IN THE LINE OF FIRE FROM WITHIN

 

“That was a beautiful day. The sun was out, been raining all morning, the air was… first shot, sounding like a firecracker. I looked over, I saw him, I could tell he was hit. I don’t know why I didn’t react. I should have reacted. I should have been running flat out. I just couldn’t believe it. If only I’d reacted, I could have taken that shot. And that would have been alright with me.”

The above scene was from the movie “In the Line of Fire” where Frank Horrigan (played by Clint Eastwood) was explaining to fellow agent Lilly Raines (played by Rene Russo) what happened when John F. Kennedy was shot. Horrigan was a Secret Service agent detailed to guard Kennedy when he was assassinated. This is no spoiler alert since many, for sure, could have already watched the 1993 thriller, action, and drama movie. While working out this article at the same time surfing the internet, the movie flashed into my mind upon reading the following PDInquirer headline:

GUARDING SARA

“Guarding Sara: Why Next VP Is Getting Own Security Team.”

As reported: “The Armed Forces of the Philippines has ‘activated’ a new unit tasked with ensuring the security of Vice President-elect Sara Duterte and her family. A day after the launching of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) on Friday, [Sara Duterte] issued a statement acknowledging that a ‘request’ has been made for the formation of that group, in anticipation of FUTURE ELECTIONS and the possibility of STRAINED RELATIONS under that scenario between the PRESIDENT and VICE PRESIDENT.” (Underscoring mine)

The much-publicized quote of Imelda Marcos in a documentary, The Kingmaker pops up: “Perception is real.” I can’t help myself from figuring out a handful of telltale signs derived from the above eyebrow-raising muscle-flexing unraveling:

BIG TIME. “The VPSPG will now have around 300 personnel,” the source said. It is larger than Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Protection Squad consisting of 185 officers, the Pope’s Pontifical Swiss Guard with 125 soldiers, Turkey President Erdogan’s 60 bodyguards, and Boris Johnson’s 20 security personnel.

FOREBODING. “Future election” means the 2028 presidential election; “strained relations,” political power play; “President,” Marcos Jr.; “Vice-President,” Sara Duterte. I won’t need rocket science to figure out the implication of such VP build-up. Otherwise, it would be like saying to my neighbor (after I put up a military barbed wire on top of the wall between us): “This is not meant for you, but the next occupant/buyer of your house.” A double-edged sword put down: “You’re bad and stupid.”

SENSE OF URGENCY. Father knows best. Like father, like daughter. If there’s a will, with a little time left, there’s a way. What are they in power for?

UNPRECEDENTED. Never did this sort of special privilege come down in the history of our country providing for the Vice President and her family such high-power protection. Even the U.S. Secret Service was created in 1865 as a bureau only of the Treasury Department to battle widespread money counterfeiting. At the end of the Civil War, nearly a third of all currency in circulation was fake.

Nothing like the “In the Line of Fire” scene – dark sunglasses, the clandestine earpiece, and black suit – rather, the Secret Service was created to stabilize the financial system by ridding it of counterfeiters.  Only until 1901, after the assassination of President William McKinley, did the Secret Service enter into the picture of political bigwig protection.

PRO-PBBM REACTIONS

Pro-PBBM social media reactions have been quick on the trigger as sampled and edited for brevity below:

“It looks like PBBM has silent enemies in sheep’s clothing. The president must be wise as a serpent but harmless as a dove.”

“Sana hindI maging sakim ang mga tao. May tamang panahon din para kay Sara bata pa naman sya.”

“I find it offensive. I just hope that it’s not foreboding that something would go wrong between her and PBBM.”

“I think the main purpose of that group is to secure digz in his way out by using sara’s name in order to secure [him] legally”

“Sa body language at movement ng family ni madam VP inday “Truth Hurts” but magbantay lng po tau at higit natin protektahan si BBM at family niya dahil sadyang malalim ang hugot ng mga kalaban.”

“It’s already planned from the very beginning.”

“Everyone witnessed how [BBM] was bashed, trashed, and ruined by many at every direction including the sitting President.”

“It’s in preparation for “Run Sara Run”!

“Una pa lang may nakikita na akong masamang pangitain between president and vp.”

“Inday Sara needs a little bit of ‘polishing’ before being ready for the President.”

“Ang labo! Sabi na nga ba eh. Nakikita na natin ang future.”

The above sample comments speak volumes. Like dots of a handful of stars in the sky at night, we could simply connect them to come up with a clear picture of what lies ahead for our country.

CONFUSION

“And labo!” says it all. Indeed, what a confusion!

Excerpted below, the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:4-8) is a Bible story befitting in wrapping up this article.

“’Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’

“But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building.

“The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and CONFUSE their language so they will not understand each other.’

“So the Lord SCATTERED them from there over all the earth and they stopped building the city.” (Underscoring mine)

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

1. God rejects the worldly kind of “unity.”

2. In Christendom, the Tower of Babel was an act of rebellion against God. He opposes God-is-stupid arrogance. (James 4:6)

3. He who does not gather with me scatters. (Matthew 12:30)

POINTS TO PONDER

This ominous pro-PBBM comment fits like a glove around this article’s title “In the Line of Fire from Within.”

“Sa umpisa pa ay balak ni Inday hawakan ang military. At gusto niyang siya ang Secretary of National Defense. Malaking advantage niya kung under sa kanya ang military dahil pwede niyang traidorin si BBM.”

Frank Horrigan’s words fit in such a sinking feeling:

Frank: I normally prefer not to get to know the people I’m protecting.

Lilly: Why’s that?

Frank: You never know. You might decide they’re not worth taking a bullet for.”

Head still photo courtesy of Pixabay at pexelsdotcom

WEAK MOVE: AGRI SEC MARCOS JR.

 

It was a typical day. My wife, son, daughter, and I were having lunch.

“Where can I buy a kilo of cement, Dy?” my daughter Dionne asked.

Her question hinted at her bursting into a new project and bringing me on board as her financer, purchaser, and consultant rolled into one.

“What’s that cement for?” I asked high-handedly since cement is one component of concrete – a building block of my civil engineering profession.

“I will make concrete planters, Dy,” she eagerly replied.

“Concrete planters? How will you do them?” I asked with a straight face. “I think it will not be easy.” All at once, the mood over the dining table turned subdued.

“I can do it, Dy,” she cut in with confidence.

“To make concrete planters, you need formworks. Since, at first, concrete is in fluid form, you need formworks to contain it before it hardens,” I stressed. Dionne seemed unable to believe her ears and at a loss for words.

“If your planter is thin-walled, it could turn into a potato chip -- brittle and will break easily if it falls to the ground. You may need a very fine mesh to reinforce it. I could only imagine its messy process.” Puffing up, I wised up with technical jargon turning our usual family bonding into a power lunch pep talk. Dionne looked at her Mom obviously for her backing but got no word.

“How about plastic planters? They are cheap. You can simply buy them anywhere.” I tipped her off in earnest.

With tears welling up in her eyes, Dionne stood up and left the dining table without even touching her food.

Caught off-guard and mixed up about what broke out that day, I Google “concrete planters” that very night. Whoa, the images on the screen unfolding before my eyes struck me dumb – an array of colorful concrete planters in fine-looking shapes and diverse sizes with accompanying how-to-do instructions. In the same breath, I got an “aha” moment: I found the vital piece I had missed during my power lunch pep talk – the silicon mold – the cutting-edge recyclable substitute for conventional formworks available online in various shapes and sizes. The next day I drove to the nearest hardware store and bought the cement Dionne had asked for her concrete planters project.

In essence, what took place during our lunchtime?

MICROMANAGEMENT

Dionne, a proponent then, proposed a project – concrete planters. Being a prospective financer, purchaser, and consultant, right there and then, I assumed the role of being the project head. No problem with that. Here’s the crux of the matter: I micromanaged it – even as the project was still in its early proposal-making stage.

What is micromanagement?

Wikipedia defines it as “a management style whereby a manager closely observes and/or controls and/or reminds the work of their subordinates or employees. Micromanagement is generally considered to have a negative connotation mainly because it shows a lack of freedom and trust in the workplace.”

“Interference and disruption” – that’s what micromanagement is all about for Harry E. Chambers, author of “My Way or the Highway: The Micromanagement Survival Guide.” He wrote, “It occurs when influence, involvement, and interaction begin to subtract value from people and processes. It is the perception of inappropriate interference in someone else’s activities, responsibilities, decision making, and authority… the excessive, unwanted, counterproductive interference and disruption of people or things.”

Headline: "Marcos will be agriculture secretary at least for now."

He intended to “reorganize the Department of Agriculture in the way that will make it ready for the next years to come.” All at once, PhilStar Jarius Bondoc took issue with it in his in-your-face column head: “Stop reinventing the wheel.”

To borrow from chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer’s words in one of his matches: “This is a weak move already.”

Yet, Marcos Jr. may say: “I’m not micromanaging” which squares with the character his father wrote in his diary: “Bongbong is our principal worry. He is too carefree and lazy.” Besides, Marcos Jr. can’t micromanage because he’s not even an agriculture specialist -- Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas has considered him as “grossly unqualified.”

Marcos Jr. could even say, “I’m only trying to help. I’m only doing what is necessary to ensure success.”

Fair enough. But, here’s the bone of contention: When does headship become micromanagement? Chambers explained:

“When they interfere with performance, quality, and efficiency. When they become barriers to achievement or impediments to getting things done. Micromanagement and micromanagers do not add value to individuals or processes. Regardless of the intent, the results are subtraction, not addition.”

Trinity Solutions’ survey on micromanagement revealed the following: 7 in 10 workers said being micromanaged interfered with their job performance and 8 in 10 said being micromanaged impacted negatively their morale.

The crux of the dilemma: Perception. The gap between the perceptions of Marcos Jr.as a micromanager (true or not) and his Agriculture department as being micromanaged (real or imagined) in the words of Chambers, “is the breeding ground for misunderstanding, morale problems, high frustration, and declining productivity. The broader the gap, the less job satisfaction there is for everyone involved.”

MACROMANAGEMENT

Here’s the other side of the coin: Macromanagement.

Macromanagement leadership delegates authority and responsibilities to people while focusing on the long-term strategy. A macromanager uses a hands-off approach and allows subordinates to perform their tasks independently.

Former US President Ronald Reagan’s leadership style seems to fit the macromanagement definition above like a glove. Ben T. Elliot of National Review wrote that he “led a great American comeback. He not only achieved what his critics said would be impossible; he made it easy. His leadership transformed a sputtering U.S. economy into a rocket of growth that led to a generation of prosperity. He restored a neglected U.S. military and its alliances, engineering the eventual defeat of the Soviet empire, without starting a war and without firing a shot.” The essence of Reagan’s following words could be the key to his leadership style:

“Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.”

Sign of political will. Strategic. Fearless. These are among the many honeyed words Marcos Jr. gained from his Agriculture move. But the statement of his Super Ate Imee (as written by PhilStar Ana Marie Pamintuan) is a fly in the ointment: it acknowledged that “BBM faces frighteningly high public expectations – highest in his most remarkable aspiration for P20 per kilo rice.”

Not only will he micromanage (perceived or not) the Agriculture department, but also he will shell out a chunk of his limited time to deliver on his campaign promise of P20 per kilo of rice. The Manila Times Marlen Ronquillo “sees no credible, viable path” of such promise within Marcos Jr.’s full term. Like in chess, not only is it a weak move, but it's also a dubious one -- pre-emptive for an expected loss of a piece: "I did my best" as the popular line of a song goes.

It was a typical day. My wife, son, daughter, and I were having lunch.

“Where can I buy a hamsters’ cage, My?” Dionne asked her mom.

Her question hinted at her bursting into a new project and bringing, this time, her Mom on board as her financer, purchaser, and consultant rolled into one.

I just kept quiet. I learned my lesson in micromanagement: do not stifle her growth and creativity.

Head still photo courtesy of Rhalf Ryan Gejon of pexelsdotcom

ROLE MODEL: SUCH LONELY WORDS TODAY

 

“He threw his other slipper into the river’s onrushing water.”

That was the punch line our elementary school teacher gave away while telling our whole class the story about Dr. Jose Rizal who did throw his slipper after the other one had fallen into the water. “Why?” I quietly asked myself. She said someone downstream would find the pair. “Wow!” I murmured. All at once, not only did such a selfless act leave an indelible mark in my mind, but also it touched me in looking up to Rizal ever since that day as a hero. Our teacher won the day by telling us to follow in the footsteps of Rizal as our role model.

(Btw, public historian Ambeth R. Ocampo in his PDI column wrote, “There is no historical basis for this story, and if it were true, Rizal was just being pilosopo to avoid punishment.” Let alone, it’s unthinkable that anyone could find that thrown pair of slippers together downstream.)

MENTORS

During my high school years, my role models were my mentors – my late two brothers and a sister (mechanical, civil, and chemical engineering students respectively then) – who paved the way for me to become a civil engineer. My eldest brother, Toto, broke the ice of mathematics on me one mentoring day by mouthing off: “x plus x equals 2x, x times x equals x squared. Don’t ask me why. Just accept it. Period.” Another brother, Rolly, fired my imagination in the world of drawings, paintings, and creative writing, among other artistic perspectives of engineering.

This one-liner reminds me of my late sister, Nasie: “I told a chemistry joke, there was no reaction” – speaks volumes humorously about the sober faces one imagines seeing inside the chemical engineering labs. But, far from it, what I came upon lying underneath such an aloof chemical engineer’s façade was an invisible tender heart. Right after I left home for the first time to get my high school learning off the ground in a faraway strange place, it was my sister who played the role of a surrogate mother during that challenging period of my living in a boarding house -- like a 12-year-old boy in an orphanage.

During my college years, oddly, not a hint of any role model flashed back, apart from that morsel of a drifting flux called Love -- which I had a sneaking feeling was a spillover of the spirit of the 60s – the so-called Love Generation. It shaped the way for today’s free thinkers and dreamers: make love not war theme synthesizing with the sounds in the airwaves of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and The Mamas and the Papas, among others. I bought then a book at a school campus store that delved into the Biblical phrase, “Love casts out fear.” Amazingly, the essence of the book cast out my fear induced by the campus security issues then: military presence and ethnic discord.

During my corporate heyday, “management gurus” were the buzzword for mentors whose out-of-the-box, brand-spanking-new management theories dominated over the workplace in stacks of hot-off-the-press books with prominent authors then like Tom Peters, and Stephen Covey, among others.

ICON

            Today, aside from writing, I still love movies and Hollywood icons. One actor I hold in high regard is Denzel Washington whose commencement address to Dillard University in 2015 (University of Pennsylvania in 2011) I am excerpting below:

“One, put God first in everything you do… do what I’ve done, and stick with God. Two, fail big. Today is the beginning of the rest of your life, and it can be very frightening… Do what you feel passionate about… Don’t be afraid to fail…have dreams… but have goals… apply discipline and consistency… hard work works… Three, you’ll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse. I don’t care how much money you make, you can’t take it with you…Finally, I pray that you put your slippers, way under the bed tonight, so that when you wake up in the morning, you have to get on your knees to reach them… Say, thank you.”

The embedded nuggets of wisdom above are so rousing that his videos have gathered close to 50 million viewers on YouTube.

I picked out Denzel as a role model not only do I rate him highly as a Hollywood actor, but also he is: a) a foreigner and dodges the biblical rebuff: “no prophet is accepted in his country”; and b) non-partisan in our present polarized political plight.

The impact of Denzel’s soul-stirring speech was as dramatic as his big-league presence at the graduation which the universities have deemed as an exemplary role model for their graduates to emulate. And why not? He has been described by The Cine-Files as an actor (besides being a director and a producer) who reconfigured “the concept of classic movie stardom.” Two-time Academy Award winner, Denzel was named by The New York Times as the greatest actor of the 21^st century. On October 11, 2021, the U.S. Army made Denzel the Honorary Sergeant Major of the Army for his work providing free homes for military families while receiving medical care.

WANTED ROLE MODELS

What about the role models among us – particularly those at the top of the power totem pole? Here’s a Pinoy-on-the-street’s deep-rooted comment that encapsulates the low-grade value of role models in our country today:

“Filipinos are intrinsically disciplined people. Offshore, Filipinos manifest discipline, leading to an improved life. In the Philippines, however, Filipinos tend to forget discipline since public officials and law enforcers show undisciplined behavior, we lack ROLE MODELS (underscoring mine) that we can emulate and that can serve as the standard of discipline.” (Edwin Monares, Rizal)

Based on Pew Research Center, 4.2 million Filipinos are living in the U.S. as of 2019 – the third-largest Asian origin group – which begs the question: Why is the group’s representation in U.S. Congress has been sparse?

Professor Pei-te Lien, an Asian-American specialist at the University of California, came up with the key. NBC News reported that "she and her colleagues have continuously wondered why the [Filipino-American's] political power hasn't followed the growth of its populations." She said:

"The group could do a lot more in terms of visibility in mainstream politics, but you need some ROLE MODELS [underscoring mine]…”

Sad to say, we have these PH role model triple whammies today:

Exhibit A. The SUV hit and run case: a special privilege in action. “Kapag mahirap nagnakaw ng bayabas kulong agad! What’s happening to our country, Mr. President?” outgoing Senate President Vicente Sotto III tweeted.

Exhibit B. “The stupidest thing I heard today is Robin Padilla forgiving Aljur for breaking his daughter’s heart with no apologies because it’s 'natural' for men to cheat.” (Nate) As an actor, Robin Padilla’s own role model should have been Denzel Washington, being in the same industry.

Exhibit C: “If Bongbong Marcos wins, P328-Billion ill-gotten wealth, unpaid taxes may not be recovered.” (Former Associate Justice Antonio Carpio)

Quo vadis, PH?

Head still photo courtesy of Pixabay

PROVING ELECTION FRAUD AS TOUGH AS PROVING GOD EXISTS

 

Author’s note: A long and complex article, this must be read, I suggest, when you have nothing else to do.

“We can conclude the election was not credible and therefore the result is not acceptable… If IT experts find SD cards were tampered with, then the election can be considered a failure.” (Frank Ysaac, former president of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, “Sanctity of the Ballot” Electoral Fraud Series conference, June 14, 2022)

Many years ago, urged by the school, I wrote a letter to Dionne, my 12-year-old daughter then, sitting in on a retreat, which I am excerpting below:

“Every morning, you wake up, you see through your window the sun rises behind the mountain. It is very, very far -- 93 million miles away -- so far that if we fly to go there in a jet plane, it would take us almost 20 years. By that time, you would have gotten married and had kids already.

“It is also very, very hot – 5,600 degrees centigrade – so hot not only will it boil water, but also vaporize your hot chocolate cup like your superhero with laser eyes. This heat travels from the sun through outer space at the speed of light – 186,000 miles per second – as fast as lightning, like your superhero. After 8 minutes of whizzing in outer space, the heat cools down and gets to the earth as warm sunlight which you feel on your skin during the day. This heat cooks the brew of carbon dioxide sniffed by the plant from the air and water sipped from the ground -- at the kitchens in its leaves. You call this cooking in your science, photosynthesis. It turns up oxygen and carbohydrates that keep life going on Earth.

“Just imagine, this whole set-up goes on every second every day all year round even while you’re asleep. Just imagine, what would have happened if the sun got a little closer to earth – we would have been barbecued. Yuck! If farther, we would have been frozen, like ice cubes. Ew!

“Dionne, the distance between the earth and the sun is so perfect that some guy is so cool and intelligent to have made such exact computation -- just like the carpenter who made your desk and chair. The same guy you’ve always asked in your prayer before you go to sleep to watch over you the whole night. We call him, God.”

INTELLIGENT DESIGN

Still instilled into my mind, the essence of such a letter was inspired by a Jesuit priest in college who had given away in a retreat those cool insights which I found irresistible. Later, I figured out it’s a perfect example of what is known today as Intelligent Design (ID) – defined as the study of patterns in nature that are best explained as the product of intelligence.

Here’s a familiar picture -- an arrow hits the bull’s eye – and begs the question: How do I hit the bull’s eye like that? One Quora netizen, Michael Bertsch, hits the target with his straight-as-an-arrow answer (edited for clarity and space) below:

“Our brains have a place in there dedicated to the development of target-directed motor skills. When we start to learn, we shoot an arrow. Our brains begin to store the data from that shot: finger position, whether the drawing elbow is in line with the point of aim, holding hand position, and body orientation. Our brain remembers where the arrow went. It begins to correct for errors the very next shot.”

To get as good as the Olympics gold medallist, it may take as many as thousands of shots. “You have to do everything the same every time,” Bertsch stressed. “The arrow will go in the same place each time.”

In a nutshell, that striking picture of an arrow that hits the bull’s eye is a result of an “intelligent design” -- the blueprint of which is processed in our brain.

Here’s a classic example of the argument for the evidence of intelligent design: the origin of information in Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and the origin of life. DNA is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. It is the carrier of genetic information. Stephen C. Meyer, Cambridge-educated philosopher of science explained in his book “Signature in the Cell” which I am excerpting below:

“We know that what runs the show in biology is what we call digital information or digital code…The DNA molecule is literally encoding information into alphabetic or digital form. And that’s a hugely significant discovery because what we know from experience is that information always comes from intelligence, whether we’re talking about hieroglyphic inscription or a paragraph in a book, or a headline in a newspaper. If we trace information back to its source, we always come to a mind…”

Bill Gates says, “DNA is like a computer program.” Just as the computer hardware that can copy and process information in software originated in the mind of an engineer, so too DNA can be inferred to have a creative source in the mind of an “intelligent designer.”

While the Theory of Evolution (TE) sees all of life and all structures on our planet as the result of blind purposeless material processes, on the contrary, ID looks into scientific evidence for patterns in nature as a design – the product of intelligence. Such intelligence can be God. ID logic says: if there’s God, then there’s design. In contrast, TE logic says: if there’s no design, then there’s no God.

William Dembski, mathematician, philosopher, theologian, and ID proponent, illustrated a futuristic scene where some aliens drop by the Earth to carry out an archaeological study about the long-lost humankind and find Mt. Rushmore relic. The faces of Roosevelt, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington on their digital archives, match the faces on Mt. Rushmore. Aliens can figure out it is not the result of the natural forces of wind and erosion but the intelligent design.

MALEFICENT DESIGN

At this point in my article, the picture of the earnest efforts of a few good men at the “Sanctity of the Ballots” Electoral Fraud Series conference entered my mind.

As a backgrounder, my personal chat with an IT expert-friend the day after the election about the “weird” aspect of the results would be a useful discussion starter.

Me: Have you seen that viral print of a seeming pre-programmed digital process? What’s your opinion about it?

IT Friend (ITF): It means, the SOURCE CODE had been revised to follow a fixed pattern of a gap.

Me: Is this possible?

Then, I showed my friend the viral 8-minute video of a simulated mini-election in a workplace which demonstrated the hacking of the electronic voting machine that might have happened allegedly in our May 9 election.

Me: The video clip has demonstrated it can happen. Right?

ITF: I think it could be done as he demonstrated in the video.

Here’s a major takeaway from the conference taken from Jenny Ortuoste’s column in Manila Standard:

“Gen. Eliseo Rio, former Department of Information and Communications Technology undersecretary for operations, showed statistical and mathematical analyses pointing to the ‘statistically improbable’ numbers as well as distorted ratios that he said tend to show that ‘the results were programmed to jibe with the poll surveys’.”

Former Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) president Frank Ysaac has offered proof that the May 9 national election was fixed for President-elect Marcos Jr. Gianni Russo in the Dailypedia article reported that “like the millions of Filipinos, Ysaac found it peculiar how 80 percent of the voters were already counted in just two hours. Secondly, he wondered about the SD card that was used to run the software responsible for counting the votes.” He raised the following questions:

“Dahil sa mabilis na transmission, meron bang nag-check kung may laman na mga balota bago mag-umpisa ng election? Meron ba nag-check ng SD bago ininstall sa 107k VCM? Sino po nag-install ng SD cards sa VCMs? At sino ba talaga ang provider na binayaran ng COMELEC para sumulat ng codes?”

As the Intelligent Design proponents have inferred: the “improbable” was the result of intelligence, ironically, in this election fraud case – it is the result of a human maleficence.

“I would say… we haven’t won the day,” Dembski lamented. “I remember one professor of mine of statistics, he said, ‘You know it is one thing to have a good idea, but then you’ve got to sell the idea.’”

            In the same boat, the few good men of the Electoral Fraud Series conference, sad to say, have still to win the day too. Phil Daily, big data analyst and engineer of the U.S. Filipinos for Good Governance, summed up:

“Was the 2022 Philippine presidential election an example of a perfectly executed campaign, or the greatest scam ever? Unfortunately, we will never really know.”

Just as we may ask, "Is there a God?" "intelligent" patterns in nature seem to say so, so too we may ask, "Is there an election fraud?" "improbable" patterns in results seem to say so.

Food for thought clincher: Is this a case of much ado about nothing or a blinding flash of the obvious?

Head Still Photo Courtesy of Cottonbro from pexelsdotcom

WHEN TEACHERS BEHAVE LIKE STUDENTS

 

“When journalists behave like bloggers,” Antonio Contreras’ column head in The Manila Times sparked off the above title. His column spelled out the journalists vs. vloggers row triggered by Marcos Jr.’s incoming Press Secretary's announcement regarding the vloggers’ accreditation to cover Palace events.

JOURNALISTS VS. VLOGGERS

Journalists overreacted. But they have enough reasons to do so.

During the campaign period, Arnel Agravante, a vlogger, told his follower he knew how Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his candidate of choice, had become wealthy, New York Times reported. He said that Marcos Sr. did not steal the money from the government, but was given tons of gold by a secretive royal family. Although the so-called Tallano gold story was already debunked, even by Marcos Jr. himself, the single-minded Mr. Agravante toughed it out. Ridiculing Marcos’ critics, Mr. Agravante told the Times, “That’s what they call ‘ill-gotten wealth.’”

Jovalyn “Mami Peng” Alcantara, with 24,000 TikTok followers falsely claimed, Times reported, that the Philippines’ debt doubled to $50 billion under Corazon Aquino. When a Times reporter pointed out her error, she retorted, “So what if it’s incorrect?”

On the flip side, to his fellow so-called “journalists and “columnists,” Joel P. Salud in his PhilStar column “Vlogging Most Foul” has this to say:

“Shouldn’t we be more suspicious of so-called “journalists” and columnists” – at times even a whole newspaper company – who bear the title but never the moral code that sets journalism apart from mediocre media? Those who hurl their principles and conscience out the window at the slightest hint and smell of legal tender? Whose misplaced political loyalties get in the way of exposing the truth? Those who couldn’t tell fact from fiction?”

The self-righteous hypocrisy reminds me of my experience right after my early corporate retirement. Early because our company National Steel Corporation shut down due to the nation’s economic crisis. Since I had still two productive decades before the real retirement age of 65, my wife and I discussed our future and our three children in school.

First option: To take a job in the Middle East.

Drawback: I would leave my family during the contract period

Second option: To relocate my whole family to a foreign country like Canada

Drawback: My wife would quit her bank job plus the relocation hassles as narrated by one co-employee in my previous ATABAY article “The Story of Lulut: Our Canada Migration Bothered Me for Too Long.”

Third Option: I would stay put and look for a local job like teaching.

Drawback: My potential income would be very minimal.

MOONLIGHTING TEACHERS

We agreed and decided in choosing the third option. One day, my wife, fully tuned in to any local job opportunity for me, came upon a handful of her bank clients taking along stacks of books with them inside the bank. She came to know during their chats they were local teachers moonlighting on internet writing jobs.

Tipped off, I surfed the internet. Among a swarm of writing job websites I ran into, I picked one, applied, and became a member. The website rolled out a collection of writing jobs that I could choose ranging from a simple essay to a complex proposal for a foreign city waterworks project.

At the outset, the novelty of the whole setup – the writing job on the screen in front of me inside my home – pumped me up. Eager and energized, I took my best shot at a variety of writing jobs I picked out, not even worrying about how I would be paid since my earnings were accumulated online.

One time I took a crack at a particular job in developing a promotional program for a particular brand of basketball shoes. The program would introduce the brand in the same class as the likes of Nike and Adidas in a highly competitive global market. I got a kick out of doing the job because I love and have played basketball. Later, I read from the paper and then learned the name of the basketball shoe brand -- Under Armour – with its face today in the person of Golden Warriors Stephen Curry, widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time and the greatest shooter in NBA.

CONTRACT CHEATING STUDENTS

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Here’s the pudding:

“Millions of students are buying ‘plagiarism-free’ essays for as little as $13 – and it’s nearly impossible for teachers to prove” (Business Insider headline)

I got a taste of such pudding—not just an essay, but big time, a college term paper – the most consequential job I went all out. I worked day and night like a dog in getting through the term paper, met the deadline, and provided for the quality of the work required. A few days after my submission, I was taken by surprise -- for the first time -- my finished job was returned to me for modification.

For the first time also, I got a clear picture of the reality of the “dark side” of the job. The online company had it brought to my attention that the buyer, a real-life college graduating student in the US, directed me to simplify my complex proposal. The word “simplify” prompted me then in harboring this suspicion: his actual class standing could not match up with the quality of my finished term paper which he paid for. He could have known full well his teacher would not buy the idea that it’s his work.

The online company administrator directed me in going along with what his client demanded. I recognized that the administrator was without, if not lacking, the technical nuts and bolts of the job. So I explained to him using a metaphor: my finished product was a sports car and the client wanted me to modify it into a sedan. I said, “No way,” because the client’s demand would require a “new car” – implying a new job order and another payment.

Consequently, tagging obviously after the universal “Customer is always right” business dictum, the administrator penalized me with a hefty amount of deduction from my accumulated earnings.

Right then and there, I submitted a resignation letter. Out of my noble discontent, I notified them also my personal donation of my net accumulated earnings to the online company to promote its corporate value of social responsibility.

 A few days later, my daughter was taken aback by an overseas call from someone with a foreign accent – it was my online company. I did not take the call. My daughter told me the caller broke the good news – I was promoted to a “freelance writer” level. That was our last contact.

One morning, I was about to begin a class lecture when, out of the blue, facing the whole class, this odd but hilarious picture flashed across my mind: a teacher was reading an essay he/she had composed online -- submitted by his/her own student.

On a lighter note, let’s wrap up this article with this inverted picture: when a student behaves like a teacher.

Teacher: Okay, Mr. Genius, how about taking over the class?

Student: Okay, class, dismiss. Ma’am, you remain to clean the room.

Head still photo courtesy of Pixabay

FRESH PERSPECTIVES ON TWILIGHT YEARS

 

“When will you leave for the US?” my daughter Dionne PMed her mom.

Many times before, she raised such a question, bathed with anticipation, right after my wife and I had gotten our visas. We kept on holding off our travel plan due to the hassles of getting ready particularly putting in order what we would leave behind – house, car, and pets, among others -- until, double-quick, our plan was shut off by the pandemic.

This time our daughter asked the same question but tinged with apprehension. It was a day after the elections when she was a first-time voter. The results dismayed her just as Ethan, another first-time voter, was so distressed that he wrote a piece in Manila Standard, which I am excerpting below:

“Yes, we had months and countless conversations of preparing, promoting, and theorizing on how the results will be yet, especially to me, a first-time voter. The silence only brought an eerie realization. The thought stayed on my mind even as I drifted to sleep – that the fate of my future, those around me, and the unborn children of tomorrow, now hangs in a balance.”

            My daughter’s emotionally loaded question not only did remind us of our trip running behind but also has opened our eyes to fresh perspectives on life’s hourglass -- ebbing with time.

SECOND WIND

“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got, and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.” (William James, philosopher, historian, and psychologist)

Surfing the internet, I came across five remarkable seniors who ran far enough and got their dreams with amazing energy coming out of them.

Harry Bernstein spent a long life writing in obscurity but finally achieved fame at age 96 for his 2007 memoir “The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers.”

Tom Allen is Britain’s oldest yoga instructor who still teaches at 90 years old.

Laura Ingalls Wilder spent her later years writing semi-autobiographical stories and published the first in the “Little House” books at age 65. They became children’s literary classics and the basis for the TV show “Little House on the Prairie.”

Frank McCourt only took up writing at the age of 65. His book “Angela’s Ashes” won both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Award.

Toni Morrison did not become famous in public until she became the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature at 62.

Interestingly, four of them plunged into writing – my present passion – which speaks volumes about the enduring power of our brain in the thinking process.

Presently, although I am happy in writing articles for my ATABAY blog in my basement, I feel I have not run far enough. To find out I’ve got a second wind on my thinking and writing career, I figure out I have to run farther in the land of the free and the home of the brave -- the U.S. of A. Like the five remarkable seniors above, I look forward to that amazing energy to come out of me.

UNTAPPED POTENTIAL

“With U.S. unemployment near its lowest rate in 50 years, companies are adopting creative strategies for pursuing talent, from hiring people with criminal records to recruiting high school students... But one segment of the population remains relatively untapped: older adults.” (Excerpted from Kellogg Insight’s “In the Hunt for Top Talent, Don’t Overlook Older Workers”)

Just as the U.S. companies are being encouraged to tap the potential of the older people, so too I am saying to myself: “You need to put to good use your untapped potential. So go to where your school of fish is; it’s where the fishermen fish.”

Before the day I launched my ATABAY blog last year, I had surfed the internet multiple times for legit offered writing jobs, especially in the US market that pays in dollars. But before I could even look into the scope of some of the jobs I chose and sized up – to ensure I could tackle the task -- all at once, this in-your-face requisite barred me: you must live in the U.S. After mulling over, right then and there, I said to myself, “You must live where the action is with the green card.” Thanks to my daughter-nurse Jan Kristy, a newly-naturalized American citizen for filing the petition for her dad and mom to become green card holders.

The untapped potential that I gained during my corporate heyday has remained untapped, due to the nature of the corporate rat race then, which I narrated, with a heavy heart, in my previous ATABAY article “Seventy-Seven Times” which I am excerpting below:

“For the next four years, I boosted my credentials with three postgraduate studies: Master of Business Management in Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, Diploma in Research and Development Management in the University of the Philippines-Los Banos, and Master Program of Management Studies in the Institute of Certified Professional Managers (ICPM) in Virginia, USA.

“ICPM conducted the class online (a precursor of what’s happening today) by sending me 20 management books. At my own pace, I read the first book, from cover to cover, answered a set of more than a hundred questions, and then sent the set of my answers to ICPM. Then, I read the second book, and so on, until I read the whole 20 books in 3 months and ultimately received a highly sought-after international ICPM certificate. Being one of the three only in the whole country who completed the course then, showed how I was too determined in boosting my race car’s horsepower.”

Sad to say, though boosted, my corporate race car was never engine-started. As I narrated in my article then, the corporate rat race rules suddenly changed. This time, with God’s grace, I look forward to harnessing such boosted knowledge in my US trip.

SUCCESSFUL AGING

“There is a term, ‘successful aging,’ that has come to define a certain type of senior, one who accomplishes astonishing tasks in the final gasp of one’s life… like the ninety-six-year old who ran the New York City Marathon or the 101-year-old who released her first collection of poems.” (Emily Urquhart, How Creativity Changes as We Age)

I will go to the US neither to run the New York City Marathon (but who knows?) nor publish there my first collection of ATABAY articles (wow!); nor will such a trip be my last hurrah (PH will always be my country). I will go to the US to live a life and do work that will bring personal fulfillment and lasting relationships, and in a little good way, to make some difference. I could not achieve such “successful aging,” here and now, under our nation’s grueling plight that I wrote eight months before the election in my previous ATABAY article “What Do I See?” which I am excerpting below:

><>< 

The Future

Question: Why did God give PH, the “Light of Asia” (Pope John Paul II prayer) a ruler who insulted Pope Francis and called God stupid?

Answer: “[God] PUNISHED [His people] by delivering them to their attackers…” (2 Kings 17:20, emphasis mine); “When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers.” (John Calvin). Cardinal Sin affirmed Calvin’s assertion with Marcos and his Martial Law as Exhibit A. Thus, to punish, God has given PH such kind of ruler today.

Why? 1 in 4 Pinoys is below the poverty line. PH, for being the “Light of Asia,” has angered God as He was with Sodom that “DID NOT HELP THE POOR.” (Ezekiel 16:49, emphasis mine)

What will happen in the [May 9] election? If God is still angry, He will give us another Punisher.

><>< 

“Akala ko magma-migrate ka ‘pag nanalo ang Marcos,” Senator Imee Marcos asked journalist Karen Davila. I would have replied:

“Wish me luck, Senator Imee, and may God have mercy on our country!”

Head still photo courtesy of Hernan Pauccara from pexeldotcom