BIG JOKE by Ninez Cacho-Olivarez
03/27/2009
To this day, the Ombudsman is still trying to pull wool over the nation’s eyes, creating that impression that it is going after the big guns in corruption.
In a press conference, Ombudsman officials announced that from their initial findings, the office will be conducting a preliminary investigation of certain former public officials, such as then acting Secretary Florante Soriquez and some current undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, to determine probable cause.
What? In all that time — and a long time it was too — all that the Ombudsman’s office did was to determine who were the various officials seated during the time when these projects went through bid rigging?
That shouldn’t have even taken a week, if that was all that were was for that “announcement” of their having had an “initial finding.” prior to conducting a probe.
Translated, this merely means that a probe has not even been conducted on these mentioned officials, which in turn means, a longer time for the Ombudsman to determine probable cause against these officials — if it ever does, for this case to now be elevated to the Sandiganbayan court. In the last two months, with all the evidence from the World Bank (WB) on bid-rigging, this is all the Ombudsman produced with still a preliminary probe to be conducted and on the small fry?
It is almost certain that, if a probe is conducted to determine probable cause, even Soriquez will be off the hook. After all, he does have a fount of knowledge about the corruption that can be linked to Gloria, and even Big Mike, if left to fend for himself.
But even longer, and never, it would seem, would the Ombudsman’s office touch the First Gentleman, or even then Public Works chief, Simeon Datumanong. But then again, this is expected since the FG is a sacred cow.
The anti-graft officials claimed that this probe on the FG would come later, as they will be calling on the WB witnesses who had linked Big Mike to the alleged collusion and bid-rigging syndicate.
The Ombudsman’s officers must think they could easily fool the Filipino people by making it appear that Big Mike is not above the law and will also be investigated for his alleged role in the WB road projects’ bid-rigging.
But this is not going to happen, because, as these officials know, the three witnesses are all foreigners and are all out of the country, and hence out of the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman.
Who are they trying to fool when they say they will be calling these “witnesses” who testified before the WB on this bid-rigging?
Even if the Ombudsman sent them a summons to attend whatever hearings there would be scheduled on this matter, does the office really believe that they will return to the Philippines to testify against Big Mike?
Who would go against Big Mike in that Ombudsman’s office? Certainly not Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, who won’t touch a hair of his head, even if the evidence stares her in the face. Neither would she touch Gloria’s hair either, after her term is up, that is, if Gutierrez insists on sticking it out until 2012. Certainly it won’t be her officers either, since they are hardly independent and suck up to her, doing whatever she tells them to do, and say. Besides, they wouldn’t even dare do that, since they would not only be kicked out of their offices, but would also be charged for some crime.
But there went Malacañang, claiming it is relieved that the case will now go to court — even when this is not so, since a probe is yet to be conducted.
The Palace said the court is the proper forum for those involved to face the music.
But Malacañang also knows that the so-called proper forum, whether the Ombudsman or the Sandiganbayan court, can easily be made to toe the line and clear the Arroyo loyalists of any and all charges.
The time is not now to charge any of the big fish in Malacañang. The time to do it is after they are out of power and grace of the Filipino people, who, like the Romans of old, will not rest until they see and taste the blood of the Arroyos and their corrupt cabal, who have screwed the Filipinos for the past eight years and counting.
FOUND IN TRANSLATION by Jessica Zafra
I was caffeinating at the mall when a youthful lady with white hair said hello. It was Celeste Legaspi. “I’ve been listening to your versions of American pop songs translated by Tinio!” I babbled. That album came out ages ago, she laughed. “I copied it from my friend’s iTunes library last year,” I said. “Please record again.”
The music industry is so different now, she said. Commercial considerations override all others. “You could record the tracks in your house and upload them on the net,” I went on. Her daughters laughed. “She’s lazy,” they said.
When I was growing up in the 70s, Filipino musicians regularly did Tagalog versions of songs in English. Hajji Alejandro did the Bee Gees’ Charade as Tag-Araw, Tag-Ulan, and in his cover of Barbra Streisand’s The Way We Were, Rico J. Puno suddenly switched to Tagalog and turned the song into something else entirely. They didn’t cover songs the way Pinoy singers do today (note-for-note exact imitations, down to the breathing and the hand movements. Today’s most successful proponents of the full mimicry (’plakado’) approach: Arnel Pineda/Steve Perry of Journey and Charice Pempengco/Whitney Houston.) The material was borrowed, but they colonized it completely (”Namamasyal pa sa Luneta”).
The finest translations/adaptations of the words to popular songs were by the great Rolando Tinio. He’d already translated Shakespeare into Filipino, so pop music must’ve been a breeze. Take the Burt Bacharach-Hal David songs, One Less Bell to Answer and A House Is Not A Home. Every time I hear them I start giggling. Look at these lyrics:
One less bell to answer
One less egg to fry
One less man to pick up after
I should be happy but all I do is cry
(Note: Were you the lover or the maid?)
A rudimentary literal translation would begin:
Isang timbreng di sasagutin
Isang itlog na di piprituhin…
How about that Philo 11 hommage:
A chair is not a chair
Even when there’s no one sitting there
But a chair is not a house
And a house is not a home
Literally:
Ang salumpuwit ay salumpuwit pa rin
Kahit walang nakaupo roon. . .
Instead of a literal approach that would expose the cornball silliness of the lyrics, Tinio went for the literary.
Di na hahainan
Di na susundan
Tuwing siya’y may kinakailangan
Sinong hindi pa
Pasasalamat na
and
Walang nagpapalit
Sa datihang ayos ng silid
Nguni’t di magpapalit
Ang himbing ng pag-idlip…
The risible has been made poignant, and with Celeste Legaspi’s lovely theatrical delivery (very clear enunciation) it’s positively heart-rending. Remember when singers interpreted songs rather than belting the hell out of them? A lot of what passes for singing these days is actually song abuse.
The masterpiece among the Celeste Legaspi-Rolando Tinio collaborations is their version of Rodgers and Hart’s The Lady Is A Tramp. Their title: Ako’y Bakyang-Bakya. It’s not merely a linguistic translation, but an adaptation from one culture to another. The original lyrics are full of American references; Tinio placed the song firmly in a Philippine context while keeping its wickedly funny spirit.
I’ve wined and dined on mulligan stew and never wished for turkey
As I’ve hitched and hiked and grifted too, from Maine to Albuquerque
becomes
Ang hilig ko’y butong-pakwan, ayoko ng pastillas
Nagdi-jeep ako miski saan, hanggang sa Dasmarinas.
