ANGEL THOUGHTS

The True Religion;
At Home, it’s Kindness.
In Business, it’s Honesty.
In Society, it’s Courtesy.
In Work, it’s Thoroughness.
In Play, it’s Fairness.
Towards the Fortunate, it’s Congratulations.
Toward the Weak, it’s help.
Toward Wickedness, it’s Forgiveness
Toward God, it’s Reverence, Love and Obedience.”
Chuchi de Vega

As we approach Holy Week, the political scene is beginning to resemble a “ Cenaculo” especially with mud-slinging and wild and furious accusations of deceit, treachery, lies and back-stabbing.

Who are the Judases in our midst? Let’s not point fingers at other people. One of the fingers will always point at us!

Let’s just focus on Jesus Christ so we don’t get lost on our journey. Why not join the Mission Angels of Fr. Jerry Orbos in their annual Palm Sunday recollection at the Meralco Theatre from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m on Sunday, April 5? The sharers include Bobby Joseph, chairman emeritus of the NITAS, Merle Afferes of the MSA Tutorial Center, and Boots Macusi, mother of three hemophiliacs. Inspirational songs will be performed by Christopher de Leon and the Oasis of Love Music Ministry, Cocoy Laurel and Friends, The Angelos, and the Kerygma 5. It’s free and Mass will be at 11 a.m. and the whole recollection will be broadcast live on NBN 4.

In the meantime, speaking of journeys, local tourism is at its peak these days of warm weather, sunshine and school vacation! Of course April has brought showers, but it’s still the best time to travel locally.

Think Tagaytay and save on fuel especially now that the SLEX is nearing completion and the traffic is more free-flowing except in the Alabang area. As you know my second home is on the ridge and I make it a point to go up for weekends to de-stress, re-energize and re-charge!

Mayor Bambol Tolentino is doing an excellent job in trying to keep the ridge city a “nature garden” but… perhaps zoning has to be strictly imposed and we just hope he can keep the number of high –rise developments down. As it is, there are several eyesores already and over-commercialization is already around the corner.

My favorite eating place in Tagaytay aside from my veranda in Bella Vista is the Taal Vista Hotel. This historic hotel has undergone major renovation and has a brand-new wing which happily kept the Tudor-style look. It also has the most fabulous view of the volcano-lake and on Friday nights, you can have excellent Japanese buffet at the Magnolia room. On weekends I enjoy their buffet spreads either on the outdoor garden or at the Magnolia. When their cafe finished, the lunch and dinner buffets will again be moved there. Check out their bullalo soup and my to-die-for “Eruption” chocolate dessert.

And please, an appeal to lowlanders and tourists coming up to enjoy my favorite city, let’s keep Tagaytay clean and billboard-free!

On the other hand, on the national scene, Senator Manny Villar is consistently a frontrunner in the 2010 presidential race as reflected in surveys, but the question that baffles his rivals is- why has he been blessed by high ratings?

Could it be because he can now travel around the country, free as he is of the demands of the senate presidency? Or that he is widely perceived as possessing the qualities of a good leader having climbed from the pits of poverty to the heights of business and political success? Could it be due to his public persona as self-effacing, approachable and helpful? Or is he just lucky despite the efforts of some to link him to a “double insertion” in the budget which does not exist?

Take note, Villar, who grew up in the poor man’s Tondo, is not a confrontational person. He’s a peacemaker, so this makes other aspirants for the presidency uncomfortable with Villar’s good standing in the public mind.

His rivals through their PR handlers have been trying to do a “demolition job” on him as they also plotted Villar’s unseating as Senate President. Ironically, that coup, designed to pull his high acceptance rating down, didn’t work at all.

The way Villar accepted the new power configuration in the Senate clearly manifested his gentlemanly character. No fuss, no rancor or tantrums!

His low spending record in the Senate also suggests that he is cost-efficient in the performance of his legislative duties. This is exceptional in a political culture that encourages profligacy! And, I just realized, after a lazy breakfast chat that extended to an early lunch with him and wife Cynthia and only daughter Camille in their penthouse home in Fort Bonifacio,that he is an environmentalist although he does not trumpet it!

Over the several decades of his real estate business, Manny has planted, literally, a million trees and still counting! He is the creative force behind the landscaping and home designs of his land developments ever since he started with pretty low-cost homes.

Having grown up in dirt-poor surroundings in Tondo, his first years in sprawling UP Diliman with his old trees and wide open spaces made him a nature devotee. And thank goodness, the campus had that impact on him because every Villar subdivision has a garden atmosphere with lots of trees! Look at Manny’s favorite development, The Crosswinds in Tagaytay with over 20,000 pine trees!

His bills have a distinct social focus and beneficiaries are farmers, urban workers, the physically-handicapped, and the budding entrepreneurs and overseas Filipino workers. Closest to his heart are the OFWs, especially the victims of abusive employers. A number of times, he has gone out of his way to see them personally abroad and helped bring them back home using his own private funds.

He also advocates a nationwide entrepreneurial revolution that can transform the Philippines into a nation of entrepreneurs just like himself through the embodiment of the spirit of sipag and tiyaga.
Will his early announcement of his intention help? Let’s see!