Me and Mrs. G

:reprint of july 31 blog:

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Seems everybody is waiting for the eventual collapse of the GMA presidency. Pollsters tallied more than two-thirds of the people want her out? Not sure. But clearly, everyone has one or two things to say about GMA. About her half-smile/half-smirk. About her half-truths and wholesale lies. About her presidential height... er, heart, or half of it.

Now, this is about my one and a half times encounter with the lady president during the last half of the 1992 electoral campaign, when she first ran for the senate, as a half-LDP/half-LP candidate. Remember, before the '92 campaign, GMA was Trade Undersecretary for the Aquino Administration and was originally drafted by the Liberal Party (LP) for its senatorial slate. LP was then headed by the party's standard-bearer Jovy Salonga.

I rooted for Salonga and the LP in '92. In the heat of the campaign, by some twist of fate, I had the chance to go on board a daily radio program on DZME. It was my first and only experience as a broadcaster, and with the help of more seasoned radio dudes, I modulated my voice in a way they think I should, but most of the time I think I should not. I went on air as "Totoy Borloloy," and to a particular listener, I was 'boses-binata', I wasn't boses-announcer. Ugh!

The blocktime morning program was financed principally by a supporter of another candidate of another party, and yet my colleagues and I were somehow able to insert, subtly or otherwise, Salonga and LP in the name-recall business, also known as "elections".

We guested for interview various candidates such as would-be senator GMA, and personalities in the likes of the late Luis Taruc. The latter provided the program with what would become its most unforgettable episode, when the ageing revolutionary stupefied another guest, a senatorial candidate who thought and acted like an emperor. The former Huk, predictably, rocked the airwaves by mocking at the "emperor's new clothes".

No. The "emperor" wasn't GMA. But looking back, I wish we paired her with Ka Luis.

I remember GMA guested alone in our show and spoke so brilliantly, although she didn't finish the alloted interview time, politely begging off for another appointment. We were then already halfway the segment, maybe half-past ten, or half-before eleven, when I dished out a half-baked half-question/half-statement: "Ah... ah... yun pong kontrobersiya sa DTI tungkol po doon sa garment-quota... blah blah blah." I obviously couldn't formulate the question correctly. I guess I really didn't know where I wanted to lead the question to.

Poker-face and with that aire of intellectual superiority, GMA was just staring straight into my eyes as I was stuttering with the question, er, statement. My partner-host then butted in and seized at the "gist" of what I was trying to say, but a mile off-target from what indeed I was trying to ask. 'Twas good enough though to prevent the on-the-spot collapse of this trying-hard, first-timer of a broadcaster's three-month career.

Weeks later, I met GMA in person for the second time -- in a Cavite whistle stop en-route to fellow candidate Ramon Revilla Sr.'s birthday party cum political rally. On stage, she spoke so little, and danced, figuratively more little, with better(?)-half Mike. So amused, I was in the audience and thought I caught her eyes again. Her eyes didn't speak.

GMA spoke on 1992 radio much unlike the way she now speaks on 2005 TV. Her "I Am Sorry" monologue made me recall the frustrated broadcaster who miserably failed his radio apprenticeship, unsure of what he wanted to say, or ask. Her presscon appearance late this week made me wonder if, with all her PR and pa-pogi blitz, she was sure what she really wanted us, the people, to understand -- or, half-understand.

Uhm... she should have just stared into the cam and said nothing.

Didn't GMA say she intends to finish her term, up to 2010? But if the pollsters are to be believed, she's already halfway the "term" more than half the people had given her -- and they're bidding her GOODBYE.