My friend natoy reyes of bayan muna hit it right on the head. asking gma to lead a corruption-free society is like asking the abu sayyaf to take care of kidnappings in mindanao. Hay, like the government, we should not let the cbcp depress us. I am sure those bishops from Mindanao have their own reasons for supporting GMA. Millions of reasons in thick, white envelopes. This is really the Age of Hypocrisy. And so this Friday, the Ateneo delegation is joining the big rally in Makati. May free bus pa, but no water and food for us :-) So I told my students, simply, I am not coming to class this Fridayto join a rally. Join me if you want, but no ten points added to your quizzes if you do. I have not skipped a class to attend a rally so far, but enough is enough. The country is bigger than my classroom. And as for GMA? Listen, listen to the rumblings of the junior officers. She may have the generals in the hem of her shiny skirts, but these old farts are nothing compared to the vigour, the pa...

hahahahaha! as the French would put it, do not correct your enemies when they are making a mistake. Gaite whose salary is less than P30 k giving P500 k to Lozada who has met just twice? GMA admitting she corrected the flawed NBN ZTE deal, but only after five months, when the Senate began investigating. Ermita correcting Gaite when Gaite said the money came from him. Buney correcting GMA when she said the NBN ZTE deal is flawed. The generals marching down EDSA like a flock of penguins. Those of us old enough during martial law have seen this and heard this. As the great Scottish poet and novelsit Sir Walter Scott put it, in my paraphrase: The more you attempt to deceive, the more you would get stuck in a spider web of lies. And so, like nunal on the face, like blue-bottle flies (bangaw) caught in spider webs, let us applaud and cheer as this government dooms itself with one lie after another.

i got lots of text messages telling me that they fear that the government has an alleged secret video of neri with his boyfriend and if that is released, how could neri's family take it? what? say that again? our focus here is on neri telling the truth. thus, we don't want anybody -- whether individual or state -- to blackmail him into telling the truth by foisting the threat of outing him. all this video scenario sounds like an fbi case in the 1950s. most of the people who texted me are closeted cases themselves. in neri they might have seen what could have happened, or what might happen, if there are unsavory videos of themselves with their boyfriends. do you really think your parents will have a heart attack if they know you're gay? or that your sibling don't know? excuse me lang, ano. i have received vicious attacks in one gay site for speaking out like this. i don't care if these gay men spend all their lives in the closet and ogling porn in the Internet. Mabul...

Ang Ladlad slams anti-gay acts in the NBN-ZTE issue “We support the call of whistle-blower Jun Lozada for truth and transparency in the NBN-ZTE scandal, and we deplore the continued silence of Commission on Higher Education Chairman Romulo Neri, Jr. on the issue,” said Danton Remoto, the chairman of Ang Ladlad, the national organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Filipinos. “However, we are also uncomfortable with the scare tactics being made against Neri by people who promised they would spill the beans regarding his secret, personal life. On record, Senator Jamby Madrigal has threatened to do this in retaliation for what she said was Neri’s statement regarding the patriotic fund that supposedly besmirched her good family name. While we laud the strong stand taken by Sen. Madrigal to ferret out the truth, we are unhappy with the bullying and aggressive, if not crude, tactics being used to reach this noble goal. “Ang Ladlad also slams former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Aba...

i went to la salle for the mass. we have to thank gma for making la salle and ateneo work for a common objective -- her ouster. at la salle i saw poor people, not just the middle and upper classes the papers reported. one old woman was holding the hand of her grandson, who has Down's syndrome. A mother was carrying her baby. A father came with two kids in tow. When parents and grandparents bring their children -- and when the nuns and the businessmen are already there -- the boat is on the way to tipping over. I am in school and could not go to the senate today. But we will have a mass at ateneo, then candle-lighting and rally again, at katipunan avenuei already called up the tv stations. they are lightning-quick with their responses. for all their excesses, i am happy phil media are here. if not, jun lozada would be dead by now. the saga continues. my psychics said people will fall from their perches. malapit na...

two fridays ago i was at the senate to watch jun lozada uncover the stench of the government. jaws dropped to the floor as he detonated one bomb after another. when a government begins to use all its state power versus one ordinary man and his family, the end has begun. manolo quezon told me that when one of the whistle blowers return, I should tell him: "Come out, come out, come out ka na!" I said I might just do that. last sunday i attended the pdp-laban anniversary in manila. it was full of people -- ordinary people -- not the bewigged and fragrant ones you find in other political pow-wows. koko pimentel was happy to see me and said i would be perfect as a spokesman of pdp-laban. some mayors, etc, posed beside me for photos, because they said they see me on TV. eyebags and all, i smiled for the camera. as i have said earlier, i ran in the last elections under the pdp-laban banner. but that was in may of 2007. i met with jojo binay and we chatted briefly... this week saw pa...

First, the police deny they abducted Jun Lozada, whistle-blower of the $330 million ZTE NBN broadband deal. Then they said Lozada was with them, but he asked for police protection. Lozada said he didn't. Then the police said that one of the 13 Lozada siblings asked for it. The siblings denied this -- and ran to the Supreme Court, to file for a writ of amparo protection and habeas corpus for Lozada. PNP head Avelino Razon is one of the few officers I used to admire. We were guests in a talk show ten years ago and he seemed a competent one. I do not know what happened to him. The images are riveting: Lozada surrounded by nuns -- in front, beside, on his back -- before the crack of dawn, giving a press conference. Lozada talking about love of country beyond the rhetoric that the Malacanang dogs loved to spout. The devil, as they say, is in the details. The man could not be possibly lying, as the lapdogs of Malacanang said. He had individuating details, concrete details, for the cap...

You see them everywhere, beginning to strut their stuff for 2010. I have some tips for my fellow senatorial candidates in 2010. While these might not make them land in the top 12, these might help them land in the top 24 -- thus making them hot candidates for the 2013 elections. 1. Lose weight. Nothing discombobulates voters more than the sight of candidates with tummies the size of oversized watermelons. Do not blame the voters if they think that their taxes, in the form of pork barrels, will just end up in the deepest cavities of these bellies. 2. Buy thin paper that soaks oil on your face. Please. Along with a ref-sized body, nothing turns off voters up close than the sight of all that oil leaking from your porcine faces. Oil enough to fry the next morning's cold rice. 3. Talk in Tagalog and keep it short. Nothing displeases poor voters more than those who talk in English, or Taglish. You are not Kris Aquino. Or Kristeta Bernadette Aquino, when she was our English major student ...

Yesterday, i went to powerbooks 3 in greenbelt to attend the launching of pulutan, a book by former magdalo detainees and PMA officers Emerson Cruz and Elmer Rosales. The book has since become a bestseller since its publication last September but was launched only yesterday. The two writers were released from detention only last December. When I joined a table of writers that included Gemma Cruz Araneta, one of the women told me, "Maanghang yan, Danton." I tasted and smiled. It was nothing: of course, being from Bicol, that peppery thing was nothing. I lined up to have my book signed. Elmer went to the rest room and only Emerson was there. I told him my name, and he said, "Of course, I know you. You should run for senator in 2010." And then in a lower voice, he told me something that made me smile. Since they are the Boys of Magdalo, I am not under liberty to tell you what those boys told me. Secret.

sorry for the silence of one week. anyway, some days last week i posted at least onc, at the most, two blog entries. i attended the 62nd anniversary of the liberal party held at the sb barangay hall in barangay commonwealth, a depressed area. there was a medical and dental mission, as well as a town hall meeting on zero VAT for oil and the cheaper medicines bill of Sen Mar Roxas. I went there as an observer. The media, as well as LP politicians (Butch Abad, Bolet Banal of QC, Congressman Erin Tanada, et al) asked me if I am already a member of the LP. I said I am not. I have not yet made a decision which party to join for the 2010 elections. The president of the party is duty-bound to help his VP and senatorial candidates, especially in the financial aspect. Nobody with clean hands has P50 million of his own personal money to burn in a senatorial election. Two political parties have asked me to join their senatorial slate. I will meet with two more parties, then I will decide during th...