Why am sad Dolphy is gone?

I am an 80s kid. I was born and raised in the 80s.And my childhood reminds me a lot of Dolphy’s movies that my mom would take me to local cinemas in downtown Legazpi City just to watch his movies.

The one that absolutely had great impact to me was his 1987 movie “Once Upon a Time”. I was 7 years old that time but the plot of that story really remained in my mind up to now. The whole cast of the movie is a blockbuster during that time – with the loveteam of Snooky-Richard, Janice de Belen (my all-tuime favourite Filipina actress and my childhood crush), the very regal Lani Mercado with the very versatile Gloria Romero playing as the villain, and of course, entwined with the great comedy antics of Chichay and Tessie Tomas, plus the That’s Entertainment stars Mon Alvir,Anjo Yllana & Chuckie Dreyfuss.

Once Upon A Time,a 1987 hit comedy-fantasy flick which starred “Dolphy”.

As a kid, the plot of that movie really remained in my mind.

I grew up as a teenager just right in time in 1993 when ABS-CBN first invaded Bicol. Legazpi and the rest of the Albay province (and contiguous towns & provinces) only has one Tv channel that is GMA-7 in which the shows are shown one-week delayed. yes,one week delayed. It means, we can watch a That’s Entertainment episode a week after it was telecast in Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon provinces. Indeed, 1993 was just right in time when Dolphy’s hit TV sitcom “Home Along da Riles” became popular after debuting in 1991.

Home Along has been a part of my weekly Thursday routine – that me and my siblings and my aunts and other relatives would pile up in front of the TV just to watch the weekly dish of the show. That time, me and my siblings would eat early dinner so that we can proceed to our Aunt’s house nearby just to watch TV since we still do not have any TV set during that time.And we always have a great laugh.

1990 hit-TV sitcom Home Along da Riles aired on ABS-CBN for almost 15 years.

Dolphy is one of the very few Filipino comedians who can throw a punchline without laughing ahead of the comedy stint. His newspaper poking at the Sunog-Baga Boys and Babalu is a signature that every other comedian during that time, followed.

Dolphy thumbmarked and sealed the 90s as his prime decade in Philippine TV sitcom. i can say this since during the hit of John & Marsha, I was not born yet and that RPN-9’s coverage is not that extensive to the provinces. I only heard about John & Marsha when I was already on my early teens only in commentaries, reviews, tributes. memory-lane programs on TV,and even a re-run in the recent years.

A scene in Home Along da Riles (TV) with Claudine as Bing and Dolphy as Kevin Cosme with Gio Alvarez on the background.

The conglomerate of Cita Astals, Bernardo Bernardo, Roxanne (Dang Cruz), Nova Villa, Claudine Barretto, Gio Alvarez, Maybelline, Smokey Manoloto, Vandolph etc are also the ones I missed on Philippine TV comedy scen (well,of course,apart from my other favourite Abangan Ang Susunod na Kabanata).

The Philippines’ Comedy King during his heydays. A legend, indeed.

When I finished college in 2000, that started the dwindling of Home Along. I was barely watching the show. Maybe because I was already starting on my professional career and had been focusing on some other serious structures of my life. Until the day that Home Along bid farewell on TV.

And Dolphy contiued his TV and movie career. With some short-lived comedy programs and some hit movies. Until in 2010.

I would admit in 2004, I became less as a fan of Dolphy when he endorsed FPJ as his Presidential bet. Well, I knew Dolphy is an absolute vote-magnet. He can sway votes of millions of Filipinos with his charisma and character. I am also a fan of FPJ as an actor but I was never a fan of him to be a Philippine President.I was then rooting for the late great Senator Raul S. Roco.

In 2010, much more I was a little off with Dolphy when he endorsed MannyVillar for President. Again, I admit I was never an Erap supporter, but I deem, he should have endorsed Erap instead of Villar having the former as his good and long-time friend than the latter.

But all of those are history. Villar, Erap and Dolphy all have moved on.

When it was reported that Dolphy has been admitted to the ICU of Makati Medical Center last June, I felt an innate sadness. I think this man has made us happy and smile most of our lives – even our parents and grandparents. Dolphy gave us a sense of good laugh, hope, fantasy,imagination, genuine talent, the art of comedy and passion. This man who have been in the showbusiness for 6 decades has achieved something that no other can duplicate or even come close to it.

I continued to pray that this man, who, in his great splendor, is the absolute and indisputable King of Philippine Comedy, would recover from his ailments.

I was hoping for it, was praying for it. I though the positive developments the last 2 weeks would continue. But, sadly, last night I was stunned hearing the news that he is gone.

Que triste. Definitivamente, que triste la muerte de rey de comedia de peliculas Filipinas! I am very sad. Something in me has been lost – which I cannot explain nor expound. The closest encounter I had with Dolphy was when his motorcade for the FPJ campaign pass by our vehicle enroute to Tabaco City in 2004, but it is like Dolphy is already part of my subliminal system.

How in the world can I ever imagine Philippine show business without a Dolphy? Such a great loss.

The only thing left for us, fans, critics and observers is to respect, revere and try to move on with the death; and proceed with the inspiration and legacy he has left.

Goodbye, Dolphy!

Que En Pas Descanse! (QEPD)

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Nota bene:

This is the author’s personal account of how he remembers and regards Dolphy during the course of his lifetime and does not in any way represent anybodyelse’s experiences, emotions or opinions. This is purely a personal account and recounting of how he recalls and experience the King of Comedy.

Why I won’t vote for Mitos Magsaysay?

This lady congressman is one of the fiscalizer in the congress being part of the minority. Fiscalizer indeed in order to constructively criticize the policies and overall outlook of the current administration under President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. But, what really is the role of this supposed fiscalizer but to lambast and hit the current president below the belt calling him “tamad”, slacking, lazy, incompetent, and all other insults which can be tagged as the silliest criticism any congressman or lawmaker can throw to a sitting president.

Mitos has been very visible to media with all her antics defending former President Gloria Arroyo and all the controversies the former president have been into. As if Mitos’ rhetorics can fool all the Filipino people that President Arroyo has done nothing gravely wrong during her 9 years of presidency. Come on, Congresswoman Magsaysay! We weren’t born yesterday.

GMA’s administration has been tainted with excessive corruption, electoral fraud, corruption, deceipt, corruption, manipulation, arrogance, corruption, embezzlement, corruption, lobbying, corruption, un-necessary lavish lifestyle of the President & her family, corruption, political harrassment, etc. Oh, did I say corruption?

Mitos Magsaysay maybe has forgotten how GMA said sorry for theHello Garci tape scandal and all the evidences pointing to the first couple on the very controversial  NBN-ZTE scandal All the evidences are there to prove how the former President lobbied to the Chinese company this overpriced and bloated project, with the the documentary, material evidences and witnesses to back the allegations;  the 2004 massive electoral fraud, political oppression and cheating in Maguindanao and other areas in the country just to seal her win over very close rival Fernando Poe, Jr.; the PNP chopper fiasco covering the fraud in the purchase of Robinson Raven R44 chopper in which the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo has been involved, according to witnesses and documentary evidences; the unrelenting corruption in the military that was seemingly tolerated in order to prevent defection from her administration; among others.

Zambales representative Mitos Magsaysay, ass-licker to the Arroyos?

Has Mitos forgotten about all these stuffs?And why bash on Pnoy? How does she measure Pnoy’s incompetence?

If incompetence would mean stronger peso in 8 years at breaching the Php41 margin, then I would encourage incompetence.

If incompetence would mean an all-time high PSEi at  5,218.97 last july 5, 2012, then I would encourage incompetence.

If incompetence would mean tagging The Philippines  as one the emerging Tiger Economies by Morgan Stanley Investment Management& Bloomberg, then I would encourage incompetence.

If incompetence means ceasing from the usual loans from the IMF-WorldBank, and instead loaning to IMF-WorldBank, then I would encourage incompetence.

If incompetence means greater confidence of the international community about transparency, greater governance and economic revolution, then I’dgo for incompetence.

The former President who knows how to direct her own teledrama.

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Now why would I say that Pnoy is more competent than Gloria Arroyo despite the latter is tagged as an economist?

I would quote Political Analyst Ramon Casiple , “Maganda naman talaga mga proyekto ni GMA.  Ang proseso lang naman ang hindi.” I would agree that some GMA programs and projects are good but the process are just so filthy.

I can say that priority development projects were given on favoured contractors and their dummies,most are bloated of cost, concentrated on preferred areas of favoured contractors and to a sponsor politician’s manipulation (who is typically GMA’s ally).

I have seen progress and some significant infrastructure development during GMA’s time, but the gargantuan amount of money spent could have funded almost two more projects of the same scope.

With Pnoy’s clean government, gone are the days were lobbyist contractors are around, the manioulation of priority development projects to selcted contractors and areas of concentration, the bloated project cost and quantity take-offs, etc.

At least with Pnoy, I can sleep overnight that the taxes that i pay are mostly, not corrupted. (Oh well, i can say this since corruption can never be cured overnight. there are still some of them out there whio can get away with it).

The Philippines as one of Asia’s Four Economic Tigers (in yellow)

[Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org]

Mitos Magsaysay has forgotten that there are more Filipinos who are educated and are nosy than those who are not. We were not born yesterday. You can never fool us with your rhetorics and destructive criticisms against the current government. Most of us were the state scholars of the previous decades – young, vibrant, intelligent, flexible, smart, outlandish yet humane, fierce and feisty.

Mitos Magsaysay can lick the asses of the Arroyo family, but you can NEVER get our votes!

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And since you started your filthy saliva-war against Pnoy’s government, I would also state just one-line to make it even: “Stop barraging your chubby and bloated  face in the media coz you never look attractive at any angle.”

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http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2012/06/30/philippines-be-tiger-economy-book-229518

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/ph-soon-to-join–tiger-economies—claims-expert.html

Of realignment of budgets & priority development projects

What is a realignment of budget?

A realignment of budget is re-organize or to re-classify a certain budget for a specific project to another project which is deem more of a ‘priority’ than the former.

This type of  ‘event’ or scenario used to be very typical in the Philippines as Senators and Congressmen’s Countrywide Development Fund (CDF) or more commonly known as “Pork Barrel” are oftentimes realigned according to their so-called own jurisdiction or right to request for such, with due approval  from concerned agencies such as the Department of Budget & Management (DBM), the implementing agencies i.e. Department of Public Works & Highways (DPWH), the Department of Transportation & Communication (DOTC), Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), among others, and the check-and-balance from the Commission on Audit (COA).

But how do we account that these “realignments” are for the greater benefits of the Filipino people?

Some priority development projects of, say, some senators are realigned according to their own judgment or findings whether a certain project needs to be put first over the other. But how do they identify such priority?

Normally, a local government unit, either a municipality or a city, sends a request to a senator or congressmen regarding a need to fund a certain project which they will classify as pressing and priority, thus needs immediate funding. But how easy it is to sway a Senator or Congressmen to sway budget from one to another.

This is how contractors and businessmen, alike, play with and lay their cards on Senators and Congressmen to deal with a project or certain projects.

The Scenario. 

A private contractor who has its own vested interest,  with all its other private investments over a specific place, would ask an LGU to seek help to fund a certain, say, road opening or road rehabilitation project within his unit, backed with certain letters from non-government organizations, individuals and letters of no-objection from concerned and affected entities. Then, the mighty senator or congressman would approve the project and would start reviewing his list of priority projects and would realign some of the projects to cater to the new request.

Actually, this scenario is seemingly well-orchestrated and planned. The truth of the matter is that a certain contractor has its own list of priority projects which are all already lobbied to and sponsored by respective senators & congressmen. The contractor, having a list of priority development projects worth billions of pesos, would manipulate the realignment if needed. The contractor would be the one to push an LGU to draft a request letter to a certain senator to fund his projects backed with all other no-objection letters if there are affected entities.

This is a whole conspiracy to benefit the contractor, the senator and the LGU.

The contractor is also a developer and a businessman who has its other business endeavours on the very location or near and adjacent to the location where a realigned priority project is located.

For example, you can actually notice that a long stretch of road opening was expedited and completed in a very swift schedule sometime from 2002 to 2004 in Calayucay to Buhatan in Sto. Domingo, Albay which was tagged a farm-to-market road. The fact that the area is mountainous and highly unpopulated, still the project was pushed through. Historically, the fishermen and farmers of Cagraray Island would trade their goods to the very adjacent and nearby Tabaco City Port, so it is very odd that a new road network was opened enroute Sto. Domingo which will never at all benefit the fishermen and farmers of Cagraray Island since Sto. Domingo is a fourth class municipality with a smaller scale or market compared to Tabaco City. The fact, the new long and winding road going to Sto. Domingo Town proper would add to the hauling cost of the trades.

Within the same period, road networks were also constructed from RoRo Point B of Cagraray Island going inside the not-so-lush verdant of coarsely brown-soiled Cagraray, These road networks were prioritized over any other projects which may benefit bigger volume of population.

Second, the Sula Bridge was tagged as one of the President’s Bridge Program under then President Gloria M. Arroyo being projected as the 4th Delta Bridge in the Philippines and the first of its kind in the Bicol region. Of all the provinces,towns and cities who are in dire need of a bridge project, the former President gave it to Sula to connect Cagraray island with 17 towns and less than 2,000 population compared to other depressed areas of the country.

Now, what is the connection of the Buhatan Road, Cagraray roads and the Sula Bridge? They all lead up to a high-end private resort.

 

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Now, in Antique, there goes another great project – a private venture of a Filipino company – which is indeed very much needed by the Panay Island being erratic of sustainable electrical energy. The Philippines, specifically in this case, Panay,  being a very good source of  mini-hydroelectric plants which can make this 4-province island self-sustaining & independent when it comes to power supply.

This mini-hydroelectric power plant has been verily supported by the local government of Antique, even the Congressmen thereat.

Villasiga Hydropower plant, a renewable source of energy located in central Antique hopes to not only lower electricity cost but will also increase investment. With the high cost of electricity and fuel prices of basic and prime commodities correspondingly increase which affect not only business establishments but also households who are the receiving end of the domino effect of power increases.

This may sound very promising for the people of Antique and neighboring towns and cities. But, taking a closer look into the picture, one can see road openings, road rehabilitations, river de-siltings, new bridges and other projects that have been prioritized in a very close period of time. Most of these projects were re-aligned from other previously identified as priority projects already allocated of funds by DBM. But to the so0-called push of the contractor and the sponsor Senator, projects may be realigned just to benefit one big private investor.

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The same thing happened in Catanduanes. The Solong-Hitoma mini-hydroelectric power plants, also aimed at giving cheaper and sustainable electricity to the poor constituents of Catanduanes (very noble indeed), apart from the probable monetary income a renewable energy venture can give to the immediate community, also can be noticeably pointed of several road openings, road rehabilitations, river de-siltings and any other priority pro0jects that can be initiated to favor such private investment.

 

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Now, the conspiracy therein, is that a certain contractor or private businessman can really manipulate where the priority projects would be done in order to favour its private investments.

This scheme has been very rampant during the time of PGMA. Of course, the Senators or Congressmen would re-align project since they will also get their share of HUGE SOPs from these projects. [I will treat this topic separately on how bloated the priority projects are of their actual costs and what is the regular Quantity take-Offs of certain projects.]

Taking the bigger picture, imagine how many contractors are like this and how many politicians do this scheme? We can only imagine how huge money is involved, from the hard-earned money of poor Filipino people, just being pocketed by politicians and some contractors. These contractors are sautee-ing us, Filipinos, thrice – first, by bloated QTOs of priory development projects, and second, using the same priority development projects to benefit their private ventures, and third, the huge income raked off from the priority development projects are then invested to their private ventures.

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Postscript:

Nevertheless, the effort of the current administration to be more transparent in government expenditures, priority development projects and the awarding of projects without any favor to any specific contractor can be greatly noticed.

Corruption is already a system that has eaten our bloodstream. It is impossible to cure that ovenight, but with the current administration, we can already feel the breeze – that this perennial problem is being addressed and being solved, little by little, yet continuous and unrelenting.

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We can actually see that those contractors being obviously and erroneously favoured by the past administrations with all their crooked intentions are no longer getting any projects from the national government. That only sums up that this current government is never favoring the crooked.

But the problem remains, that the same senators and congressmen who were part of the conspiracies and crookedness are still there sitting. Some of them even receive SOPs in US dollars, who obviously and to the nth degree, OBJECTED to the opening of then Chief Justice Renato Coronoa’s dollar accounts.

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If you have queries, violent reactions and any other suggestions, please email the blogger at jay_win_05@yahoo.com or bjoern.slovedic@gmail.com