Obet Armada ‘missed’ the Comelec deadline

“Sometimes it's the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.” -- Drake

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Former Iloilo Vice Governor Roberto “Obet” Armada arrived in the Philippines on November 29, 2018 night from a one-month “spiritual journey” in the United States, thus he wasn’t able to “beat the deadline” for the last day of substitution and withdrawal set by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) for the May 2019 elections.
Even if the now 54-year-old life insurance executive was able to land in Manila earlier, he still wouldn’t file his Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for congressman in the third district of Iloilo as replacement for candidate Emmanuel “Manny” Gallar contrary to the expectations of Armada’s supporters.
Board member and former Bombo Radyo Iloilo anchorman Gallar will now face fellow board member Lorenz Defensor, son of Iloilo Governor Arthur “Art” Defensor Sr.
Political leaders and supporters wanted Armada to run against Defensor instead of Gallar who was mistaken as only a “token” candidate.
They believed that Armada “would have strong chances compared to Gallar as he still has vast and solid followers and supporters particularly in Cabatuan, Janiuay, Lambunao, Pototan, Badiangan, Mina, Calinog, and Maasin.”

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Did he intentionally “escape” to the United States and wait for the Comelec deadline for substitution and withdrawal to pass before coming home?
“No,” was Armada’s quick answer when I asked him point-blank during our meeting at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn on November 14, 2018, where he was accompanied by his Staten Island-based brother, Nestor, a retired industrial engineer and scientist.
“I have decided with finality not to join in politics again next year,” confirmed Armada, who was sworn as Iloilo governor by Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary (DILG) Secretary Ronaldo Puno during the “Capitol siege” on January 17, 2007.
When I asked him “how about after 2019?” He just smiled.
He went to the United States “not to escape the heat of political climate in Iloilo,” he swore, but “to find closure in this chapter of my life.”
A devout Catholic, Armada went to San Juan Capistrano Church in San Juan Capistrano in the Orange County, California on November 19th.

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It was there where Armada’s late “Mommy Thelma” heard mass on July 2, 2006.
“It was a beautiful Sunday. The sunny but cool California weather was an ideal time to be outdoors. The place was meaningful to her ... and my Dad. This was where she spent the last couple of hours of her life on that fateful day,” narrated Armada.
“I took the road where she traveled from the church and the time Zach, my Nephew who lives in the neighboring area of Rancho Palos Verdes, noticed that she was more than just sleeping at the backseat of the car.
The Journey for me was painful. But I'm glad that, at last, I will be able to find closure in this chapter of my life.”
The former vice governor, who had also served as vice mayor of Janiuay town in Iloilo, added: “It took me more than a decade to muster the strength to confront and reconcile with this ‘Tragedy!’ I know I was not an ideal son to her, perhaps by any standard I was way below being good. But I have done, in the last score of her life, what I could possibly do to make her happy, however short, when she was alive and well. I hope I have given her, with what I have become, the pride and honor she truly deserved. I hope.”

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Armada’s US trip was all dedicated to frolicking and visiting America’s historical and spiritual hubs from the East to the West Coast.
He also went into a pilgrimage in Philadelphia on November 17th and visited the chapel where the incorrupted body of St. John Neumann was placed in a glass.
Armada recalled that “Neuman died over a century ago. When his body was exhumed recently (30-40 years ago) it remained intact. He was the Archbishop of Philadelphia and made a lot of contribution in evangelizing most of the East Coast States. Coincidentally, he belonged to the Redemptorists (C.S.s.R.) Order. The 5th Saint along with Sts. Patrick, Alphonsus, Gerard and our school's Patron Saint, St.Clement.”

Chess is like Philippine politics

“Chess helps you to concentrate, improve your logic. It teaches you to play by the rules and take responsibility for your actions, how to problem solve in an uncertain environment.”
--Garry Kasparov

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- The political combat in the Philippines can sometimes be compared to chess.
Both camps believe they will win and they will never entertain the possibility of losing.
They will lose only if they are “cheated”.
A defeat for most of them is a misnomer.
They run to win, not to lose.
In politics, however, there is no draw.
One must win and another must lose.
In chess, victory is achieved sometimes in a tie-break or after the full regular match like in the best-of-12-games format of the just-concluded FIDE World Championship in London.

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I made a mistake when I posted on social media that “I have the gut feeling that the world will have a new world chess champion tomorrow (Wednesday, November 28, 2018)” several hours before the start of the FIDE World Chess Championship tie-breakers between defending champion Magnus Carlsen and Italian-American challenger Fabiano Caruana in London, which finally ended with the Norwegian world No. 1 retaining his title.
My “gut feeling” erred, this time.
Caruana, who would have been the first American world champion since Bobby Fischer won in 1972, lost to Carlsen in three time-limited games.
Carlsen, who has won the championship three times before and was the favorite to win the game, took a two-match lead and needed only a draw in the third tie-breaker to seal his victory.

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My basis for picking Caruana in the tie-break was when Carlsen offered a draw in their last match prior to the tie-breakers which many experts, including former world champion Garry Kasparov, believed was a winning game.
They suspected that Carlsen was panicking and losing his nerves after the title match ended in deadlock at 6-all after 12 draws during the regular best-of-12 tussle.
It made Kasparov wondered in his Twit: “In light of this shocking draw offer from Magnus in a superior position with more time, I reconsider my evaluation of him being the favorite in rapids. Tiebreaks require tremendous nerves and he seems to be losing his.”
In the wild and oscillating Game 12, Carlsen, with the black pieces, and Caruana, with the white, began with the Sveshnikov Sicilian, just as they had in Game 8 and Game 10.

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“Carlsen was the first to deviate from the earlier contests, perhaps a stratagem to take Caruana out of his seemingly excellent preparation for the championship, and to angle for a decisive result at last,” reported The Guardian. “By the 12th move, the two were in uncharted territory, looking at a board that that no two people had created before at this level of chess.1”
After Carlsen’s victory, Kasparov Twitted anew, this time in a different tune: “Carlsen’s consistent level of play in rapid chess is phenomenal. We all play worse as we play faster and faster, but his ratio may be the smallest ever, perhaps only a 15% drop off. Huge advantage in this format.”

‘Protect yourselves at all times’

“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”
--Albert Einstein

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY --Now that the riding-in-tandem’s reign of terror has remained unabated in the Philippines, active cops and former colleagues of slain retired Iloilo City policeman Ronaldo “Apple” Alag in the Philippines included in the narco list of President Rodrigo R. Duterte should not let their guards down.
Even politicians, lawyers, judges, journalists, housewives, teachers, sidewalk vendors, and other civilians are not exempted from a man-made horror and terror.
As we tell the boxers before the start of a boxing bout, “protect yourselves as all times.”
There is no guarantee that the liquidation squad won’t strike anew.
There have been scores of characters linked to illegal drugs waylaid and executed by the notorious motorcycle-riding gunmen, but not a single assailant has been arrested or identified.

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Except in the case of PO2 Dorben “Benjo Acap of the PNP Regional Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit (RPHAU) based in Camp Delgado in Iloilo City, who survived an ambush attempt in Sitio Pajo, Brgy. Dulonan, Arevalo District on June 26, 2018 and managed to fire back and hit his shooter, PO2 Melvin Mocorro, all other crimes committed by the riding-in-tandem murderers have remained unsolved.
Even if Mocorro had been collared and charged in court, no one was expecting him to go to jail for Acap’s foiled murder.
Many people suspect Mocorro’s superiors will make sure he will be “off the hook.”
We remember that among those mentioned by President Duterte in his “narco list” were retired Iloilo cops Elvis Donasco and Remy Donasco.
The Donasco brothers have denied any involvement in any illegal activities, including drug trafficking.
They also denied they were protectors of drug traffickers operating in Western Visayas.
If the charges against all the suspects are based on falsehood and erratic intelligence data, they shouldn’t be harmed even with a ten-foot pole.
If the reports are accurate, file charges against them in court so they can defend themselves.
A big no to summary execution.

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The Donasco brothers and other characters in the president’s “narco list” could be victims of jealousy and envy.
Unless the “intelligence” reports reaching President Duterte have been verified and substantiated, it’s not fair to eternally attach their names to unlawful activities.
Like all victims of extra-judicial killings (EJK), all other suspects should be given their day in court.
Just the same. They should not trust anyone who ride not just in motorcycle but also in cabs and even private cars who approach them or roaming around their neighborhood.
It’s better to be prepared and alert all the time than sorry.
With the climate of fear and impunity hovering around the horizon, it isn’t safe for anyone to trust anybody not part of our household.
Even some of our colleagues will sometimes kiss us like Judas to ensure our downfall and imminent death.

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The boring FIDE world chess championship tussle between champion Magnus Carlsen and American challenger Fabiano Caruana in London will finally be decided in a tie-breaker on November 28, 2018.
Carlsen will play with the white pieces in the first game of rapid play-off after the drawing of lots is conducted.
The format will be: Best of four rapid games with 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds after each move.
If still tied, they will play up to five mini-matches of two blitz games (five minutes for each player with a three-second increment).
If all five mini-matches are drawn, one sudden-death ‘Armageddon’ match will be played where White receives five minutes and Black receives four minutes. Both players will receive a three-second increment after the 60th move. In the case of a draw, Black will be declared the winner.
I won’t be surprised if on Wednesday, a new world chess champion will be crowned.

Burn the house, kill the rats, or transfer?

“I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.”
--Jack Kerouac

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- The sudden appearance of placard-bearing “pro-Panay Electric Company (PECO)” rallysts at the Plaza Libertad in Iloilo City in the Philippines showing support for the PECO and opposing the entry of PECO’s rival, More Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power), on November 26, 2018, has raised so many eyebrows.
Who wouldn’t be surprised?
It’s like seeing the remnants of holocaust victims petitioning the Vatican to declare Hitler as a saint.
Who were these Plaza Libertad pro-PECO protesters?
Where did they come from?
Who organized them?
We didn’t know there were Ilonggo power consumers willing to risk their lives, limbs, and reputations for the much-maligned PECO.
We didn’t know--until those placard-toting ragtag individuals displayed their fangs and sought to influence the authorities--that the PECO has a fan club.

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Do they have social activities other than showing canine loyalty to the PECO?
Do they hold a regular meeting?
When was the “fan club” founded?
Just curious.
PECO, which is asking Congress to renew its franchise set to expire on January 19, 2019, became so unpopular because of its alleged poor services, its being insensitive to their plight, negligence, astronomical bills, dilapidated meters and lamp posts, among other serious shortcomings.
For nearly 100 years, PECO has served Iloilo City consumers, but its litany of sins to the vexed and impatient consumers is also as old as its age and apathy.
When one walks in a village in Iloilo City today, seldom can you find a resident, a power consumer, who won’t spew a vitriol against the PECO, much less refuse to say derogatory words against the PECO if asked whether he is satisfied with the power firm’s services.

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For most Ilonggos, PECO is now like Mary Magdalene, cursed and condemned; and about to be stoned.
PECO needs a Christ to protect it from stone throwers, and it is hoping Congress will act as the miracle man who will admonish PECO’s tormentors.
PECO also needs that miracle man to help it obtain a 25-year franchise extension now slumbering in the House committee level.
Thus it’s inconceivable that a faction of consumers was defending PECO and holding a rally just as MORE Power was wooing the city aldermen who were holding a regular session in the adjacent Sangguniang Panlungsod.
Where were those angry (that MORE power will enter and operate in Iloilo City) rallysts when thousands of (their fellow) Ilonggo consumers were crying for justice against PECO’s alleged injustices to other anti-PECO faction?
We find it bizarre that they didn’t hold a similar rally or noise to compel PECO to honor its obligation to the paying public, stop making life difficult for the consumers, provide them with adequate and better services, and modernize.

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Since the pro-PECO rallysts were also power consumers, weren’t they affected by PECO’s purported abysmal services like what the majority of the consumers have been enduring?
There are two schools of thoughts in the pro-PECO rallysts’ petition to block another power firm that promises to provide better services, manpower and equipment to the benighted Ilonggos consumers for fear that the company “has zero experience in the power distribution industry” and might only “plunge Iloilo City into darkness.”
One, they would rather want the rat-infested house to remain standing and hope that the authorities will kill the rats even if the owner won’t initiate the killing spree.
Second, they are willing to live with the rats, for the time being, as long as the authorities won’t burn the entire house and wait for authorities to lower the boom on the owner even if he is doing nothing and, in fact, allowing the rats to reign supreme.
For a regular Ilonggo consumer fed up with what’s going on, he doesn’t give a hoot whether the rats are killed or the house is totally burned.
He only wants to transfer his residence.

Ilonggos produce the best Philippine leaders

“The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” 

--HENRY A. KISSINGER

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY --Before we further insult Ilonggo history and culture by electing more mediocre and incompetent leaders into public office, we must always remember that Iloilo was once the chief producer of the country’s quality leaders, legislators, and even diplomats.
This was the era when the electoral system was not yet impaired, when leaders were chosen based on their competence and qualifications, when political zarzuela wasn’t yet at fever-pitched.
Good leaders elected even without the help of deceptive and confusing propaganda machine that blurred the demarcation line between reel and real world, when chaffs were separated from the grains.
We had Amado Avanceña (Iloilo first district), Nicolas Jalandoni (Iloilo second district), Salvador Laguda (Iloilo third district), Adriano Hernandez (Iloilo fourth district) and Regino Dorillo (Iloilo fifth district) as our first representatives in the Philippine legislative body in 1907.
A pride of Molo, Avanceña became governor of Iloilo.
The first Speaker pro tempore in history and the youngest in the first Philippine legislature was Nicolas Jalandoni of Jaro.
The famous general of the Revolution was Adriano Hernandez of Dingle, Iloilo who became the first secretary of agriculture.
During the first world war, he was the commander of the Second Regiment of the Philippine National Guard. He would have been sent to Germany during the first World War.

BROTHERS

The famed Evangelista brothers — Daniel and Jose, simultaneously represented the fourth district of Iloilo in the Philippine Legislature.
An Ilonggo delegate to the 1935 Constitutional Convention, Tiburcio Lutero had been assemblyman in third and fourth districts of Iloilo.
Former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo’s grandfather, second district Assemblyman Jose Ma. Arroyo, also became a senator. His brother, Mariano, served as governor.
Senator Ruperto Montinola had served as governor and assemblyman in the second district of Iloilo.
He was also delegate and vice president of the 1935 Constitutional Convention. His daughter, Gloria Montinola Tabiana, became congresswoman.
According to the late lawyer and historian Rex Salvilla, President Manuel Quezon called Montinola “El Coloso del Sur” (Colossus of the South) for being a principled oppositionist.
War time Panay and Romblon Governor Tomas Confesor also was assemblyman in the third district of Iloilo and delegate to the 1935 Constitutional Convention.
Known as the Stormy Petrel in the Legislature, Confesor became senator and the first secretary of commerce and interior and senator. His brother, Assemblyman Patricio, also became governor.
Assemblyman Jose Ma. Lopez Vito Sr. of the second district was governor, justice of the Supreme Court and first chairman of the Commission on Elections. His grandson, Rafael Lopez Vito, became the first congressman of the lone district of Iloilo City.

THREE TOMASES

Salvilla said there was a time when three Ilonggo Tomases served simultaneously in the Legislature – Tomas Confesor of the third district, Tomas Buenaflor of the fourth district and Tomas Vargas of the fifth district.
Confesor later became senator and Vargas governor. A grandson of Buenaflor, Roberto Armada, became a vice governor in 2001.
Congresswoman Gloria Montinola-Tabiana of the third district was the first Ilongga lawmaker.
She succeeded her husband, Ramon C. Tabiana, a second termer. She was a daughter of Senator Ruperto Montinola.
Congressman Ricardo Y. Ladrido of the fourth district was the only dentist lawmaker in Iloilo.
Congressman Pedro G. Trono of the first district was the only pharmacist-doctor legislator in Iloilo. His wife, Lourdes Trono, was delegate to the 1973 Constitutional Convention. Congressman Licurgo Tirador of the third district was delegate to the 1973 Constitutional Convention, governor, mayor and provincial broad member. His father, Federico Tirador, Sr. was assemblyman of the fourth district.
Congressman Jose C. Zulueta of the first district was the President of the Senate. He was also governor.
Fernando Lopez was senator and the only three-termer Vice President of the Philippines, city mayor and secretary of natural resources. His son, Alberto Lopez, was congressman of the second district and daughter-in-law, Emily Lopez, was governor and first congresswoman of Guimaras.
Congressman Oscar Ledesma of the second district was senator, governor and ambassador to the United States. He was one of those who refused to receive his backpay as assemblyman after the war.
Congressman Fermin Caram, Jr. of the second district was the son of Fermin Sr., governor and delegate to the 1973 Constitutional Convention. His daughter-in-law, Tita Caram, was the Iloilo City mayor.
Congressman Pascual Espinosa Sr. of the second district was the only labor leader lawmaker of Iloilo.

MOUNTAIN ROAD

Assemblyman Venancio Cudilla of the fifth district opened northern Iloilo by building the San Nicholas mountain road from Barotac Viejo to Ajuy, added Salvilla.
Before this, people from the northern towns went to Iloilo City by a circuitous route via Roxas City or by sailboat from various ports of Ajuy. Assemblyman Atanacio Ampig of the third district died during the sinking of SS Corregidor in Manila Bay at the outbreak of the war.
Assemblyman Esperidion Guanco of the fourth district became senator. Assemblyman Francisco Villanueva of the second district was a high ranking official of the Estado Federal de Bisayas during the Philippine Revolution and later senator.
With all these Ilonggo greats carving a niche in national politics in the pre-internet epoch, the responsibility rests on our shoulders to elect the most qualified if not the best mayors, governors, congressmen and representatives.
We deserve only the kind of leaders that we elect. 

No ifs. No buts.

Justice for 32 journalists massacred in Maguindanao

STATEMENT ALTERMIDYA--PEOPLE'S ALTERNATIVE MEDIA NETWORK
Reference: Prof. Luis V. Teodoro, National Chairperson

NINE YEARS: WE REFUSE TO FORGET

NINE YEARS. Three administrations. Yet justice has remained elusive for all the victims of the bloody Ampatuan massacre where 58 people, 32 of whom were journalists, were killed in Ampatuan, Maguindanao province in what is considered as the worst election-related massacre in Philippine history.
Branch 22 of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) has concluded the trial of the primary suspects and is expected to release by early next year its verdict on the multiple murder cases against Andal “Datu Unsay” Ampatuan Jr. and other members of the Ampatuan clan. 

This is indeed a development that many have been waiting for. But it also reminds us all how glacial the pace of the so-called justice system has been: after almost a decade, what was once thought to be the trial of the century is only now being partly concluded, while the trial of more than a hundred other accused is still ongoing.
Past developments insult the memory of those killed in the Massacre, among which certainly belongs the court’s allowing one of the prime suspects, former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Governor Zaldy Ampatuan, to attend his daughter’s wedding last August, and Datu Sajid Islam Ampatuan’s being out on bail together with ten others accused of involvement in the crime.

Nine years–and the perpetrators think we will forget. They all think that the damage and violence they wrought would now be a fading memory. 

That the blood on their hands will somewhat be cleansed by the passage of time. 

No, we refuse to submit to the reign of impunity by forgetting that justice has not been served to colleagues who have been killed in the line of duty —in the Ampatuan massacre and beyond.
Three administrations have passed, yet instead of dissipating, the killings and attacks against journalists have further intensified. 

The current administration has more than aided and abetted those that seek to harm vanguards of the truth. Under the Duterte administration, at least 99 cases of attacks and threats, both online and offline, have been made against members of the Philippine media. 

Twelve were killed, seven of whom were Mindanao journalists. In general, the killings have surged – doctors, church people, innocent civilians all killed under a worsening climate of impunity.
Impunity—the exemption from punishment of wealthy, powerful and well-connected wrong-doers – is in fact what it is all about. 

And we fear that like Imelda Marcos, who is likely to escape imprisonment despite her conviction on seven counts of graft, those accused of planning and implementing the Ampatuan Massacre will also go scot-free.
Almost a decade after the bloodbath in Maguindanao, the reign of impunity continues to deny its victims the justice they deserve. 

The day of reckoning will surely dawn, and justice will finally be served. 

Until then, we enjoin the Filipino people to never forget–and to combat all attempts to curtail the freedom the Constitution guarantees the press as a potential instrument of change and liberation. 

Until that day comes, our call will always reverberate: we will never forget.

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They are not numbers, nor faceless, nor nameless. The roll of the 32 media victims of the Ampatuan massacre (courtesy of Nonoy Espina):
1. Adolfo, Benjie - Gold Star Daily, Koronadal City
2. Araneta, Henry - Radio DZRH, General Santos City
3. Arriola, Mark Gilbert “Mac-Mac" - UNTV, General Santos City
4. Bataluna, Rubello - Gold Star Daily, Koronadal City
5. Betia, Arturo - Periodico Ini, General Santos City
6. Cabillo, Romeo Jimmy - Midland Review, Tacurong City
7. Cablitas, Marites - News Focus, General Santos City
8. Cachuela, Hannibal - Punto News, Koronadal City
9. Cadagdagon, Jepon - Saksi News. General Santos City.
10. Caniban, John - Periodico Ini, General Santos City
11. Dalmacio, Lea - Socsargen News, General Santos City
12. Decena, Noel - Periodico Ini, General Santos City
13. Dela Cruz, Gina - Saksi News, General Santos City
14. Duhay, Jhoy - Gold Star Daily, Tacurong City
15. Evardo, Jolito - UNTV, General Santos City
16. Gatchalian, Santos - DXGO, Davao City
17. Legarte, Bienvenido, Jr. - Prontiera News, Koronadal City
18. Lupogan, Lindo - Mindanao Daily Gazette, Davao City
19. Maravilla, Ernesto “Bart" - Bombo Radyo, Koronadal City
20. Merisco, Rey - Periodico Ini, Koronadal City
21. Momay, Reynaldo “Bebot" - Midland Review, Tacurong City (still missing)
22. Montaño, Marife “Neneng" - Saksi News, General Santos City
23. Morales, Rosell - News Focus, General Santos City
24. Nuñez, Victor - UNTV, General Santos City
25. Perante, Ronnie - Gold Star Daily correspondent, Koronadal City
26. Parcon, Joel - Prontiera News, Koronadal City
27. Razon, Fernando “Rani" - Periodico Ini, General Santos City
28. Reblando, Alejandro “Bong" - Manila Bulletin, General Santos City
29. Salaysay, Napoleon - Mindanao Gazette, Cotabato City
30. Subang, Ian - Socsargen Today, General Santos City
31. Teodoro, Andres “Andy" - Central Mindanao Inquirer, Tacurong City
32. Tiamson, Daniel - UNTV, General Santos City

Frozen in Manhattan

“Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.”
--Amy Grant

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Excitement and fear of a chilly 27 degrees weather.
This was how I felt when I made it to the Herald Square Park in midtown Manhattan before nine o’clock in the morning on Thursday, the Thanksgiving Day, before the start of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
From the Herald Square Park subway train station where I disembarked from train Q, I hesitated to go out and wanted to cancel the “coverage” because of the chilly weather; but the NYC cops closed all the subway entrances as part of security protocol.
Since it was New York City’s coldest Thanksgiving since 1901, when the temperature only got as high as 26 degrees (-3.3 Celsius), those lining up in the streets, adults and children, “went to war with a full battle gear”: they had thick scarfs, fleece hoods, gloves, boots, coats.
I had a coat and a hood but did not have gloves. The guts.
The coldest on record was in 1871, when the warmest it got was 22 degrees (-5.5 Celsius).
I chose the Avenue of Americas (Sixth Street) area where I had a good view of the coming balloons, floats, marching bands, clowns, and ballonicles.

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After 30 minutes, the frigid air that was hitting the five boroughs, was taking its toll on my body.
It came on a jet stream pattern that went from Siberia, over the North Pole, and down into our area.
The chilly Thanksgiving Day had been expected days earlier although temperatures were originally in the 40s earlier Wednesday, with wind chills in the 30s.
The arctic air brought New Yorkers a brief coating of snow as well.
After more than one hour and the parade was only halfway, my spirit was still willing to sustain the “coverage”, but the body could not.
I was frozen in Manhattan.
I quit, walked to the Bryant Park, and took a subway train 7 in the Grand Central Station going to the Queens.
Projected Thanksgiving high temperatures were 39 degrees in Chicago and 35 in Washington D.C., but some who had decided to head to Boston was expecting 22-degree temperatures. Highs in Los Angeles and Atlanta were in the 60s.

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I didn’t give up actually until I was done waiting for 18 of the 26 much-ballyhooed giant balloons to pass.
They were: Goku, Gleck, Bjorn, Jojo and Hugg, Little Cloud, Sunny the Snow Pal, Americana Spheres, Arrtie the Pirate, Blue and White Macy’s Stars, Charlie Brown, Dino, Greg Heffley, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series, Illumination Presents Dr. Seuss’ the Grench, Jett by Super Wings, Olaf, Paw Patrol, Pikachu, Pillsbury Doughboy, Red Believe Stars, Red and Gold Macy’s Starflakes, Red Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Ronald McDonald, Songebob Squarepants, The Elf on the Shelf, Toothless From How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Trolls, Universal Nutcracker, and Yellow Macy’s Star.
These iconic characters that soared between Manhattan skyscrapers weren’t grounded as announced days before when sustained winds did not exceed 23 mph and gusts did not exceed 34 mph, based on city rules implemented after wind blew a "Cat in the Hat'' balloon into a lamp post in 1997 near the Central Park, critically injuring a woman.
The parade, which featured about 8,000 marchers, including high school bands from across the country, and two-dozen floats culminating with the arrival of Santa Claus, negotiated 46 blocks from the Central Park’s west side to Macy’s flagship store in midtown Manhattan (Herald Square Park).

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The balloon attractions debuted in 1927, inspired by a balloon float. Even then, they were massive--one was a 60-foot dinosaur--and, in those days, they had more to deal with than just high winds and crazy weather: Until 1938, an elevated train ran down Sixth Avenue, according to Mental Floss.
Well-known characters have been part of the parade since that 1927 outing.
Felix the Cat was there from the beginning, and Mickey Mouse joined in 1934, the same year that featured a balloon based on popular entertainer Eddie Cantor.
"Peanuts" characters, especially Snoopy--who made his first appearance in 1968--are regular visitors.
One tradition didn't last long.
The balloons were originally allowed to float away, and those who found them got a gift certificate from Macy's.

Turf war? Tell it to the marines

“Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?” -- ANONYMOUS

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- I personally don’t buy the theory being put forward by Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) investigators in the Philippines that the murder of retired cop Ronaldo “Apple” Alag, 57, could be the result of a “turf war” among drug syndicates.
At least this is one of the angles the police are reportedly trying to crack.
Only two big groups engaged in illegal drugs were known to have widely operated in Iloilo City since the early 90’s until recently: the Odicta Drug Group and the Prevendido Drug Group.
All other satellite or smaller groups were either linked to the above-mentioned groups or “colorum” teams with no abundant wherewithal.
Both the leaders of the Odicta Drug Group and Prevendido Drug Group have been “neutralized” with the killing of Melvin “Boyet” Odicta Sr. on August 29, 2016 in Caticlan, Aklan and of Richard “Buang” Prevendido on September 1, 2017 in Balabago, Jaro District, Iloilo City.

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Buang’s sister, Remia Prevendido-Gregori, the village chief of Barangay Bakhaw in Mandurriao District, Iloilo City, was also killed on June 24, 2018 at the family-owned resort in Barangay Igcadlum in San Joaquin town.
Because both groups were making a lot of money and some of their couriers and associates were known to each other, the Odicta and Prevendido Drug Groups weren’t at war against each other.
They could not.
They should not.
Engaging in a Mafia-like “elimination process” to corner or polish off the cookies would defeat their purpose; they weren’t that sophisticated and glamorous to act as Godfather bioflick copycats.
The Odicta Drug Group was “too big” to wage a bloody rivalry against the “smaller” Prevendido Drug Group, which was “too inferior” to mount a trouble against the former.
The groups were believed to have operated not only in Iloilo City, but in the entire Western Visayas that included the provinces of Iloilo, Guimaras, Aklan, Capiz, Antique, and Negros, making the angle of territorial disputes seems implausible.

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The Regional Police Office 6 (RPO-6) has admitted there are remnants of these groups or even “new players” trying to revive the syndicates’ old glory, but because of the aggressive campaign being waged by the RPO-6 and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), their tentacles couldn’t easily mushroom.
The police’s swashbuckling operations supervised by tough RPO-6 director, Chief Supt. John Bulalacao, these past months have trounced them before they could blast off and spread their legs.
It was believed that with the fall of Odicta and Prevendido, even their much-vaunted war chest and armed machinery (killing apparatuses) have been subdued if not crippled.
Thus it’s inconceivable that any “active” drug group can have the guts and capability to violently exterminate the likes of Apple Alag and Odicta’s lawyer Edeljulio “Judel” Romero using professional killers “with military precision” and in broad daylight.
Turf war?
Or another case of extra-judicial killing (EJK)?

Apple Alag was PNP’s ‘small but terrible’

“Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.”
--Hannah Arendt

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Retired SPO2 Ronald “Apple” Alag, 57, was one of the three rookie cops known in Iloilo City in the Philippines as “small but terrible” during the heyday of the late former Metrodistrict Police Command (Metrodiscom) chief, Col. Achilles Plagata, in the mid-80’s.
“Si Apple (Alag) masaligan ko gid ina. Maboot ina nga pulis (I have trust in Apple. He is a good cop),” Plagata told us, members of the Iloilo City Hall Press Corps, when “Tay Achil” was city councilor in the 90’s.
Plagata’s reaction came after Apple hogged headlines in the local media when a fellow cop, Douglas Demonteverde, nearly shot Apple with an armalite rifle inside the Arevelo Police Precinct in Villa, Arevalo district sometime in 1996.
This was how Apple’s name first became controversial.

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Apple, then the Arevalo police desk sergeant, confronted Demonteverde for his tardiness, among other infractions.
Demonteverde, who didn’t like the admonition, aimed the firearm at Apple and yelled in local dialect, “So what if you are an Alag? I am not afraid to shoot you right now.”
Cooler heads pacified them.
“This is now my second life,” Apple told reporters who responded in the station.
He didn’t fight back “because I was armed only with a .38 caliber.”
Aside from Apple, fellow rookie cops Ricky Thornton and Nathaniel Ore were also known as “small but terrible” because of their frame and effectiveness in hunting down snatchers, thieves, and other criminals.
They could be mistaken for civilians and teenagers, thus they were able to easily round up some of the most notorious criminals in the metropolis.
Apple, Thornton, Ore, Ashley Agustin, Danilo Tan were five of the finest and the best cops under Plagata’s wing who did excellent intelligence works for the Metrodiscom (now the Iloilo City Police Office).
Because of their sharpness and impressive abilities, criminals in Iloilo City fell one after the other and peace and order was at its lowest in those years.
Alag became known as “Apple” because “he was the apple of the eyes” of his family, colleagues, some reporters and even criminals.

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I first heard of Apple in 1996 when his name surfaced as one of the two cops linked to the late controversial Supt. Mosa “Batman” Amiyong, who was gunned down on November 22, 2013 on Quirino Bridge in Iloilo City.
Apple and colleague Rex Egpuara, a former bodyguard of the slain Bombo Radyo anchorman Rino Arcones, reportedly “worked” for Amiyong, who was then suspected of “facilitating” the entry of illegal drugs from Mindanao to Iloilo.
There was no evidence that directly linked Apple and Egpuara to Amiyong’s alleged illegal activities.
Before the late suspected drug lord Melvin “Boyet” Odicta Sr. ruled the illegal drug trade in Western Visayas, then Metrodiscom chief, Col. Vicente Neptuno, using a K9 dog, nabbed suspected drug dealer, Bolane Daquiado, nephew of the late Agusan del Norte Mayor Nilo “Taklong” Soliva, in a raid in Jereos Extension, La Paz district.

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Writing for Sun.Star Iloilo, I again heard of Apple’s name but there was no evidence to link him to Bolane’s group.
Reporters covering the police beat, fellow cops and family members described Apple as “maboot, maalwan, maamigohon kag mapisan (a good-natured person, generous, friendly, diligent).”
When he retired from the PNP in 2005, Apple’s “only mistake” was he became known as Odicta’s “bodyguard”.
Apple reportedly “sidelined” as security guard in Odicta’s pawnshop in Maria Clara, City Proper but was actually “actively involved in Odicta’s illegal drug trade” as “protector.”
There was no evidence that Apple personally sold illegal drugs after Odicta and his wife, Meriam, were murdered in Caticlan, Aklan two years ago, but the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) confirmed he was in the watch list of personalities engaged in illegal drugs.

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Apple’s murder by two riding-in-tandem assailants (one had served as the shooter and the other as the driver) in the morning on November 19, 2018 in Brgy. Villa Anita, Iloilo City Proper was brazen because it happened in broad daylight (at around 8 o’clock in the morning) in his own territory, the place where he grew up.
Apple was driving his white van when the unidentified gunman, a back rider, shot him on his left side. He died of multiple gunshot wounds in the hospital.
The crime was captured on CCTV.
The attackers were so determined to finish him off that they weren’t afraid to attack Apple in the village where the incumbent punong barangay is his brother, Ondoy, a former firefighter.
Of the three Alags who served as law enforcers, Apple was considered as “the most well-loved and admired” by his friends and neighbors.
Apple’s two other older brothers are now retired former Philippine Constabulary (PC) members Alfonso and Celoy, who were known as “astigs” (toughies) who “didn’t have mercy for the criminals.”
Some inmates in the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) reportedly “liked” Apple “because he didn’t harm them physically and (he) even shared some of his ‘blessings’ to them.”

Salinas’ faith in judicial process

“I believe if you keep your faith, you keep your trust, you keep the right attitude, if you're grateful, you'll see God open up new doors.”
--Joel Osteen

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- It pays to have a positive mindset and to have a faith in the judicial system.
When the Office of the Ombudsman ordered the dismissal from the Philippine National Police (PNP) of Senior Superintendent Cornelio Salinas, Superintendent Nepomuceno Corpus Jr., and Senior Superintendent Michel Amos Filart on Nov 5, 2015 for alleged involvement in the anomalous procurement of 16 police coastal crafts (PCCs) worth P4.54 million in 2009, they didn’t lose hope.
For allegedly making “FPT their sole choice of supplier and dispensing the public bidding for the 16 PCCs despite working knowledge on violations of Section 48 and 53 of Republic Act 9148 (Government Procurement Reform Act),” the Consolidated Resolution of the Ombudsman on June 2, 2015 and the order dated March 26, 2016 found 19 police officials guilty of grave misconduct.
Until the day that their dismissal spread all over the country when it hogged headlines, the three, particularly Salinas, maintained their innocence.

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Salinas and his fellow dismissed officials swore they never pocketed a single centavo from the doomed deal and vowed to appeal their dismissal and clear their names.
They were former members of the PNP Maritime Group’s Bids and Awards Committee that approved the PCC’s procurement.
For this part, Salinas, who was backed by Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Sr., continued to have faith in the Philippines’ judicial process; he pinned his hopes on his “clear conscience” and the fact that there was no solid evidence that would show he took part in an anomalous transaction.
Instead of badmouthing the justice system like what other victims of injustices in the Philippines are doing, Salinas and his colleagues appealed their case in the Court of Appeals.
Instead of hiding from the public and avoiding the press, Salinas, even after he became a civilian after the dismissal, made his present felt in coffee shops and important gatherings to show to the world he was unfazed, didn’t lose his self esteem, and was willing to cooperate with the legal process.

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He cracked jokes with reporters in coffee shops and other public places and made himself available to everyone wishing to exchange a conversation with him as if his police career was never in trouble.
The former chief of the Iloilo Provincial Police Office (IPPO) showed neither rancor nor hatred toward the justice system and those responsible for his dismissal.
Salinas believed from the beginning that there would be light at the end of the tunnel.
The Court of Appeals 13th Division reversed the decision of the Office of the Ombudsman in a decision on January 30, 2018 but was made available only to media recently.
Report said the CA agreed to the petitioners’ claim that they resorted to negotiated procurement due to urgent needs brought by typhoons Ondoy, Peping, Quedan, Ramil, Santi, Tino, Urduja, and Vinta.
As a result of his faith in the judicial process and his positive mental attitude, Salinas and his fellow officers have been reinstated in the PNP service and will “be paid their salaries and such other emoluments corresponding to the period they were out of the service by reason of judgment of dismissal decreed by the Office of Ombudsman,” said the memorandum signed by Deputy Director General Camilo Cascolan, chief of the PNP National Directorial Staff.

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I have expressed my personal stand as a journalist that I don’t agree that press accreditation should be canceled by any administration annoyed by how reporters ask questions during press briefings.
But I also don’t agree that reporters should act rudely and digress from normal discourse and show abusive decorum.
In the end, we are happy though that the White House on November 19, 2018 announced that CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's press pass has been "restored."
CNN believed White House “bowed” to days of pressure and a federal lawsuit against the administration.
The giant news network signaled that it would drop the ongoing litigation over Acosta's access to the White House.
CNN said in a statement: "Today the White House fully restored Jim Acosta's press pass. As a result, our lawsuit is no longer necessary. We look forward to continuing to cover the White House."
Monday afternoon's announcement, what the White House called a "final determination," was an abrupt shift from the administration's earlier positions.

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SAVING OUR PLANET 1: Clean up with vinegar. Don't clean up our toilets with a mineral-deposits remover as it contains harsh chemicals that harm the environment when flushed down the toilet into the water system. Vinegar is an excellent substitute to scrub off rush and deposits marks.
SAVING OUR PLANET 2: Let's salt our silver. Silver cleaners can be abrasive and harsh. Let's make our own cleaner for sterling (not plate) silver by mixing 1 pint of water with a teaspoon each of salt and baking powder and adding a strip of aluminum foil. Drop the silver into this mixture, boil for a few minutes, remove with tongs and polish with a soft cloth. Add lemon juice for really grimy silver.

Christmas bonus a temporary orgasm

“The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”
--Ernest Hemingway

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Even if government workers in the Philippines will enjoy their Christmas bonus on top of their 13th month pay this year, the windfall will only serve as a temporary relief from penury and the daily economic doldrums the Filipinos are scuffling.
For an ordinary Filipino salaried worker who will “share the blessings” to his family in the Yuletide Season, the Christmas bonus is like a temporary orgasm.
After Christmas, it’s back to reality; back to economic plateau, a life of inflation.
The Philippines' annual inflation rate came in at 6.7 percent, unchanged from September 2018 but higher than market expectations of 6.5 percent, only last month.
Although the latest reading remained at its highest since February 2009, according to statistics, a faster rise in cost of housing and transport offset a slight slowdown in prices of food.
Consumer prices went up 0.3 percent, after a 0.8 percent rise in September on a monthly basis, it was learned.

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The Philippines’ inflation rate averaged 8.40 percent from 1958 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 62.80 percent in September of 1984 and a record low of -2.10 percent in January of 1959, it was learned further.
Inflation affects people from all walks of life, and is a major concern to global economists.
Every Juan dela Cruz who works hard, fair and square, should know about inflation which refers to the measure or rate by which the cost of goods and services rises and purchasing power declines.
As prices increase, monetary value decreases--prompting consumers to spend less on goods and services.
Economists said there are a few theories that claim to explain inflation, and two of them are:
Cost-push inflation: This type of inflation is caused by a sudden rise in the cost of production while demand for products or services decreases or remains the same.
The additional production cost is transferred to buyers in the form of an increase in retail price.
The other is Demand-Pull Inflation: This type of inflation can be described as too much money, too few goods.
It happens when there is a shortage of supply, and the economy demands more goods and services than are available.
This results in price increases, which will remain until supply can finally match demand and maintain the balance.
This usually happens to growing economies.

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BORING. A lot of chess players like me are starting to find the current FIDE World Chess Championship between Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Fabiano Caruana of USA in London boring.
After six games, no player has won.
All games ended in draw, so far.
“I was just way too casual,” was the excuse made by defending champion Carlsen when asked to explain the match last November 16 where he was reportedly nearly defeated.
Observers were saying that there was nothing nonchalant about the Norwegian’s dogged fightback to salvage a draw in a game that could have, at least temporarily, cost him the world No 1 ranking that he had held for more than seven years uninterrupted.
Carlsen has famously claimed he didn’t believe in fortresses during his world title defense against Sergey Karjakin two years ago in New York.
In the sixth match, experts observed that the Norwegian champion took refuge in a defensive structure and moved with precision and ingenuity throughout the tense endgame, even as the Stockfish evaluation engine found a forced mate in 30 moves for black after 67. Kg6.
Both players had a rest day as of this writing.
The first world title showdown between the sport’s top two players in 28 years resumed for Game 7 on November 18, with Carlsen playing as white.
We expect one of them to win, this time.

It’s wrong to admire Freddie Mercury’s promiscuous life

“You know, women are as promiscuous as men and yet, of course, people are inhibited from having an affair or a relationship because the real-world consequences are a drag.”
--Lee Child

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Fans of the Queen and its late lead vocalist Freddie Mercury can count on this writer when it comes to admiring their songs, mostly recorded in the 70’s and early 80’s when I was starting to fall in love with music.
But when it comes to how Mercury lived his life and the messages it imparted to those who lionized him all over the world, I am one of those who don’t agree that the great rock star was a role model.
Most of Mercury’s music were great, there’s no doubt about it; but he didn’t live an exemplary life, or a lifestyle that’s something for the youth to emulate and use as inspiration.
The height of veneration heaped upon Mercury by fans, including Filipinos, was no excuse to parade his promiscuous life in public, much less “justify” its exoticism to the degree that it almost smeared our discernment on what is right and wrong, and slurred the line of decency and indecency.

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A culturally determined concept, promiscuity is formally defined, according to Webster, as including not only frequent but "indiscriminate" sexual behavior.
When Mercury died of AIDS in London on November 24, 1991, The Sun reported the following day: “He lavished expensive gifts on his lovers--diamonds, Mercedes cars and money.”
Mercury’s former personal manager Paul Prenter, who died from AIDS two months before Mercury’s death, revealed his one-time boss slept with hundreds of men, partly because he was terrified of sleeping alone.
The Sun quoted Prenter: “It was more likely that I would see him walk on water than go with a woman. Freddie told me his first homosexual relationship happened when he was at boarding school in India when he was 14. While we were touring there would be a different man every night, He would probably go to bed by 6am or 7am--but rarely alone.”
“He has a fear of sleeping alone, or even being alone for long stretches.” Prenter said Freddie phoned him after airline steward John Murphy, a one-night-stand died of AIDS in 1987 and admitted. “I’m afraid I could die of AIDS.

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The manager claimed AIDS also killed another one of Mercury’s lovers-- courier Tony Bastin.
Despite his hundreds of male lovers, Mercury was expected to leave his fortune to a woman--his one time girlfriend Mary Austin.
He once said: “The only friend I’ve had is Mary. She will inherit the bulk of my fortune. No one else will get a penny, except for my cats Oscar and Tiffany.”
Mercury and Mary lived together for seven years until 1980 when the relationship broke up due to his increasing gay urges and the pressure of his fame.
But he kept in touch with her because she was the only person he really trusted.
He said: “I don’t want anybody else. Over the years I have become bitter and I don’t trust anybody else because I have been let down so many times.”
Mercury showered gifts on Mary including a £600,000 house just around the corner from his own.
When she gave birth to a son in February 1990 he was the automatic choice as godfather.
Mercury said: “Our love affair ended in tears. My life is extremely volatile and someone like Mary couldn’t cope with it. Success has brought me millions and world idolization, but not the thing we all need--a loving relationship.

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That’s why I am alarmed by the growing reverence of some members of today’s young generation on Mercury starting when the film, Bohemian Rhapsody, was released in the US on November 2, 2018.
Many Filipino fans have already watched the film, a foot-stomping celebration of Queen, their music and Mercury’s extraordinary talent.
The film traces the meteoric rise of the band through their iconic songs and revolutionary sound.
"Bohemian Rhapsody” was originally written by Mercury for the British rock band's 1975 album A Night at the Opera.
A six-minute suite, consisting of several sections without a chorus: an intro, a ballad segment, an operatic passage, a hard rock part and a reflective coda, it is called “Bohemian Rhapsody” because it depicts the life of a 'bohemian', whose original meaning is 'artist' while 'Rhapsody' is a fantasy (literally, it could play in his head) or a vision; within this song Mercury foresaw his life in a symbolic way.
(According to Dr. Stephen A. Diamond of Psychology Today, “Preference for frequent sexual contacts is not necessarily the same as being sexually indiscriminating. The latter, in women, indicates a possible compulsive, and therefore, pathological quality to the excessive sexual behavior, referred to traditionally as nymphomania. (In men, it is called satyriasis.) Such indiscriminating or sometimes even random sexual behaviors can be commonly seen in various mental disorders such as psychosis, manic episodes, substance abuse and dependence, dissociative identity disorder, as well as borderline, narcissistic and antisocial personalities, and can, in fact, often be partially diagnostic of such pathological conditions.”)

I ‘worked’ with Salvador Panelo for Mrs. Marcos

“Time moves in one direction, memory in another.”
--William Gibson

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- I was privileged to be one of the few journalists from outside Metro Manila allowed to enter the Westin-Philippine Plaza hotel where former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos was billeted several days after arriving on November 4, 1991 from a six-year exile in Hawaii.
It was Sol Vanzi, Mrs. Marcos’ former press aide, who welcomed and brought us to a room where we interviewed the late Dean Antonio Coronel, Mrs. Marcos’ mercurial lawyer.
Claiming she was “penniless”, Mrs. Marcos refused to pay her hotel bills (a $2,000-a-day suite) forcing the hotel management to evict the once most powerful woman in the Philippines.
She moved into a two-story, three-bedroom modest house in suburban Pasay city at the time when the Cory government filed the last of 80 criminal charges against her.
The following year when Mrs. Marcos ran for president in 1992, Vanzi helped arrange for our meeting with Mrs. Marcos at Hotel del Rio in Iloilo City.
Mrs. Marcos introduced us to some of her senatorial candidates under the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) who were present, namely: Chiquito, Amay Bisaya, Rod Navarro, Salvador Panelo, Johnny Wilson, Rommel Corro, Vicente Piccio, Rafael Recto.

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When KBL barnstormed Antique, Capiz, Aklan, Sol Vanzi requested us to cover the event.
In Antique, I was with Atty. Panelo, now spokesman of President Rodrigo Duterte, when our service vehicle was stranded and left behind somewhere in the mountainous area with no electricity in Brgy. Hamtic at past 8 o’clock in the evening.
I told Atty. Panelo we were near the area where the late Iloilo provincial police commander, Col. Teodolfo Lao, and his men were killed in an ambush staged by the New People’s Army (NPA) in 1989.
Also in our team was a “Susan Herrera”, manager of ChinaBank Iloilo. There were about eight of us in the group.
Panelo asked me to negotiate with those living in the area to facilitate our return to Iloilo City because it was getting late at night and was very dark.
We approached a male resident, who was hesitant to help.
I talked to him in Kinaray-a, the dialect in Antique. He didn’t respond.
Then I heard Atty. Panelo tell the unidentified male resident in English, “My name is Atty. Salvador Panelo. We are stranded. Please help us. Invest with me.”
“Invest with me” was the line that refused to leave my memory for 26 years now.
The male resident did “invest” with Atty. Panelo who gave the man his business card.
To make the long story short, the man who “invested” with Atty. Panelo helped secure a passenger jeep for the group and we made it back to Iloilo City before midnight.

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Without offense meant, of the 164 senatorial candidates, Panelo wound up 125th.
He was ahead, however, of the 11 other KBL bets.
Former Iloilo fourth district Rep. Narciso Monfort, running under LDP party, beat Chiquito, a comedian who ran as Augusto Pangan, for the 39th spot.
Monfort garnered 2,483,459 votes while Chiquito, who landed 40th, got 2,408,185 votes.
Actor Tito Sotto, now the Senate president, topped the senatorial contest with 11,792,121 votes. He was followed by another action star Ramon Revilla Sr. with 8,321,278 votes.
Twenty four fresh senators were elected in that year. They were: Sotto, Revilla Sr., Edgardo Angara, Ernesto Herrera, Alberto Romulo, Ernesto Maceda, Orly Mercado, Neptali Gonzales, Leticia Ramos-Shahani, Heherson Alvarez, Blas Ople, Freddie Webb, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Teofisto Guingona Jr., Nina Rasul, Joey Lina, Nikki Coseteng, Arturo Tolentino, Raul Roco, Rodolfo Biazon, Wigberto Tañada, Francisco Tatad, John Henry Osmeña, Agapito Aquino.

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Mrs. Marcos, who is now in the news worldwide after being convicted for graft and corruption by the Sandiganbayan at age 89, finished in the 1992 presidential elections fifth behind Fidel Ramos, who edged the late Miriam Defensor Santiago; Danding Cojuangco, and Ramon Mitra Jr.
Mrs. Marcos, now representative of Ilocos Norte, garnered more votes than the late illustrious former Senate President Jovito Salonga and former Vice President Doy Laurel.
Every time I remember that roller coaster 1992 presidential campaign, I remember Rep. Imelda R. Marcos and Spokesman Salvador Panelo.

We worry on attempts to intimidate critical journalists

“Never do today what you can do tomorrow. Something may occur to make you regret your premature action.”
--Aaron Burr

Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- It’s too early for opponents of Panay Electric Company (PECO) to celebrate even if the Senate Committee on Public Services chaired by Senator Grace Poe has already given the MORE Power and Electric Company the green signal to be the new power distributor in Iloilo City.
PECO isn’t dead yet.
It is only fighting for its life in the surgery room surrounded by the best doctors who can still revive and prolong the life, or even save it from permanent disability and restore its main faculties.
PECO is still hoping to get a favorable ruling in the Lower House, where its application for renewal of its franchise is pending, before the expiration of its franchise on January 19, 2019.
While it has a myriad of available options and resources to wage a protracted legislative and legal battle to protect its interest and survival, PECO isn’t yet in the mood to raise the white flag.

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This could be the reason why PECO has refused to participate in the technical working group (TWG) meeting that would have commenced the transition works between MORE Power and Electric Company and PECO on November 8, 2018.
PECO has already made a stand not to sell its assets to a competitor.
It remains to be seen if MORE Power and Electric Company can efficiently serve the thousands of Ilonggo consumers without sufficient and time-tested ground technical resources and manpower in the territory that has been steamrolled and dominated by PECO for several eras.
The impasse is expected to prolong especially that PECO has disclosed its willingness to slug it out with the MORE Power and Electric Company all the way to the Supreme Court.
Ilonggo power consumers will be spared from inconvenience and stray bullets if Congress will expedite its verdict on PECO’s application for extension of its franchise and if the court will act with dispatch and alacrity once the imbroglio has been tossed there for litigation.

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As a Filipino journalist, I worry a lot that potential tax evasion charges are being readied and might be used to intimidate Philippine government critic Maria Ressa as well as other critics of the Duterte administration.
The threat against the lady journalist has prompted an outpouring of support on social media.
Colleagues from around the world have praised the founder and editor of investigative news site Rappler, voicing our fears about the state of press freedom in the Southeast Asian nation.
Philippines prosecutors have revealed that “they have grounds to indict Ressa and Rappler for failing to pay taxes on 2015 bond sales.”
The penalties, under the Philippine law, could include a fine and a 10-year imprisonment.
Ressa is a vocal critic of President Rodrigo Duterte. She has rejected the “ridiculous charges” as a thinly veiled attempt to silence critical coverage saying such indictments are meant to “intimidate and harass” journalists.
We fear other enemies of the press might take advantage of the government’s aggressive reactions against critical reporters.
I have also written critically and voiced my opinion heavily against some of the Philippine Government's bad policies especially against the extra-judicial killings (EJK) which has killed thousands of suspected drug addicts and traffickers not yet convicted in any court.
The media landscape in the Philippines, which ranks 133rd on the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, has come under extreme pressure since Duterte rose to power in 2016.
Founded in 2012 by Ressa and three other journalists, Rappler has cast a spotlight on Duterte’s brutal war on illegal drugs and street crimes.
Rappler has faced a barrage of online trolls and a series of government-backed lawsuits aimed at shutting the site as a result.
Let’s hope that harassment and intimidation against crusading journalists will not end up in assassinations just like what happened to hundreds of our colleagues since democracy was restored in the 1986 EDSA People Power. God forbid.

Moral support

“You need a strong family because at the end, they will love you and support you unconditionally. Luckily, I have my dad, mom and sister.”
-- Esha Gupta

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- The state should be at war only against external forces that threaten to undermine or subvert its sovereignty and hurt the political and economic well-being of its people.
Democracy is pro-God, pro-people, pro-freedom, pro-unity and progress.
The purpose of government is to serve, preserve, and protect the people and their primordial interests, not to trample on their basic rights, freedom and dignity.
The purpose of the armed forces and police is to ensure peace and order, safety and protection of the citizens regardless of geographical locations, civic, political and spiritual affiliations.
If government resources, authority and power are marshaled to suppress and silence individuals with dissenting and radical opinions, it’s not a government of the people; it’s not a government for the people.
That “government” is the enemy of the people.

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Now that there is an imminent threat against the interest of thousands of power consumers in Iloilo City in the Philippines in the ongoing power play between the Panay Electric Company (PECO) and the MORE Power and Electric Company, the government should prepare the precautionary measures to ensure that the consumers will not be in the losing end.
PECO has threatened to halt operations starting January 19, 2019, according to reports, apparently in “protest” of the “hasty” imprimatur by the Senate Committee on Public Services chaired by Senator Grace Poe allowing More Power and Electric Company to be the new power distributor in Iloilo City even if PECO’s application for renewal of its franchise is still pending in the Lower House.

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When PECO “snubbed” the meeting of a technical working group (TWG) that will handle the transition works between PECO and MORE Power on November 8, 2018, it should be treated as a portent of things to come.
And now that PECO lawyer Inocencio Ferrer has let the cat out of the bag by saying in media interviews that the local power company will stop its operations on the day its franchise will expire (January 19, 2019), the Department of Energy (DoE) and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) should now be ahead of time and are expected to be on top of the situation.
The bottom line here is, the power consumers shouldn’t be caught flat-footed; they should be spared from the corporate wars and must not be involved whether there is a “blackmail” or an ultimatum whatsoever.

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The decision of the Garin family to allow former Health Secretary Janette-Loreto Garin to “substitute” for her husband, Rep. Oscar “Richard” Garin, Jr. in the next congressional term in Iloilo’s first district (granting that their rival, Gerardo Flores, will lose anew), is understandable.
Among the Garin clan members, it’s Dr. Loreto-Garin who is a facing a thunderstorm in public life.
If the Dengvaxia cases filed against her will prosper in court and she is back in Congress, she will have at least something to lean on as a matter of “defense and survival” when the war of attrition versus the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) and other anti-Garin forces lingers.
It’s been tested and proven that in the Philippines, a public office could be an ideal “asylum” for those who are in dire straits legally; not to wiggle out from the trouble permanently, but, at least, for a temporary relief.
In crisis and in happiness, the Garins don't abandon each other; they cling to each other for moral support and otherwise.
Everything will change, of course, if Flores, who has never won an electoral battle versus the Garins, will pull an upset in the May 2019 elections.

Was Supt. Rapiz ‘silenced?’

“If we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well.”
--HELEN PREJEAN

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- For every lawyer murdered in the Philippines and the killers managed to slip away, justice bleeds.
If justice is denied, democracy wobbles.
More injustices, or more deadly attacks on unarmed civilians and officers of the court and the cases are unsolved, means imminent collapse of democracy.
If democracy is dead, lawlessness, abuses by those in power, and authoritarian rule reign.
If a crusading lawyer like Benjamin Tarug Ramos Jr. can be muzzled violently and no justice is given, what are the chances of ordinary laborers, farm workers, and the poor if they, too, will be eviscerated when they seek redress for their legitimate grievances?
As a defender of the oppressed and the voiceless in society, the state should have ensured the protection and safety of Ramos and his ilk who are vulnerable to brutal attacks and violence.
And now that Ramos is dead, the state should utilize all its corpulent resources to hunt down the killers.
Its chilling effects will be felt not only by Ramos’ colleagues in Negros, but also by all members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) all over the country.

-o0o-

Motorcycle-riding men gunned down Ramos, of Brgy. Biniculi, Kabankalan City around 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 6, 2018 at Rojas Street, Brgy. 5.
The 56-year-old Ramos, secretary-general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)-Negros Chapter, was taking a break after some paper works for his pro bono clients when shot.
Report said he suffered three gunshot wounds at the right backside and left upper chest of his body and was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
The lawyer was “maliciously and irresponsibly tagged in a public poster by the Philippine police as among the so-called personalities of the underground armed movement,” according to NUPL.
NUPL said Ramos was the 34th lawyer killed under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. Excluding judges and prosecutors, he was the 24th member of the profession killed and 8th in the Visayas.
Violence should not be the answer if an establishment or a powerful and well-connected group is annoyed by the advocacy of crusading lawyers.
The use of force and treachery is the handiwork of cowards and psychos.
That’s how we best describe both the killers and the mastermind or masterminds of Ramos’ murder.
The recent wave of lawlessness that snuffed out the life of a brave lawyer should be condemned not because Ramos was a lawyer, but also because murder is a crime.

-o0o-

I have declared this several times and I am declaring it again here: there will be no construction of the much-ballyhooed Panay-Guimaras-Negros bridge this year.
As long as politicians in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and other government agencies are the ones doing all the talking, no project will ever romp off.
Only the technical people, experts, and non-political personalities, especially in the business, private, and diplomatic sectors have the credibility when it comes to giving projections on certain multi-billion infrastructure projects like airports, domes, damns, highways, and bridges.
Politicians have zero credibility when it comes to implementation of mammoth projects.

-o0o-

It’s mind-boggling that Police Superintendent Santiago Ylanan Rapiz, a trained and quick-witted police official, will trade shots with fellow cops who came to arrest him allegedly in a buy-bust operation in Dipolog City on Monday night, November 5.
Rapiz, assigned at the Logistics Branch of the Zamboanga del Norte Police Provincial Office, was killed in an anti-drug operation of the Philippine National Police-Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in front of Andres Bonifacio College Gymnasium, in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte.
Even a rookie cop knows that his chances of survival are nil if he opts to shoot it out when he is already cornered and overpowered.

Pinoy election losers should learn from Americans

“No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.”
--Winston Churchill

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Instead of making a concession speech, a loser in the Philippine elections has always been known to be aching and crying, “We wuz robbed.”
And instead of inspiring or helping minimize the sadness of his emotionally distraught supporters after results of the electoral exercises have been known, the Pinoy sore loser would instigate the crowd and give them false hopes: “We will win in the electoral protest. The truth will come out.”
Instead of moving on with his life after a failed bid for a public office, the Pinoy election loser extends his hurtful rivalry by going after his opponent tongs and hammer in a tumultuous election protest, wasting the taxpayers’ money and productive time when the protest reaches the Electoral Tribunal.
Since Marcos “defeated” Tita Cory in the 1986 Philippine snap elections (Tita Cory became president when the “People Power” toppled the Strongman in EDSA), there were only two losers in the Philippine presidential contests that I remember who gamely accepted defeat: Jose de Venecia (who lost to Erap in 1998) and Mar Roxas (who lost to Digong in 2018).

-o0o-

From senatorial to congressional down to gubernatorial, mayoral, council and even barangay elections, there have been and will also be “victims of electoral fraud” in the Philippines.
Nobody is defeated in a plain and honest competition; every loser is a “victim of massive cheating and vote-buying.”
The noise and annoying grumble normally come from losing bets who badly need jobs in government because the industry that they come from no longer provide sufficient income to sustain their skyrocketing expenses.
Some of them are the discarded showbiz and entertainment actors and actresses, basketball stars, folk singers and rock stars who live lavish lifestyles.
To bellyache, complain and stir the hornet’s nest after the elections have become the Philippines’ national trademark.
Come May 2019, expect more nitpickers, whiners and crybabies to make a scene and engage in melodrama after they have been rejected in the elections.

-o0o-

What the Filipino losers--and winners, as well--must learn from their counterparts in America?
Humility.
Gracefulness.
Statesmanship.
In my coverage of the 2018 US Midterm Elections on November 6, 2018 here, the concession speech of Democrat Texas senatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke should be considered as one of the best in modern elections; it should stand up as the most emotional but down-to-earth and very sincere speech coming from a rising political heartthrob many progressives and Democrats thought would be the next Robert F. Kennedy.

-o0o-

Let me share here Berto O’Rourke’s dynamic and magnificent speech:
El Paso has produced some really great teams over the years. I am very lucky I got to be part of one that came out of this community. For the last 22 months, I have been traveling every county in Texas. I have been there to listen to and show up for every one of us. I was inspired and I am as hopeful as I have ever been in my life. Tonight’s loss does nothing to diminish the way I feel about Texas or this country.
Getting to see all of you tonight and be with you reminds me why we set out to do this in the first place. We’re not about being against anybody. We’re not going to define ourselves by who or what we’re scared of. We are great people. Ambitious. Defined by our aspirations and the hard work we are willing to commit in order to achieve them. Every single one of us from a big city to a small town, the people of Texas will do the great work of the country.
I have now had the opportunity to talk with Sen. Cruz and congratulate him on his victory and wish him well going forward. What I pledged on behalf of all of us is that in this time of division, with the country as polarized as I can remember it in my life, all of this bitterness, if there is anything we can do to help him in his position of public trust to ensure that Texas helps lead the country in a way that brings us back together around big things we want to achieve, whether that is making sure we face any threat against this country or that we are there for every single person who needs a helping hand so we can let your full potential, the ability to see a doctor and receive medication you need, I want to work with him.
I will work with anyone to make sure we lead on that. You amazing public school educators who work so hard and do so much for so many of us, I will work with him or with anyone, anytime, anywhere, to make sure that the same way you have been there for us, we will be there for you. Not as Republicans or Democrats, but as Texans and Americans. I want to make sure that this community that raised me and made me who I am, where Amy and I are fortunate enough to be raising our kids who are here with us tonight, that we offer our experience, perspective, courage on the issues we know best. We will form something powerful, magical.
I have nothing to apologize for. I want to make sure that this proud community offers, has to give to our country and to ensure our best days are still ahead and the policies and laws we craft and the way we treat each other comes not out of fear, but out of confidence and strength in the kind hearts I have always known El Paso to have.
El Paso, I love you so much. I am so proud of you in the city and community and what you mean to the rest of the country. And what you have achieved tonight, along with so many other amazing people across the state. The kindness, generosity you have shown to me and Amy and our family, and to our campaign, it’s amazing. That is why my faith in this state and country is not diminished. We will continue to work and come together to make sure that we live up to the promise of potential of the country. I know that because I met you and listened to you everywhere you live.
I want to thank my family, beginning with Amy, who has borne the toughest burden raising our kids, supporting me, loving me, giving me strength and encouragement at every step, making sure we could finish this as strong as we started. I want to thank our children and my mom and sisters and my family, all of whom are here tonight, for being such great examples to me. I love you.
I want to thank this amazing campaign of people. Not a dime from a single PAC. All of you showing the country how to do this. I am so fucking proud of you guys. David, Jody, Chris, Cynthia, everybody who worked on this campaign, every volunteer and ambassador, everyone who knocked on doors, everyone who made phone calls, everyone who allow themselves to hope and believe, to be inspired by one another and to turn it into action and into votes, and to do something that no one thought was possible, to build a campaign like this one solely comprised of people from all walks of life, coming together, deciding what unites us is far stronger than the color of our skin, how many generations we can count ourselves an American, or whether we just got here yesterday, who we love, we pray to, whether we pray at all, who we voted for last time, none of it matters.
It is the greatness to which we aspire and the work we are willing to put into it to achieve it by which we will be known going forward. This campaign holds a very special place in the history of this country. Every day going forward. You have made that possible.
This team of which we are all members in some way is going to stay together and continue to aspire to do great things. It may be in individual races and communities. It may not have anything to do with politics. But each of us, sometimes together finding ways to make life better for one another in our communities. There are so many great candidates who will come out of this campaign whose work I look forward to supporting and following and cheering on. Know this: I am forever changed in the most profoundly positive way. I am forever grateful to every single one of you for making this possible. I believe in you and I believe in Texas and in this country.
I love you more than words can express and that love will persist every day going forward, making sure whatever we have created and changed, and all of us will decide what that means and how far it goes, that it leads something far greater than what we have today and that everything one of us continues to believe and made possible the greatness of the United States of America.
I am honored to have been able to do this with you and grateful. We will see you down the road. Thank you, El Paso. Thank you, Texas.
Thank you, every single one of you, for making this possible. I am so grateful. Thank you. Thank you.

Pinoys obsessed with US Midterm elections

“Voting is how we participate in a civic society - be it for president, be it for a municipal election. It's the way we teach our children-in school elections-how to be citizens, and the importance of their voice.”
--Loretta Lynch

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Filipinos are very much involved in the US Midterm Elections for the reason that they, too, will march to the polling precincts six months from now to elect their senators, representatives, governors, mayors, and council members in May 2019.
Some of the those who cast their votes in the rainy and windy morning on November 6, 2018 were members of the Filipino community in the state of New York.
Carmen, 67, born in Davao City in the Philippines, said she voted for the Republicans “because I don’t want my benefits to be delayed if the Democrats will win and allow more illegal immigrants to come in.”
Victor, 60, of Nueva Ecija, said: “Of course, I voted for the Democrats because that will benefit a lot of my kababayans. Also I don’t want to lose my healthcare benefits.”
Healthcare is one of the key issues in the midterm polls.
A major Republican victory would likely lead to the final nail in the coffin of the Affordable Care Act otherwise known as "Obamacare", the healthcare law introduced by Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama.
Republicans have so far failed to repeal and replace Obamacare, but Congress and Trump have made changes to it.

-o0o-

Former Vice President Joe Biden declared in his final pitch a day before the US Midterm Elections: “The very character of our nation is on the ballot on Tuesday. The rest of the world is looking.”
By the time this article comes out, the United States will have a new set of 435 members in the House of Representatives and 35 members in the Senate as the Americans concluded the 2018 US Midterm Elections.
In New York City where I monitored and covered the polls, voters across the state decided on candidates for governor, senator, attorney general, state legislature and 27 seats in the U.S. House.
New York has more than 12 million registered voters with Democrats outnumbering Republicans by more than 2 to 1.
Polls opened at six o’clock in the morning and closed at nine o’clock in the evening.
Unlike in many other states where millions of votes have already been cast as of this writing, New York did not have early voting, though many have mailed in absentee ballots.
Some of the most watched races in today’s midterm elections involved incumbent Republican members of congress fighting an unusual number of Democratic challengers.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a very popular Democrat, was seeking a third term and Republicans and Democrats battled over the makeup of the state’s congressional delegation as the caustic election midterm election campaign reached its climax.

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The 2018 US Midterm Elections on November 6, 2018 was the second elections in the United States that I officially covered as a journalist.
I was also privileged to cover the 2016 US Presidential Elections and was assigned through the approval of the Board of Elections in the City of New York in Brooklyn.
Normally accredited journalists are not allowed to take photos within the poll sites, but with a written permission from the Board of Elections in the City of New York, we were able to observe the poll right inside the precincts, take some photos and interview the voters and poll officials.
The Board of Elections in the City of New York, headed as president by Maria R. Guastella, is equivalent to the Commission of Elections (Comelec) in the Philippines.
It is an administrative body of ten commissioners, two from each borough upon recommendation by both political parties and then appointed by the City Council for a term of four years.
The commissioners appoint a bipartisan staff to oversee the daily activities of its main and five borough offices.
The Board is responsible under New York State Election Law for the following: Voter registration, outreach and processing; Maintain and update voter records; Processing and verification of candidate petitions/documents; Campaign finance disclosures of candidates and campaign committees; Recruiting, training and assigning the various Election Day officers to conduct elections; Operate poll site locations; Maintain, repair, setup and deploy the Election Day operation equipment; Ensure each voter their right to vote at the polls or by absentee ballot; Canvassing and certification of the vote; Voter education, notification and dissemination of election information; and Preparation of maps of various political subdivisions.

Ilonggos ‘remember’ God during quake

“Suffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement, and death will be part of your journey, but the Kingdom of God will conquer all these horrors. No evil can resist grace forever.” 

--Brennan M

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- After Iloilo in the Philippines was hit by a 4.8 magnitude quake on November 5, 2018 morning, the social media was immediately flooded with prayers such as “Lord, protect us from the earthquake”, “My God there’s another one. We need your protection, oh God Almighty”, “Let us pray for our safety the earth is shaking”, etcetera.
Then there were sons, daughters, parents, grandfathers and grandmothers, friends, calling their loved ones via “Messenger” asking, “Are you safe there?”, “I hope you are all OK”, “There’s an earthquake here very strong”, “Please pray for us”, “We will pray for your safety. Just pray”, etcetera.
Prayer. Lord. God. Pray for us. Protect us. Save us.
These were the hottest words that went “viral” and probably created “hasthags” in heaven these past 72 hours.
Roman Catholics even recited the names of saints for protection and salvation.
Many indeed prayed hard; some went to the church and lighted candles.

-o0o-

Regardless of religion and faith, we hear the same prayers during the floods, strong typhoons, fires, violence, riots, among other natural and man-made catastrophes.
Only the atheists don’t and won’t plead to the ghosts in heaven and will just probably wait for the moment when the world crumbles and submit their fate after every calamity.
If we cry out to God in our crisis like the recent Iloilo quake, He will and can bring us help, yes; and He can make a multitude of blessings out of every circumstance.
There’s nothing wrong if we send out our petitions to our Creator via the social media.
He might turn our mess into a message and our test into a testimony, no matter how challenging or difficult may be our present situation.

-o0o-

But, why do we have this penchant to remember only God or remember only to call Him out to “save” and “protect” us during the crisis?
Can we not say the same prayers even during normal times or when there are no floods, earthquakes, and other natural crisis and calamities?
We can, of course, but the problem is we are lazy, neglectful of our duties and obligations as faithful, slothful, and downright phlegmatic when it comes to this area of our life.
Each day when we wake up many of us even forget to say a prayer or a few words in silence to thank God for the gift of love, daily bread, and life we enjoy for the moment everyday.
But we prioritize and are quick to open our social media accounts and post photos of our latest stunts and escapades, parties, food, expensive restaurants and hotels, our new shoes and vacation targets, etcetera.
We forget God; we always place Him in the backseat.
When calamities like the Iloilo quake come, we rattle and panic; and the first thing we remember is to call God and seek His intercession.

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It’s impossible not to be touched when you are part of the New York City Marathon on November 4, 2018 either as a participant, a spectator, a plain observer, a sportswriter, a sportscaster.
The New York City Marathon is arguably the most prestigious and the biggest marathon in the world.
Everything was there: the good weather, beautiful Central Park, colorful aerial view, spacious routes, enthusiasm of runners and organizers, international energy circulating within the 26.2 miles routes that covered the five New York City boroughs -- Staten Island, Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn.
The most touching episode, I think, was when Kenya’s Mary Keitany made the sign of a cross two seconds after breasting the tape in the finish line for his fourth NYC Marathon title.
I immediately realized that Keitany, who topped the race with a time of 2:22:48 and becoming the second female ever to win four New York City Marathons, was a Roman Catholic. 

Her parents must have named her after Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, or Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ alleged lover.

-o0o-

If chess is dominated (or used to be dominated) by Russian-sounding names like Karpov, Kasparov, Topalov, Yusopov, marathon is dominated by African-sounding names like Kamworor, Kitata, Desisa, Keitany, Cheruiyot, Okayo, to name only a few.
Many sports fans may not be familiar with these names; it may sound like an ancient prayer if we mention these names simultaneously because they are all come from Ethoipia and Kenya, two African nations that have produced some of the great champion runners not only in the NYC Marathon but also in the London Marathon, Boston Marathon, and even the World Olympics Marathon.

‘New York City Marathon will unite us’

“At the end of a marathon, it's going to hurt whether you're speeding up or slowing down. You may as well push.”
--Summer Sanders

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Having covered the New York City Marathon for three consecutive years now, I believe New York City (NYC) Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver when he declared recently that the “2018 New York City Marathon will unite us all.”
Despite the recent news about incidents of terrorism that threatened to strike fear in the hearts of outdoor sports fans, race organizers are confident fans will go out to cheer and watch the marathon which has been blessed with a good weather on Sunday.

All eyes will be on Silver, 58, who will be running his first-ever New York City Marathon this Sunday.
Silver said: “On and off for most of my life. I ran in elementary school, high school and college. We called it middle distance, not sprinting but fast running. About a year ago, I was at the marathon and I decided this was it.”
He added: “One of the reasons I started running again, besides my health, is that my brother, Sam, who was a runner, passed away very tragically about 10 years ago. When I started running, not only did it have health benefits but it was my way of dealing with his passing. We ran together in Prospect Park, so when I am there I definitely feel connected to his spirit.”

DEDICATE

“I’m dedicating this marathon to him. We ran, it was our way of bonding. We ran from our house in Flatbush all the way to Riis Beach. We were hard core. We beat the 41 Bus.”
Some 50,000 runners will line up in Staten Island to begin the 26.2-mile journey through Brooklyn and into Manhattan’s Central Park on Sunday, November 4.
The most prestigious race in the world attracts some of the world’s best runners every year, although the everyday athletes in the crowd are also pretty amazing.
The 2018 edition should be packed with excitement, organizers has predicted.
Reigning women champion and American pride, Shalane Flanagan, returns to defend her title against a stacked field that includes top fellow Americans Desiree Linden, Molly Huddle, and Allie Kieffer, plus Mary Keitany of Kenya, who holds the women-only world record.

RUNNERS

The men’s field features last year’s winner, Geoffrey Kamworor, two-time Boston champ Lelisa Desisa, and five-time Olympic middle-distance runner Bernard Lagat, who will be making his marathon debut.
If we’re not in New York City on race day to watch in person, we can still tune in on our computer or smartphone. Here’s what we need to know.
Live race coverage runs from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. EST. Pre-race coverage starts at 7:00 a.m. The wheelchair division starts at 8:30, followed by hand cyclists and other athletes with disabilities at 8:52. Professional women runners start at 9:20, followed by the first wave (including professional male runners) at 9:50. The following three waves start at 10:15, 10:40, and 11:00.
In the New York tristate area, we can watch the race live on WABC-TV Channel 7 starting at 9:00 a.m. Free livestreaming, including pre-race coverage, is available on the ABC app and ABC7NY.com starting at 7:00 a.m.
We can watch live coverage on ESPN2 across the United States. ESPN subscribers can also follow along on the ESPN app or website. ESPN3 is airing a live feed of the finish line from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with pre-race and continuing coverage starting at 7:00 a.m.
The first New York City Marathon was held 48 years ago in 1970, organized by New York Road Runners presidents Fred Lebow and Vincent Chiappetta, with 127 competitors running several loops around the Park Drive of Central Park.
Only about 100 spectators watched Gary Muhrcke win the race in 2:31:38.