Noynoy at Manila Hotel ‘s Mabuhay Palace

“In our lives, we have…
3 Ls to keep –
Love, Life, Lord
3 Ts to control –
Tongue Temper, Temptation
3 Hs to have –
Honesty, Hardwork, Health
3 Bs to watch –
Beauty, Behavior, Bravery,
3 As to avoid-
Anger, Arrogance, Abuse.”

--Chito Bertol

Our group of women journalists and columnist and friends have been lucky in getting most of the newsmakers to break bread with us at our weekly forum, “Bulong Pulungan” at the Sofitel. They have candidly shared their views with us and we have mined a lot of info from them whether they be from political circles, medical experts, beauty counselors, NGO leaders, local officials, etc.

Sometimes, we veer away from our weekly lunches for more intimate dinners, but always with the same agenda – get the news straight from the newsmakers. And so when the most eligible bachelor in the country, who just so happens to be the leading presidential candidate, Senator Noynoy Aquino, graciously gave the go-signal for a dinner with  women columnists, we dropped everything to contact those concerned. They who came wanted it straight from him- his views, his plans, his platform of governance, his love life, etc.

I sat at the second table and left the field open to my colleagues –  Bulletin’s Jullie Daza, Chay Santiago of Mod,  Rina David, Thelma San Juan and Mandy Navasero of Inquirer, Joanne Ramirez and Domini Torrevillas of Star, (who had started the whole dinner idea). The senator, dapper in a dark blue suit with a yellow “Ninoy “ tie, was with Romy Mercado, his buddy and classmate from their Ateneo years. We also invited Mayor Fred Lim, whom we invited as an “honorary “ Bulong member and a known  staunch supporter of the senator. Mayor Lim, incidentally, has commissioned Ed Castrillo to do a bronze statue of Tita Cory to be installed on her birthday on Jan. 25 at the Rizal Park beside that of Senator Ninoy. 

I had the help of two old friends, businessmen Danny Sayarot and Henry Chua, Joel Ramos and my daughter Sandee in planning the dinner as well as the culinary collaboration of the Manila Hotel’s Mabuhay Chinese’s restaurant chef, the  creative Joie  Candelaria and  Mai Mislang from the senator’s office.

Among the tidbits from that dinner- Noynoy is allergic to alcohol (so that urban legend of him being a late sleeper because he gets drunk up to the wee hours is dead, dakut!) he takes a regular Coke with his meals, and he is not a picky eater but stays away from chicken, pigeon or duck!

He also still has a bullet on his left neck below the ear from the bloodiest coup attempt by the RAM in l989 where three of his guards died. He was operated on by a team of surgeons at the PSG hospital across the Pasig from the Palace but the bullet lodged in a very delicate part of the body and has remained there since then. Ask one of his doctors, anesthesiologist Dr. Conrado Carnero of the UDMC about that surgery. It is still very vivid in Dr. Carnero’s mind how that bullet almost caused the life of then President Cory’s only son.

Anyway, suffice it to say that it was a light and happy mood throughout the evening with lots of “photo ops” and teasing about  Shalani or Lani. Till next time, ladies chorused! And a visibly relaxed presidentiable murmured “Sure, as soon as my schedule eases up.”

* * * *        

Who among the current crop of vice-presidential candidates has the vision to uplift our education system and bring about the Philippines’ own period of competitiveness? While  Loren talks about the environment, Mar shines on economic and nationalistic issues, Bayani pushes implementation of laws and Jojo Binay on local governance, to his avid supporters,  among the vice-presidentiables, Edu Manzano of Lakas-KAMPI CMD , although underrated, may have  the vision and political will to make competitiveness in the global race to  happen.

Admittedly, some people are still unsure about his credentials. “Actor lang,” is the common putdown I hear. But it bears pointing out that Manzano isn’t just an actor. 

While Vice Mayor of Makati, this La Sallian and ex -military pilot was also chosen by his peers as President of both the Vice Mayor’s League and the Vice Mayor’s Foundation. Then, as Chairman of the Optical Media Board, Manzano clamped-down on video, music and software counterfeiters through a series of highly effective raids.

His efforts in the OMB earned him the first Asia-Pacific Copyright Enforcer of the Year award in 2006 from the Motion Picture Association International (MPAI), edging out other copyright enforcers form the international community.

He believes our country’s global competitiveness rests on education, something that goes far beyond increasing the salaries of teachers. It also involves finding more innovative ways to teach students, motivating these teachers to give more of themselves to achieve their goals mentors of our youth, and enhancing the physical structures for instruction.

What voters should look for is the vision and capability of the candidate to keep up with the times. It may not be immediately obvious, but Manzano’s efforts as a public servant have in their own ways, raised the competitiveness of our nation.

Edu proposes a program whereby scholarships will be extended to the so-called ordinary or “average” students, on the basis of need rather than on academic excellence. He argues that those intellectually gifted students already enjoy an advantage over their other, more numerous classmates from poor families. Hence, according to him, some form of scholarship grants and financial support should be extended to the latter.

This is a progressive stance and Manzano believes that one of those “average” students may turn out to be our country’s version of a Steve Jobs or a Bill Gates!