Philippine political events are more exciting than telenovelas. No wonder Filipinos are channel-switching to them like crazy.
The top-rating is the unending saga of Leila de Lima. Last Monday’s episode was her much awaited confrontation at the Senate with ex-lover-driver Ronnie Dayan. From homes and offices, at waiting lines and even inside buses, viewers watched the day-long live telecast. Minor characters first raised the suspense by grilling Dayan. A hot scene was when he was asked who else, aside from self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, he collected tons of money from, purportedly in behalf of De Lima. He insisted it was only from Kerwin; they wouldn’t believe him, or at least it didn’t make sense, since he portrays himself as most trusted moneybag. Why, by self-admission, he even had influenced in 2014 then-justice secretary De Lima to install two position seekers as heads no less of the NBI and prisons bureau. For apparent perjury they banished him to the national penitentiary Bilibid, there to be torn apart by convicts whom he allegedly forced into narco-trafficking for De Lima. So much for his short cameo role as state witness for the justice department in criminal raps against De Lima.
There were other establishing scenes and subplots. Contravidas had their share of the limelight, as did a recent widow who accused one of the former of slaying her police officer-husband. Then walked in De Lima the star, first explaining her lateness and recounting past episodes of her being miscast as narco-queen and sex addict. She tussled with National Police Director General Bato dela Rosa. Finally turning to Dayan, she cried out in intense drama, “Ronnie, tell the nation that’s watching, who put you up to persecute me?” All cameras swung to Dayan; there was a long pause; one could have heard a pin drop. Then he ad-libbed, “Mam, only God can forgive you now.” Some televiewers gasped, others guffawed. It was a classic Hitchcock climax buildup, with an ending that let viewers form their own conclusions – depending on their political suasions.
On the other channel was Leni Robredo resigning from the Cabinet after being barred from attending any more meetings. It was a twist long expected. That she hadn’t done it sooner was beginning to tell on her ratings. Naively she had followed the plot of her more seasoned Liberal Party-mates, in capitulating to the super-majorities in the Senate and House of Reps. Too late was her picturing of Secretary to the Cabinet Jun Evasco as a Rasputin. Too feeble is her portrayal of Bongbong Marcos as a show-grabber of the Vice Presidency. Is it the end of her tele-series? Only a character remake by her political coaches can save it.
Meanwhile, caught momentarily on-cam last week at a swanky restaurant at The Fort were Bongbong Marcos and wife Liza Araneta, mom Imelda Romualdez Marcos, brother-in-law Greggy Araneta, ex-president Gloria Macapagal and husband Mike Arroyo, and Bobby Ongpin. It couldn’t have been just the long-dead dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ burial at the Libingan they were discussing; that’s done. Done too was Greggy’s “purchase” of Ongpin’s company and its sudden rise in share values. There can only be more exciting political events to unfold when the top-billed Romualdez-Marcoses meet with the Macapagal-Arroyos, co-starring the Aranetas and Ongpin.
Watching too much tele-novelas won’t do Juan dela Cruz much good, though. He will have to make a living, or else go hungry. This craze for politics is diverting him from the little gainful work that’s available. No new investors are coming in to offer jobs. Not much can be expected from China, whose economy is in decline, while Russia was never an overseas investor. Meanwhile, the West is afraid of the volatile President. Besides, the European Union and North America do not see any spectacular economic initiatives as attractions. The one big Korean investor, in Subic, is on the brink of folding up, threatening to make thousands of workers jobless. Ironically, the Labor Department is being cajoled by labor unions to stop “endo” (abrupt ending of work contracts). That can only lead to worse joblessness; the best way to eliminate “endo” is to let it die a natural death through full employment.
Soon fuel prices will spike from stiff excise taxes, to in turn inflate the prices of food, transportation, home utilities, and rent. His stomach growling, Juan dela Cruz will then shut off the political telenovelas and stare at the blackened screen, as dark as his future. While outside in the dark night, shots ring out in the latest termination of the suspected neighborhood pusher.
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