Did Rep. Jojo Ang give Iloilo shame and embarrassment?

“One person's embarrassment is another person's accountability.”

—Tom Price

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

ILONGGOS are not used to seeing or hearing their representatives both in the Lower and Upper chambers of Congress being dragged into scandal and anomaly.

On the contrary, they are accustomed to watching their Iloilo representatives excel as lawmakers—as debaters and framers of quality and landmark legislations and darlings of the press.

In fact, some of the most consistently outstanding and highly esteemed congresspeople in the Philippines have been Ilonggos—or those with roots from Panay Island but were representing other districts in another regions, including past constitutional assembly delegates.

In recent memory, no solon from Iloilo, or Western Visayas for that matter, has been accused of bribery, mulcting, graft and corruption of epic proportions, plunder, smuggling, involvement in illegal drugs and illegal gambling.

There have been no known infra projects 10-percenter congresspeople from Iloilo.

Until Jojo Ang came. 

 

-o0o-

 

No one can tell if the Discaya husband and wife were telling the truth when they named Uswag Ilonggo partylist Representative James “Jojo” Ang Jr., among other members of the House of Representatives—including Speaker Martin Romualdez—and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials, as among those who allegedly demanded kickbacks from the couple in exchange of multi-millions of pesos worth of infrastructure projects that were mostly related to flood-control.

Congressman James “Jojo” Ang Jr. was the only solon from Iloilo mentioned in the Discaya list. 

Although he had already denied the Discayas’ allegations, we’re sure Ang’s Iloilo political benefactors led by former Iloilo City mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas, 68, aren’t happy that Uswag Ilonggo partylist was mentioned “live” in a not-so-pleasant manner before the national TV, or during the recent Senate committee investigation. 

“I strongly and categorically deny the baseless accusations linking me to alleged corrupt practices and illegal acts. The ongoing flood-control investigation is a serious matter,” Ang declared in a statement.

“I am totally surprised that my name has been mentioned. It is unfortunate that some interested parties have chosen to resort to name-dragging for their personal agenda.”

 

-o0o-

 

He added: “I urge the public to be circumspect and to remain focused on the facts. I denounce all types of corruption that prejudices not just the government but undermines the trust reposed to us by the Filipino people.”

“I am one with the people in exacting accountability from those responsible for robbing our people of their hard-earned taxes and eroding the integrity of our institutions. We should all be guided bỷ the truth and the rule of law.

“I have adhered to my mandate to serve the people and the sector I represent with integrity. My actions have been and will always be guided by my commitment to fulfill that trust,” Ang asserted.

Did Congressman Jojo Ang give Iloilo shame and embarrassment? If not, he deserves his day in court and the Discayas owe him an apology. Ilonggos should also stand behind him. 

If yes, Ang has no reason to stay a minute longer in the House of Representatives if he will only humiliate the Ilonggos with his alleged involvement in the flood-control projects anomaly. 

 

-o0o-

The mind of hitherto world No. 1 24-year-old Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner had already shifted in the 90 minutes between his loss by 22-year-old Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open final and his post-match debrief September 7 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City.

Rather than dwelling on the pain of losing his US Open title and No 1 ranking, Sinner was thinking about the future.

He felt his game was too predictable, even one-dimensional, compared with Alcaraz, whose deep toolbox of shots left him uncomfortable and unable to find rhythm on the court, observed The Guardian.

As a result of that discomfort, Sinner made a decision. The 24-year-old resolved to make significant changes to his game in pursuit of becoming a better, more complete tennis player and keeping up with his rival, even if he might suffer in the short term.

“I’m going to aim to maybe even lose some matches from now on, but trying to do some changes trying to be a bit more unpredictable,” Sinner said. “Because I think that’s what I have to do, trying to become a better player.”

It was a remarkable admission, particularly considering Sinner’s own dominance in recent years, added The Guardian. Over the past 52 weeks, the Italian holds a 51-1 record against opponents not named Alcaraz and is 74-1 against everyone but Alcaraz on hard courts since November 2023. 

This is firstly a reflection of his Spanish opponent’s greatness, already one of the best players in the game’s history, whose career continues to move at a historic pace. His first grand slam title at the US Open established him as the first teenage ATP No 1 in history, and now with his second success in New York he is the second‑youngest man to win six majors. 

At 22, he is also the fourth man to win multiple major titles on all three surfaces. He still has so much room for improvement.

He has spent the past two years destroying opponents, compiling 65 consecutive weeks at No 1. However, Alcaraz has now won seven of their past eight meetings. Only one player has forced him to make those changes.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor in chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)

The man who proclaims God’s death

"You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself."

—Swami Vivekananda

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

THE controversial German philosopher who reportedly went insane the years before he died, wrote The Gay Science, which was brilliantly translated by Walter Kaufmann.

A collection and poems of 383 aphorisms in five sections that interrogates the origins of the history of knowledge, it's a book that celebrates philosophy as a medicine capable of renewing the intellect, and perceives of philosophy as inspiration for individual freedom, and thereby capable of renewing culture.

Friedrich Nietzsche added a “Book Fifth” to The Gay Science five years later after it was published in 1882.

Nietzsche declares God is dead in this book; and in a hope to shake European thinking from the cloak of religion, he proposes arrests intellectual development and weighs the individual mind down with received knowledge that in part incorrectly describes man as flawed while presenting false virtues that only deepen human suffering.

Calling The Gay Science as “the most personal of all my books”, It was here that Nietzsche first proclaimed the death of God--to which a large part of the book is devoted--and his doctrine of the eternal recurrence.

Kaufmann’s commentary brings to life Nietzsche as a human being and illuminates his philosophy with its many quotations from previously untranslated letters.

 

-o0o-

 

The book contains some of Nietzsche’s most sustained discussions of art and morality, knowledge and truth, the intellectual conscience and the origin of logic.

Most of the book was reportedly written just before Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the last part five years later, after Beyond Good and Evil.

We encounter Zarathustra in these pages as well as many of Nietzsche’s most interesting philosophical ideas and the largest collection of his own poetry that he himself ever published.

Kaufmann’s English versions of Nietzsche represent one of the major translation enterprises of our time.

Interestingly, he is the first philosopher to have translated Nietzsche’s major works, and never before has a single translator given us so much of Nietzsche.

In this sensational book, Nietzsche adopts the provincial, plainspoken voice of a medieval poet.

After opening the book with a prelude in verse that alludes to the artful, playful, brief episodes to come, Nietzsche proposes that "human knowledge still suffers from the millennium-old herd instinct of preserving the species."

This need for survival gave rise to the human invention of gods, as evidenced by the Greeks.

Centuries of Christian indoctrination and rule reportedly lead to a corrupt, vulgar church and community in the Middle Ages. Nietzsche writes into this history and against it.

This is why Nietzsche declares God is dead, just before halfway through the book.

The question of how to go on, and interrogations deconstructing various European developments (the Lutheran Reformation, science, Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer) culminate in Nietzsche’s ideal of a Dionysian pessimist, the character of Zarathustra, an argonaut of knowledge.

This interrogation occupies the second half of The Gay Science.

When wealth is not health

“I wish...I wish I were dead...And what use would that be to anyone?”

―J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

THE daily distress and melancholy being experienced by flood-control project contractors involved in anomalous transactions worth billions of pesos with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) must now be in the alarming level now that the ongoing investigation being conducted to determine their culpability and guilt is getting intense.

Ditto with the DPWH contractor family that owns a fleet of luxury vehicles worth P465 million now that the Bureau of Customs has started lowering the boom on the extravagant collection for possible tax liabilities on imported cars.

While the rigmarole continues, there will always be a state of uncertainty and suspended animation for the beleaguered contractors and their DPWH collaborators.

Questions like “Are we going to lose these vehicles?”, “Are we going to jail?”, “Will we go bankrupt after all these investigations?”, “Are we going to say goodbye to our (unexplained) wealth?”, “Will our children be dragged in this scandal?”, “Will our family go down together?” will hound them day by day.

 

-o0o-

 

There will be sleepless nights, missed meals, missed and canceled appointments, neglected hygiene, isolations, mental lapses, malayo-ang-tingin-wala-namang-tinatanaw episodes, crying on each other’s shoulders, headaches, panic modes, breakdowns, etcetera.

The stress and anxiety will certainly take their toll and can have disastrous effects in their health.

Stress is the physical or mental response to an external cause, such as having a lot of homework or having an illness.

A stressor may be a one-time or short-term occurrence, or it can happen repeatedly over a long time.

Anxiety, on the other hand, is the body's reaction to stress and can occur even if there is no current threat.

If that anxiety doesn’t go away and begins to interfere with our life, it could affect our health, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

We could experience problems with sleeping, or with our immune, digestive, cardiovascular, and reproductive systems.

We may also be at higher risk for developing a mental illness such as an anxiety disorder or depression.

 

-o0o-

 

According to the Newport Institute, worry and anxiety are often thought of as two words for the same thing. A recent survey reportedly found that one-third of parents of teens and young adults think the two terms are interchangeable.

That is true to some extent—both refer to fearful uncertainty about something in the future. But worrying typically happens in relation to a specific situation: ”What if we lose all the 40 luxury cars?” “What if our construction business will go bankrupt and we go to jail like Janet Napoles if our guilt in the (substandard and/or “ghost”) projects will be established?”

A worry typically ends once the problem is solved, while anxiety exists as pervasive, persistent symptoms even without a specific cause,” explains the Newport Institute.

“However, when worrying turns into a loop of repetitive negative thinking, it can trigger anxiety, including the physical effects of worrying on the body, such as a sense of dread, a racing heartbeat, and headaches or stomachaches.”

 

-o0o-

 

Shreyans Goenka and Manoj Thomas asked, ”Is it wrong to live a flashy, ostentatious lifestyle? Should a person be judged for carrying a Louis Vuitton bag and driving a Rolls Royce?”

 Many people would say yes, it is wrong to flaunt your wealth in the face of others.

They would say that people should live a simple and humble life and that those who flaunt their designer toys are “bad people.” They might hold Bill Gates as a good example of someone who lives an understated life, despite his vast wealth.

Yet, many other people would say no—it is perfectly acceptable to flaunt your wealth. If people have wealth and status, then they are entitled to celebrate and display them.

People who flaunt their designer toys are not “bad people.” For them, Donald Trump might be a good example of someone who has no qualms about displaying his wealth.

So, why do people differ so widely in their views of ostentatious lifestyles? Why do many people think it is morally wrong to be flashy, while others encourage it? In our research, we found that these differences of opinion can be explained by differences in peoples’ core moral beliefs.

Some people believe that equality and fairness are the most important moral virtues. For them, it is important to make society as equal as possible and to break down class structures. These people see ostentatious behaviors as a manifestation of power, social inequality, and waste.

Thus, for them, luxury displays are contrary to their moral values, and they denounce them as wrong.

 

-o0o-

 

Other people have different core moral beliefs. These people see hierarchical class structures as a moral virtue. For them, society should not be equal but rather needs to be ordered based on social rank.

These people see ostentatious behaviors as a reinforcer of social rank. So, when people flaunt their wealth, they are signaling their status, which is necessary to preserve social order.

Thus, for these people, luxury displays are acceptable because such displays are congruent with their moral values.

These findings help to explain why some cultures and social groups embrace luxury displays while others shun them.

For example, Western cultures and rich liberals tend to value equality in society, but Asian cultures and rich conservatives tend to value social order.

Indeed, our results show that sales of luxury products tend to be lower in Western countries such as Sweden and Denmark but higher in Asian countries, such as Singapore and Hong Kong. Even within the United States, we found that liberals believe that it is morally wrong for leaders to be ostentatious, whereas conservatives are comfortable with their leaders being flashy.

So, our research shows that people differ in the degree to which they think ostentatious displays of wealth and luxury are morally wrong, and the acceptability of luxury displays reflects differences in people’s core moral beliefs that vary across societies and cultures. So, whether you think it is wrong to show off your wealth depends on your personal moral beliefs.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)

 

 

No Iloilo solon is involved in DPWH flood-control projects anomaly?

“When you don't take a stand against corruption you tacitly support it.”

—Kamal Haasan

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

LET’S hope no Iloilo solon is involved in the ongoing “sweeping” investigation called by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on the multi-billion pesos flood-control projects anomaly.

The connivance among several corrupt members of the House of RepresentaTHIEVES, SINators, DPWH officials led by crooked district engineers and private contractors, is now getting crystal clear, and it has become a case of “it takes more-than-two to tango.”  

From multi-million pesos to multi or hundreds of billions of pesos.

The Philippines was ranked 114th out of 180 countries, with a score of 33 out of 100, indicating a perception of significant corruption, according to Transparency.org's 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).

The CPI measures how corrupt a country's public sector is perceived to be, with 100 being very clean and 0 being highly corrupt.

We’re sure loquacious Sen. Joel Villanueva, etcetera will have their hands full once the chaffs are separated from the grains, as well as other district and party-list congresspeople, who must have amassed a fortune from the colossal scam at the expense of the taxpayers.

 

-o0o-

 

We can’t imagine our Iloilo congresspeople being dragged into the controversy and subjected into investigations like criminals.

It was reported that 86 percent of people in the Philippines believe that government corruption is a big problem.

Additionally, 19 percent of public service users paid a bribe in the past 12 months, according to Transparency.org.

Despite the high perception of corruption, the Philippines recently ranked as No.1 in Asia for its transparency in the budget process in the 2023 Open Budget Survey.

But Iloilo leaders are known to be “clean” if not immaculate. No lawmaker or Ilonggo holding national position has brought shame and embarrassment to Western Visayas in this magnitude in recent memory.

As long they there were no flood-control budget allocations for the Western Visayas congresspeople last year and this year, the possibility that they handpicked their own contractors for the “ghost” if not substandard projects would be far-fetched.

This is the type of anomaly no higher elected or even appointed public official can survive once a full-blown investigation has been unraveled, now that no less than the President has given the imprimatur to probe the mess and leave no stone unturned.

 

-o0o-

 

WHAT DID WE USE FOR IDS BEFORE PHOTOS? In a world without cameras, biometric databases, or even consistent spelling, identifying individuals could be quite a complex challenge, History Facts explained August 31.

Before photography helped fix identity to an image, societies reportedly developed a range of creative methods to determine who someone was— a task that could be surprisingly difficult, especially when that someone was outside their home community.

From scars to seals to signatures, here’s how identity was tracked before photo IDs, History Facts said.

It explained further: A name was the most basic marker of identity for centuries, but it often wasn’t enough.

In ancient Greece, to distinguish between people with the same first name, individuals were also identified by their father’s name.

For example, an Athenian pottery shard from the fifth century BCE names Pericles as “Pericles son of Xanthippus.”

In ancient Egypt, the naming convention might have reflected the name of a master rather than a parent.  But when everyone shared the same name — as in one Roman Egyptian declaration in 146 CE, signed by “Stotoetis, son of Stotoetis, grandson of Stotoetis” — things could get muddled. To resolve this, officials turned to another strategy: describing the body itself.

 

-o0o-

 

Detailed physical descriptions often served as a kind of textual portrait. An Egyptian will from 242 BCE describes its subject with remarkable specificity: “65 years old, of middle height, square built, dim-sighted, with a scar on the left part of the temple and on the right side of the jaw and also below the cheek and above the upper lip.”

Such marks made the body “legible” for identification. In 15th-century Bern, Switzerland, when authorities sought to arrest a fraudulent winemaker, they didn’t just list his name.

They issued a description: “large fat Martin Walliser, and he has on him a silk jerkin.” Clothing — then a significant investment and deeply symbolic — became part of someone’s identifying characteristics. A person’s outfit could mark their profession, social standing, or even their city of origin.

Uniforms and insignia served a similar function, especially for travelers. In the late 15th century, official couriers from cities such as Basel, Switzerland, and Strasburg, France, wore uniforms in city colors and carried visible badges.

Pilgrims and beggars in the late Middle Ages and beyond were also required to wear specific objects — such as metal badges or tokens — that marked their status and origin. Some badges allowed the bearer to beg legally or buy subsidized bread, offering both practical aid and visible authentication.

 

-o0o-

 

Seals also served as powerful proxies for the self. From Mesopotamian cylinder seals to Roman oculist stamps and medieval wax impressions, these identifiers could represent both authority and authenticity.

In medieval Britain, seals were often made of beeswax and attached to documents with colored tags. More than just utilitarian tools, seals were embedded with personal iconography and could even be worn as jewelry. 

In many cases, travelers also had to carry letters from local priests or magistrates identifying who they were.

By the 16th century, such documentation became increasingly essential, and failing to carry an identity paper could result in penalties.

This passport-like system of “safe conduct” documents gradually started to spread. What began as a protection for merchants and diplomats evolved into a bureaucratic necessity for everyday people.

As written records became more widespread in medieval Europe, so did the need for permanent, portable identifiers.

Royal interest in documenting property and legal rights led to the proliferation of official records, which in turn prompted the spread of literacy.

Even as early as the 13th century in England, it was already considered risky to travel far without written identification.

The signature eventually emerged as a formal marker of identity, especially among literate elites, and was common by the 18th century.

Still, in a mostly oral culture, signatures functioned more as ceremonial gestures than verification tools.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)