Like the festive, feasting month of the mythical Greek god Poseidon, December could be a time of quiet celebration of the end or the beginning of something, good or bad. Manage your expectations. As the classic Charles Dickens warned, don’t be fooled by how things look but judge by evidence. Appearance is not reality. Wait for January when, as a poet wrote, time catches its tail.
The news– history in the making– in town are excitable about possibilities and myths.
One possibility, for instance, is that the popular Pastor Apollo Quiboloy , not a Greek god as his namesake, is like all men, mortal, vulnerable and flawed. At one time, though, he displayed some kind of power to close down a popular TV show. It did happen, along with its home network.
His power, or whatever passes for it, has limits. Recently,the United States government has begun to cut him down to his non-god real size. Extradition, like reckoning, is coming and is as sure as day follows night or vice versa, per the secretary of justice. Reality check :There is such treaty between the US and the Philippines, says Jesus Crispin Remulla, and he’s just waiting for the ax to fall. If that happens, which Murphy’s Law says it will, the human shepherd may have to change career. It is said that he could give Stephen Curry a run for his money with his shooting , basketball that is, ability.
The cat is out of the bag: his sins are many and many long for the day of justice, for those who believe in him, like an ex-president and an ex-prison king with his own kingdom. On the other hand, there are just as many who can’t wait for the day of judgment.
Of course, not guilty as charged or as alleged – the usual route or those who find themselves at the end of the proverbial cul de sac.
Another possibility is that the ex-prison king will be able to regain his lost domain but be caged in it, despite him waiving an innocent claim , or his stained hand like a sure-winner in a beauty pageant. Irony in the land of the paradox where the law is made to stand on its head. The ex-president, by the way, is mum about the soon-to-be ex-reverend and the ex-prison king. Misery loves company or birds of the same flock feather together, as the cynic joke goes.
A third possibility, a comedian will find that the prospect of spending 62 years in jail is not funny at all. May be it is in the silver screen. Even funnier, certainly more tragic, is that those who have been found to have stolen more gold or their equivalent from the government, remain free and even become wealthier, president or senator as the case may be. The comedian has run the full circle of what Karl Max theory on history as a tragedy first then as a farce later.
A criminal about to be executed was once asked about his fate. “ I have learned my lesson”, he replied. in a TV game show, that may be a good answer, even a winner but not in real life where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. The comedian may develop a similar line to break the big fall resulting from the Sandiganbayan’s decision finding his hand in the public coffer.
Until the creation of a sovereign wealth fund became known, most everybody felt we were poor. We’re not. The proposed Maharlika Wealth Fund is proof. We just have to be creative with what we have to bring in the dough. By the book, it is supposed to be the richer nation who are can do it, through their surplus or excess money.
We don’t have that, according to former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio. We are not wallowing in wealth, he says, we’re wallowing in debt. Forget his metaphor, he just wants the truth out.. Other voices have chimed in: corruption is big business in the Philippines and investors, foreign and domestic, may have second thoughts about buying into the idea of a sovereign wealth fund Pinoy-version.
The second Marcos president , however, has made up his mind; the fund, already overhauled with him already out as president of the board, is a go. It cannot fail because it is his brainchild. Also, because its royal name dates back to his dictator-father’s time. There should be no turning back to the legendary golden years when life was so good and rice was cheap it could not have possibly not have happened.
To his credit, the president is a congenital optimist. He thinks the Philippines will not go into recession. His optimistic mindset reflect that of his people, that the coming year will be better, despite or because of the rising fuel and food prices along with inflation. It’s also physics: what goes up must come down. Or politics.
Then there is China’s trick or threat. We are her neighbor, according to a Chinese official as their ships continue to grow in number in the West Philippine Sea which an international court has ruled as ours. China had better clarify what she meant with ‘neighbor’.
In the meantime, former Sen. Leila de Lima may continue to sing “I”ll be home for Christmas” with the same optimism as most of her countrymen, including PBBM, exude. But PBBM has vowed that he will not interfere in her case, so forget the idea. Let’s wait how the tail wags the dog when the first month of 2023 begins. After all, we are a nation in waiting for the longest time for the better things to happen, especially on Christmas.
