The superb production design in Mana.

By Pablo A. Tariman, VERA Files

There is something unusual as siblings reunite in what looks like their ancestral home in Negros.

The matriarch (played by Fides Cuyugan Asencio) is heard wailing and coughing all over the place and she sounds like she is on her death throes.

The siblings (Cherie Gil, Mark Gil, Epi Quizon, Tetchie Agbayani, Jaime Fabregas and Ricky Davao) have disquieting conversation about something they should now take up with the matriarch – this urgent thing about who is going to inherit what.

Gil is bent on taking up the subject, Fabregas says this is not the time for that. The politician (Ricky Davao) – who is in the middle of a political campaign – is also for settling the issue once and for all.

Fabregas insists that the matter of the nature of the matriarch’s illness should be kept from the public – especially from the inquisitive press.

Cherie Gil, Mark Gil, Jimmy Fabregas as the siblings in ManaAnd no outsider from the family should set foot in that house.

Watching Gabby Fernandez’s “Mana” was like watching a 50s

Commentary

Sixto Brillantes

By Ellen Tordesillas

Comelec  Chairman Sixto Brillantes has  withdrawn his threat to resign less than a month before the May 13 national elections but he is still in a  retirement state of mind.

He told reporters that   he might complete his term  up to 2015 so he can get his retirement pay in full.

The bonus would be the  ambassadorial job in one of the countries in Eastern Europe, which he fervently desires.

Brillantes told reporters last week that he will ask President Aquino to name him ambassador to a country in Eastern Europe once he leaves the election body.

“I will wait to see the President so that I can ask him … My plan was to ask him, ‘Could you give me an ambassadorship instead so that I can rest. It’s so tiring in the Comelec,’” he was quoted by media to have said.

Brillantes named countries that he was eyeing: “Romania, Slovakia, or Hungary … where no Filipinos go.”

Two things are very wrong with what Brillantes wants:

One, the Commission on Election is a

By Darlene Cay and Vince Nonato, VERA Files

A clean election is on many people’s wish-list.

To environmentalists, this means less trash or even zero waste during the campaign and polling day itself. It also means using campaign materials that are less harmful to Mother Nature.

Campaign tarpaulins when burnt cause air pollution. Photo from ECOWASTE COALITION.

With three weeks to go before elections, campaigning is heating up around the country and the ubiquitous campaign posters, flyers, stickers, tarpaulins and other materials are seen almost everywhere – on walls, electric posts, fences, cars and even trees.

They’re not just an eyesore, but cleaning up the litter after the elections would be a nightmare for those who will be left to do the job – janitors, street sweepers and other barangay workers.

Then finally, where will the garbage go?

This is a concern foremost in the minds of green activists and concerned government officials who are intensifying their campaign for a greener election, calling on the candidates themselves to clean up their act.

The EcoWaste

Commentary

China aircraft carrier

By Ellen Tordesillas

China’s Defense White Paper released last Tuesday is an interesting read in the light of the current tension in the Korean Peninsula and its territorial dispute with the Philippines.

The White Paper titled, “The Diversified Employment of China’s Armed Forces” was released as US State Secretary John Kerry completes his Asia visit (South Korea and Japan) re-affirming the “rebalancing” policy initiated by the Obama administration in its first term.

Under the rebalancing or “pivot” policy, the US shifts its military power and presence from the Middle East war zone to the Asia Pacific region.

Apparently, the shift in the America’s focus to Asia is a matter of concern to Beijing. “The Asia-Pacific region has become an increasingly significant stage for world economic development and strategic interaction between major powers. The US is adjusting its Asia-Pacific security strategy, and the regional landscape is undergoing profound changes,”the White paper

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. officially commends the House of Representatives prosecution team in the Corona impeachment. Photo from the House of Representatives.
By Mikha Flores, VERA Files

UPDATED AND CORRECTED: The designation of lawyer Al Parreño as elections commissioner is the latest and at least fifth government appointment given to the ranks of prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Renato Corona since the Senate convicted the Supreme Court chief justice on a 20-3 vote in May last year.

This is the second government position entrusted to Parreño, an IT expert, who was appointed to the board of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) two months after Corona’s conviction.

VERA Files earlier wrongly reported that Parreño was the fourth and latest government appointee among the prosecutors. (The headline has been updated and corrected as well—Ed.)

Besides Parreño, at least three impeachment prosecutors are now serving the Aquino administration: Joseph Emilio Abaya, Arlene ‘Kaka’ Bag-ao and Renato Samonte Jr.

Abaya was appointed Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) in August 2012. He

Commentary

Itanim sa Senado

By Ellen Tordesillas

Some are concerned that with the lifting by the Supreme Court of the airtime limits on political advertisements, we would be bombarded with all those propaganda in the next 30 days.

Less-moneyed candidates are worried that they would be drowned by those with money to burn. Independent senatorial candidate Teddy Casiño said the SC’s ruling favors wealthy candidates or those backed by the ruling elite.

“Ginawang parang unli text, unli call.The problem is its steep cost,” he said. TV ad rates, depending on the time slot, would not go below P250,000 for a 30 second ad. A candidate would need some P30 million for the remaining four weeks of the campaign.

” It is disgusting that the SC has decided against the Comelec’s effort to rein in expensive campaigns which poor or cash-strapped candidates like me cannot afford,” Casiño lamented.

I am Pichay fanThe SC yesterday restored the old regulation of 120-minute limit for national candidates’ political ads over each TV station

Joel Mendoza, CEO of Skyjet airlines

By Pablo A. Tariman, VERA Files

For the first time in many years, a British Aerospace BAE-146 series 200 (94-seater) and four-engine jet aircraft finally landed in Catanduanes previously identified with commercial planes the size of small Fokker planes.

On its inaugural flight to Virac, Catanduanes yesterday, Skyjet Airlines once again expanded its route and served notice it is not interested in selling seats but is keen on promoting unspoiled tourist destinations ignored by the big players in the airline industry.

“We are not selling airlines seats,” pointed out Skyjet CEO Joel A. Mendoza. “We are selling experience in undiscovered island paradise of the country.”

In the inaugural flight were Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento, Gov. Joseph Cua and former Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento who comes from the island.

After being greeted by brass band and waving islanders led by Virac Mayor Jose U. Alberto II and Virac Bishop Manolo A. de los Santos, the passengers of the inaugural

Pinky Marquez as Mrs. Robinson and Reb Atadero Benjamin Braddock

By Pablo A. Tariman, VERA Files

Repertory Philippines’ latest offering – “The Graduate” -- is a nostalgic journey into the late 60s which was the same decade the young were hooked on Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” and “Mrs. Robinson,” among others.

The play was of course the title of a 1967 Mike Nichols film starring Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock and Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson. It is originally the title of a 1963 novel by Charles Webb and adapted into the stage by Terry Johnson.

The film was of course touted as “one of the most powerful stories of sexual awakening and coming-of-age” and it happened on the decade of the country’s political awakening as it gave way to the birth of the First Quarter Storm.

The film was shown in a theater along Recto Avenue where -- as anyone growing up in that decade knew -- was also the avenue where lewd publications of “bedtime stories” hastened the sexual awakening of college kids of the late 60s.

A theater piece adapted from a