Bearers of good news, gifts

It would seem President  Duterte’s diplomatic skills are coming into fruition with the ambassadors of major superpowers US and China going to Davao City to wish him a happy birthday. US Ambassador Sung Kim and Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua arrived bearing “good tidings and good gifts.”

Ambassador Kim and President Rody discussed extensive bilateral relations between both countries, including counterterrorism efforts, with the US ready to provide military training and assistance as well as equipment. Over P3.5 billion worth of projects has also been promised by the US in the next couple of years to boost investments in Mindanao, among them a roll-on, roll-off nautical highway that would connect Davao and GenSan to Sulawesi in Indonesia to help Filipino and American companies operating in the region to the increase their exports.

Ambassador Kim spent a long time meeting with the President and he was definitely happy with the discussions which he described as “terrific.” It would appear the President personally likes the American diplomat, and from what I am told, there is a feeling of close affinity between them.

During an event hosted by the Rotary Club of Manila with Ambassador Kim as speaker, he noted similarities between him and President Rody, foremost of which was that both of them worked as prosecutors. The US Ambassador said that before he became a diplomat, he started out as a prosecutor in Los Angeles — an experience he found “gratifying,” adding “there is something rewarding about going after bad people.”

Of course, President Rody is also fond of Ambassador Zhao Jianhua who went to Davao bearing gifts – a painting of a rooster and a family portrait based on a photo released by Malacañang that showed the President with his partner Honeylet Avanceña and their daughter Kitty. The rapport has been evident since the President’s inauguration as seen in the wide smiles and the tight handshake between the two men.

Leni dinner: Will it be in Malacañang or Davao?

Many were fairly certain Vice President Leni Robredo would not pass up on the invitation of President Duterte to dinner, saying she just really wants the opportunity to work with the President.

Insiders, however, are wondering if the President’s dinner invitation for Leni and her daughters will be in Malacañang or in Davao City. If it’s going to be in the Palace, then the dinner will probably have a more formal and official ambience. But if the VP gets invited to the Duterte residence in Matina, then expect the occasion to be more friendly and casual.

Getting invited to the President’s private home in Davao City is considered a great honor because, according to sources, he rarely invites anyone to his house unless they are close friends or he really likes a person, such as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who had breakfast and was even given a tour of the President’s modest home in Davao.

Senator Sonny Trillanes is probably unhappy with the Vice President’s acceptance of the dinner invitation (although a date has yet to be set) because it will make him lose momentum as far as his anti-Duterte campaign is concerned. Trillanes had warned VP Leni the invitation could be “a trap to politically disarm and neutralize her at this time that Duterte is facing the biggest political storm yet of his term as president.”

Some strategists, however, are convinced the President is an astute tactician and an even wilier politician than most people take him for. President Rody may project himself as an “unburnished” and “unpolished” individual — but one must remember that he was mayor of Davao City for two decades (also serving as congressman and vice mayor in between terms) and has never lost an election. Definitely, Rodrigo Duterte knows how to play the game.

Beauty is only skin deep

For those who are obsessed with looking good and are thinking of spending a lot of money and effort in getting cosmetic and plastic surgery to attain their ideal of beauty, better stop and think twice because you might end up like the young businesswoman who died while undergoing several procedures at a clinic in Mandaluyong City. 

What happened to the young woman was just too bad, especially since she did not seem to need those procedures (liposuction, breast augmentation and butt surgery) to look good. While it is understandable that some people in the entertainment industry may feel the need for rhinoplasty, lip enhancement, botox, eye bag removal and a host of other procedures, there are those who overdo it to the point that they don’t look good anymore.

In fact, there are some women who have already been blessed by God with amazing beauty and yet they still want to tinker with what nature has endowed them with — and so they end up looking really horrible and “unnatural.”

In Hollywood, there are so many tales of botched cosmetic jobs, with the women admitting they ended up feeling “mutilated.” According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, more and more women — a lot of them young — are resorting to facelifts, fillers and other procedures that has driven the industry to boom to a record $15 billion in 2016 alone.

A psychologist, whose specialty is dealing with women who suffer from “body dysmorphic disorder” or BDD which is characterized by the obsession with looking good, said the condition could lead to cosmetic surgery addiction. In the end, the women suffer from depression, alcoholism and other disorders — a sad result of their unhealthy quest for “perfection.”

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