Mahliza, my 12-year-old niece, got addicted to Why Why Love while we were vacationing. Her mom, my cousin took her to the salon to have her hair rebonded. It was going to take three bloody hours so I let her borrow my iPod so she won't get bored. for some reasons, she ended up watching WWL. I have no idea how or why. she was raised in the US, have no idea about Asian dramas (her older sister loved to watch Gossip Girl in my iPod) and yet, she got addicted to a Taiwanese drama whose stars she hasn't even heard of. and since then, she'd watch the episodes every day and ask me questions on why this happened etc. To an innocent (and extremely shy) 12-year-old girl, there were things in the drama that were still not within her comprehension I suppose. And it was refreshing to see it from the perspective of a young girl. I was happy of course when she told me she prefers Huo Da (Mike) than Huo Yan (Kingone) for Jia Di (Rainie). A light bulb quickly lighted up in my head... I just recruited someone into the RM ship!
Mahliza's four-year-old brother, TJ bonded with my sister so much they were practically inseparable. TJ has lots of allergies and he survives only through French fries, rice crispies, milk and apple juice. The first time I saw him, he practically hid under my cousin's skirt except she wasn't wearing a skirt. It took a while for him to warm up to me and even then, not totally warmed up. But he's such a sweet little boy who loves to say "I love it here" in his soft voice.
One time, Mahliza and I were talking about WWL and her 10-year-old sister Allyson joined us. Ali is such a bubbly kid, the kind with the witty comebacks in sitcoms. And I told them about Devil Beside You.
Me: It's a story about stepsiblings who fell in love with each other.
Mahliza & Ali: Eww! Stepsiblings?
Ali: That's gross!
Me: Not exactly, they're not related by blood.
Ali: But still... you mean, they go to the same school, go home to the same house and they're dating?!
Me: That's why the drama is so interesting. You wanna watch it? But you have to promise me you'd watch it only after you do your homework otherwise, I'd be in trouble with your mom.
Ali: Well, we do homework for like 10 minutes and after that we're free to do anything.
Now I have to burn DBY and WWL for my new recruits to the RM ship.
On record, this is what she said.
But this was edited out of a TV interview:
"I don't want to comment... I am professional. I am well educated. I don't betray my friends and most importantly, I don't have any ambition."
Did someone just say OUCH?
Grapevine says she-who-shall-not-be-named tried to stop the airing of her radio tirade (maybe after she realised the extent of what she did) but it was too late. She already stepped on some people's shoes.
Tomorrow, he embarks on the biggest challenge in his life.
Even bigger than when he lost his father in 1983 and became his family's de facto padre de familia.
Much bigger than when he lost his mother this year and the burden of carrying on his family's name was suddenly thrust unto his shoulders.
As I watched him through TV feeds online, I see that there is fewer hair than when we first met him in 1998.
But the humor, especially when there's no scripted speech on hand, is still very much him.
Even the short text messages that he still sends whenever, I guess, he has the time from what I can imagine are endless of meetings he has to attend right now.
He must be tired. But then again, tiredness was never in his vocabulary.
He was the one who had to battle a morning full of committee hearings and an afternoon full of boring drones of plenary speeches back then and would still have energy for coffee and endless chats until the wee hours of the morning. The chats were not just about nation-building of course. There were the personal stuff too.
Yes, we met the girls. Even chaperoned for him on certain occasions. We were already in The Entourage even before they made that series.
But this was not something that took place in the middle of dizzying fame nor of blinding power.
This may have been borne out of politics (source-reporter) but it went beyond that to the grounds of UP (even if he is an Atenean) to the late night streets of Morato; from the halls of Congress to the sleazy corners of KTVs.
Over the years, even if some of us have moved out of his turf (House of Representatives and later, Senate), he still remained as our KUYA. Some of our political friends have come and gone too. But he remained.
If only for that I'll tell you to vote for him. Because he is a loyal person. And loyalty--to country, to the people--is something we need right now for the Philippines to move on.
He is also honest. When his sister says he has no money, that is true. He does not live a lavish lifestyle and is already happy with the factory dri-fit shirts I get him from Bangkok. (He used to brag about the export-overrun polo shirts his mother used to buy for him in Clark.) He has simple tastes that he has never quite recovered from the dirty ice cream he once had in UP.
If he isn't simple, he wouldn't have been our friend. Who are we in the grand scheme of things in the Philippines? Set aside our job that people might think gives us certain privileges, we're just ordinary people in a rat race; but we also share everyone's hope for a better country.
If he isn't loyal, he would have forgotten us as he moved from a local position to a national one. People call him senator. We still call him Kuya.
And if he isn't honest, he wouldn't have stayed friends with us knowing how our jobs might imperil him one day. And if we aren't honest ourselves, we wouldn't remain friends with someone who is deemed powerful and wealthy to some, but really, at the end of the day, all that he could offer us and all that we asked from him, was real camaraderie. And of course, the occasional political gossip and tip-offs.
So now as he inches near to making formal in accepting the challenge ahead of him, I could not help but be scared for him. He is not the politician that Filipinos have been accustomed to, who corrupts shamelessly, who steals without guilt, who amasses properties without moral conscience.
He is just a simple man with a bleeding heart owing to his parents' advocacies and calling. And though I see in him the hope and inspiration that everyone has been looking for, I fear for him. Because it is not easy to be president of a country whose coffers have been emptied by people who came before him and whose expectations are as wide and endless as the Milky Way.
But this is his fate, his destiny.
And we can only stand behind him.
And say... KUYA, 'di ka magiisa*.
(He corrected me the first time I told him that. He said, the proper line is: "'di ka nagiisa" and I replied, 'di ka magiisa" is for future reference. For the time when he takes on the challenge. And the time has come. NOW.
KAY NOYNOY TAYO.)
