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That hostage-taking drama last Wednesday had only 3 elements to it: senseless, stunned and stupid.

Senseless was the act of Armando “Jun” Ducat when he took hostage a busload of children and teachers of his own day-care center. He demanded no ransom and only used this terror-tactic to air his grievances about government corruption and the lack of education for children. He never took into account, of course, the very real possibility that he may have permanently traumatized some if not all of those kids.

Apparently Ducat has a history of making publicity stunts to air out his grievances. Obviously, the guy needs to be in a mental institution, not in prison.

Stunned were the police. They simply didn’t know what to do except blockade the area where the drama was taking place. Neither could they stopped two politicos from using the highly dangerous situation to act like heroes.

Fortunately, the police were too stunned even to resort to what they usually resort to when they don’t know what to do: charge in with guns blazing regardless of whether bullets would hit victimizers or victims. Perhaps the thought of mostly children being the victims scratched their otherwise itchy trigger fingers.

Stupid were the actions of Bong Revilla and Chavit Singson. They could have endangered further the lives of the children by insisting on talking to the hostage-takers. But the police allowed them to because they didn’t know what else to do. Stupid also is the thought that Ducat was doing a noble thing. There is nothing noble as terror even if the end justified the means, which is what terrorists actually believe, that the end will always justify the means.

Like I said, Ducat needs to be placed in a mental institution and for the rest of his life. Perhaps he should be joined by the police chief, Revilla and Singson.

Technorati Tags: hostage-taking, armando ducat, ramon revilla, chavit singson

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I don’t mean to be judgemental, but Tessie Aquino-Oreta’s public apology comes out as one of those slick political ads. In other words, the apology appears as fake as GMA’s when she apologized about the ‘Hello Garci’ conversation.

The question also begs to be asked: Why only now?

Only one answer comes to mind: Because she wants to win the election!

Filipino politicians will do anything to get that vote. For Oreta it’s an apology with a bit of bad acting.

She claims, of course, there was nothing political about it, but that ad keeps on being shown like a bad commercial. The best way to have done it was call a press conference, apologize and move on.

Even if she was sincere, the ad comes too late and definitely smacks of politics. So, if she has not thought about that, at the very least this only means Oreta acts on impulse and doesn’t think about the consequences of her action, just like that day she danced on national TV.

Do you want a senator like that?

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It’s comedy hour!

I get a good laugh watching those political ads on TV. They are so unreal.

Take the one of Mike Defensor, for example. He’s bandied about as “Walking ‘Tol,” apparently in reference to the American sheriff whose real life was made into a movie twice, entitled, “Walking Tall.”. In reality, Mike Defensor is more like a sitting dummy, the kind that sits on the lap of a ventriloquist, the ventriloquist being Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, because he seems to exactly mouth whatever his master says. And was that Boy Abunda doing the voice-over? So what do we have? A gossip-monger endorsing a ventriloquist’s dummy. Har, har, har!

Then there’s Tessie Oreta-Aquino. She who obscenely danced on national TV in support of an immoral president, is now in the senatorial slate under the dummy’s ventriloquist, the person who ousted the immoral president. Har, har, har.

And who can ignore the Accidental Hero, Chavit Singson? Singson, the “jueteng” (illegal numbers game) King of the North, became a hero accidentally when, fearing for his life, “ratted” on the immoral president –who’s the “jueteng” King of Kings– that began his downfall. So now there is a possibility of having a “jueteng” king as senator. Har, har, har.

And who cannot notice Richard Gomez? Let’s not!

Or Cesar Montano? Let’s not either!

How about Tito Sotto? This one I’ll vote for simply because we need comic relief in the Senate. A failed comedian, he becomes an accomplished one in the Senate. Har, har, har.

How about Manny Villar? This one was one of those responsible in impeaching the immoral President, but is now campaigning under his party. He’s seen dancing in his ad. Perhaps he wants to mimic Tessie Aquino. Har. har, har.

Indeed, many of the present crop of Santoriables are laughable, pitiably so. Vote for them and the Philippines becomes the laughing stock of the world!

Har, har, har!

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Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything. - Frank Dane

If there’s any one thing common in all the political ads appearing on TV, they’re all slick. Being so, this means they cost a lot of money, because they’re made by professional image makers. Then they’re aired over prime time in at least the 2 major networks. If a politico has more than one kind of ad and they’re run several times in one night, 7 days a week, it’s not difficult to imagine that these ads can cost a million pesos upwards!

Perhaps you may be jaded enough to say, “so what?” Well, for starters, there’s the real possibility these politicos will spend most of their time in office trying to get back what they paid for to get elected. Even if other people spent for their election campaign, won’t thay have to pay these people back with political favors and such? So, why the desire to get elected even if it’s going to cost millions? Simple answer: POWER!

It’s really not about helping their fellow man in spite of what the ads try to perpetuate. It’s simply about power.

So here’s how an elected official will make use of his time: one-third will be spent trying to get back his election expenses; another third will be spent currying political favors; and the final third will be spent kowtowing to his master, whether he be of the administration or opposition. This, in a nutshell, is the life and times of a trapo.

So, going back to the quote above, the political ads are there to collect fools. If you so believe in any of those ads, you know what you are.

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If Kris Aquino is wondering why her husband, James Yap, fooled around, the answer can be found in the Bible.

“A man (or a woman for that matter) reaps what he sows” - Gal 6:7 NIV.

Did she actually believe that, when she fooled around with married men when she was single, no one would fool around with the man she would eventually marry? When she started to fool around with married men, someone should have asked her, “Game Ka Na Ba?”

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