Promotions for
gold, pats for silver

A sound engineer, who is also referred to as an "audio expert", has concluded "definitely" that the voices on the famous tapes were of nobody else but of the President and Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. We didn't need an expert to tell us that, did we?

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As expected, allies of the president quickly rejected the conclusions of the alleged expert, Jim Sarthou, who works on sound, being connected with the music industry. But who commissioned Sarthou to do this? He himself claims nobody did, he probably was just curious to know the truth about those damning tapes. Although they refused to accept Sarthou's findings, however, none of those who are protecting the President have ever offered to have foreign experts to study the voices, so that they can, once and for all, show everybody that it was NOT GMA saying "Hello" to Garci.

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As predicted here earlier, stories about the recent Southeast Asian Games continue to occupy space, both in the news sections and in columns of local and national newspapers. Among the latest items is one about the promotion, as a reward, of two members of the police, for their participation and acquisition of gold medals in their events. One was a woman and the other a man, both of them cops.

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Promoted were Sr. Inspector Nelson Pacaldo, gold medalist for Karatedo, and Mitchel Martinez, for the women's boxing gold. By the way, Mitchel, who showed her mettle in the finals in Bacolod, had her gold medal imposed on her by former University of St. La Salle President, Bro. Roly Dizon, who is credited with having discovered her prowess as a pugilist. There were several others from the police and the military who also got silver or bronze medals, but I didn't hear about any promotion for them. The report said they were given "a pat in the back", though.

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More on the lead characters of the Games, especially the ones who were in Bacolod City with their teams. Regular readers of the STAR will probably recall that I had mentioned here that Prince Norodom Buddhapong had attended the birthday party for the popular Nene Rojas last week with Mayor Bing Leonardia. Among the guests then was a regular visitor of Nene and Lourdes, former Senator John Osmeña, who shared the table with the Prince and other VIPs.

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Yesterday, I read in the column of my friend Belinda Olivares Cunanan in the Inquirer, that Senator Osmeña had tendered a dinner for the visiting Cambodian royalty in Manila before they left for home. The honorees, said Belinda, were Prince Norodom Chakrapong and Prince Norodom Buddhapong, who must be old friends of hers, since she spent several years in Cambodia when her husband, Thelmo, was the Philippine Ambassador there. I wish I had also been at that gathering to listen to their reminiscenses about their Cambodian experiences. It was also through Belinda and Thelmo, the former general, that my group and I were able to see and appreciate more of Cambodia.

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Anyway, after meeting the princes here, and telling them about having met King Norodom Sihanouk, their patriarch himself, during that visit, I felt a kinship of sorts with the royals, who were as down-to-earth and friendly as Pinoys themselves. Do you know that, among all the Southeast Asian peoples, the Cambodians and Filipinos resemble each other most? Many Indonesians and Malaysian look like Indians or Middle Eastern people, lots of Vietnamese and Thais look Chinese, but Cambodians generally look like Pinoys. What stood out in Belinda's write-up was the line that said "They were completely enamored of the places they visited, especially Bacolod…" By the way, for the information of Prince Buddhapong's fans, yesterday was his birthday.

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By the way, again, don't expect anything more to come out of that insult from Thailand's imprudent Prime Minister. Not only did he never apologize, our own President was reported to be chatting and laughing with him in Malaysia as if he had never said those disparaging remarks at all. Even our Foreign Affairs officials are just brushing it off, willing to let Thaksin walk over them, and us all.*

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