pink crystal ball

I got some email responses and text messages asking me why did I join PDP-Laban?

For the record, I filed my candidacy as a Congressman of District 3 of Quezon City as an Independent, for the May 14, 2007 elections. I had toyed with the idea of joining the Liberal Party. But my political advisers had told me to run as an Independent, to prove a point.

I did and filed as one. Then in the last week of April 2007, PDP-Laban of Quezon City talked to me. They said they wanted to support my candidacy. They would endorse me as the official candidate of the Genuine Opposition, and would help me in the campaign. Thus, I officially ran as a candidate of the Genuine Opposition, under the PDP-Laban Party.

But as I have said, we are talking here of the last elections. Although I am still, officially, with the PDP-Laban, what I see in the May 2010 elections will be coalitions. And to answer your questions, no, there will be NO single opposition party. Everyone is now busy cobbling together their
informal, unofficial slates. In short, like animals sniffing each other, everybody is running circles, smiling at each other, smelling each other's loyalties -- or lack of it.

Thus, the following images are beginning to form in my pink crystal ball:

1. As you saw in the news today, Erap Estrada is now veering towards the direction of Manny Villar as President. I see here a possible endorsement with a tit-for-tat. Thus:

Nacionalista Party, Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino, the United Opposition, and yes, PDP-Laban will endorse:

Manny Villar - for President
Jinggoy Estrada - for Vice President

And for Senators:

1. JV Ejercito
2. Adel Tamano
3. Teofisto "TG" Guingona Jr.
4. Gilbert Remulla
5. Justin Chipeco
6. Jojo Binay
7. Koko Pimentel

JV, Adel, Binay, Koko and Gilbert will win, with JV and Adel tangling for the first and second slots in the senatorial race. Koko, Binay, and Gilbert will be in the last third (8-12 positions) in the race.

Officially, I have not yet discussed the possibility of running as a Senator with the Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino and the United Opposition. My party, the PDP-Laban, has not yet officially chosen its senatorial candidate.

Nothing is official, but informal talks have begun.

The Liberal Party of Mar Roxas II is one option. I am friends with many people in this group, but I have yet to sit down with them and discuss. Although when the LP see me, they always ask: "O, kelan ka na manunumpa?'

Sigh.

I have to keep all doors open. Except, perhaps, the door that leads to the administration party. Heller!

Five Poems by Danton Remoto

In the Graveyard Danton Remoto The walls round the graveyard Are ancient and cracked. The moss is too thick they look dark. The paint on my grandfather’s tomb Has the color of bone. Two yellow candles we lighted, Then we uttered our prayers. On my left, somebody’s skull Stares back at me: a black Nothingness in the eyes. The graveyard smells of dust Finer than the pore of one’s skin— Dust mixed with milk gone sour. We are about to depart When a black cat darts Across our path, quickly, With a rat still quivering In its mouth. * Immigration Border Crossing (From Sadao, Thailand to Bukit Changloon, Malaysia) Danton Remoto On their faces that betray No emotion You can read the unspoken Questions: Are you really A Filipino? Why is your skin Not the color of padi ? Your eyes, Why are they slanted Like the ones Who eat babi ? And your palms, Why are there no callouses Layered like th...

A mansion of many languages

BY DANTON REMOTO, abs-sbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 10/16/2008 1:00 AM REMOTE CONTROL In 1977, my mentor, the National Artist for Literature and Theater Rolando S. Tinio, said: “It is too simple-minded to suppose that enthusiasm for Filipino as lingua franca and national language of the country necessarily involves the elimination of English usage or training for it in schools. Proficiency in English provides us with all the advantages that champions of English say it does – access to the vast fund of culture expressed in it, mobility in various spheres of the international scene, especially those dominated by the English-speaking Americans, participation in a quality of modern life of which some features may be assimilated by us with great advantage. Linguistic nationalism does not imply cultural chauvinism. Nobody wants to go back to the mountains. The essential Filipino is not the center of an onion one gets at by peeling off layer after layer of vegetable skin. One’s experience with onio...

Taboan: Philippine Writers' Festival 2009

By John Iremil E. Teodoro, Contributor The Daily Tribune 02/26/2009 A happy and historical gathering of wordsmiths with phallocentric and Manila-centric overtones *** This is from my friend, the excellent poet and critic John Iremil Teodoro, who writes from the magical island of Panay. I wish I have his energy, his passion and his time to write. Writing needs necessary leisure. But this budding, bading politician has shifted his directions. On this day alone, I have to attend not one, not two, but three political meetings. And there goes that new poem out of the window. Sigh. *** According to Ricardo de Ungria, a poet of the first magnitude and the director of Taboan: The Philippine International Writers Festival 2009, “the original idea was for a simple get together of writers from all over the country who have been recipients, directly or indirectly, of grants and awards from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). What happened last Feb. 11 to 13 was far from being ...

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