After a long procession it’s Warriors vs Cavs once again

“We're all just playing our own game. I don't see it as a rivalry. We're just trying to play our best.”
-- Michelle Wie

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Please wake me up before I will be tempted to suspect that the National Basketball Association (NBA) finals has become a veritable replica of the ridiculous World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
When the Cleveland Cavaliers played the Golden State Warriors last year for the third consecutive time in the best-of-seven NBA Finals, it marked the first "threematch" in the league’s history.
It was premature to downgrade their mind-boggling repeat rivalry to WWF.
But if we once again use mathematics, this year's series marks the first "fourmatch."
The teams playing in the finals will be the same as the three previous years--2015, 2016, 2017--for the fourth year in a row.
Like in their finals face-off, both the Warriors and the Cavs are borrowing each other’s title.
The Golden State Warriors won their first NBA championship whipping Cleveland Cavaliers in 2015. The Cavaliers turned it around the following season in 2016 and won their first championship trouncing the Warriors.
Golden State reclaimed the title last year.
Who will the fountain bless this year?
We will know when finals action unwraps on May 31 (US time) to be hosted by Warriors in Game 1 and on June 3 in Game 2.

-o0o-

Incumbent politicians who interfered in the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Liga elections knew they violated the law, but they feigned innocence because they needed to flex their muscles to make sure their favorite bets won.
Never mind if they were denounced for “politicking” and “influence peddling” by their critics as long as their chosen candidates were elected.
If they aspire for higher offices in 2019, these politicians would be hypocrites to deny they needed to secure the major SK slots in the provincial and city legislatures.
These youth representatives also weild marvelous power and influence among barangay-based electorate like the punong barangay; some of them are more credible than their senior peers.
Some politicians who invest heavily on SK chairs are like engaging in planting of rice.
Come harvest season, they see themselves grinning from ear to ear.

-o0o-

Many of our bright and outstanding leaders in the country began their journey in public service in the SK federation.
Not all of those who rose from the ranks of SK were swallowed by the corrupt system as feared by critics who agitated for abolition of SK.
There were a few who succumbed to the glitter of glory and gold and scandalously blasted their way to public coffer, but there were gifted and morally upright SK-trained public servants who became distinguished mayors, governors, and representatives.
I won’t be surprised if one day, we will have a candidate who will challenge the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Sarah Duterte, and Tito Sotto for president.

-o0o-

We congratulate SK chair Leila Luntao of Barangay Our Lourdes in Jaro district, Iloilo City for her election as SK Federation president on May 29.
There were allegations that her candidacy was backed by powerful politicians led by Rep. Jerry Trenas, according to Councilor Plaridel Nava.
The responsibility to disabuse the minds of the Doubting Thomases now falls on her shoulder.
In fairness to her, Luntao, who has impressive credentials, claimed she won through her own efforts and diligence; she reportedly launched a stellar and no non-sense campaign from one district to another to earn 93 votes and out-slick her rivals, Antoinette Gallos of Barangay Ingore (75 votes), and Niel Omisol of Barangay Bantud (six votes).

Let’s move on to the next agenda

“Every day is a new day, and you'll never be able to find happiness if you don't move on.”
--Carrie Underwood

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- If both the winning and losing candidates in the recently held Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) and barangay elections in the Philippines can immediately bury their hatchet and move on to the next phase of their life, progress and development in the countryside won’t be hampered.
There is no other direction but to tackle next the other major national agenda in the lineup.
Filipinos don’t live and survive by politics alone.
We also have economic, cultural, and environmental concerns; foreign affairs, infrastructure, unemployment, oil and energy price hike, the dilemma of our OFWs especially in the Middle East.
The myriad of problems we face everyday is so thick and loaded we can’t afford to be stuck in one undertaking.
If winning bets can be sworn into office soon, the better for the local government in particular and the country in general.
An essential event involving the right to suffrage in a politically fragmented country like the Philippines isn’t supposed to drag on; it’s not supposed to linger in the Agora after it has reached the pinnacle.

-o0o-

I beg to disagree with some pro and anti Ma. Lourdes Sereno lawyers that because we are not lawyers, our views and observations about Sereno’s ouster don’t matter anymore.
We don’t necessarily need to be lawyers to understand what is going on in the Supreme Court, and what is happening in our country.
While non-lawyers are not supposed to interpret the now popular quo warranto (the petition used as the basis by the Solicitor General to seek the removal of the lady chief justice), they can still air their opinions independently without prejudice to the 8-6 verdict of SC justices and make a stand on the subject matter’s political component.
Once the SC has spoken, the issue has become a national interest, not just an internal debate of the case’s merits among our brilliant court justices that should not be discussed by other parties outside the court for risk of sub judice.
Airing an opinion about the issue for non-lawyers is different from joining the mind-boggling and confusing interpretations by those in the legal profession of the legal claptrap.

-o0o-

BEWARE THE DEADLIEST NATURAL TOXIN. Botulinal toxin, produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, is the most potent poison for humans. It has an estimated lethal dose in the bloodstream of 10-9 milligrams per kilogram. Death occurs when the respiratory muscles are paralyzed…TO ALL LOVERS OF CIGARETTE. Cigarette smoke contains about 4,000 chemicals. Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and nicotine are some of the major components, with lesser amounts of acetone, acetylene, formaldehyde, propane, hydrogine cyanide, toluene, and many others…WOMEN DRIVERS ARE MORE CAUTIOUS. Women drive and cross the street more safely than men. Men account for 70% of pedestrian fatalities since 1980. Between the ages 18 and 45, males outnumber females as fatal crash victims by almost three to one according to the Nat'l Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Emotional

“It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.”
--Buddha

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. exhorted candidates in the Sangguniang Kabataan and barangay elections on May 14, 2018 to control their emotions.
Even if they want to, most of them can’t control their emotions.
Even if they need to, many of them won’t control their emotions.
Elections are an emotional event; candidates always fear defeat and everyone wants to win.
For the reelectionists, there is no substitute for victory; there’s no room for defeat.
For their challengers, victory is right around the corner; as harbingers of change, they aren’t supposed to give up.
When candidates, especially those vying for position of punong barangay or village chief, are running against a friend, a kumpare/kumare or a relative, emotions are at all time high.
The restlessness and bitter feelings are shared by their relatives, as well.
Emotions are at fever pitch especially during the campaign period when mudslinging and accusations fly thick and fast, and after the election results have been known when egos and pride are totally wrecked.

-o0o-

Because of the size of a barangay, candidates find it hard to avoid each other physically after the elections’ final reckoning.
Some of the candidates are, in fact, neighbors if not colleagues in a religious organization.
Unlike in the elections for mayor, governor and congressman where the protagonists don’t meet face to face immediately for a long while in time for the wounds of campaign bickering to heal, candidates in a barangay election can sometimes rekindle their fresh political rivalry when they bump each other in coffee shops, barbershops, bakeshops and nearby alleys the morning after the tough and excruciating electoral slugfest.
"An emotion is a complex psychological state that involves three distinct components: a subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioral or expressive response," according to the book, Discovering Psychology.
This probably explains why it’s so impossible not to get emotional if you are involved in the elections as a candidate on Monday, May 14.

-o0o-

As a journalist, I go with the Tulfo brothers in their feud with politicians like Senators Bam Aquino, Antonio Trillanes IV, Nancy Binay, and Kiko Pangilinan who sought for a senate probe on the scandalous P60-million Department of Tourism (DoT) advertisement to PTV-4 that ended in the block time program of Ben Tulfo, brother of resigned (or dismissed) DoT secretary Wanda Teo.
While it is their duty to call for an investigation, many of them are probably only trying to get even with the embattled Tulfo brothers after they have been criticized in the radio and TV programs of the hard-hitting brothers in the past.
But on the question of propriety or delicadeza, I disagree with the Tulfo brothers and former Sec. Teo that there was no conflict of interest in the doomed deal.
Based on the paper trail of how the P60 million was released (three trances), the transaction reeks not only with fish, it was done in bad faith from the very start no matter how they tried to sugar coat it.
Teo was right to resign, err President Duterte was right to sack her.