Bambee De La Paz, Nasser Pangandaman, Valley Golf & Outraged Bloggers Collide

The mind boggling scandals after scandals that rocks the Philippines with regularity is turning out to be the norm rather than an aberration may have turned some people numbed and their sense of propriety skewed. In the words of Chief Justice Reynato Puno on the move to oust him the problem is not just skewered propriety but moral degeneration:

It is very obvious that the main problem of the country is moral decadence. This is the root cause of the density of power, corruption problem.

You look at it more deeply. You look at it from its various dimensions. That's why … it's time for the moral forces of the country to manifest themselves. They should cease to be an invisible force. They should play a dominant role in redirecting the destiny of our people.

I say amen to that but heck this is the Philippines so we expect to see a high ranking public official Cabinet member Nasser Pangandaman the father, his namesake Jr., and Hussein the sons together with their armed bodyguards in the company of an allege jueteng bagman prominently figures in a “brawl.” A "brawl" which is more of mauling of a 56 years old father Delfin De La Paz and his 14 years old son Bino a promising junior golfer in front of Delfin’s 18 year old daughter Bambee a golf scholar in a University in the US and some people wanted to hear the other side. So when Bambee De La Paz, Nasser Pangandaman, Valley Golf, and bloggers collide it makes one interesting array of GOOFBall brawl that reverberates so loud enough hopefully to bring about an honest to goodness examination of how this nation can move forward to get us out of the aberration.

Yup and a week later they heard the “other side” and they took it hook, line, and sinker rationalizing the position of the poor “victims” no not those who were beaten up but the Pangandamans who clearly beat up the “umbrella poking” Delfin, “driver swinging” Bino, “scratching” Bambee, with resbak errrr “knife wielding” mother and elder son ready to swing his “baseball bat” at the peace loving Pangandamans with long firearm carrying bodyguards.

The Philippines is a civilized society unfortunately there are people who think otherwise and see nothing wrong with defenseless citizens getting mauled by public officials with bodyguards because they convinced themselves that it was the victims that are the aggressors. Is it about the benefits of siding with politicians especially the warlord type for health and longevity reasons, or we are just so fucked up due to our subservient feudal nature that we don’t see the obvious? It was obvious that the Pangandamans side of the story defies logic although it never surprise us anymore when lying has been elevated into an art form by politicians. So prevalent that lying defines Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s administration and we can cite them here but it gets boring because of the volume.

Something tells me that when one is a stickler for rules they are seen as jerks and he got his comeuppance for calling the attention of the gods of wrath errr the high and mighty coming from a feudal place, anyone who dares speak up to the feudal lords is asking for it. Is it because breaking the rules is the norm just like what I hear some people say when someone points out that skirting or going around the rules is wrong one becomes the target of nasty snide of a remark…. yabang naman akala mo hindi siya Filipino (bah, humbug as if he is not a Filipino).

There is even this liepaper in their editorial that chided Delfin De La Paz for not being that “impeccable” but exactly what it is, they never offered anything concrete to prove their point. One thing is clear was that Delfin De La Paz pointed out to the Pangandamans they violated golf etiquette and for that they suffered the consequence of standing up against the mighty and powerful. Sadly, people think that they deserve to get beaten up, geeez are we fucked up or what?

As if getting beat up by the high and mighty is not enough Valley Golf and Country Club handed out their warped verdict by expelling (note: if justice is dispensed to the highest bidder, what more with VGCC amateur wanna be "probe body?") the De La Paz for life while they only suspended the Pangandamans……. Hmmmmmmnnn, I wonder why? Is it because Bambee in her blog was critical of the country club and to avoid civil liability declared the De La Paz as the culprit and not the victim to wash their hands of any moral obligation, monetary, and civil responsibility?

Angela thinks it is foolishness, while I disagree with her position she is entitled to her opinion and this is what makes the blogosphere interesting. So interesting that I feel like one of those 2 faith healers in Quiapo during the feast of the black Nazarene I saw on TV Patrol disparaging each other on who is "holier than thou," to quote Angela:

now that the blogosphere’s kneejerk rush to judgement in reaction to bambee de la paz’s campaign for justice has been proven rash foolish unwise, many bloggers left twisting in the wind are making the best of a sorry situation, some by admitting outright that it was a mistake, some by posting the pangandaman side, some by utter silence so far, and some by editing their blogs perhaps to avoid libel suits.

I just don’t know about the foolishness of the bloggers but any right thinking citizen in a civilized society will of course react to seeing their public officials getting into a brawl and one belonging to a presidents’ cabinet appointed as a peacemaker at that in the Mindanao conflict tells a lot about what kind of people are ruining errr running the government. I just don't know why some people seem to think that they can act like the self-appointed blogger issue priority police that we should all be blogging based on tackling issues they deem for us as more pressing or important. Heck, good luck on that one and if they have not realized that the world does not revolve around them, then on with their delusions, lol. Or is this all about bringing attention to themselves?

The Unlawyer posted a very interesting link on defamation. Although this may not apply in the Philippine courts on the possible outcome of the bidding errr decision with regards to Nasser Pangandaman, Jr. filling a libel case against Bambee De La Paz in his hometown looks silly and dumb based on this one below:

Even more recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that Columbia University and a Harvard professor who made an allegedly defamatory posting on a Columbia-maintained Web-based bulletin board, could not be sued in Texas by an FBI agent who resides there. The article was about the Reagan administration’s alleged complicity in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The court found that the article did not "'manifest an intent to target and focus on'" Texas residents and therefore could not support personal jurisdiction over the defendants in Texas. The opinion can be found at Revell v. Lidov, 317 F3d 467, 475 (5th Cir 2002) (citation and emphasis omitted).

The keyword is intent to target and focus, so Masiu one of the poorest towns in Lanao Del Sur if not the poorest in the whole Philippines was definitely not the intended audience of Bambee’s blog yet they choose to file it in their hometown which is clearly to harass, intimidate, leverage, and hopefully just to inconvenience their adversary. Unfortunately in that part of the Philippines, inconvenience takes on a different meaning and oftentimes deemed deadly. Assuming it was the intent of Bambee to maligned Nasser Pangadaman, Jr. the big question is how many among the 26,000 inhabitants of Masiu has internet access or do they even have internet in that town to nowhere where some barangays have more constituent than this small town Masiu.

Indeed this is turning to be a joke unfortunately the joke is on us and yet we fail to grasp the implications of the barbarity shown by gorillas cavorting in the green to borrow Doronillas term. Myrna H. Buendia recruited me to the Facebook Animal Rights cause which is very timely, reminding me of how unfair Armando Doronilla of Inquirer with animals, to quote:

The ugly face of warlord culture returned with a vengeance in the supposedly civilized ambience of golf fairways where gorillas are not expected to be seen cavorting on the manicured green.

I say it is unfair of Mr. Doronilla, no not to the Pangandamans but to the gorillas being portrayed like the brawling Pangandamans that brings me to this post by Paul Farol another Facebook buddy of mine:

In any case, Mayor Nasser and Delfin Dela Paz are both welcome to play jolens in my back yard. I'll even have Secretary Neri and former Comelec Chairman Abalos serve chinese ham-boor-jers a.k.a. thick slices of Ma-Ling between cuts of silver bread rolls.

Jolens is Filipino for game of marbles played by kids except there seems to be a problem with Paul’s invitation, I believe the players’ loss their marbles so to speak thus it may not push through…… and hopefully the rest of the nation still have their marbles intact.

The Philippine nation seems to have more losers than winners. When one comes along like Manny Pacquiao, bringing home victories carries along with it Filipino pride and to some extent hailed as a hero. Perhaps due to a dearth of people worthy of emulation especially when you have leaders so despised and scandal prone that they are in effect seen as losers. Here we have a promising junior golfer and what do politicians do but beat the crap out of them that eventually may hamper their goal to excel while some losers disparaged the kid for crying as not manly.... hellooo the boy is a kid, it makes me wonder how they would react if they were in the same situation. But then again this is the land of cheats where subservience and seeing the side of warlords is more beneficial to ones pursuit for life longevity without looking for the proverbial fountain of youth and reacting against the barbarity is seen by some as foolish.

The irony of the GOOFBall errr golfing brawl is that some people seems to be critical with bloggers "kneejerk" reaction for the collective outrage and not have a problem rationalizing their feudal lords errr politicians. In contrast a Kansas man is basically in legal hot waters in Laguna Beach, California even though the bitch er beach in that part are ice cold for swatting to death a rare Heermann gull that "attacked" him knocking the man's ice cream to the ground in the process. Dragan Djuric, 50 is facing animal cruelty charges but in the Philippines politicians have the nerve to sue for libel and other frivolous court case because the injustice system in the Philippines is one of a kind. So go figure, even the sea gulls have rights and the government in the US will waste no time bringing the offender to court unlike in the land of cheats where the birds and even the bees are so usefull in terms of election votes that are counted, the buck stops there when it comes to the judicial system. Victims are on their own to pursue justice thus out of court is resorted to by both parties since persecution errr prosecution are in the able hands of the fixcals errr fiscals who owes their position via the political patronage system. Rodel Rodis has an apt take on this:

Stop blaming the victims. The world isn’t fair, bad things happen to good people and it isn’t psychologically safe to live in the state of denial.

So to those who whines and complains about this issue on the midget errr middle class making so much raucus while being insensitive to the plight of poor human rights victims should know better that impunity in the Philippines has gone awry and no one is really safe anymore...... The only recourse is to find a common cause and be one with all the victims of injustice because class origin is not a factor when it comes to power drunk abusive politicians.

Related articles:

• Bambee De La Paz Blog Entry Libelous says Nasser Pangandaman
• The game that puts the ASS in Mayor Nasser Pangandaman
• Mayor Nasser Pangandaman, Jr. GOOFBall Bully of Philippine Golf
• Bully Foolitician Nasser Pangandaman, Jr.

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