Still the Chosen People

The Malacañang of the South will stay on, of that you can be sure. Friday, the news said that Cebuanos were questioning the campaign for signatures to support the Palace, I mean, People's, Initiative, calling it illegal and unconstitutional. The report also said that a manifesto denouncing the P.I. was being readied and the top officials of the province were backing it.

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That was Friday. Saturday, the news said that the president of the League of Cities there was asking the mayors not to go on with the manifesto. It seems he or somebody even higher in rank had received a call from Malacañang. The nature of the call was not revealed, but suddenly the manifesto support went phffft. So no more manifesto, wait now for news about where the fastest collection and the biggest number of signatures came from. So far, it is supposed to be Manila, but the tide can change. And so the Promised Land will continue to retain its title.

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In the meantime, she may be on sick leave, with that threat of a stroke looming, but Senator Miriam Santiago still cannot help keeping tabs of what's going on and she continues to be very vocal about the status of the People's Initiative ploy. It was Miriam, after all, who had caused the Supreme Court to rule on people's initiative because she was the one who had questioned it in 1997. Of course she was personally interested in the outcome then, and her interest has apparently not waned.

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But the proponents of the P.I. seem to be very sure that, this time, the Supreme Court will reverse itself on that decision. Senator Miriam and the rest may be optimistic that the SC, as a body, will stick to that view, but doubting Thomases, of which there are many in the country, are pointing out that there may be 15 High Court Justices now, but 11 of them are appointees of GMA. Obviously Senator Aquilino Pimentel does not fear that, he is one of those insisting that the People's Initiative idea should be brought again to the SC for the members to rule on.

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The new Cardinal, Gaudencio Rosales of Manila, may not have noticed it during his thanksgiving mass at the Manila Cathedral last Saturday, but not the media people who started buzzing when the Lord's Prayer was being prayed. What stirred them up was the sight of President Arroyo conspicuously bowing her head, with hands clasped and eyes closed yet, and apparently ignoring the proffered hand of former President Fidel Ramos. They said the two did not also make the beso-beso greetings as they used to.

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I shouldn't make too much of that no-handholding incident, though. Just a few weeks ago, there was a report that the Vatican had not required or endorsed that practice of holding hands at that portion of the mass. Seems that was initiated only by some churchgoers and the practice spread. Me, I personally do not do it, unless the person next to me offers his or her hand, and it would seem rude to reject it. I would rather pray in the traditional way, with hands (my own) clasped in the old prayer posture. As for the beso-beso between the two, past and present presidents, maybe they didn't want to hear people asking which of them is the Judas, considering that it is now the season of Lent.

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Will women take over the United Nations, too? The term of Secretary General Kofi Annan is ending this year and guess what? There are 18 women being considered as his potential successors. Well, why not? The women are getting leadership roles all over the world now, so why not at the U.N.? If more and more of them continue to assume the posts formerly held only by men, maybe even God Himself might think He should have created the female first. By the way, foremost among the women eyeing the U.N. top post are Helen Clark of New Zealand, Sudako Odato of Japan, Aung An Suu Kyi of Myanmar, and our very own Leticia Ramos Shahani. Good luck, girls!

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Released Iraq hostage Jill Caroll has disowned the video statements released by her captors after freeing her, where she is supposed to have slammed the United States and praised the Iraqi. She says she was forced to do it because it was a condition for her freedom. At first I thought she had been affected by the Stockholm syndrome. I don't blame her, she was cooperating only to save her life.*

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