Evaluate what your
hear, then vote

For almost an hour yesterday, the STAR editorial office set aside the notes and stories they had to write for today's issue while everybody gathered before the TV set to listen and watch, first actress Ruffa Gutierrez, and then her irrepressible mother, perform before TV hosts in equally lachrymose interviews. Both shows ended without a decision on our part as to who was the better actress, but certainly it was agreed that Ruffa had outdone any of the performances she had presented in her old movies.

***

Unfortunately, our unsympathetic and cynical staff could not commiserate with La Ruffa because all of them had predicted this development, anyway. Nobody had ever believed that what was being touted to be a fairy-tale wedding would have the principals "live happily ever after". And so the heartless ones laughed when the interviewees wept and daintily and carefully wiped around their eyeliners, especially when Ruffa seemed to purposely leave one big tear trickling down one cheek, unwiped.

***

As for La Madama Annabelle Rama, Ruffa's ever-loving mama, from whom she had ran away a few years before she met the Turk and went traipsing around Europe with him BEFORE the wedding rites, how she cried and begged her daughter, the third runner-up in a Miss World tilt, not to return to her husband, the man they all used to praise and admire before. And all this because, her daughter, who must love showbiz more than she loves Turkey, is used to having her cake and eating it, too.

***

Things became more hilarious when the statement of the confused hubby, Yilmaz Bektas, came through the internet. In his quaint but forceful English, Bektas gave his own side of the story, and somehow, it did not jibe with the Ruffa version. But he seemed to hit the nail right on the head when he referred to his spoiled spouse's love for the glitter of showbiz and for "fame" that surmounts her love for family, well, the girl can't seem to decide which is her family - her parents and brothers, or her husband and daughters. I don't think she is familiar with that statement in the Bible about man and woman leaving father and mother and cleaving to one another. Anyway, as far as her Pinoy "fans" are concerned, this is one movie for which they knew the ending already. So did we.

***

But why are we talking showbiz today when everybody seems to be thinking of nothing else but the election and the counting of votes that will follow? I guess we just want our readers to relax and perform their duties as citizens of this country by going to the polling places and participating in this most important and sacred exercise. Let us not be cynical and say that anyway those who have the money will buy all the votes they need. Let's believe that there are more good citizens than there are crooks and liars in this country.

***

For several weeks past, we have all been bombarded with reports and commentaries particularly about the candidates, that were favorable or destructive, depending on who is favored by those reporting or commenting. What we all need to do now, therefore, is to evaluate all those reports, exposés and propaganda, black or white, that we have been reading or listening to. I say "black or white" because not all the things said are bad, or damaging - unless they are proven to be true, with the proper evidences that cannot be refuted or overturned.

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Weigh what you have heard or have been fed carefully. Are the things said only figments of the imagination of those telling them? Have they presented incontrovertible proof and evidences that they are true? Have those mentioned satisfactorily defended themselves, also with airtight proofs and evidences, that the things said against them are "black" propaganda and completely UNTRUE? This is very crucial, because we shall be giving those people more years within which to rob us all blind, if what are being exposed about them are true. Another gauge would be the swiftness in which those maligned are able to clear themselves and give the lie to those who may "manufacture" bad deeds against them.

***

These are the criteria we should set when we pick the people we will vest with the leadership of our city, our province and our country today. It is unfortunate that, as had happened in past elections, some of our citizens, especially the marginalized ones, may again be misled by those who lure them with money and favors. Let us therefore try to offset this now, not only with vigilance, but especially with prayers. God bless the Philippines, and our city and province.*

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