‘Relax lang!’

“Don't flatter yourselves that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. On the contrary, the nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become.”

—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

IT’S normal to be nervous and anxious for all those involved in the campaign as the May 12, 2025 Philippine election approaches.

In less than two weeks, the final reckoning beckons. New leaders will be installed, but some of those who won’t make it are well advised to normalize their anger and sadness; they must refrain from quickly pathologizing emotions that are scary.

Feeling angry, sad, grieving would be a normal reaction to a surprising outcome and an outcome that, in their view, is going backward and not forward.

Thus, candidates can’t afford to make a major blunder as horrific as the one recently committed by tactically erratic reelectionist senatorial candidate Imee Marcos, who had to be “baby-sited” in a last-ditch appeal by no less than the Marcos matriarch, former First Lady Imeldific.

This applies also to local candidates, who may now be also losing patience as the situations turn tension-filled and are now incalculable in many aspects. 

 

-o0o-

 

Both the national and local candidates must now watch out for their demeanor and carefully choose their words especially then lambasting their rivals without any apparent provocation, or they will lose major party leaders and key supporters in a hemorrhage or heavy defections.

Even if they are being provoked, the best option is still to maintain a calm mind and continue to soldier on like a professional team player.

Bawal ang pikon, or ang pikon talo—or as what some Tagalog neighborhood buddies tell each other, “relaks lang ‘tsong!”

Although easier said than done, they must learn to control their emotions; the homestretch is still the most critical stage in any race.

Emotions are running high undoubtedly, especially for those who are lagging behind in the surveys; but whatever pint up outburst and angry snipes may only exacerbate any candidate’s downfall and won’t contribute to any damage control.

Participants in any competition shouldn’t be afraid of losing. They must know that it’s a normal reaction to an outcome they didn’t want or expect.

It doesn’t need to go away, but hopefully it doesn’t immobilize them. The grief is frozen; they themselves shouldn’t be. Relax lang!

 

-o0o-

 

I recently revisited the Roosevelt House, the former double townhouse of former U.S President Franklin, Eleanor and Sara Delano Roosevelt on Upper East 65th in Manhattan, NYC.

Now owned by Hunter College, the house now offers visitors a chance to get closer to a family as unique as the city they inhabited, and to explore the private spaces where some of the most iconic public policy of the 20th century was shaped.

Roosevelt House is an integral part of Hunter College since 1943, re-opened in 2010 as a public policy institute honoring the distinguished legacy of the Roosevelt couple. 

Its mission is three-fold: to educate students in public policy and human rights, to support faculty research, and to foster creative dialogue. 

 

-o0o-

 

The institute actually provides opportunities for students to analyze public policy and experience meaningful civic engagement; for faculty to research, teach, and write about important issues of the day; and for scholarly and public audiences to participate in high-profile lectures, seminars and conferences.

We could learn about President Franklin Roosevelt’s rise to the White House after his struggle with polio, Eleanor’s activism for civil rights and human rights, and Sara’s philanthropy.  

It’s in the rooms inside where Eleanor gained the leadership skills to become America’s ambassador to the world and where Franklin created the New Deal to bring America out of the Great Depression.  

We could also hear the voices of the Roosevelts and their friends and view Roosevelt memorabilia, photographs, and period documents.

The Roosevelt House still maintains the Neo-Georgian landmark designed by architect Charles A. Platt and learn how Hunter College carries on the Roosevelts’ legacies in the 21st century through research, teaching and public programs.

 

-o0o-

 

DEATH DURING INTERCOURSE. French President Francois Faure expired in 1899 during sex, which so terrified his lady of the evening that her vagina constricted intractably, necessitating the surgical removal of the dead president’s weapon.

UNIQUE CAVE DESIGN. The earliest known illustration of a man using a condom during sexual intercourse is painted on the wall of a cave in France. It is dated between 12,000 and 15,000 years old.

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

 

Ilonggo trailblazer in Pennsylvania

“Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.”

—E. B. White

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

ARMED only with “faith in God”, skills and experience in the farm in his childhood, the story of Alex Soqueña can be considered a combination of the conquests of Orpheus, Artemis, and Odysseus, all skillful and talented gods in the Greek mythology.

From a humble beginning in Sta. Barbara, Iloilo in the Philippines, Soqueña, a father of two, managed to conquer adversity in life from a ragtag farm boy, jeepney driver, engineer in a reputable international firm, and now a trailblazer in the world of international forwarding service in the United States.

Soqueña shows the religious necklace he considers a “gift.” 

Soqueña, 52, one of the most productive and active agents of New Jersey-based Magcor International Forwarders Association (Magcor), a Filipino-run balikbayan box forwarding company, hails from Lanag, a small village with a population of 2,276 in Sta. Barbara, a landlocked municipality in the coastal province of Iloilo, Philippines.

“That’s where I began my struggle early in life,” hissed Soqueña, exhibiting a smidgen of nostalgia while showing the calluses or corns on his fingers and palms, the thick, hardened areas of skin acquired through repeated friction or pressure when he was a teenager.

 

-o0o-

 

To eke out a living, Soqueña worked in the farm while studying at the Sta. Barbara National Comprehensive High School (SBNCHS). After finishing high school, he asked permission from his father Pastor to take up engineering in college.

Pastor initially had misgivings about the course and its length, but Soqueña persevered and earned a degree in electrical engineering at the Western Institute of Technology (WIT) in La Paz, Iloilo City in 1995.

His baptism of fire came after graduation when Soqueña trained in Olongapo City and became part of the cracked engineers picked to build the highly touted 18 villas for the 18 leaders that attended the 1996 APEC Summit in the Philippines.

The villas, located in Subic Bay, near Olongapo, were a major part of the infrastructure project for the summit built to house 18.

The villas served as a showcase for the Philippines' ability to host a major international event and were designed to provide both accommodation and security for the attending leaders, thus Soqueña and his fellow engineers earned raves and accolades in the engineering industry.

 

-o0o-

 

Before being recruited in his first job abroad, Soqueña stayed in Maypajo, Caloocan City in Metro Manila and dabbled in driving a public utility jeep plying the Divisoria route for a living.

His accomplishments in the APEC Summit villas project didn’t escape the attention of well-intentioned contractors abroad and in 1997, Soqueña was recruited by Scottish-American Buddy Quin to work in a multi-million-dollar project of J. Ray McDermott in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The Ilonggo trailblazer landed in the global company’s $247-Million project, handling tasks in the testing commissioning division and was the project’s certified terminator.

Operating in over 54 countries, McDermott International, Ltd provides engineering and construction services to the energy industry.

McDermott has more than 30,000 employees, as well as a fleet of specialty marine construction vessels and fabrication facilities around the world.

His stint at J. Ray McDermott, a company acquired by McDermott International in 1999 that specialized in oilfield construction and later expanded into engineering and construction services, especially for offshore oil and gas projects, earned Soqueña assignments in 42 countries all over the world.

 

-o0o-

 

“God has been really good to me because I never spent a single centavo from my own pocket while working in Dubai,” he revealed.

Soqueña’s love affair with McDermott International, a global energy services company, providing engineering, procurement, construction, and installation services, ended when he immigrated to the United States together with his wife, Cheryl, a registered nurse, and their son, now a US navy.

The Soqueña couple produced another child, a daughter now in high school, when they settled in Enola, a census-designated place (CDP) located along the Susquehanna River in East Pennsboro Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania in 2007.

Soqueña’s first job as immigrant was with the D&H Distributing, distributor of IT, business technology, electronics, consumer solutions, home solutions for reseller and retailer serving SMBs, verticals and consumers.

Soqueña left the company to start a Cinderella-like journey in his new love interest—international forwarding—where he started his own business, Magcor International Forwarder’s-Pennsylvania, which delivers balikbayan boxes and packages from “the US to any point of the Philippines.”

“In this business, I manage my own time,” Soqueña stressed. “With faith, nothing is impossible with God.”

 

-o0o-

 

Soqueña credits his patron saint, St. Michael The Archangel, for his “safe journey” while picking up, loading and unloading balikbayan boxes daily from the residential areas to the Magcor warehouse in Metuchen, New Jersey.

He considers the Immaculate Conception religious necklace given by his customer as a “gift” that guides him and his aide, Carlos, on the road.

Most recently, Soqueña and Carlos overcame a “very close call” while their van was entering the 95-south ramp at Portchester, New York when a speeding car running on the opposite direction “almost struck me,” he narrated in a social media post.

“I know God was with me at the moment I hit the brake very quickly. (I was) just an inch away from a fatal accident. Thank you, Lord, for keeping me safe always,” concluded Soqueña, who makes it a habit to distribute gifts to his neighbors, co-agents, and high school alma matter, where he was recently invited but declined as inspirational speaker.

Soqueña has older brother Melvin, a teacher in Iloilo; two sisters—XZ, an accountant in Iloilo, and Verenice, an accountant in Coquitlam, Canada.

Because of his experience and what he has been through in life, Soqueña quipped, “I’m always proud of my achievements and I fear nothing with God on my side.”

(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)

 

Terrorism or a case of mental illness?

“A tragedy need not have blood and death; it's enough that it all be filled with that majestic sadness that is the pleasure of tragedy.”

—Jean Racine

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WILL the truth come out, or it will be “swept under the rug” so as not to alarm the peace-loving people of Canada?

According to the social media post of our colleague in the Philippines, the famous Filipino journalist Jose Mari Kaimo, the suspect in the bloody car ramming attack in Vancouver, British Columbia on April 26 evening “was an IS lover from the Philippines who targeted a Filipino festival in #Vancouver.”

“As usual,” Kaimo wrote, “they say he has had mental health problem.”

Kaimo, 60, vice president of Concerned Doctors and Citizens of the Philippines, also quoted one “Babak Taghvaee – The Crisis Watch @BabakTaghvaee1” as having “Tweeted this 7h ago:” in Kaimo’s Facebook post.

The statement made by Babak Taghvaee as posted by Kaimo contradicted the alleged “claims of the Canadian authorities about the Filipino man arrested over the deadly ramming attack of #Vancouver being just mentally ill.”

“I do not buy (it),” Kaimo quoted Babak Taghvaee as saying in the Tweet.

 

-o0o-

 

“As someone who tracked ISIS activities in Philippines and who has written many analytical reports on their terrorist activities Mindanao Island (sic), I can not fully trust claims of the Canadian government,” Babak Taghvaee’s statement continued as posted by Kaimo.

“Also, a bunch of arrogant Islamists, leftists, liberals and communists as usual have started babbling nonsense down here, accusing me to be liar. I have a message for them: ‘I do not care what you say. I just laugh at the extent of your stupidity.’”

Who is this Babak Taghvaee? Kaimo, who is executive director of Roof Chamber Media Corporation, must have found him or her reliable or credible for posting his or her purported statement in Kaimo’s social media account.

If Babak Taghvaee exists or a real person, must we believe his or her claims hook, line and sinker?

But why did the Canadian crime probers contradict Babak Taghvaee’s claims of terrorism on the part of suspect Kai-Ji Adam,, 30, who has been charged by the British Columbia Prosecution Service with eight counts of second-degree murder?

 

-o0o-

 

According to reports, more charges were possible as Canadian investigators ruled out terrorism and said Lo had a history of mental health issues.

A Vancouver resident, Lo appeared in court April 27 and remained in custody, it was reported.

At east 11 people have been confirmed killed and dozens were injured, some critically, when Lo, allegedly driving a black Audi SUV entered the street just after 8 p.m. Saturday and struck people attending the Lapu Lapu Day street festival.

He was arrested at the scene. Authorities had not released victims’ names as of this writing.

The driver was reportedly suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was recently discharged from the University of British Columbia (UBC) mental health.  

 Black Eyed Peas singer apl.de.ap had just finished the festival’s headline performance and left the stage just minutes before the carnage – and later said the “shock and heaviness” of the incident was “hard to describe.”

“Our hearts are broken for the victims, their families, and everyone affected by the tragedy,” said the Filipino singer, whose real name is Allan Pineda Lindo, in an Instagram post April 27.

“I had just finished performing and left the stage minutes before it happened,” he added. “Please keep the victims, their families, and the organizers in your prayers. They need all they love and strength right now.”

 

-o0o-

 

Others who performed at the festival, including Nikkaela, Kaya Ko, Sade Awele and Wavyfay, echoed Lindo’s sentiments.

According to the New York Post, King Charles and Queen Camilla even weighed in, saying in a statement they were “profoundly saddened to learn of the dreadful attack and utterly tragic loss of life.”

“Our hearts and prayers go out to all those whose lives have been shattered by such a desperate tragedy,” they said following the attack in the British Commonwealth nation.

In a statement on X, the Vancouver Police Department reported,

“A number of people have been killed, and multiple others are injured after a driver drove into a crowd at a street festival.”

It added, the incident happened shortly after 8 p.m local time.

Videos from the event organizers on Instagram showed lively cultural dances and song performances throughout the day, with several food trucks and market booths lining both side of the street, reported the CNN.

 

-o0o-

 

“Many families with young children were seen among the attendees.” reported the US news network.

Reuters photos from the aftermath of the incident showed paramedics and ambulances at the scene, with police cordons visible.

Prime Minister Mark Carney mourned the dead and wounded, calling the ramming “horrific” in a statement on X, added the CNN.

“I offer my deepest condolences to the loved ones of those killed and injured, to the Filipino Canadian community, and to everyone in Vancouver. We are all mourning with you,” he wrote as reported by CNN.

Vancouver’s mayor also offered condolences.

“I am shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific incident at today’s Lapu Lapu Day event,” Ken Sim wrote on X as reported by CNN.

“Our thoughts are with all those affected and with Vancouver’s Filipino community during this incredibly difficult time.”

(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)