On today’s Inquirer: “Lakas belittles pundits’ view Teodoro out of race“:

MANILA, Philippines—The ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD laughed off the observation of political analysts Ramon Casiple and Bobby Tuazon that its standard-bearer Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro was virtually out of the presidential race.

“Did [Casiple] run for mayor? [He is] just a desk officer. He doesn’t know the situation on the ground,” Raymundo Roquero, the party’s new secretary general, said on the phone. “Gibo Teodoro is very much in the running.”

In Pulse Asia’s March 21-28 survey, Teodoro trailed Sen. Benigno Aquino III, Sen. Manuel Villar and Joseph Estrada with 7 percent.

But Teodoro scoffed at the results, and vowed to win the presidency by traditional campaigning.

“I don’t believe in surveys anymore,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “I’ll not comment on surveys. We’re going down to the barangay level, and we’re going to win this election.”

Let’s see: the campaign is in its final weeks, Gibo has stepped down as chairman of the party of which he is the standard bearer, his (now former) partymate Chavit is backing Villar (and taking the north with him), and he’s behind Erap—yes, Erap, as in the actor-turned-politico we forced from Malacañang nine years ago—in the polls.

Yep, the future looks bright.

Of course you’ve stopped believing in the surveys. Who would have thought that with the money and machinery of the freak Philippine politics lovechild PaLaKa behind you, you still can’t so much as make top three. That just makes all this even funnier—so funny, in fact, that it almost becomes just sad.

Better luck in 2016. Heck, if I were you, I wouldn’t try again until 2022. If we haven’t already turned into a monarchy by then.

Also, I have lengthy piece on the presidential race I’m trying to finish. Once it’s complete I’ll post it on my forlorn politics blog.

I was seated in the front seat of a jeepney today on my regular noontime commute. We were in the rightmost lane, waiting for the green light at an intersection. Suddenly a foreigner pulled up beside us and asked, “Hey, can you read?” He pointed at and read aloud a sign that said “Right lane must turn right”. “Next time, OK?” he warned before speeding off.

The foreigner was right, to be sure. We were in a must-turn-right-lane when we shouldn’t have been. This wasn’t the first time I rode in a jeepney that did the same thing; it was, however, the first time a fellow motorist reprimanded the driver. All the driver did was scoff at the rebuke. “He’s not from here and he goes around and does that,” the driver remarked (translated and paraphrased). “He better watch himself.”

I got around to thinking, perhaps this is part of the reason why the Philippines is in the mess we’re in.  We are quick to chastise immorality, lack of propriety, and selfishness in government, but we ourselves cannot be bothered to obey a simple traffic rule. We say we want an honest and trustworthy leader, while we ourselves remain selfish and indifferent. We swoon over the idea of positive change but meet even an inkling of actual reform with ridicule and defiance.

The way things are going, it would do us no good to have all the saints run our government. The common person needs to change just as much as our leaders do. To use a metaphor, replacing an engine, while necessary, is not enough to fix a ramshackle car. We want progress for our country and think honest officials are the be-all and end-all solution when in fact, the real change needs to be in ourselves.

Conrado de Quiros pwns Gollum and her minions in his column in today’s Philippine Daily Inquirer. His piece, entitled “May Araw Din Kayo”, is written entirely in street Tagalog, the prolific writer justifying his deviation from convention by  saying that English could not possibly allow him to vent properly and by mentioning that August is the Buwan ng Wika (Language Month) in the Philippines.

The skillfully written piece reads in part:

At buti na rin lang mayroon tayong sariling wika. Di sapat ang Inggles para iparamdam sa inyo ang suklam na nararamdaman namin sa inyo. Di sapat ang Inggles para ipakita sa inyo ang pagkamuhi na nararamdaman namin sa inyo. Di maarok ng Inggles ang lalim ng poot na nararamdaman namin sa inyo.

Isinusuka na kayo ng taumbayan, mahirap man sumuka ang gutom.

Bravo.