IN the weeks I have been ensconced in a sprawling farmhouse in a bucolic community with gentrified neighbors miles apart where horses are paddocked and cattle enclosed within corrals with wild deer roaming about freely, I find myself puttering around the estate, occupied with chores, which was why my daughter, Lara, had insisted that we spend the holidays with them in the first place. Since we have no yayas (nannies), Sylvia and I take turns hovering over our grandchildren, Oliver, Sylvie and Max, aged 6, 8 and 10, respectively, chauffeuring them to and from school — if their mom is not available. Their dad Matt is an excellent chef, concocting culinary wizardry to the delight of the children who have been taught to distinguish between coq au vin, pot-au-feu and tinolang manok. The couple work online from home with occasional sorties to NYC and the west coast as fintech for Philippine conglomerates where the time difference between Baltimore and Manila deprives them of much needed sleep.

Lolo the chauffeur

Thus, some days I drop them off at school at 9:05 a.m., picking them up around 4:05 p.m. The queuing at the school driveway is a study in military precision where each car is allowed only a minute in the drop-off zone where driving moms, dads and lolos frantically hustle their kids to disembark or board the vehicles. Between hatid and sundo, I spend a quiet time in a place I discovered near a Target store with a Starbucks inside for my regular dose of cappuccino grande. The Baltimore County Public Library, my "rent-free office," courtesy of the good tax-paying people of Baltimore welcoming temporary residents like me, boasts of an array of the latest computers with fast internet, all available to library card holders, allowing access to social media and all sorts of periodicals and books, a far cry from our public libraries in the Philippines. I had been to one years back, and that was it! And I pay my fair share of taxes regularly.

Which brings my thoughts back to our country, especially at this time when we are given the opportunity to pick the right people to govern us. In my semi-isolation in this quaint community, I seldom meet Filipinos, and those that I do, absent from home due to the pandemic, are curious about local happenings: the presidential elections for one and how the popular president has been messing it up as his strategy; of course, Covid-19 and how our country is coping; and surprise of all surprises — the fate of the appointed son of God, charged in the US for sex trafficking. These issues are interrelated but not necessarily in the order of importance.

Omicron

Last Thursday (Manila time), the first Covid-19 Omicron variant was detected in California on a fully vaccinated traveler from South Africa. Anthony Fauci, the eminence grise of US health, said authorities "knew it was just a matter of time" before this strain hit the US, reminding Americans that vaccination, boosters and the observance of strict anti-Covid protocol remains the best defense. On the other hand, many experts agree that the advent of the Omicron variant could signal the end to this deadly scourge.

Like the common cold infecting millions but killing none, Omicron causes mild symptoms that disappear in a few days, leaving the infected population with sufficient antibodies in their immune system. This is a good development, according to medical experts in the fight against mutating variants from Covid-19, with the Delta variant to Omicron eventually ushering in the pandemic's demise.

The wrath of Quiboloy

But not to the Philippines' disease polymath par excellence. The appointed son of God warned that the world will suffer a fate "much worse than the Omicron virus" if he is continuously "hurt and persecuted... on the sex charges filed against him by US authorities, using his influence as religious chief to entice or coerce girls and young women to have sex with him during what they termed as 'night duties'." (PDI, Nov. 29, 2021) These charges have been denied by Quiboloy who also happens to be PRRD's spiritual adviser.

With his direct heavenly connection, he will cause the appearance of "flesh-eating bacteria immune to any vaccine" that will descend upon his alleged persecutors who make a mockery of him. With his intercession, the Covid-19 D-variant, and now Omicron, are only introductory evidence of his power.

"The day of the Lord is here — do not ever play a joke or continue to pursue the persecution of the appointed son because the Father in heaven has already declared through the appointed son. No one can escape this." (PDI, Nov. 29, 2021) World, be forewarned!

For the skeptics they may be reminded that the good reverend stopped the earthquake from devastating a southern Mindanao province in 2019, by simply declaring "earthquake, stop!"

The rape of PDP-Laban

In the genre of politics as pornography, we have of late witnessed the travails of the dominant political party — the PDP-Laban. Founded in 1982 by the late senator 'Nene' Pimentel and Southern Mindanao colleagues, it reached its apex upon the Deegong's recruitment and consequent ascent to the presidency. Hoping to extend his influence and legacy, the President as the chief strategist choreographed the rise of daughter Sara as the heir-apparent with his surrogate son, Bong Go, as the princeling-in-waiting. But one did not get the memo. Sen. Koko Pimentel instead staged-managed the PDP-Laban presidency of Manny Pacquiao, who already salivated for the Philippine presidency, thus unraveling PRRD's not so well laid plans — a daughter-father tandem with the latter as VP. Pacquiao/Pimentel's initiatives provoked a party split. The schism further dampened Sara's already lukewarm attitude towards the PDP-Laban, prompting the Cusi-DU30 faction to craft a joke of a strategy — the Senators Bato-Go ticket — while still hoping for Sara would change her mind.

Sara boldly drove the last nail in the coffin of the Deegong's plan with her "last two minutes" move to run under Bongbong Marcos as his VP — enraging the President further to cause him to elevate Bong Go to president-designate, directing Bato to withdraw and he himself running for senator.

The last straw was Bong Go's complete surrender to the inevitable realization that he was never fit for the presidency in the first place, but for his loyalty to the badgering president who was "more than a father to me," he declared.

The Cusi-DU30 faction was therefore stripped of a presidential and vice-presidential ticket inducing similarly inclined candidates whose options may just be to withdraw, leaving DU30 by his lonesome as its senatorial bet. He may eventually have to withdraw, turning the scenario into a full-scale tragedy with the administration candidates from congress people to local executives in limbo, waiting for who the Deegong will support from among other political parties. This in effect is a virtual "self-rape" of the PDP-Laban.

As blood is thicker, he may have to swallow his words to advance his daughter's interest and go for one he has accused of being a cocaine dependent, from a "family of kawatans."

And this, from the genius of a political strategist! What a mess!