God, save us from “Senator” Manny Pacquiao

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

A presidential poll survey conducted by Manila Standard Today (MST) last May 8 to 18 said that Vice President Jejomar Binay plunged to 28% points while Senator Grace Poe breathes at the back of his neck like an albatross with 24% points

World Boxing Icon Manny Pacquiao

Davao City Mayor Rod Duterte and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada were far below with 10% points each.

I don’t know how scientific this 1,200 respondents fairly spread all over the country based on  status of works, ages, to name a few of the country’s demography as polled by veteran pollster Junie Laylo - an in-house surveyor of   MST, but if the next poll conducted by the Social Weather Station and Pulse Asia had covered June 2 to 5 media’s hullaballoo that Poe, a foundling, has been left as an infant inside the Jaro Cathedral in Jaro, Iloilo (psst our ancestral home is just at the back of the church, teh-heh!) by her poor parent to be picked by the daughter of an illustrative family named Jalandoni, gee whiz I bet, Grace poll’s stocks would eclipse those of Binay and dusted off those sorry presidential wannabees trying their best to boost their polls rating.

Filipinos love those with sorry stories like the one Mary Grace Poe had.

The survey also tells that if either one of all the putative presidential rivals of Poe withdrawS they would vote for the lady senator.

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Oh, the survey also polled who lands on the Top 12 of the senatorial race in the 2016 polls.

Sad to tell you folks that “si “Push mo iyan ‘teh” former Pangasinan Congresswoman Rachel Arenas, did not make it. If Arenas, who I met at Davao City’s airport last week, was excluded, Sarangani Congressman Manny Pacquiao, known for his patent and scandalous absences in the August Chamber every time it has a session, became shoo-in.

Geez, the guy, known as mambubutas ng upu-an sa Congress (a dead wood congressman), has not yet started to spend in the hustling his U.S $160 million or P7 billion (inclusive of taxes and shares of his team) took on his ho-hum mega fight with boxing king Floyd Mayweather.

I felt sad this clown Pacquiao inclusion for the Magic 12 as his presence would have been an insult to brilliant Senate members that awed Filipinos once a upon a time. 
Names like Jovito Salonga, Claro M. Recto, Arturo Tolentino, Rene Saguisag, and others made us stand tall whenever we remembered how they deliberate on proposed laws on the hallowed halls of the August Chamber. Present breed like Alan Peter Cayetano, Chiz Escudero, Merriam Defensor-Santiago make us stout hearted every time they cross examined their devious resource persons thinking at least taxpayers monies did not go to drain in paying the salaries and emoluments of these solons.

But it saddened me to think how the hell Filipinos voted "simpletons" like Lito Lapid, Abigail Binay, the father and son Revillas, Tito Sotto and now Manny Pacquiao.

Here’s Saguisag, in his letter to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, who reminded Pacquiao that a congressional post means serious work and should not be taken lightly.

He added that if Pacquiao is serious about running for the Senate and even the presidency, then he should retire immediately and do his homework.

''If so, he should retire now from the 'Manly Art of Modified Murder on Instalment Plan' and start studying,'' said Saguisag. ''We do not underrate his capacity for subjective growth. He should read the Constitution now and confirm that he cannot run for president until 2022, when he will have met the age requirement.''

Saguisag added that the fighting congressman should accept his limitations. He pointed out that Pacquiao fared badly as a PBA playing coach.

Oh the honorable ex Senator Saquisag forget to say, Pacquiao should accept too his limitation to be a professional singer. For Christ sake, he sings like showman Willie Revillame and a wailing  streed dog overran by a jeep in Quiapo.

“What happened to our country general?” to paraphrase former Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez who posed to then PC General Tomas Karingal, when the vice president was ambushed in July 1982.

What happened to us Filipinos why we kept electing senators with pathetic intellectual calibre like that of Pacquiao? The position is not for a stand up comedian at a bar in Libis, Quezon City but a revered position where the future of this unfortunate country relies.

God, please protect us from “Senator” Manny Pacquiao!”

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Has mudslinging started already in Pangasinan town Sta. Barbara?

A broadcaster of this town, under the call and beck of Vice Mayor Emmanuel Cabangon, has been attacking Mayor Carlito Zaplan. 
The broadcaster exhorted the voters there to vote Cabangon instead of Zaplan in the 2016 mayoralty poll.

He said Sta. Barbara has long been ailing and it needs Cabangon, a medical doctor, to cure her.

“Babangon ang Sta. Barbara kay Dr. Em Cabangon,” exclaimed by Jerry Cambay at DWPR-Power Radio, a pet peeve of Zaplan since the time Cambay lent his service to Cabangon’s brother in-law former police general and the town ex-Mayor Rey Velasco.

The jabs of Cambay did not set well with the mayor.

Zaplan told me Dr. Cabangon should be the one to be cured. Zaplan asked Cabangon to explain where he spent the countryside development fund (CDF) that cost hundreds of thousands of pesos the mayor gives him every year.

“Mag re-resign ako as mayor pag maituro ng kahit ninuman na nakapag patayo ng isang poste ng basketball ring si Vice Mayor Cabangon,” the mayor dared.

Cambay disagreed that Cabangon has been a do-nothing vice mayor. He said the projects of Cabangon were circumcision and doling out medicines to the poor.

But a source, who asked anonymity, said Cabangon was in a hurry to withdraw the cash equivalent of his CDF even if it is not yet approved by the mayor.

Zaplan said he warned his village chiefs not to accept and sign those projects the vice mayor presented to them.

“Baka madamay kayo sa kaso,” he warned them.

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)