TWO THINGS happened that jolted the Philippines last week. One is the awe-inspiring performance of El Gamma Penumbra in the Grand Finals of Asia Got Talent held in Singapore and the other is the shocking revelation of the incredible accumulation of wealth and properties of the Binay families.
The EGP is made up of kids who live along the train railway in Tanuan, Batangas while before Jojo Binay was appointed Mayor of Makati following the ouster of Marcos was a struggling lawyer in that town and residing in a bungalow of what is known then as a low-cost housing subdivision of Makati.
The EGP boys have simple dreams: win the grand finals of AGT and the grand prize of $100,000.00. Attorney Binay’s legitimate ambition was to be Mayor. The EGP practiced day and night in some space beside the railway, Binay took to the streets as part of the Yellow Army that catapulted Cory Aquino to the Presidency. EGP won the Grand Title and the prize, Binay was handed in a silver platter the Mayorship of Makati.
We do not know as to where the honors and the distinctions bring the 13 members of El Gamma Penumbra. The money they won they said they will share with those who aspire to follow the path to their simple goal. The best news was that the Grand Marina Hotel of Singapore will keep them for a while to perform in its theater and I heard that they will go on a world tour courtesy of the sponsors of AGT. That is for the future and I personally wish that given their talent and creativity they will find other audiences worldwide and that they will earn not only for the upkeep of their cast but also for their future.
In the case of Mayor Jojo Binay, he knows his path to fame and success. The Yellow Army had seen to it that Cory’s revolutionary government will last until everyone has taken over the helms of local government and ran every functionary in the government bureaucracy. And they rooted deep and spread wide.
While they abhor family dynasty and etched this in the Cory constitution not a few of them quickly discovered that the way to fame and wealth was politics. Ergo the anti-dynasty provision in the constitutions was never ever supported with an implementing law. Thus, in Makati City, the City Mayor is a Binay, the representative is a Binay, a Senator is a Binay and to top it all the Vice President is a Binay.
Immediately after he was sworn in as VP Attorney Binay announced he will run for President. There is really nothing wrong with that for after all there are no prohibitions and this is a free country. So tuloy and ligaya. It happens everywhere and it is the people that decides.
The cast of El Gamma Penumbra have simple tastes and have simple dreams. The one thing that makes them stellar as victors is that their art goes beyond the ordinary. They lost in Pilipinas Got Talent because Ai Ai delas Alas and Kris Aquino who were judges during the finals failed to comprehend the import of their art.
They thought that talent is something which makes you laugh, that which entertains and anything that is beyond the superficial has no place in PGT. In Asia Got Talent the judges saw the greater value in faceless symphony and motion of shadows that is uniquely entertaining but so eloquent in delivering a message: save our mother earth from man’s vanity and destruction and to nurture whatever is left to save mankind from its own annihilation.
That is not what we see in today’s politics. It has become a major industry. The players mastered the art of pilferage. In the Senate as well as in the House of Representatives the so-called lawmakers are enmeshed in corruption. It is the modern version of Sodom and Gomorrah. You cannot plead with God to save it if there are a dozen who are true to the words they pledged to their constituents when they asked for their votes. The same is true with the palace by the river Pasig.
In a classic tomfoolery lawmakers assail each other and in the process display their dirty linens. If there is anything positive that came out of this mudslinging is the revelation that billions in bank deposits – in pesos and in dollars- said to be owned by the Binays and their dummies had been transacted.
The discovery of these staggering amounts is courtesy of AMLC. Binays children and lawyers hit back: The vice president is immune from suit. They will go to the Court of Appeals to lift the freeze order on their wealth and other assets. The political adversaries of VP Binay merely smirk, but the truth is, save for three in the Senate, they are no better and that if the law is applied equally to all they will all be consigned to where their colleagues, “si tanda, si guapo at si seksi” are presently languishing. It is pitiable how they scramble to keep their wealth intact.
What is strange here is that while the Vice President and his children deny the imputations they quickly ran to the CA to lift the freeze. That is too late now. Whether the CA will grant the prayers of the Binays, AMLC has already cracked open the virtual Pandora’s Box of the most powerful family in Makati. El Gamma Penumbra performed a magnificent art out of shadows and searing eloquence of silence. Binay for his part is now hounded by the shadows of his past. And there goes his presidential ambition. (Jerry Dureza – jerrydureza@yahoo.com)
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