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Manila Bulletin devider Opinion devider Smile!

Smile!

Published Sep 9, 2024 04:06 pm

MEDIUM RARE

Jullie Y. Daza

What did the two most wanted personalities of the month have in common when the long arm of the law finally caught up with them?


Alice Guo and Pastor Apollo Quiboloy were both smiling. Police escorts and others who witnessed the proceedings said it was probably a relief for them that the manhunt had finally ended, and they were both safe. (According to the two, each of them had been receiving death threats from unnamed sources.)


Welcome to the Philippines, “where Asia wears a smile.” If you remember who said that, you’re most likely a senior citizen. (The source is Jose Aspiras, who thwarted a would-be assassin from his attempt on then first lady Imelda Marcos during an event at the Manila airport. For his heroic deed, Aspiras was named secretary of Tourism – the first — by President Ferdinand E. Marcos.)


Secretary Aspiras’ slogan should be fished out of the trunk (circa the last century) and given a new life. The Department of Tourism could then sponsor a competition for a new and exciting, updated and modern slogan, using Carlos Yulo, EJ Obiena, and any or all of our Miss Philippines crowned heads as models and endorsers.


Some people, in particular netizens, found it inappropriate for Alice Guo’s policewomen escorts to seem friendly while taking smiling selfies of themselves with her in the car that was taking Alice to Camp Crame, where she was to be processed after her arrest on suspicion of multiple crimes of money laundering, trafficking, and tax evasion.  


As one sitting on the fence just watching and observing, one has to hand it to Alice. She is, no doubt, charming and photogenic, just like the candidate for mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, that she once was, not so long ago. After winning the local elections, she must’ve met the secretary of Interior and Local Government again. And again last week, when Secretary Benhur Abalos fetched her after she landed from an airplane ride that began in Indonesia and ended in the Philippines.


Where Asia wears a smile is also where politics binds people, communities, provinces, regions, islands. Politics being a smiling profession, women in government, whether elected or appointed or self-made, are all too familiar with the power of a beautiful smile.

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Jullie Y. Daza Medium Rare
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