Menagerie Invitation

An Invitation to a Birthday Party
It’s a typical Wednesday Kapihan at Willow Root today but the guys have agreed that we should have a special Menagerie issue for it. The reason is because one of the guys has invited Batch63 to his forthcoming 66th birthday celebration. Mandy Ilustre rarely comes to the Kapihan but this time he came if only to advise the guys who were there today (Jackie Arellano, Lito Quiogue, Gabby Valdes, Oni Mayo, Vince Misa, Joey Ingles and Mari Duarte) to help him spread his invitation to the guys.

The details of the party are:

When: January 14, 2011 (Friday 6PM)

Place: 25 Flicker St., Greenmeadows, QC

Mandy plans to cater out the event and is requesting for an RSVP from the guys. Mandy’s mobile number is 0917 521 1625. A grand party in January – what a great way to start the year!

Miscellany
When the Kapihan numbers are smaller, that is the time that group discussions usually become more focus and introspective. One of today’s fare consisted of political talk particularly regarding the recent outrageous and controversial pronouncements of two Government institutions of justice - the Supreme Court and the Sandigan Bayan. The Supreme Court voted to quash the Truth Commission initiative and in another case shortly thereafter, it reversed the results of the Vizconde massacre case. The Sandigan Bayan in turn was accused of extorting money from the Luneta massacre hostage-taker and today, it just whitewashed the AFP money laundering case.

These in-your-face affront to public sensibilities by institutions tasked to promote justice is really disheartening and just confirms their increasingly questionable reputation. On record, it is actually the GMA appointees (who were entitled to tenure and could not be replaced by the new President) who are seemingly the bandidos. These guys appear to be traditional Government post appointees out to improve their plight by consistently voting as a biased bloc on controversial issues. In a weak republic, democracy just seems too easy to distort. The majority rule is abused where it is clearly a case of tyranny of numbers. Before leaving the topic, the discussants sarcastically posed a scenario where even the pending Maguindanao Massacre case will likely also be swept under the rug based on technicality. The impression is still that "money talks" in this society.

From serious talk, he Kapihan conversation moved on to everyday stuff. Mandy asked Jackie if he knew Joey Estagle’s mobile number and if he would share it with him. Instead of obliging, Jackie complicated the situation as usual. He told Mandy, “. . and why in the world would you, or anyone else, like to talk to a character like Joey?”