did you read the headline of the pdi today? i told you so, more than a month ago, that erap would run again as president of the country in 2010. and what would the supreme court say? they will just let erap run. if he wins, the people have spoken. if he loses, the people have spoken. this is the same supreme court that allowed gma to sit, in 2001. the least they can do, maybe from their point of view, is to let things and events run their course. Like a fever running its course. I ran under the Genuine Opposition in the last elections, but I should have trumpeted this to the max. I was well-bred, and polite, and took no potshots at my enemies. Imagine, a fertilizer scam in QC? The Defensors running the district like a fiefdom? Quirino Labor Hospital being turned into a semi-private hospital, with a nice facade and no medicines inside? As Ate Vi, now Governor Vi, would put it, this hullabaloo thing! I am running again, as a senator this time, and I hope under the Genuine Opposition. Woe

i just got my phone, finally virus-free. i am in netopia and saw my friend jay espinosa. i will get anti virus later, installed in my phone. i saw up all night watching bbc and cnn reports on the death of benazir bhutto. the poor woman refused to wear a bullet-proof vest. but even if she did, the determined assassin shot her in the neck, then detonated himself near her van. i remember raul roco many years ago, saying he also did not wear a bullet-proof vest because it was cumbersome. he also refused a bodyguard. he only had a driver with him all the time. jay said there is a seeming parallelism between benazir and ninoy aquino. two asian leaders who came home from exile. ninoy was shot dead on the tarmac, in white, like a bird with a broken wing. bhutto was shot wearing her shawls and headgear. the first female prime minister rankled the islamic militants, the anti-democrats, the whole kontrabida gang. my fearless forecast: administration bet musharaff will lose this election.

Oh yes, we launched Ladlad 3 like three weeks ago and I was surfing when I saw blog entries about it. That is nice. One that made me laugh was when this group of badinglets (young badings, budding gays, etc) went to get my autograph. They were so polite so I said, "Ang babait naman ninyo!" Then suddenly, the standee for the tarpaulin behind me was knocked over by somebody, hitting me smack in the face. With poise intact, I looked at the boys and said, "Syet, mga La Sallista kayo, ano?" The boylets laughed their heads off, then had their picture taken with the super-fabulous GCF, Gilda Cordero Fernando. BTW, Ladlad 3 is selling for P495. Anvil wanted it P550 but I vetoed it, saying nobody would buy. It is P495 because paper and ink and etc have become expensive. Blame it on the E-VAT. And of course on your sitting President. Not mine. Mwah.

Dec 23 and 24 I cooked and cooked -- roast chicken and paella and etcetera. I cooked because there were no columns to write and students to shock. Then night of Dec 24 I went home to my parents' house in Fairview and my yaya gave me a great back massage, using the best of them all: Vick's Vapor rub. My eyes fluttered, I fell asleep, and woke up the next day -- already Dec 25. It was as if all the irritation of the year, the lumps and the knots and the bumps caused by some super-mega-hyper idiotic people at Comelec and the bribe-givers from some unnamed, big political party have vanished. And so today I am here, trying to write again. I am going to the phone company to ask them to reformat my cellphone because some bug has embedded itself in it. Then I might go to the wake of satirical writer par excellence Adrian Cristobal, dead of cancer at 75. Or do that tomorrow and attend the party given by one of my lesbian friends, a cook who looks at the world the way it should be -- one

I just talked to Raimund Agapito, my former co-teacher and editor in chief of Pinoy Parazzi, the newest and hottest tabloid in town. Their thrice-weekly tabloid has everybody -- from Boy Abunda to Lolit Solis, and pretty soon, Joey de Leon. I am joining them beginning next week. I am also finalizing talks with a big AM radio station for a show that would reach the whole country, from Batanes to Basilan. In February, we might begin shooting a film where I play the role of a teacher. And just the other day, in Jessica Zafra's launch for Manila Envelope, I teased director Urro dela Cruz about appearing in Bubble Gang. His counter offer: "If you want, I have another show, with a higher rating! You can appear." Mama mia. When all those presidentiables tell you they are not running in 2010 and it is still three years away, do not believe them. All of us are preparing. Now. Those running for president, vice, and senators. But I am the only one who is up front about it, publicizi

hello, my blog called masaya prompted one of my friends to say he liked it because it is one of my few happy entries. ay. i checked all the entries and they are just that, i guess. mirrors of current reality which, sad to say, is not happy. pan de sal is P3 a piece. lpg is P650 per tank. gas is P44 per liter. jeepney fare is P7.50 and will rise to P9 in January. taxi flag down rate will rise to P50 in January. My income tax is 32 percent, which collected yearly is enough to buy a small car. all my cousins and relatives are in the us and canada. why am i staying? because i am happy here. if you remember, the point of all philosophy is to change the world. that is why i am here. i was in the senate yesterday and saw chiz in action during the hearing on the harassment of media. he was good, with his sharp questions. maria ressa of abs, too, very articulate as usual, the military and police officers and cabinet people were not there. afraid siguro. that is what you get when you handcuff me

pride march 2007 was a success because people worked hard for it for free. the negative vibes are not there. everybody's eyes were focused in one direction. you should just look at the photos taken by our own ladlad member, jasper espejo. pls check them out at www.ilokano.multiply.com jasper also designed the cover of my latest book, ladlad 3, co-edited with neil garcia. one call center said half of their 200 agents -- and only a few of them are gay -- have already bought the book. no wonder ladlad 3 is flying off the shelves. my website is finally under construction. and i finalizing discussions for a radio show, a tabloid column, and a column in a popular magazine. who told you 2010 is so far away? not when those running say they are not yet thinking of it, yet are already planning everything, down to the barangay level. you take care. and enjoy those photos.

We have come, we are here, and we marched up and down the street in our colorful clothes and vividest words. Pls see the images that Jasper Espejo captured of the LGBT Pride March 2007. You can find them at www.ilokano.multiply.com Ang Ladlad won as best delegation -- a heady mixture of oldies (me and I will not say who else), young people from our Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas chapter, and the Boys' Legion, which has an alliance with Ang Ladlad. Tri-media and the foreign press also covered us. And media behaved. When I told them not to force people to pose as kissing boyfriends, they obliged. How did I do it? I said, "Mga kuya, pag ginawa n'yo yan, hindi ako mananalong senador sa 2010." And media being kind to me, they just smiled, and obeyed.

I was typing and typing my blog entry and finished it and sent it and voila! It was under notphantomvoters, my old blog which you can find somewhere here (under profile). So just go there and read. Super sorry... See you tomorrow at the Pride March, 3 pm, Malate, beside Aristocrats Resto.

This week alone, three people I knew died. The first was my student, Joey Carlos, who was the brightest boy in my Lit 13 class last semester. He was quiet, but would always give the wisest answers in class. He also wrote well, dissecting every story with scalpel-like sharpness. The second was my writer-friend, Rene Villanueva. I saw him last a month ago, when we were watching ENDO at the UP Film Center. He was thin and did not look too well. I sat beside him and told him he was my favorite writer in Filipino, and his eyes lit up. But in my bones I knew that Rene -- who had survived a heart bypass, a stabbing, the shocks flesh is heir to -- would not stay too long with us. The third was a man I met only briefly, Monico Atienza, whose book won a National Book Award from us in the Manila Critics Circle. He survived Marcos's dictatorship but not the debilitating effects of sickness. Krip Yuson texted me to ask if I want to join PLAC to go and visit Adrian Cristobal. I remember Adrian a