In fairness to Korina

“Fairness is not an attitude. It's a professional skill that must be developed and exercised.”  Brit Hume

By Alex P. Vidal

THE problem with being the wife of a prominent politician is that you are always under close scrutiny; even the way you shape your eyebrows and the manner you move your lips are subjected to microscopic sleuthing.

Such is the misfortune that befell Korina Sanchez, twice a recipient of disparaging remarks from do-gooders and dyed-in-the-wool haters; fault-finders who always find pleasure in mocking the first lady wanna-be with catatonic impulsion.

When Korina committed a lapsus linguae in the super-typhoon “Ruby” forecast during a newscast on ABS-CBN last December 3, detractors were quick to make mountain out of a molehill, tearing her apart like ribbons for being “irresponsible” and a dork.

We know that Korina made the mistake sans malice and bad faith.

Everyone commits a mistake every now and then.

Nobody’s perfect.

One reckless statement does not make a professional media personality a merchant of doom overnight.

Korina did not commit the error with a joyride.

It went viral and the consequences were fatal and unpalatable.

FIRE

After it caught fire and brimstone in the social media, a hoax report was posted on a satirical website parroting that she was supposedly declared persona non grata by no less than Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The hoax report shot: “Abe, speaking in public after his meeting with officials of Japan Meteorological Agency regarding typhoon Hagupit (Ruby), said that for a public figure such as Sanchez, to say such things towards Japan; is an act "definitely unbecoming of a news anchor, let alone an Interior Ministry's wife".

"I am very saddened to hear reports of schadenfreude coming from a TV anchor, who just last year, was put in her place by Mr. Anderson Cooper of CNN," said Abe.

"That is why without a second thought, I am declaring wholeheartedly Ms. Korina Sanchez of the Philippines, as an unwelcome person anywhere in Japan."

The International Business Times, meanwhile, decried that “many in the Philippines were outraged by the insensitive remark made by the prominent TV anchor. However, for Sanchez, this is not the first time that she has courted controversy at the global level.”

RAPPLER

It recalled, citing a Rappler report, that in November last year, Korina, who is ABS-CBN's chief correspondent and anchor of its flagship newscast TV Patrol, had lashed out at CNN anchor Anderson Cooper for criticizing the country's government and their response to handling the Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan).

“Following her insensitive remark, the recent hoax gained more traction, as now Sanchez's husband Mar Roxas is said to be aspiring for the President's seat in the country and any statement from her would have an impact, both at national and international levels,” added the International Business Times.

In another bizarre development, comedian Joey de Leon, of all the people, lambasted the popular TV newscaster on Twitter.

But who is Joey de Leon?

His soliloquy can be easily dismissed as akin to a pot calling the kettle black.

God wanted to stop ‘Ruby’ but He didn’t; He couldn’t

“God used beautiful mathematics in creating the world.”

Paul Dirac

By Alex P. Vidal

WAS super-typhoon “Ruby” or “Hagupit” a “punishment” from God?

Or was it a pre-destined human suffering?

Or “revenge” of nature?

If we believe in the religious philosophy of deism, we will throw away the doctrine of theism; and we will cast aside pantheism.

The deists would never believe that God had something to do with “Yolanda” last year, “Ruby” this year, and other deadly catastrophes in the past and in the future.

They believe that God exists, and that His glory is manifested in the heavens and the earth, but that He does not participate in any way in the events which happen in that universe.

The deist conception of God is that he is a great clock maker, who created the cosmos and stands outside watching the events that unfold within it.

The theists, on the other hand, hold that God is present to the world, yet separate from it; thus if He is a murderous God, He could be blamed for the “Yolanda” and “Ruby” mayhem “to teach us a lesson” for being sinners.

The pantheists believe that God is manifested in nature and, in fact, identical to nature.

CRUEL

Since man has been cruel and irresponsible in dealing with his environment and nature since time immemorial, did God bring the calamities as an act of “revenge”?

From the point of view of Christian precepts, the above-stated arguments seem illogical because God essentially sums up the meaning of love.

Since the theological concept of God is that of having the attributes of omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), omnibenevolence (perfect goodness), divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence, God can never be cruel, murderous, vengeful or destructive.

But Yahweh, the God in the Old Testament, was sadistic and cruel who killed 2,821,364 people, mostly Philistines, using biblical numbers, according to Dwindling In Belief.

YAHWEH

Yahweh reportedly killed an estimated 25 million people, added the Dwindling In Belief, an unbeliever’s thoughts about the Bible, Quran, and Book of Mormon.

“I kill ... I wound ... I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and mine sword shall devour flesh.” (Deuteronomy 32:39-42)

In the Flood of Noah, an estimated 20,000,000 were killed (reference: Genesis 7:23)

For more on the number of those killed by God, please read Steve Wells’ book Drunk With Blood, where he documented “God’s killings in the Bible.”

So why did “Yolanda”, “Ruby” and other calamities happen?

Either God wanted to stop them but He did not, or God wanted to stop them but He could not.

This was the same view made by Voltaire, a rationalist, when he criticized Jean-Jacque Rousseau, a romanticist, in the aftermath of the Lisbon earthquake that killed thousands of people in 1755.

    

We almost lost a First Lady in bolo attack

“Assassination has never changed the history of the world.”

Benjamin Disraeli

By Alex P. Vidal

Last Sunday, December 7, a super-typhoon “Ruby” wrecking day, was the 43^rd year since the failed assassination attempt on former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos.

The date coincided with the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombing and the bolo attack occurred less than three months after the declaration of Martial Law.

“Everybody was still adjusting to the new life under authoritarian rule, which somewhat resembled the Japanese Occupation at least in terms of a curfew that restrained the population’s taste for boulevard alcoholism and nightclub psychedelia,” Manuel F. Martinez, a 1971 Constitutional Convention delegate, narrated in Assassinations and Conspiracies.

In spite of the civil tension, Mrs. Marcos braced for another day of public functions.

In connection with the nationwide campaign for cleanliness and beautification, an awarding ceremony was scheduled on that day at Nayong Pilipino in Pasay City.

“The rites at Nayong Pilipino proceeded smoothly, with Mrs. Marcos onstage receiving one by one the awardees and shaking hands with them,” recalled Martinez.

“Her guards, naturally, were not on the stage but a short distance away, for who would think any attempt on her life would be made in that most friendly environment.”

In terms of parks and plazas, South Cotabato bagged the grand prize for being the model province.

The municipality of Kiamba won the cleanest award.

STAGE

Among those who went up the stage in the group that would receive the award was a man in all-black suit and pants who pretended to be part of the delegation.

“When his turn came before the First Lady, he whipped out a bolo and made two determined thrusts at her. A split second before the attack, as photographs later showed, she was looking sideways and did not see the bolo already leveled horizontally a few inches away from her abdominal region,” observed Martinez, a former copy editor of Asiaweek in Hong Kong.

According to Martinez, Mrs. Marcos “was quick enough to parry with her arms and fingers the first blow.”

She incurred lacerations at the back of her right hand, on the right forearm, across the index finger and the ring finger of the right hand, according to hospital report.

“In short, without help from anyone, she defended herself. She fell down from the second thrust,” Martinez stressed.

This was how Martinez completed his narration of facts on that fateful day:

Quickly, 22-year old Linda Amor Robles of the Department of Education, who was secretary of the cleanliness committee, covered Mrs. Marcos with her own body and suffered a huge three-inch wound on her back.

The First Family a week later, when Imelda could walk around with a sling around her arm, visited her in the hospital.

Tourism Secretary Jose Aspiras also shielded Mrs. Marcos by taking some of the blows.

He sustained a head wound that took nine stitches. Others who tried to cover her were Social Welfare Secretary Aldaba Lim and Josefa Aquino, the wife of Highways Commissioner Baltazar Aquino.

DIVERT

The would-be assassin, diverted from the fallen First Lady, continued to hack wildly until he was shot dead by guards who had jumped upstage.

The whole scenario happened before a shocked, unbelieving television audience around the country who were watching the awarding ceremonies.

Mrs. Marcos was immediately flown by helicopter to the 9^th floor of the Makati Medical Center.

Shortly afterwards, President Marcos speedily came to her side, grim and unsmiling, and soon he ordered the scene replayed again and again.

Because they had no equipment or tape at the hospital, a television station replayed it for him on the air, and Filipinos saw the many replays themselves for hours.

Marcos’ anger mounted as he watched them, sometimes banging his fist with tremendous force on a tabletop.

He asked why the assailant was killed—he should have been captured alive to tell the whole story, since it was possible someone ordered him to do the job, which may have been a conspiracy.

In Stalin’s regime, the would-be assassin would have been used as witness to incriminate innocent people and send them to death.

INTERROGATE

It was said Marcos interrogated the guards who shot down the bolo wielder, for it was not impossible that one of them was part of the plan and shot the assassin to silence him.

Later on Marcos told reporters he was satisfied that the guards could not be blamed for immediately killing the man.

On television, the President assured the nation that the First Lady was safe and recovering.

He said he wished he were there when the incident happened.

He added that when he declared Martial Law “we knew we would pay the price, but I cannot forgive myself that she herself had to pay it.”

But instead of being daunted, he said, he would even more resolutely proceed with his program “to eradicate and eliminate all threats against the stability of our society and to push through the (martial law) reformist program.”

A draw that meant ‘victory’

“Football is like life - it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.” Vince Lombardi

By Alex P. Vidal

THERE was a time when Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam wouldn’t be satisfied even after blanking the Philippines in men’s football in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
Indonesia was not happy either even if it bundled out the Philippines, 7-0.
The Indons wanted a humiliating 11-0 or even 17-0 (that’s too much insult to bear for the Filipinos).
Those were the years when the Azkals XI wasn’t yet organized.
With most national team members are now naturalized citizens--half British and half Filipino like the Younghusband brothers, among other foreign recruits with Filipino blood, the Philippines, otherwise known as “Azkals”, has ceased to become a David in the field of Goliaths.  
Against the amazing Thailand, a scoreless draw can be considered as a “victory” for the Philippines’ Azkals XI in the first leg of their AFF Suzuki Cup semifinals clash at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila on Saturday (November 6, 2014).
Currently ranked 144th in the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the Thailand national football team, entered in the tournament as “Thailand War Elephants”, is the No. 1 football team in the Southeast Asia (SEA) region.

NEVER WON

The Philippines has never won a match in its last 14 international encounters with the Thais.
Since 1972, our national booters have been the Thais’ favorite whipping boys.
The Azkals XI, in fact, was lucky to escape defeat after Thai forward Adisak Kraisorn was sent off in the final 21 minutes of the match.
Kraisorn received a red card when he appeared to catch Azklas XI defender Amani Aguinaldo with an elbow to the face after an altercation between the pair in the centre circle.
“However, the hosts failed to capitalize on having an extra man, leaving both teams with all to play for in the return match at Bangkok's Rajamangala Stadium on Wednesday. The winner of the tie will face either Vietnam or Malaysia in the final later this month,” reported the FIFA.
FIFA described the opening half of Saturday's semi-final as “a disappointment with neither side able to carve out a clear cut opportunity.”
The match came to life after the interval with Perapat Notechaiya firing narrowly wide for the visitors from a tight angle, while the hosts felt aggrieved when Phil Younghusband was unable to get a clear shot on goal after losing his footing following a Suttinun Phukhom challenge.

CLOSEST

Thailand went closest to breaking the deadlock in the 55th minute as Charyl Chappuis burst into the Azkals box and saw his shot run across the face of the Philippines' goalmouth Sarawut Masuk just failing to make contact with the ball at the unguarded far post.
“The feisty encounter boiled over in the 69th minute when Adisak was dismissed but the hosts could not make the most of the extra man with Younghusband going closest with a shot from the edge of the box that was easily stopped by Thai goalkeeper Kawin Thammasatchanan,” FIFA reported.
The match began around two hours before typhoon Ruby or Hagupit made landfall in the Philippines.
It went ahead despite tournament organizers warning it could be cancelled in the event of severe weather.
PAGASA confirmed storm Ruby crashed into the eastern part of the country with gusts of 210 kilometers (130 miles) an hour, while also bringing heavy rain to the densely populated capital of Manila to the north.