Think about it
Politics and media for progress
By Jun Velasco
“He who confers a favor should at once forget it, if he is not to show an ungenerous spirit,” Demosthenes
WE are all witnesses to the sour side of a love affair or marriage gone wrong.
We are referring to the “chismis”—news item on the infidelity of Gov. Edgardo Tallado on his pretty wife, Josefina, who, the governor suspects, uploaded in the internet showing him and his “mistress in the nude and masturbating.”
That was “gross,” says Mrs. Tallado’s lawyer, Lorna Kapunan.
Not given to voyeurism, we opine it should really take some uncanny toughness from either spouse for a marriage to survive “the slings and the arrows of outrageous fortune.”
How many marriages in the roll are languishing because the parties find the romantic novel’s promise of everlasting love as an illusion?
It takes steely resolve and self-esteem to hold on. The Tallados didn’t have that. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said, “Man has lived through wars, through epidemics, through all forms of diseases, but the most excruciating tragedy that has hit him has been, is and will be the bedroom tragedy.”
To some people with their marriages in shambles, Schopenhauer’s statement is an understatement.
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Our province was hit by a political storm in the papers about graft charges against Governor Spines, Prov. Administrator Raffy Baraan, youthful provincial chief of housing Alvin Bigay and eleven others based on a black sand mining complaint.
We remember the black sand issue was raised in the last elections, but Guv’nor Espino won with an overwhelming margin of 554,000 votes over his opponent.
It may be apropos to give way to a piece of news relayed to us by old pal Oscar Angeles, a descendant of the late Dr. Nicanor Padilla and former Senator Ambrosio Padilla.
Oscar, an admirer of Guv’nor Espino, says the Padilla family is donating 11 hectares of lot in Bugallon town for three groups: youth camp, 5 hectares; Muslims cemetery 4.5 hectares; and the Association of the Deaf and Mute 1.5 hectares.
The donation is in the name of the Province of Pangasinan under Guv’nor Espino.
The black sand mining case should give the governor another opportunity to hurdle it with confidence having, a spokesman, said no guilt in it.
Good luck.
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Our column item last week that suggested a meeting between Mayor Belen Fernandez and Ambassador Tony Cabangon-Chua has received and continues to receive positive and encouraging feedbacks.
One of the endorsers of the proposal is a Manila media executive who sees in a reconciliation full of business opportunities for a city beating on the doorsteps of a modern metropolis.
It should not be hard for Belen, who is an established business mogul in North Luzon, and Ambassador Tony Cabangon-Chua, half Pangasinense by his Carlenian mother, to jointly explore giant business ventures in Dagupan and environs.
Like our Publisher Ermin’s congratulatory words for the ambassador in his Punch line last week for his forays in media technology, we think it would be pragmatic wisdom for a joint effort en route to unparalleled progress.
We believe politics and media should be partners for community and country.
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Congressman Egay Erice has effectively pushed on the defensive Vice President Jojo Binay and his spokesmen on the issue of graft and corruption.
Methinks it isn’t fair for our graft-ridden bureaucracy to shrug off or dismiss the graft charges against Binay who has been working like hell to be our next president– given a still strong sector that tenaciously clings to honest work and a clear conscience as the only formula for a decent and, as in the title of our favorite author Dennis Helming’s book, ‘The Examined Life.’
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Rest in peace, Maning. We should be addressing him Kuya or Manong Maning Almario who died at 84 the other day. We were the only two representatives of the National Press Club to Beijing in 2000 to swap views with China’s leaders of media. He was editor of the Graphic and the Filipino Journalist of the NPC. We were editor of the NPC Digest before our election as director of the club…. Savor the brewed coffee of UCPB and experience the difference, advises Mark Baltazar of the bank.
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