Stronger, and also stouter

Even when officials, led by the President, are all ecstatic over the surge of the Philippine peso to P52.80 which, they say, may even go up to P52, I still can't feel as upbeat as they. Maybe it is because I still think backwards, to the time when I used to travel often and the rate was only P25 instead of P52. Will we ever go back to that? Perhaps, when 80 percent of our professionals and blue collar workers have all left for abroad and are sending back foreign currency.

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Why do you think has the national budget been stalled, or is being stalled, and the Palace does not seem to care? The delay will mean a reenacted budget, or the re-use of the old one, and that is where the pork barrel funds are secure. A new budget, such as the one now under discussion, might scrap that controversial "countryside development fund", alias pork barrel, so where will the solons be? Unhappy senators and congressmen may not be so cooperative to GMA.

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In the meantime, the members of the beleaguered Constitutional Commission, nicknamed ConCom, are going out of their way to justify their recommendations after winding up their so-called consultations. They are now taking out wide spaces in the national dailies explaining themselves, especially the infamous section on No-El, or no-election. Many say they are disappointed in the commission members, but me, I didn't expect otherwise. Who handpicked them, anyway?

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That tricky recommendation will again delay matters for months and months, unless the President orders a deadline, which, you and I know, will have the solons dashing to meet, just like the ConCom group. Even if militant as well as religious groups will go out in the streets once again to denounce that No-El thing, my gut feeling is that it will be another case of what Lola wants, Lola gets. Unless some miracle occurs and we are able to successfully push a referendum to find out whether the scrapping of the 2007 election is really what is needed, and wanted by the people.

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Some people sneer when the Presidential spokesman par excellence, Ignacio Bunye, declares that his president is now "stronger than ever". Others have different interpretations of that, they say that GMA may not be stronger, but she certainly is stouter. Look at her face in those front page photos. And look at her when she marches with the soldiers, or goes inspecting projects lately. She surely looks as if she has gained some weight, which means, she even thrived in the recent controversies.

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But what is her phone pal Virgilio Garcillano of the Hello Garci fame saying lately? After running rings around the senators and congressmen who tried to extract some "truths" from him, he has now come up saying that the controversies will only end if they open all those election returns, or ERs. That is something the President herself has never tried to talk about. Will the Opposition take up Garci's proposal? That could, hopefully, bring about the much longed-for closure. But who will pay for the exercise, if opening of ERs is decided on?

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The remains of the late former Senator Robert Barbers will finally be buried at the Manila Memorial Park tomorrow, not at the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani where those who do not deserve to be insist on going. But they certainly made his body go a long, long way before reaching the MMP. After lying in state in Manila, it was taken to Surigao, then back to Manila to the Manila Police District, then to the Senate, then to Camp Crame. Barbers himself does not need to campaign anymore, but he still has several sons in politics, you see.

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The new year started with several high profile crimes to be solved, but it can't be said that the recent one was better than the one before in terms of heinous ones. Reports say that there were more kidnapping cases in 2005 that had 63, than in 2004 that had only 46. And the ransom money paid was P54.1 million last year, and only P41.29 in 2004. What does Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes say to that? And what does anti-kidnapping tsarina Teresita Ang See say? I heard a prominent lawyer saying on TV that so long as the death penalty law continues to be defanged, crime and criminals will continue to escalate and thrive in this country.*

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