May 17, 2005

     I still see that old Philippine Air Lines (PAL) commercial on the Filipino Channel from time to time. The one with the jingle that says, "the beauty of the Philippines, shining through...". Flying Philippine Air Lines from Manila to Iloilo for the first time in a long time reminded me of that jingle. Sure, there's the beauty of the Philippines to see, we know that. But I am pretty sure when the composer penned the words and notes to it, he was actually thinking of the Philippine Air Lines female flight attendants.

     There's the real beauty of the Philippines, I told my wife while looking at the flight attendant making the "..have a pleasant stay in Iloilo and your other places of destination" announcement. She agreed. Or she's just been through such a long flight itinerary, I probably wasn't making sense to her. Then she added, "I have always dreamt to be a flight attendant." I didn't know that, I wondered, why didn't you? I am scared to fly, she replied. Oh, that one I should have known.

     (My friend and a co-writer here, Rey O. once told me that long travels like this allow you as a couple to re-discover each other, to have a little more "bonding", to know something that you didn't know about each other before. Rey was right.)

From The Album

Click on thumbnail to open the full image in another window. More pictures at the Photo Album

     The Iloilo Domestic Airport is still a snapshot of years ago. Understandably so, a more modern, bigger, and this early, graft-ridden international airport is being built in the Sta. Barbara and Cabatuan areas. The only change I have noticed is there's no more place for well-wishers of departing passengers because the entire lobby (at least that's what it was) has been transformed into the pre-departure security area. Well-wishers are stuck outside where the only shelter against inclement weather are tunnel-like walkways. Parking areas are scarce. You see uniformed security personnel telling drivers to vacate "no-parking" areas. Exactly where they want them to go is a good question to ask. There are no parking spaces. SM City maybe? It's right across the field.

     My wife grew up near the airport and my in-laws still live there. The faces on the tarmac were still familiar. Everyone seems to be a neighbor. I managed to strike a conversation with one. What will happen to the workers here once the new airport opens, I asked. He said they've been promised they'll be moved to Sta. Barbara and their positions at the airport and their pay will be intact. Well, pretty soon, my in-laws' house will be the only one left standing.

     Speaking of graft (and we are not talking trees here), where can you find a government project without a government official benefitting personally from it? Not in our universe, I suppose. This early, charges will be filed against persons involved in the alleged anomalous P6.2- billion New Iloilo Airport Development Project (NIADP).

     The inquiry of the House Committee on Good Government came after a provincial board member accused Iloilo Governor Niel Tupas of involvement in questionable deals relative to the airport construction. All quarry operators are "allegedly controlled by Governor Niel Tupas, his family members and associates," according to the board member. The least that the Governor admitted to was the construction company owned by his daughter-in-law based in Bukidnon rented out an equipment to one of the quarry operators.

     There are also problems with lot owners and tenants who accused the provincial government of not addressing their problems when it comes to payment, relocation site and livelihood opportunities. I was told by a fellow Korean Air passenger that her relatives in Sta. Barbara had to put up tents (tarapal) in front of their houses since construction equipments and dump trucks pass by everyday, the combination of dust, heat and smoke fumes makes their place looks like the Sahara during a sandstorm. And they say they've been neglected, they're not sure if they will be relocated or not.

     What are the long-term effects of living near the under-construction New Iloilo Airport? Do you think that will be good for a study? I mean, you take a baseline x-ray, then repeat it every 3 months or something. I am not a pulmonogist so this may be insignificant. I can smell a lawsuit in the future though. Just a thought.

     Our plan was to visit Antique (my home province) for a couple of days, then stay the rest of the time in Iloilo City where most of our so-called activities were planned. Now, don't dare ask me where Antique is, you should have learned geography in 4th grade. Sometimes, I do get tired of it, people asking where Antique is like I just mentioned Madagascar, Belarus, Waldo, or an impacted molar.

     Meanwhile, my parents as well as my wife's, my brothers, niece and nephews, 3 of whom I was meeting for the first time, met us at the airport. We have breakfast at my in-laws' house after which my father told me to go with him to pick up a cable card for satellite TV. Apparently, that's how satellite cable TV works here. You purchase the dish and the receiver then you buy the card every month to "load" your channels, pretty much like loading a cellphone. Cards come in several denominations depending on the number of channels you want. Unfortunately, they don't sell per channel, say, for people like me, who only want ESPN and that channel that shows NBA games. I'd prefer buying channels like they're flavors at Waffle King.

     Our stop was Marymart Mall along Delgado and Valeria Streets. Welcome to bootleg country.

     Marymart Mall has changed over the years especially after they put that "overpass" that connects the mall with the Iloilo Supermart building on the other side. Aside from legal stuff like cable cards, hairdressers, and bread, it's also teeming with stalls selling bootleg products. For the uninitiated, the shortest definition of "bootleg" is "something made or used illegally or without authorization". Could be a CD, DVD, signature ladies' bag, computer software, or an image of Hello Kitty. In Pinoy lingo, "pirated" or "fake". You name it, Marymart probably has it. Oakleys, Louis Vuittons, Coach's, breasts. Well, maybe not fake breasts.

     I saw a copy of the movie "The Aviator" on DVD. The movie hasn't officially come out on DVD up to this day. The cost? Php100.00 (barely 2 bucks). I became curious and asked the saleslady to play one for me. I was expecting a very poor reception with an occasional silhoutte of a head or a hand or a kissing couple, things you would expect when it's taken with a video camera while playing inside a movie theater. This is the only way it could have come out, or so I thought. But no, the reception was perfect, the sound near-digital. How could this be possible? I let the DVD play out a few minutes more, all the while talking to the saleslady with questions like "what happens when you get raided here?" and I got answers like "oh, we just hide the fake ones under the table and display a few originals." Good and interesting answer.

     After a few more moments, I got my answer on that small TV screen playing "The Aviator". Occasionally, it displayed a one-liner that said "For preview screening only". This movie, as probably most of the movies on display, was intended only for advance screening, for the movie press and movie reviewers, you know, for promotional purposes. I saw a box cover of a movie starring Stevel Seagal that hasn't even come out yet. So who smuggled these movies out of the preview room? Gene Shalit? Ebert and Roeper? Ricky Lo?

     The VRB (Videogram Regulatory Board), headed by one Edu Manzano, is supposed to police all these pirated CD's and DVD's. Well, it's right there for all to see and I don't think the vendors were bothered at all. I took some pictures and they smiled like they're coming out in the next issue of FHM. Taking into consideration what I saw, the VRB is a useless government entity. I read in the papers that Manzano has also threatened to arrest whoever buys these fakes. I wonder how many he has arrested so far, or if there's a jail big enough for them. Of course, for the record, I did not buy that DVD I previewed, "The Aviator". I don't like Leonardo DiCaprio anyway. I never liked "Titanic". And "The Beach"? It stunk.

     Raiding stalls selling bootlegs doesn't work and won't work, ever. Nor does threatening consumers on TV and the papers. Or having cute singers play cute on TV, and in the cutest way say, "No to pirates!" What, you don't like Johnny Depp now?

     The only solution to stop piracy is to lower the price of the originals. It's just too much and that's what driving ordinary Filipinos to buy fakes and copies. Make the originals affordable and vendors won't bother hiding them under the table. You cannot deprive anyone of entertainment and I won't blame the Filipino consumer for that. I have seen bootleg music CD's as low as 10 pesos each. If you can replicate CD's and sell them that cheap, I don't understand why the real ones cost too much. I understand the studio has to be paid, the agent, the promotions, etc., and sure, Sharon Cuneta's mansion. That's why her CD's sell for 600 pesos. Still, that's too much. Mr. DJ, can I make a request? Pass the MP3's, please.

     After a snack of chicken empanada at a Red Ribbon inside SM City, off we went to a two-hour drive to Antique.

     The road to Antique was being paved, especially in the mountains after Tiolas in the town of San Joaquin. Well, I couldn't remember a time when it wasn't anyway. I have said this again and again that building a paved road system in the mountains devoid of trees is plain dumb. A little landslide, the ground getting soft, and sooner than later the asphalt gives way. It's like a hardened caramel syrup getting smashed. Of course, nobody could have thought about this, but instead of spending year after year fixing this smashed asphalts, why not build a highway on flat grounds? Build it along the shores from Tiolas all the way to Anini-y. Talk about driving the Pacific coast from Los Angeles to San Diego. This way, no first-timers would ever complain when I take them to my hometown. I took about 10 classmates (mostly from the city) to our place once to provide some sort of medical mission to my barriomates. I remember one of them commenting how did I happen to live here (in jest, I hope). Well, I was born here, I grew up here and my parents never moved because their livelihood was here. We have come to love the place. I don't really mind the roller-coaster ride. It's not the Pacific Coast highway but it beats going to Baguio, everytime.

     What I don't understand is for city-folks to comment nastily about Antique. This column's friend, Wendy, introduced me not too long ago to her friend who happens to be my provincemate. This "kasimanwa" got married to a lovely lady from the city, a city populated (or used to be) by rich folks who made their money out of sugarcane fields. My "kasimanwa" probably brought her lovely bride to his hometown (which happens to be my hometown too) at one time or another. Nobody really asked her but she volunteered her impressions of Antique. I could not remember her exact words but the description came close to "despicable", "seems like the town is dead and there's nothing to do", and the punchline - "how the people could ever live in that place is beyond me". I am paraphrasing, of course, that's the nicest English translation I could come up with.

     Let me put it this way. If you didn't know what she was talking about , you'd think she was referring to the Smokey Mountain, the Tondo slums, or Fallujah. I wonder if she ever told her husband that. What a lovely relationship.

     (If you know Dr. Feman Autajay, don't tell him about this. He would run amok. He doesn't take negative comments about Antique lightly.)

     Well, she has her opinion. I can have an opinion too but I don't want to devote a full column responding. As most of you men out there could relate, trying to change a woman's way of thinking is an exercise in futility. No matter how wrong and stupid. Besides, I'm in the middle of a blog here. Alright, I must admit, there's nothing to do. Well, for one, Antique doesn't have Goldenfields, King Fischer, Reclamation, etc. where she comes from. San Jose has a Jollibee though, but she probably prefers gourmet burgers so forget it.

     Antique as a province has progressed very slowly. There is still no airport and no private primary hospital. Sometimes, you are at a loss in looking for explanation. One popular theory is the presence of corrupt politicians. Well, that's a popular theory everywhere in the country.

     Speaking of Antique's politicians, we passed by Hamtic, the place of disgraced politician Arturo Pacificador who was accused but found not guilty of masterminding the assassination of the charismatic former Governor Evelio Javier in the worst miscarriage of justice outside of O.J. Simpson. Pacificador's former bodyguards and his lawyer, one Bob Avellana were convicted of the crime and are now languishing in jail. Pacificador's son, Rodolfo, said to be (allegedly) one of the masterminds of the brutal murder, is still in hiding. Many in Antique believe the trial was a joke. A friend told me that the judge who heard the case was a former personal lawyer of Pacificador but I could not confirm it.

     The Pacificadors were the most powerful political family in Antique during the Marcos years. Arturo or "Turing" as he was called was a Marcos crony in the true sense of the word. It was said that he left with deposed President Marcos when the dictator was driven off to Hawaii. Javier was his political arch-enemy and was killed the way that fits only a movie screenplay. He was shot by armed and masked men outside the provincial capitol. Bleeding, he still managed to run across the plaza into a comfort room of a building where he was finished off, riddled with bullets. Coupled with the EDSA revolution and the Javier murder, the Pacificador clan fell apart after that.

     I know some of the Pacificadors, personally. I am sure this is not something to be proud of but I have met Arturo himself, twice, maybe more. Well, he did look creepy then as you may have seen him in pictures now. I know a few of the sons and daughters of his nephews (who are politicians in their own right, albeit at a lower level) who used to take me to their place and bailiwick of Hamtic. Pacificador's place used to be surrounded by armalite-toting men said to belong to his private army called the Rag-Tag. I became familiar with those guys, I usually just went through the gate without interrogation. I am wondering who among them are in prison now.

     I understand the stigma that comes with the Pacificador name but the ones I knew were among the nicest people I have met. There was this one sweet girl I knew and I went to school with who I never thought would become a politician. Now, she's the vice-mayor of Hamtic. I am pretty sure though that she's still nice and sweet.

     More of the blog next time.

     I apologize if I couldn't keep up with writing this series weekly. I have some new projects to do at work that sometimes all I could do is sneak in a post or two in the Forum. Writing, reviewing, and editing a column take me about 3 hours straight, no interruptions. At this time, it's virtually impossible to do.

     I also would like to thank those who took time to drop in a little note. Getting e-mails from unexpected readers is very flattering. That's the only thing that keeps me going and I can say the same for my co-writers here (if you actually drop them a note, they will write more often :). We write for free without the threat of shutting down due to poor readership. But we do appreciate it if you let us know you're stopping by from time to time.

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