Former President Joseph Estrada has decided to run for president himself – after giving up hope of uniting the opposition… behind him.

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Reason to be glad, apres Onyog: That Manila has LRT and MRT, not a subway system.

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It’s frightening that with less than a year to elections, government officials and GOCCs trip over each other to push megabuck projects. A diplomatic reporter said it’s make or break for them – six years as senator or 16 years in jail.

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If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it dept. The sun rises and the sun sets without a bother to counting its rays.

But now the bicameral conference approved adding a 9th ray to the sun in RP flag to represent the Muslim people.

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The flag’s current 8-ray sun represents the eight provinces that first rose in rebellion against Spanish colonial rule in 1896 – Manila, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Bataan, Laguna, and Batangas.

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Senator Richard Gordon, author of the 9th Ray Bill, defended the alteration to RP flag as a big step toward “reuniting the country.”

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In chorus were Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Representatives Del de Guzman, chairman of the House panel, Ma. Carissa Coscoluella, Salvador Escudero III, and Roman Romulo. SB Nr 3307 and HB Nr 6424 proposed the amendments to the Flag and Heraldic Code.

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Are we overdoing it? Remember that after shedding a tear, Sen. Richard Gordon wanted amnesty for Abu Sayyyaf? To bait fish withal! The headless turning the other cheek?

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Make that 10 rays… Cebu will demand its own ray. After all, Lapu-Lapu was first to fight the invaders.

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Won’t Muslims prefer one of the three stars converted into crescent?

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Did someone add up the bill for replacing all the heraldic signs (flags, coat of arms, etc.) in government (Malacañang, Senate, Congress, schools, hospitals, all offices including embassies and consulates abroad, provinces, cities, towns, municipalities, barangays…)?

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…Not to mention stationery and government forms? Instead of symbolism, could the money be better spent in substantive projects for our Muslim compatriots?

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In any case, this needs a plebiscite.

Let’s make haste slowly... beginning with reading history and consulting the National Historical Institute.

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Foreign news. Caesar’s dead. Not slain by senators, but by business slump. The Tijuana restaurant that invented Caesar’s salad has closed, tossed by slump in US visitors because of crime, drug violence and the swine flu.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats can now form a new center-right government with the pro-business Free Democrats.  She ends a “grand coalition” with strange befellows Social Democrats and can pursue the kind of liberalizing economic plans she promised four years ago. Feedback: jaz@mb.com.ph