Also a victim of Cosme?

Labor groups, as well as his left-leaning friends, must have felt great shock at the sudden death of Party List Congressman Crispin Beltran yesterday. Even if some of his colleagues in Congress may not have agreed with his views, I am sure all of them admired him, albeit grudgingly, for his consistency and unflinchingly support for the working class. Naturally, being politicians, many of his fellow congressmen, and even members of the Senate, will be mouthing elaborate praises, but I think that, in their hearts, they know that their words are deserved by the man.

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Congressman Beltran, who was better known as “Ka Bel” had undergone a lot in his devotion to the cause of labor. What an irony that, as the media focused on the very humble circumstances of his life by printing and flashing pictures of his house and neighborhood, the same media outlets were also enumerating the names and the amount of money and properties his fellow solons had admitted to own in their statements of Assets and Liabilities. And the listing also showed that he, with only P50,000 to his name, was the poorest.

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One could almost call it a senseless accident. At his age, Ka Bel climbed up to the roof of his house to make repairs. He did not ask a younger member of his family, or called for a carpenter to do the job. He chose to do it himself, forgetting, apparently, that he was already 75 and no longer as agile as he used to be. But that was Crispin Beltran, he was a hands-on man. By the way, he fell while repairing a leak on his roof that must have been created by the latest typhoon. Could he be classified therefore as another victim of Cosme?

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Two news items in pages facing each other in yesterday’s Manila Bulletin looked as if they had been laid out with double entendre. On the right side, in a bold headline, it said “GMA leads ground-breaking for P4.2 airport in Bohol”. On the left, a smaller item said: “Plane crashes in Bohol, two seriously injured”. Anyway, it is good to hear that more and more airports are being built here, since plane travel is becoming, not only the fastest, but also the most convenient method of travel in this country made up of 7,100 islands, many of them boasting of the most attractive tourism potentials. So let’s put up more airports in this land.

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It is starting to look as if the Sichuan Tragedy is bringing some good to China and her people. The earthquake, said to have killed at the very least, 33,000, with more than 50,000 still missing and presumed also dead, enabled the country to show its best to the rest of the world. With the earthquake, Chinese officials were able to show how quickly and efficiently they can respond to a disaster, and how gracefully they can accept help from others. One way of looking at it is that it was a P.R. blitz for China, and a boost for their hosting of the Olympics.

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Playing the heavy, meanwhile, is the government of Myanmar, a.k.a. Burma, who arrogantly refused and resisted assistance, placing all kinds of obstacles in the path of concerned countries, eagerly standing by with their food, medicines and experienced manpower. If the Myanmar Cyclone is finally determined to have killed hundreds of thousands, many of whom could have been rescued with the proper equipment and skilled workers, their blood will surely be on the hands of the country’s rulers.

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A certain smile. That was what her supporters noticed in candidate Hillary Clinton, even if her rival for the Democratic Party nomination is already starting to act as if he already has the party nomination in his bag. But the indomitable former U.S. first lady and incumbent senator from New York, still can smile radiantly as she marches on. One of her loyal volunteers was quoted by Agence France Presse as saying, “Even on the nights when the press drives us crazy, I look at her smile, and her smile makes me confident that she is going to win”.

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The volunteer, identified as Rosa Nunez of New York, is very emphatic in saying that she does not want Hillary to settle for the vice presidency, no matter what. Why? Because, the perceptive Rosa says, “She will be used by the administration – as many women had been – to enhance a man’s administration”. How right you are Ms. Nunez.*

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