The Poet Laureate

“The Poet Laureate” is my first college poem to my then school paper, The TIP Voice. As one can see how ambitious my thoughts were during younger years, and that those ambitions remain as it is—ambitions. But regret is overhyped! Always the one to justify emotional distaste is this regret that all of us have. Everyone could ever have their own adaptation of their dreams—modification to fit the specification of the present times. I am of the belief that writing, especially at this day and (digital) age doesn’t have to be a just a paying profession. Even at this everyday living, poetizing our daily battles isn’t yet a lost art. And what with this plethora of platform right at the skin of our teeth waiting for us to nab and strut our stuff to be what we always wanted to be. Well, this piece may not fit your grandiose design of what you used to see yourself growing up but sure enough everybody had their moments of doubt only to be trumped by their own desire to exist and to matter.

The Poet Laureate

I'm the Poet Laureate

Yes, I am

I make things, I make life

Like no other could

For I am an oasis of tranquility in this bustling world.

I'm the Poet Laureate

I'm indeed

Off pseudo greed

I cast a looming deed

I elapse nothing

things of wistful glance

I defy everything

I take my damnedest chance.

I'm the Poet Laureate

I'll always be

In this world of sarcasm

i have existed

Off broad chasms, and racial

discriminations

My pen is my soul, and

budding ammunition.

I'm the Poet Laureate

I ought to be

Amidst this tainting place

I try to drub

I stupefy no one and

Feed those gnostic minds

With no vapid notions

Off my repertoire's wit

I'm the Poet Laureate

I'm proud to be

I quaff my soulful words

and spit its piffling sorts

On through my somnambulate

I speak it all

Amidst this somber place

Pervade my thunderous call.

I'm the Poet Laureate

I'd rather be

Than being a brusque creature

Maligned by his rueful splinter

Unlike my rhetoric lips

Risen from dispute

For this bewildered world

I've made to exult.

FFUgay

Simply Jesse

How would you want the world to know what you have done on the last hours of your life? DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo might’ve just answered with such doggedness as he met untimely death on his way home.

I didn’t like the group of nuthuggers in the government right now more so because they echo the arrogance of Noynoy Aquino. I don’t even know if this bunch of morons ever played “Follow the Leader” game during childhood that they are making up for lost time now that they’re adults—always the ones to booty lick whatever brainless thought Boss Noynoy comes up with. On the countless moments I caught myself “palmfacing” in front of the TV screen from Noynoy’s cohorts’ silliness, Sec. Robredo is the lone bright spot among the pack of thieves. Ever self-effacing and modest, one would think if Sec. Robredo ever deserved to be in the company of moronic opportunists that thrive on their knack of self-promotion and self-destruction.

While most of these idiots from Noynoy’s cabinet would rather blow away these poor urban settlers (Di na ko gumamit ng term na squatter, kung ano man ibig sabihin nun mas bagay yun kay Mike Enriquez at sa mga tuta ni Noynoy sa gabinete nya), Sec. Robredo would rather amicably settle to look for ways not to harm them. But don’t mistake his approach as other half of a good cop-bad cop thing; his ways are his ways alone. Robredo always has his methods of integrating himself from the poor folks. While some of his peers in the government settle to buying pirated DVDs as means to be makamasa, the fallen Secretary would opt to live their lives be it at the slums or from the far-flung areas of his city—communicating with them, listening to their needs.

Am I doing this simply because Sec. Robredo is already dead? Hell, no! He deserved as much credit and appreciation from everybody’s political spectrum. Much as I regret that no way he’ll be able to know the outpour of love and grief of the nation, it hurts more that it aggravates the line between good governance and opportunism now that a catalyst of the former perished on the most unthinkable time. Perhaps, the secret ingredients of being the consummate public official that he possesses can now be found deep underwater on the plane wreckage and it seems it isn’t part of the things the search team was looking for. Breathing or otherwise, Sec. Robredo’s legacy is forever secured but doubtful to be duplicated. You can’t blame me from not thinking otherwise.

So much for the script of “only the good ones die young”, Sec. Robredo’s larger than life persona would be so much put into waste if with him dying, hopes of good governance which he himself revolutionized in his beloved Naga City and later on, carried through the nation at the helm of Interior and Local Government, will be curtailed for the same reason the high-flying Seneca I aircraft comes plummeting in the seas of political expediency.

The Draftee That Mattered to Me

Calvin Abueva, Baste’s Beast of a player made it as the second overall pick earlier at the PBA Annual Draft and that came as no surprise. Picked ahead of him is the Cebuano behemoth Junmar Fajardo who was already a shoo-in for the top spot leading to the D-Day as Petron couldn’t hide his giggles, kept on blabbing Fajardo’s imminent place in history as the tallest number one pick in the PBA like he wanted everybody else to do something about it. Duh? Basketball pundits in the social media can’t miss on the forecast as team owners/officials already decided publicly whom they would snatch from the bucket. Except perhaps a surprisingly seventh pick in Chris Tiu, who remains as the most accomplished draftee on the rookie draft. Also leading to the draft, Tiu is reportedly being eyed by Brgy Ginebra San Miguel (as it seems everybody else) coach Siot Tangquincen and in fact has all the opportunity to snatch the former King Blue Eagle. Well, Tiu eventually landed on a team that badly needs his talents and screaming groupies. One of the draft’s sidelights would’ve been, “Beauty (Tiu) and the Beast (Abueva) swap off” had it been Chris Tiu was drafted by Ginebra. “Alaska Aces trades Calvin Abueva for Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s Chris Tiu and IBILIB cameo appearance (I swear, this is a product of research).

Abueva, however, smacked the rest of the field like he would usually floor opposing players. His being a different kind of a beast warranted him five draft picks higher than Tiu, comparably the more gifted player and ahead of but one draftee of perhaps one of the best rookie class in recent decade. The way he plays, he seemed like a 6’3 version of Wilt Chamberlain. Oh yeah I haven’t watched any of Wilt’s on court (and off court) performance, but the stat beast they both were, is the focal point of the comparison given their insatiable hunger to pad up the stats (Abueva, on a regular basis in NCAA would normally get 20+ points 20+ rebounds around 15 assists and half a dozen karate chops). You can’t even associate effortless on an Abueva narrative, ‘cause it seems even just a simple dribble will be infused with power boost.

He’ll break into the limelight of PBA prominence for sure, like breaking the backboard of one arena that delayed an official NCAA game. He too, will break the backs of opposing players like the rugged band of thugs Robert Jaworski led in the late 80’s. With a wide gamut of what he can do on the court, nobody could ever tell what kind of Beast that shall step on the hardwood. He’ll piss you off on the defensive ala Ronald Tubid, he’ll barrel into whatever form of defense like a young Mark Caguioa and carom them rebounds like Eric Menk once did. Pang-Ginebra talaga eh! And brandwise, now that he’s picked by Alaska, I’m not so sure if Abueva is even a good product ambassador for his team (sa angas ng dating nya, hindi talaga siya mukhang umiinom ng gatas, pre!)

Hopeful as I may have, I know he wouldn’t land to Ginebra as some teams will be appalled and perhaps bemused with the intriguing impact he may bring to their teams. On a brief encounter with Abueva shortly after the Rookie Draft in a restaurant, I even told him my remorse he got picked first before Ginebra got a chance. He just shrugged at the thought, or maybe it hasn’t sunk on him yet.

Time and time again, we hear teams select players for the same reasons and arguably, this batch boasts just about an abundance of those. And time and time again, such folly of picking and sticking to those reasons became the mockery of sort as they scramble being passed around and never really lived up to potential. Just how many of these draftees of yesteryears’ “paper promise” did go for naught? The “Fil-Am” factor, the “Giant” factor, and even the “Boy Next Door” factor lorded it over the draft headlines for so many years now. While some stuck, most got lost to oblivion.

Then along came The Beast Abueva. Not your Fil-Am savior whose freakish brand of play dwarfs that of the homegrowns. Not your towering behemoth who will wreck havoc on the shaded lane and cause shivers down the spine of the opponents. And certainly not your Boy Next Door papa-ble who will drove screaming fans to the arena who completely have no idea about basketball. He had none of these attributes but for me he is what matters from these aspiring pros. Pure heart, pure hustle, and yeah, pure angas! He would never dazzle anyone with an assortment of moves but he’ll sure keep you on your toes waiting for him to either slam the ball or to slam himself to the sidelines. Mahihiya ang injury kay Abueva. Yes, the bias emanates from that devil-may-care attitude of him reminiscent of Robert Jaworski and it would’ve been only fitting had he landed to the team that matters to me. But none of that matters now. I can only hope that with his success in the pros that PBA can break the cycle of conventional choice on annual rookie draft. Giving credence more on that truism, “Got balls?”

* * *

PBA Twist

As commercial as every PBA team is, we can perhaps put on some twist to the ball clubs’ name. A merger with other products/ services, brands and subsidiaries, and even personalities is all it takes to add some pizzazz to their names. Now meet our new favorite teams:

Petron Gasulistas (Carrying their LPG subsidiary)
TNT Pasaloaders (with Jimmy Alapag, the king pasaloader)
BMEG Pallados ( Tie Up with PayPal)
Alaska Milkfish (Alaska and Century Tuna, who would’ve thought)
Meralco Bills Monsters (Halimaw talaga!) (Meralco and Jugno’s Monster Pizza)
Barako Bull Frog (Barako Bull and Le Frog Clothing teaming up)
Ginebra King Ina (Ginebra ang Mang Inasal is the perfect complement)
Bear 21 (Bear Brand and Air 21, medyo pilit lang)
Rain or Shine Elastimosa (Jojo Lastimosa taking over Yeng Guiao)
Global Port Batang May Laban (Newcomer Global Port and Bonakid in the house!)

We’re not complaining, we’re just bullying

Let me defend cyber bullying now on its highest of times when heroism is purely defined by this new age of nastiness equipped by the mere thought to persecute other people’s folly and an P800/month broadband stick. Rebel with a cause is dead. Cyber vigilante is now the toast of the town…

I cannot fathom why it always boils down to people, netizen in particular, being the offender of what was the viral “Traffic Bitchslapping” incident happened last August 11. It’s like Wolverine went berserker barrage against a timid Yogi Bear. I never heard of nor seen such fury against a person as meek and helpless as MMDA T/C Saturnino Fabros was. We all knew what happened (at least 26 seconds of it) on that day a certain Robert Carabuena decided to take matters on his own hands and transformed himself into a gamma-ray radiated nuts (Cue in The Avengers scene where Incredible Hulk knocked the hell out of Loki). In the aftermath of the incident came the uproar of what cyber bullies’ consider as the defining moment of their careers, seizing upon such chance to vent their ire on one facebook profile photo to another. A plethora of digitally-enhanced images of Carabuena came to the scene that for a short while went on to challenge that of Bieber’s and Pempengco’s. But such liberating stupor can only gratify many and still alienate a marginalized faction of the society of so-called online behavior experts.


This case is simple, it's a natural reaction for a display of arrogance obviously deemed by everybody as wrong!..wrong!!..wrong!!! Don’t drive at night drunk. Don’t drive at broad daylight drunk with power. Carabuena just simply brought it upon himself drawing this Habagat of indignation and yet some “experts” supposedly brought a different light to this mess—now thinking that Carabuena was also victim! What upsets me the most from reading these write-ups from the so-called experts on online behavior (sorry, but from this point on of this article I would really refuse to recognize them as such. Hence, the disclaimer) is the sudden twist that Carabuena is now a victim! Who on earth would now pit his life against such thought that Carabuena, after all we’ve seen and heard, is now our victim? Can’t anybody here define "OUTRAGE"? And what causes this to begin with? 


Whether it is purely a so-called intellectual exercise (masturbation?) to put in rhetoric the arguments of the other side of the fence, why put on the blame to these netizen who, for y'all lack of better terms, christened them cyber bullies for all it was worth? Didn’t you just call spade a spade? You complained about this fat-ass shenanigan being linked to the most dreadful, ignominious of character on worldwide web yet these so-called experts failed to rationalize that probably we’re more charitable still in just putting on some creativity (memes, gifs, photoshop-manipulated images ) as our way of condemning such despicable act. Being objective is one thing. Being an idiot trying to embarrass one’s self from substantiating a shallow argument is another.


So-called experts say we don’t know who the hell this guy is to pass judgment on him. While it is true that we don’t know much about him, we don’t have to to begin with. That’s not the whole point of rage. The netizen would have reacted the same way if somebody a regular Juan Dela Cruz did that without the prejudices of physical deformities. You live here in this beloved country where oppression is a staple. It’s not about getting used to it. It’s about defying it. And with the collective thinking that an opportunity like this fall in your lap once in a while (videotaped and all that), who are we not to take advantage of it? And didn’t he (Mr. Carbs) just fit the bill of an oppressive bourgeois-looking mad man and, the comicbook superhero in us all of a sudden snapped from our sanity?


Looking at Officer Fabros, who deserves all the hero recognition and a fair share of the sentimental donation, kept his cool amid the furious storm that is brought upon by this Yosi executive, whose assistant also on the video (my guess) has the nerve to thwart Fabros as if he was the one on rage mode. 


We’re not operating under such “Holier than thou” code but at the very least we’re helping shatter some self-righteous misguided confidence and arrogance for that matter. Trying to impress us with these so-called experts scientific approach of an analysis that maybe, just maybe, Carabuena was a victim as well from the horde of censure he received from the cyber-public does not extinguish the flame; if anything, it only fanned it. Call bully a bully whatever you want but I would never oppress someone with 8k/month salary and 6 mouths to feed while trans gendering from Daddy to Mommy duties.


My last piece of thought is this: Think of all the unimaginable things that Carabuena and Fabros probably did earlier that wasn't caught on cam (you may allude to some misgivings that, “Yeah, probably the MMDA officer blew the shit out of Mr. Carbs”). Rehearse, rehash, and relive if you can what they did then go back to me. Was it really a justified rage what Carabuena did? Was the Super Saiyan mode one Majin Boo has exploded into warranted? Call me bully all your life but a piece of this smug is all it takes to make up for that.


If we demand that Mr, Carbs lose his job and so what? The poor MMDA officer just lost his face. Undeservingly so, he’ll be humiliated all throughout his life by anyone who would google search for video with a keyword: bitchslap. Mr. Carbs though will just be one of the many offenders who will come and go, who will disregard order and be smug about it. Who will draw the ire of the public again, and on a circular dynamics of the society, some so-called experts will come to their defense once again. 


So bullies of the world unite! Defend the oppressed and the have-nots wielding our satirical sense of humor and our innate talent to humiliate other people by expounding their deformities (much as we also have one a many.)


 Bullying for a cause is not a bad idea either.