The secret to Erap’s excellent health

By Ramon Tulfo
Philippine Daily Inquirer

The Supreme Court has sent a message to Malacañang that it is not a toothless tiger that can be fooled around with.

The high court has brought to the surface again the decades-old dispute over Hacienda Luisita between President Noy’s family, which owns the vast sugar plantation, and its farmers and workers.

Most justices, according to Inquirer sources, are in favor of distributing the 6,000-hectare plantation to its farm workers.

In other words, the President’s family is about to lose in the land dispute.

The decision that is about to come out is apparently in retaliation for the humiliation that the high court suffered in the hands of Malacañang.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima refused to obey an order from the high tribunal allowing former President Gloria to travel abroad to seek medical treatment.

To rub salt to the wound, a warrant of arrest against the former president suddenly materialized from Pasay City, issued by a judge known for taking his time with the cases in his court.

With the issuance of the arrest warrant, the Supreme Court’s decision for Gloria to travel abroad had become moot and academic.

But now, the high court has apparently won in its fight with Malacañang—through Hacienda Luisita.

With the apportioning of the vast hacienda to its farm workers, the President’s Cojuangco clan will be landless.

The President should have reckoned with the truism that a man who lives in a glass house cannot afford to throw rocks at his neighbor.

* * *

Hacienda Luisita is the President’s Achilles heel.

The sermonizing and moralizing by his mother, the late President Cory, and by him on corruption in government rings hollow because of their family’s dispute with farm workers at Hacienda Luisita.

Cory Aquino’s centerpiece program was land reform, yet her family refuses to hand over the vast tract of land to the hacienda’s kasama or tenant farmers as mandated by her Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

How can P-Noy expect people to believe in his moral crusade when his family doesn’t have a sense of moral rectitude?

* * *

I now know the secret of former President Erap’s excellent health despite his heavy drinking and smoking.

The guy doesn’t bear any grudges toward people who have hurt him.

At my birthday party Tuesday night, Erap and former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson were present.

As the former President entered the room he saw Chavit among the crowd.

He asked me if Chavit could join him at his table.

I told Singson about Erap’s wish and the former obliged.

I was apprehensive as I brought Singson to Erap, but my fears were soon dissipated.

“Pare, did you win big in the Pacquiao-Morales fight?” Erap asked Chavit by way of breaking the ice.

And then the two talked and laughed for hours as if nothing happened between them.

As we all know, Chavit’s testimony against then President Erap resulted in his fall from power.

If President Noy wants to live long he can learn a thing or two from Erap: He should forgive his enemies.

Plotting revenge takes a toll on one’s health.