in the extremes

Last week, I couldn’t have been any prouder. There we were, celebrating Cory Aquino, who’s moral compass showed us and the world that prayers and flowers can face tanks and fully armed military men and topple a dictator. It was called People Power. A few years after that, other countries followed suit, using this peaceful uprising called People Power to bring change.

Today, I feel a bit embarrassed (and outraged). And it’s all because of Gloria Macapagal Ayoko. I’ll admit it, I voted her. She was different then. Now, I can’t even say anything “nice” or “clean” about her. It even feels weird (offensive?) saying, nay writing, her name and the words “nice” and/or “clean” all in the same sentence.

As we all know, she went to the US. Then, Cory died. So she and her entourage went to Le Cirque to have a simple dinner. No big deal, right? Except this restaurant is the watering hole for the rich and famous, and that their dinner costs US$20,000, or roughly Php950,000.

No matter how unpopular or corrupt a president might be, when she goes out on a foreign trip, she carries the colors of her country, much like a national sports team marching with pride with its country’s colors on the opening day of the Olympics.

-The Manila Mail

With the world in financial trouble, and with millions of hungry fellow Filipinos mourning the death of a beloved former president, as a public official, the head of the state no less, that was very inappropriate. I expected even a bit of delicadeza.

The rapacious little Ayoko must be very proud of herself. She even made it to New York Post’s Page Six.

That money could have helped so many people. What were you thinking?! What would the great Diosdado Macapagal say? Tsk! Tsk!

And here’s something that’ll kick you in the nuts. Sen. Lito Lapid said he might as well have stayed home. With no photo op with US President Obama, he apparently found the service terrible and was not impressed.