Think about it
Hong Kong political outrage is familiar to us
By Jun Velasco
“Democracy cannot be safe anywhere unless it is safe everywhere,” E.C. McKenzie
FIRST, the good news.
The country’s sports world is ecstatic with the gold medal triumph of Fil-Am Daniel Caluag at the Asian Games.
Do we see our cycling icon Jess Garcia smiling?
The gold was what the nation needs greatly, after Gilas’ fiasco earlier.
Pinoys see a silver lining in cycling and boxing, but not basketball (that ball deserves to be thrown in the basket eh!) as their doorway to excellence in sport.
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What’s happening in Hong Kong is a deja vu, it’s not new to Filipinos.
Some quarters think our EDSA experience in 1986 gave the former British colony some ideas.
Earlier, a decade back, we told Ely Panelo—a cousin of Atty. Salvador Panelo—at his residence in Hong Kong that the tranquility they were enjoying would crack sooner or later.
We said the English culture won’t sit well with Communism. It would break, we said non-chalantly.
It took more than 15 years for that fact to surface. The delay, we thought, could be due to Beijing’s relaxation of policy in cadence with the democratization trend worldwide.
Were we right?
The ongoing turmoil has uncorked Beijing distrust of Hong Kongers’ clamor to vote for the leader they want—not in the mold imposed by the Communist Party.
As of presstime, the imbroglio has reached a stalemate. Our crystal ball is that the Bully won’t budge citing lessons in Moscow when democracy prevailed but leaving Russia with weak knees.
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We were in Hong Kong then on invitation of British publisher Vonnie Boston we met at a publishers’ meeting in Manila. She invited us to give writing and publishing tips to her magazine Tinig Pilipino edited by Linda Layosa, a native of Bicol.
The magazine’s contents were mostly literary—moanings of the heart by overseas Pinoys and Pinays.
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The region’s Tourism Director Martin Valera has developed a love affair with the province (Attn: President Rey Gloria of “I love Pangasinan” Assn). Director Valera recently suggested Pangasinan’s scenic beauty should be shown to the world…and kick away the tag given us by the VACC as a hub of criminality.
No, we don’t advise closing our eyes to everything that is dark; we need only highlight what’s substantive in a place.
By the way, the Governor has just left for the U.S. to do just that—tell the Yankees and our US-based Pinoys the Pangasinan success story in moving pictures produced by media experts Jerry Nisperos and family.
It’s but fair!
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From the grapevine, a UP Diliman graduate wishes to tie up with Mayor Mark Macanlalay for the launching of a massive youth forum that would expose the evils of corruption and merits of “Daang Matuwid” (Straight Path).
They handpicked Macanlalay for having shown his and his father Vice Mayor Roy’s leadership in transforming the town to an urbanizing enclave.
Described in the past as “Makati of Pangasinan”, is it also high time for the town to become a city like its MM Makati City counterpart?
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A pall of gloom has descended on DCNHS Class 63 with the recent demise of their classmate Violeta Tandoc-Fernandez. Her husband Ric, a former adman of San Miguel, and this columnist once partnered for JdV’s media network before he became House speaker.
Brenda Manese said Violy died of stroke seven days after visiting another classmate Lydia Dalmacio’s birthday party in California. Dagupan-based classmates led by Ope Reyna held a mass and breakfast last Tuesday. May she rest in peace.
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