bewitched, bothered and bewildered

the soft buzzing of my antique sony ericsson mobile phone woke me up. instinctively, with eyes still closed and my brain and whole body still asleep, i reached out for it at the top of the tiny table beside the bed. barely opening my eyes, i clicked on the small icon (a photo of a closed envelope) to open the message, still wondering what time it was.
"don't worry about us. we are fine." it was my younger sister. last night, i sent her a message telling her to leave their bungalow house and stay in a hotel for a night or two just to be safe from the floods that could be triggered by the strongest typhoon to ever hit the earth. sadly, my hometown and parts of the visayas region will be directly hit by the raging storm. i said, never mind the appliances, furniture, what is important is you and your family are safe. those things can be replaced.

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a few hours later, i was at the hotel's restaurant, famous for its tasty and wide variety of food and dishes from all over the world, for breakfast. interestingly, the restaurant was closed for several months years ago when it was destroyed by flood caused by a strong typhoon that hammered manille and the neighboring places in luzon. that thought only caused me to worry some more. needless to say, i lost my appetite. still, i managed to finish two cups of cappuccino, two glasses of mango juice, dim sum, omelette, bread, fried rice, and fruits. talk about not having the appetite.
(in case you are wondering why i was in a hotel when my funds are running low, it was courtesy of my generous friend who wanted me to de-stress even just for a day. i did not spend a single centavo. i must have done something good in my past life to have been gifted with generous friends like her.)

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back at the room, i opened the teevee and watched the live telecast of the senate blue ribbon committee's hearing of the pork barrel scandal with no less than the alleged mastermind, "businesswoman" janet lim napoles, wife of a low-ranking former military man (i always wonder why he was not a co-accused to whatever cases she was facing).
as everyone now knows, napoles supposedly amassed huge amounts of cash (in billions of pesos if the news stories were true) by putting up ghost non-government organizations and soliciting funds from lawmakers to fund  infrastructure projects that would be implemented by these non-existent ngos. in return for their kindness, the lawmakers reportedly received up to fifty percent of the value of the projects as commissions or kickbacks, while napoles got about twenty-thirty percent. this racket has been going on for years that the magnitude of the amount involved was mind-boggling!

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but instead of getting a better picture of how the scam worked, some explanations and elaborations, as well as the identities of those who were involved in the scheme that siphoned off billions of pesos from the public treasury that's perennially on a deficit, all the senators, the people at the gallery and the televiewers got were denials from the so-called queen of pork: "i invoke my right against self-incrimination" and "i don't know" were all she said.
even when she was reminded that she could face more cases for lying under oath, napoles was unperturbed and stuck to her line. "i don't know."
even when a feisty senator warned napoles that her enemies might kill her if she remained mum about the whole thing, she remained tight-lipped. (please click here to read more about senator defensor santiago's sometimes comic grilling of napoles that elicited laughters even from napoles herself, the senators and the whistle blowers at the hearing. the teevee cameras caught dashing first time senator sonny angara, who was seated a few seats away from santiago, smiling.)

some senators even invoked god (napoles was a religious woman and has charitable projects supporting the church, as well as a foundation that helps feed the poor and extends cash and other donations to some priests), while others appealed to her sense of nationalism. but all failed.
the whole thing was a total waste of taxpayers' time and especially money. it was surreal and indeed a pitiful sight to see the supposedly intelligent, educated and powerful senators reduced to helplessness and exasperation as they tried whatever tricks they could come up with out of their magic hats to make the street smart napoles, who did not finish college, talk.
exasperated, some of the senators vented out their anger and frustrations by talking to the media later on.(please click here to read about the reaction of some senators to the hearing that was supposed to be in aid of legislation. though it was also not known exactly what kind of legislation the lawmakers wanted to craft from the hearings.)

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strangely, a part of me was glad that napoles stood her ground and defied the senators. given the series of scandals that rocked congress recently (from plagiarism, to wasting taxpayers money by receiving millions in christmas bonuses, to corrupting the pork barrel funds), it is about time that the lawmakers realize that not everyone will kowtow to their whims and wishes. it's about time they realize that by doing those alleged bastardly deeds, they are losing or have lost the people's respect.
a lot of citizens are even calling for their abolition to save government money, eradicate corruption, prevent clueless actors and celebrities from being voted into high office only to end up doing nothing or doing something illegal, and restore order in the country.

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the riveting scandal has indeed held the whole country bewitched, bothered and bewildered. people from all walks of life are talking about it.

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having said this, don't you ever wonder what this arrogant (some say uncouth) news reader would say if he was the one grilling napoles at the senate. would he ever repeat his now infamous lines? "panira ka lang ng araw." "wala naman akong napala sa yo."  "tatawa-tawa ka pa."
for those who are clueless of what i am talking about, please click here.

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at noon, we checked out of the hotel. i went straight to a run-down mall in manille -- the one where there are a lot of garbage right next to it, where the narrow streets in front and beside it are decorated with potholes, where a lot of beggars (kids especially) right outside of it will chase you and then curse you if you give them only coins, where some hangers on (inside and outside of the mall) will ask if you want to buy pirated dvds --  to get some groceries.
on my way to the flat, i passed by a group of tricycle drivers seated on a side street listening to the live broadcast of the ongoing senate hearing with napoles as guest over a small radio.
they were all silent, their ears glued to the radio. then some of them would shout "sinungaling ang putang inang yan (the bitch is lying)!" for all the world to hear. i wanted to join them, even ask them what they thought of the whole fiasco, but i was too tired already from all these scandals, corruption, that i just wanted to go home and cook my favourite paksiw na tuna and chicken adobo for dinner.
yes, for a while now, i have been avoiding pork adobo because any pork dish only reminds me of the misused pork barrel funds, enough to turn my stomach in and out. no chos!

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at home, after cooking, while nervously searching the internet for any news about the super typhoon yolanda and texting my sister if she is sure they are alright, my friend called asking me if i wanted to join her for dinner at her family's ancestral home somewhere near the city of the stars. since i wanted to be distracted from getting paranoid about the typhoon, and to simmer down after getting riled up by the senate enquiry on napoles, i said yes right away.
so off we headed to mandaluyong in her car. it was a breezy ride, with not much traffic. maybe everybody chose to stay at home for fear of being caught outside when the typhoon landed, or they were still in their offices working late, or in coffee shops and bars talking about napoles and how things could have been different if the three senators accused of pocketing billions of money from the scam were around. will napoles be forced to finally speak? will she even have the guts to show up and face them in their turf?

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amid all these worries, concerns and negativity, i should stress that i had fun at my friend's home.

the dinner, cooked with so much love and spiced with care by my friend's mother for her only son's (my friend's kid brother) birthday, was delectable. the dishes were all my favourites, especially the pansit, fried chicken and the longganisa. then after dinner, we had a jamming session. the brother and sister sang, played the guitar and drums to entertain us, their guests.

so there we were -- a family joined by love, a passion for food and music, celebrating another milestone even if at the back of our minds we were worried about the coming super storm, which was coming at a time when we were still in the midst of another destructive but man-made calamity, the pork barrel scam.
as i was watching my friend flawlessly sang alanis morisette's "ironic", i was silently praying -- god please have mercy and help us all." then i added: "thank you for bringing my beautiful friend and her lovely, generous family to my life."

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(all pics were taken from different websites, except the birthday photos that were taken from a friend's facebook posts. no copyright infringements intended!)