Friday, January 20, 2017

'World champions'

"Some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity, and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them." 
--Joseph Heller

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- If he did not quarrel with a fellow spoiled brat, many Filipinos wouldn't know that Senator Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri is a "former world champion in arnis."
Incensed that Senator Antonio Trillanes IV accused him and Senator Dick Gordon of "trying to whitewash the investigation of  corruption in the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID)", Zubiri "accepted" Trillanes' challenge for a "war" boasting that "I did not become a world champion in arnis for nothing..."
True or not, who are we to doubt Zubiri's claim that he is a former world champion in arnis? (Although I personally haven't read any press release or news item that extolled the Bukidnon lawmaker's exploits in the combat sport otherwise known as "Eskrima" and "Kali".)
Aside from Zubiri, they also have Senator Manny Pacquiao as world boxing champion. 

ABUNDANCE

The Philippine senate actually has abundance if not packed with "world champions."
In fact, the upper house, as an institution, has also been reputed as a "world champion" -- in producing plunderers, clowns and mediocre legislators.
If amassing unexplained wealth via "pork barrel" is a world championship, who can beat our Janet Napoles-inspired Filipino legislators? 
They could even wrap up the "team championship" or dominate the medal tally.  
And if there is a "world championship" in their respective talents, styles, and categories, Senators Leila De Lima, Vicente "Tito" Sotto, Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, Frank Drilon, Gringo Honasan II, Alan Peter Cayetano, Ralph Recto, Nancy Binay; and Trillanes IV might win handily and be considered also as "world champions."
De Lima in love affair; Sotto in plagiarism; Honasan in coup d'tat; Drilon in balimbing game; Lacson in Houdini-like escape; Cayetano in sip-sip game; Recto in playing safe attitude; Binay in underdog effect, Trillanes in quarreling, to mention only a few.     

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