GMA’s welcomers in Hongkong

The price of LPG has gone down by 50 centavos, the price of gasoline up also by 50 centavos, Win some, lose some.

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Speaking of winning, the super-lucky person who had picked the magic numbers behind the P249 million lotto jackpot Sunday had not yet come up to claim his prize as of last night. Isn’t he in a hurry to get hold of so much cash, tax-free money at that? I bet, however, that anybody who had the fortune to win such an unbelievable sum would also take his time before making himself known. Identification would make both himself and his family members targets of unscrupulous persons.

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After 23 years, the Supreme Court has ruled that the fertilizer levy imposed via Letter of Instruction by the late unlamented President Ferdinand Marcos was illegal, sustaining the earlier decision of a lower court that it was so. Of course any lawyer or, for that matter, anybody with sense could have told us that such a levy that imposed P10 on every bag of fertilizer in order to pay off the debts of a private entity, was not proper. But who dared question an LOI during the days of Martial Law? Now, what are the victims going to do to recover the money they had paid out for the levy? Our new lawyers will probably have a lot of work with the cases to be filed by the levy victims. By the way, who will be charged, and who will pay?

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It must have embarrassed both the officials of the Olympics in Greece and the Chinese representatives who went there to get the symbolic flame to be brought to the next site of the games which is China. Protestors in Athens made such a big noise over handing the torch to China which they scored for its alleged disregard of human rights. And true enough, while the transporting of the flame was being shown on TV, the cameras also focused on the beating up of the monks who were demonstrating in Tibet. Don’t be surprised if some countries actually boycott the China Olympics because of this. A pity, because China had made the most elaborate preparations for this hosting.

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Later, TV also afforded us a view of what took place in China, after the colorful aircraft bearing the representatives who went to fetch the flame touched down. Interestingly, just as the Greeks in Athens also had to summon a lot of security people to guard the departure, the Chinese government also had ready its own troops to watch the arrival. I understand Tiananmen Square had to be fenced off for the occasion. I did not see the fence, but I did see, very prominently, the huge portrait of Mao Tse tung behind the place where the flame was set. Being only a portrait, the big man of Chinese Communism could not laugh, but his spirit must have been smiling.

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It was a grim-looking President Arroyo who spoke before the business group in Hongkong yesterday. Her unsmiling stance must have been brought on by the welcome she got from Pinoy protestors who, probably thinking they were just back home, carried uncomplimentary placards and shouted disrespectful words at her, gathering in the places she was expected to be. Seems nobody could stop them from airing our dirty linen in the streets of Hongkong, echoing the cries of their local counterparts for her to resign. Something that she has no intention of doing, as she stressed to the investors’ group she addressed.

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To her credit, President Arroyo did attempt to clarify before her audience that she understood how corruption could affect even the economy of the country. She pointed out that, as an economist, she knows what lack of transparency could do to the country. She did sound determined to act on corruption back home. I hope, though, that the ones on whom the axe will fall, to show that she means business, are not only the small and helpless ones.

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A bit of chismis (gossip). Entertainment media are making a lot of the report that the ex of actress Ruffa Gutierrez, Yilmaz Bektas of Turkey, is now dating a former Miss Universe who is from Puerto Rico, Zuleyka Mendoza, who won the title in 2006. Maybe he thinks this is an improvement, this girl was Miss Universe, while Ruffa was only Miss World second runner-up. Also, if he had seen Ruffa lately, she already looks very matronly, and even as a performer, very “trying hard” already.*

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