FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio

“THE DAMAGE WAS ALREADY DONE”

When lousy comedian Joan Rivers labeled all Filipinos as dog-eaters, I wrote a warning to her and her daughter Melinda in my old column, For Your Eyes Only, published by another paper not to travel to the Philippines because they might be mistaken for dogs and be eaten by the people. I believe Joan Rivers later on took a series of cosmetic surgeries on her face but still failed to change her distinguishing canine looks.

When “loonie” Howard Stern, a monster-looking buffoon, tagged all Filipino fathers to be selling their daughters for money, I made another quip clearly described as a joke in the same column(this column is being used by an Internet website called High Beam Encyclopedia) saying Stern as a Jew may be a good excuse for the Holocaust. I was criticized by some readers as a bigot. In a battle of ethnic jokes or sensitivities, let the weak withdraw and stop their crazy antics.

This time, the television network ABC tolerated the producers of “Desperate Housewives” to stigmatize all medical schools in the Philippines as unreliable in a line used by the show's leading character, actress Teri Hatcher, whose roots can be traced back to a God-forsaken place in India. It was not a joke but a serious conversation piece watched by millions of television viewers.
After a barrage of complaints lodged before the television station demanding an apology, well, ABC Network did apologize. But as one Filipino American doctor said, “the damage was already done.”

This is now my wild recommendation: If any of the people connected with the production of “Desperate Housewives,” particularly the Chairman and CEO of ABC and the producers get sick in the Philippines, they should be immediately deported back to their countries of origin sans any medical treatment in order to prevent an epidemic among the Filipino people.

ABALOS RESIGNS

Benjamin Abalos, was reported to have resigned his post as Chairman of the Philippine Commission on Elections, a constitutional body designed to conduct elections and proclaim the winners. This development came up as an offshoot of the Senate's inquiry into an anomalous business contract between Chinese and Filipino government officials called the ZTE National Broadband Deal where Abalos has been accused of brokering and bribing. Because of the testimonies of two men, Joey De Venecia who is the son of Philippine Speaker of the House of Representatives and Romulo Neri who is a close aide and confidante of de facto Philippine president Gloria Arroyo, impeachment proceedings in Congress and criminal suits before a court of law have been launched against Abalos for the crime of bribery and graft and corruption.

If it's true that Abalos indeed officially resigned as he announced to the media, then I may say that he is an honorable man. If he just took a leave of absence scheduled to expire on the day of his retirement next year, then he is a congenital criminal and should be prosecuted to the hilt.

Here's a good question: How come the de facto president of the Philippines is still glued to her stolen presidential chair despite more than two testimonies that she has committed plunder, graft and corruption, electoral fraud and other high crimes? Possible answer: Because of 300 years of abusive Spanish colonial rule, Filipinos can become insensitive to abuses of government officials as long as they still manage to survive on garbage and left-overs for food. When they reach their saturation point, a slight spark can ignite a holocaust.

End
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