The tale of two kisses

The summons are now coming thick and fast. The latest, according to reports yesterday, said: “Puno, cops summoned by CHR”, and “Ressa summoned by CIDG”. Puno is, of course, Ronaldo Puno, secretary of the Interior and Local Governments, and Ressa is Maria Ressa, News and Public Affairs chief of ABS-CBN. Puno and the cops are being called by the Commission on Human Rights, while Ressa is being called by Police Director Edgardo Doromal.

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These are happening because of the charges and counter-charges being readied by several parties and individuals, all growing out of what we like to call L'Affaire Peninsula. Puno stands for the government here, while Ressa symbolizes local media, in the light of what happened to its practitioners during the siege on the hotel. The act of the police in rounding up the journalists covering the incident and hauling them off to an investigation chamber outside Manila, has drawn outrage, not only from local media entities and organizations, but also from those in other countries who are appalled by the way media was treated in that incident.

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Malacañang spokespersons have repeatedly claimed that they have already said “Sorry”, but those who saw their staff members herded off, with wrists tied, at that, for interrogation at some camp like crime suspects, are not about to accept such apologies. Not even the report that the President has told her men not to make the media angrier, seems to placate them, for now. Those of us who did not have the privilege of joining our colleagues in that shining moment (?) can only sympathize with them, and hope neither they, nor their bosses will be afflicted later by the disease called short memories.

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Meanwhile, media people, especially those who were not there, have not lost their sense of humor. During our forum in Manila Monday, we had lots of laughs at the comments allegedly made to their friends by those who were at the Peninsula . One reportedly said that what he learned was that Pinky Webb is not pretty without make-up. Another said he discovered that the hair of Ces Drilon is very curly when it has not been blown dried. Still another said, at least the Peninsula showed that “Pwede magapus ang Kapuso at Kapamilya (the rival TV shows can be tied together)”.

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Just between us, why do you think were the police and those directing them, so keen on getting the journalists out of the way? I heard one officer say that the reporters were in the way, and they could not go on with their “operation” because of them. What did he mean by that? Could it be that, if the journalists were not there, they would have mowed down Sen. Antonio Trillanes and his supporters? Was the one who was directing the operation a person of the same caliber as the late General Fabian Ver who would order the tanks to go and “deal” with the EDSA crowd, 26 years ago? One can only shudder to think of the future of media here if that is true.

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Anyway, another observation noted by news readers and watchers is that coincidence of two kissing scenes they saw recently. The first was that of boxer-actor Manny Pacquiao kissing, very clumsily, one of the actresses in the cast of the movie he is producing. The other is that of President Arroyo being given a chaste kiss on the forehead by Spain 's King Juan Carlos. A long time ago, I clipped front page photos of the President kissing a member of her cabinet who was under fire for allegedly receiving $2 million in payola. What happened to that case? Erased with a kiss?

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There is a saying that one man's meat is another man's poison. That seems to apply now to the rise in the value of the peso against the U.S. dollar. With the peso now fetching about P42 to $1, those howling in anguish are the families and beneficiaries of our overseas foreign workers who are getting as much as P13 less for every dollar that their wage-earner is sending from abroad. The Central Bank has been making noises about finding a way to soften the blow for the OFWs, but nothing much has happened so far. The poor families cannot share the rejoicing of our officials.*

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