits that sad fact.

Anyway, the Mayor doesn’t seem to be all worried about that. But worried us is that he said he’s got a translator friend, a Tagalista, who can help us to translate his work. That didn’t sound right for us. We couldn’t even get out of this project anymore since he already paid us P30,000 grand. Of course we had to accept; we’re not rich kids in the first place. And that’s not bribe money, as well; it’s our first pay check as writers! Yay!

But back to the sad part. The uncertainty of seeing our names printed in this book looms in the air. What if he double-crosses us? The suspicion couldn’t be waived off because of the immediate trust he gave us in publishing his life story. I mean to say, he’s a longtime politician, a rich businessman, and one-time general manager of a prominent governmental department. He could’ve easily gotten himself a prominent writer to the job for him, right? Or maybe he trusted us that easily because he’s a friend of an uncle of mine.

Is this kind of anxiousness normal for writers who’d get published for the first time.

Dark Skies Hovered Over Gloria’s 8th SONA

Senate President Manuel Villar’s countenance was obviously (and expectedly) unexcited as he torpidly “welcomed” President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo into the podium where she is to dictate her 8th State of the Nation Address to a nation reeling from a mild cost-of-living-is-rising-like-mad panic. The Speaker of the House who stood to the president’s left was no longer the same person with big ears and sagging eyes whom she used to dine and wine with for years. The skies outside the Batasang Pambansâ were darkened by heavy storm clouds as the nation sang the Philippine National Anthem. And all this amid a nation mourning just very recently for the demise of hundreds in the grim capsizing of the M/V Princess of the Stars.

Portents?

Since assuming the presidency in 2001 from lawfully mandated president Joseph Ejército ”Erap” Estrada in a military-backed coup, each and every one of her SONAs has been highly anticipated by both supporters and critics. Arguably, she is the only president whose SONAs have made English-speaking Filipino listeners glued to their TV sets and radios. A day after giving out a SONA, all major dailies carrying the news run out in the newstands.

Last Monday’s SONA was no different. But given its recentness and the timeliness of its delivery in today’s economically distressed world, Arroyo’s latest SONA makes it extra special from her previous ones. For one, it still promises charity, hope, and progress amidst unprecedented and record-setting oil and rice price hikes. Secondly, Arroyo could already be on the twilight of her political career, especially since her administration (peppered with military personas since the very beginning) is now regarded as the Philippines’ most corrupt and unpopular leader ever, surprisingly besting even the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos!

Even the beginning of her the speech was scary enough (“I address you today at a crucial moment in world history”), immediately putting her audience on the edge of their seats. Then her speech masterfully shifted towards the issue of a global food and oil crisis hogging the country, as if blaming the Philippine troubles from outside interference.

Of course, it can never be denied that part of our modern troubles is the Great Depression’s resurrection. However, this gives a different idea to the audience when Arroyo declared that ”we are on a roller coaster ride of oil price hikes, high food prices and looming economic recession in the US and other markets. Uncertainty has moved like a terrible tsunami around the globe, wiping away gains, erasing progress. This is a complex time that defies simple and easy solutions. For starters, it is hard to identify villains, unlike in the 1997 financial crisis. Everyone seems to be a victim, rich countries and poor, though certainly some can take more punishment than others.”

It’s as if she’s putting the blame ALONE on outside forces, making it appear as if our economic woes were imminent and not self-inflicted. Also, in the Philippine setting, it is not very hard to identify villains. Just check out recent polls about her and her suspicious administration, the untiring militant throng on every major thoroughfare, and the slime behind the NBN-ZTE Controversy which make the accusations against Erap a mere barangay scuffle.

Sporadically scattered throughout her fifteen-page SONA was her emphasis on the importance of not scrapping the taxing Value Added Tax (VAT). Representing the burdened Filipino was an angry sociologist in Randy David, who, immediately right after Arroyo’s SONA, was asked for a commentary by ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC): he never hid his disbelief and utter disappointment over Arroyo’s firm stand against the VAT. In times of crises which forces an honorable head of a hungry family to toy around with ideas of thievery, it holds so much water to scrap a VAT which doesn’t seem to trickle down to the needs of those who are in dire need of its fruits. But the little president is too big to be moved by calls for her to scrap it, even for just a short while. Adding insult to injury, she thanked the Filipinos “for footing the bill.”

The much-revered David is rarely angry over a politician, and on live TV at that. And President Arroyo just did that to him, making him appear on TV barely able to contain his righteous rage, seething on the teeth.

But just as she angered some, she made millions more happy. Amusingly, she mentioned that texting is a way of life. In order to help her poverty-stricken constituents keep up with the times, she asked telecoms to cut the cost of messages between networks. She happily declared: “It is now down to 50 centavos.”

It elicited quite an applause (which she seemed to be waiting for every now and then throughout her one-hour speech) perhaps not only inside the Batasan but in each household who was tuned in to her speech.

The next day, it was made clear that the 50-cent Pinoy joy will last for a measly three months.

Like all her seven SONAs, this one is a failure. The unamused and hungry Filipino would rather find grub in garbage, and the sensible ones would rather watch grass grow, than listen to her pronouncements. Because no matter how she rams beautiful statistics into the minds of the Filipinos about our nation’s progress and development, the truth of the matter is that the laborer has to labor twice than before to feed his emaciated family, the tired commuter is compelled to secretly not pay his jeepney fare just to save his hard-earned peso (in Pinoy parlance, this is called “one… two… three!”), the squatter will have no more recourse than to join gang and highway robberies just for their loved ones to survive the economic crunch, the virgin poor will have to give up her flesh and dignity in exchange for school fees either for her or for her siblings, the legendary movie star will have to downgrade himself to a mere TV starlet on a sleazy soap opera as there is no more hope in a movie industry already on its death throes, the fisherman will have to use more dynamite and cyanide to augment his catch and translate it into lucre, the Filipino diaspora will continue to grow, and more childhood dreams of a brighter future shall continue to blow.

It’s so disheartening to continue this spite.

Another cause of her SONA’s failure is her unsavory choice to continue speaking in English in a very important speech that even the ordinary canto boy should hear. She did dabble in a few Tagalog words. But put together those Tagalog sentences and you’ll notice that it would not even fill up half a page, nor would it make any sense. Tagalog today is undoubtedly the National Language. It is spoken and understood throughout the islands even by non-Tagalogs, thanks to local media. Speaking in a foreign language only keeps her far, far away from the masses whom she declares she’s very concerned with. Remember not to forget one of Erap’s powers. and it’s spelled T-A-G-A-L-O-G.

What price our listening to the SONA? Was it even worth our time? Was the real and complete state of the nation divulged at all? There wasn’t even any mention or plan of environmental directives (now a major global concern) save for a brief caution made towards mining companies not to be environmentally harmful with their operations.

Was the SONA intended to uplift patriotic spirits? Was it merely to inform the status quo? Or was it an avenue to create more “pogui points” for her? (such queries only lead to the question of what the SONA really is for today). If the country’s in a dilemma, so is President Arroyo’s credibility. No amount of deodorants will ever take away the stench of her administration, hiding behind the thick clouds of untrustworthiness. In the words of VIP visitor Rudolph Guiliani who gave a talk yesterday (Leadership In Times of Crisis) in Makati Shangri-La, “trust is the first part of leadership in a democracy.” Not to mention transparency of government, which he kept on emphasizing.

This been said, a Federico Álvarez, Jessica Barlomento, Shenve Catana, Victoria Mindoro et al., will not suffice for a successful leadership in times of crisis. They are not the Philippines. Stupidly for the presidential spin doctors, they can never represent 80 million. They were just handpicked, successful guinea pigs in the Malacañang Laboratory of Transitory Progress. And such a travesty of an experiment it was to display a town mayor in his native g-string when it’s not really necessary at all. For crying out loud, what for?

If last Monday’s SONA is just another round of the usual political sugar-coated promises, it appears that those who died in the M/V Princess of The Stars are better off dead. Is it not said that the dead are the lucky ones, for they shall no longer suffer?

And finally, a quibble: “Panahón pa ng Kastila bumíbili na tayo ng bigás sa labás” (since the Spanish times, we’ve been importing rice). It’s either the President or her ghost writer(s) did poor research, or she has once more uttered a terminological inexactitude (translation: she lied to us again). No less than her biographer, the late great Nick Joaquín, National Artist for Literature and foremost historian, divulged in various essays that the Philippines has been exporting not only rice but hemp and other raw materials as well.

Next year’s SONA would be such a long wait.

Meanwhile, the skies still grumble…