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.

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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.

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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.

Wanda Teo ‘loses’ to Cesar Montano

“Look around. There are no enemies here. There's just good, old-fashioned rivalry.”
--Bob Wells

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- It’s not a secret in the Department of Tourism (DoT) that resigned secretary Wanda Corazon Teo and Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) chief operating officer Cesar Montano were not in good terms.
For instance, when Teo learned that the Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. (PIDCI) had invited Montano to grace the 119th Philippine Independence Day Parade here on June 4, 2017, she reportedly threatened to cancel DoT’s financial pledge of $100,000 for the festival.
When her alleged threat to cancel the financial windfall leaked to the press, Teo changed mind.
Parade organizers reportedly got the amount but Teo decided to cancel her trip to New York City for the parade.
Dr. Prospero Lim, 2017 president of the New York-based PIDCI, confirmed to this writer in an exclusive interview on May 28, 2017 that Teo “decided to withdraw” from the parade but he did not specify why.
It was Montano who showed up officially to represent the DoT. He joined singers Martin Nievera, Asia’s Nightingale Lani Misalucha, American Idol’s 11th Season 1st runner-up winner Jessica Sanchez, then New York-based Ms World-Philippines 2014 Valerie Weigman, former Grand Champion Global Pinoy Singing Idol, Shane Ericks, and comedian Mikey Bustos in the biggest parade of Filipino community in the United States.

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In many tourism-related festivals and activities in the Philippines and abroad, Teo and Montano reportedly made sure their paths wouldn’t cross.
If both Teo and Montano were invited, one of them would show up and the other wouldn’t.
Although Montano’s office is DoT’s attached agency, the actor would get the same attention as Teo in as far as official invitations were concerned in various tourism-related events in the Philippines and abroad.
The genesis of the purported feud between Teo and Montano could be traced back during the time when Teo’s younger brother, Erwin Tulfo, was a newscaster in the ABS-CBN in 2004.
Montano, who was involved in a spat with several showbiz actresses and martial arts icons, was always the subject of Erwin’s critical commentaries.
Because of Erwin’s tirades, Montano reportedly once challenged Erwin to a fistfight.

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When Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte assumed the presidency in 2016, he gifted Montano, a native of Bohol, with the coveted TPB post for helping him during the campaign period.
TPB is tasked with domestic and international promotions for the DoT.
Duterte gave the top DoT post to Teo, biological sister of hard-hitting media men--Ramon, Ben, Raffy, and Erwin--who also campaigned for Duterte.
Before Teo was in trouble for the P60 million DoT advertising contract placed in her brother’s block time TV program aired over PTV-4, it was Montano who was first hit by controversy over alleged corruption and nepotism.

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TPB employees have filed a complaint against Montano, for entering into alleged questionable contracts and nepotism.
Submitted to the Presidential Action Center, the complaint listed 30 several alleged misdeeds of Montano such as appointing his relatives into positions whose functions are similar to those of incumbent employees, as well as unprofessional behavior.
Among the actor’s alleged malfeasance was the approval of a P11.2-million contract with a production company that had tapped him and his as guest performers.
The complainants said Montano also paid the same production firm P16.5 million in connection to a rally of President Duterte's supporters at Luneta park in Manila on February 25, 2017 where Montano has also performed.
The board also complained of paying for Montano's trips, which they say were not related to his work as chief operating officer.
The actor denied all the charges against him.
While Duterte refused to fire Montano, a protege of Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco, Jr., the president did not hesitate to sack Teo, whose husband Robert, served as assistant Davao city administrator when Duterte was mayor.