Wednesday, October 17, 2007

LOSSIE

“Naniniwala ka ba sa magic?” She asks.

Magic is the last word you’d associate with her. She has solid credentials. She’s an economist, holding a doctorate on that subject. Being a well respected entity in her field, it’s not surprising when every time there’s a disturbance rocking the Philippine economy, she’d be on TV explaining the turbulence. An educator, she’s a professor at the University of the Philippines. She writes a column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer and co-hosts a late-night program on GMA7. She’s a member of top-notch organizations and institutions. And to top all that, she too has an ideal family life. Although, being the straight- talking woman that she is, she’d be the first to pronounce that everything’s not rosy-rosy or sweety-sweety between her and her hubby. “Of course, we argue”, she’d say and then look adoringly at her Christian. “But he’d make amends, and for sure I’d accept, especially since he’ll surely make me laugh in the process.” Great… And they also go to church.

The persona which all the above depicts is really hard to reconcile with the stand which she took regarding the Garci controversy. She actually went on to defend that cheating in her column, citing earlier survey results showing GMA as leading in some polls, saying that even if there was no cheating, GMA would still have won. But people knowledgeable about the nature of surveys later crushed her arguments. (She’s too much of a lady for these but if only she knew how to play tong-it or songkiang or even the simple lucky nine, she would know that statistics or probabilities don’t mean a thing in actual games. Oops, I only watch people play):-) But she, unbelievably, defended the cheating. Could it be her high middle class nose stooping down on what she probably perceives as the poor’s inability to make an intelligent choice? Maybe she is of the opinion that one vote from her or from her class is equivalent to 10,000 votes coming from the wretched kind, so Garcification is just putting things right. Maybe…

Then her Slurp commercial came out and a big piece of the enigma that is Solita 'Winnie' Monsod got cracked. You watch, you nod and you whisper, “Aaaah, naniniwala naman pala siya sa magic, eh.”:-)

(Her recent articles indicate that she's having a change of heart regarding GMA. I hope I'm not being overly-optimistic about that. If the current attempts at toppling Gloria are to have a bigger chance of succeeding, people like Ms. Winnie who have a huge influence in swaying public opinion should at least be fair and call a spade a spade. Or call a cheat a cheat. Who knows? Even GMA herself might decide to step down if she finds that nobody is defending her. Now I'm wishing for too much...)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

She reminds me of this one-time governor of Benguet. To harp short on his credentials, he was the IDEAL politician. He possessed all the talents. One day, he was given a briefcase: One million pesos inside!! He took it. End of his promising career.
My close source intimated, in fact not too long ago, he's just getting by.
Is Ms Monsod going wayward? time will tell. If she attests to our very adage "adi yo bokodan di gawis", then she's sliding in the pitfalls. Cheers regardless.

Off topic: Didn't know Zamboanga beat Sagada for that LLC years ago!
My query now is this: Wouldn't it also be fitting to award that particular trophy (Philippine Champions) to that Sagada team regardless of what their ages are now? Maybe petition the Philippine Sports Committee, think it's worth the try, all they can say is "lumang tugtugin na iyon". In that case, we'll just tell them "no wonder we are losers in every teams competions", hehehe..

pagano said...

hi trublue,
the stand she took on that garci controversy stained her image. i hope she will regain it by treading on the right path, especially with the emergence of issues which, hopefully, will lead to this administration's end.

{people may be correct in saying that noli de castro (the person next in line to the presidency) is a coconut-head but, whatever. i don't care if he is the most moronic person in this earth. at least, we are sure that he was voted for by the people. better him than a person who cheated her way to malacanang, only to keep on using the office as an instrument for abuse.}

i don't know what action sagada took regarding that incident. yeah, that trophy may be worth petitioning for. although, on second thought, psc must have rules covering those kinds of anomalies so they should have done whatever it was that needed to be done to resolve that problem.:-)

yup, cheers!

G said...

i've really admired the caliber of this lady since she became known in the talkshow world. but that's really sad if she's romancing with the cheaters.

great post, sir! :)

pagano said...

hi ganda,
yeah, her credibility got destroyed with that garci event. too bad.

thank you very much, ma'am.:-)

abella said...

when i first saw her before appear in a commercial endorsing something (i have thought it does not match her being respected "icon" of ... among few others). i resoved to thinking...maybe it was for the sake of money. sayang naman kung ganon...i wish many people could really stand the tests of what this world offers.

pagano said...

hi brother abella,
it must be the money. maybe she deserves it though. in spite of her shortcomings, it can't be denied that her popularity has reached a level which enables her to attract companies willing to gamble and make her the endorser of their product.

if only she endorses the resignation of gma...hehe.