PBA is still a San Miguel league

San Miguel Beer and Ginebra San Miguel may be out of the finals but there is still a San Miguel company competing for the crown. Purefoods is enjoying a 3-0 lead over Alaska in a best of seven affair. It could have been 2-1 in favor of Alaska if not for questionable coaching and inconsistent officiating. Tim Cone himself admitted bad coaching did them in. But he was being modest in taking command responsibility. He was not to blame. Blame falls squarely on the assistant coaches' failure to plot defensive and offensive plays down the stretch. Joel Banal, Dickie Bachman and Trillo do not match the scouting and planning skills of their Purefoods counterparts.

Then there is the sh*tty officiating. In game 2, there was no foul at all no matter what angle you look at the final play. Yet one was called and Kerby made the decisive free throw. The correct call in that dying situation is a no call. Purefoods benefited in that miscall.

In Alaska's final offensive thrust in game 3 there was a clear foul made on Miller and calling one would be justifiable. A no call is OK if we go by the reasoning why there should be no foul in game 2's last play. But this time Purefoods, once again, benefited from the no-call.

Coincidence? Or not.

Pacquiao vs Clottey ticket sales slow

Two weeks before the event, tickets for Pacquiao vs Clottey fight move slower than the previous Pac bestsellers. At SM malls they offer a complimentary cinema pass when you buy a Pac-Clottey ticket. I counted the number of tickets sold thus far at an SM cinema as indicated by the blocked markings on the seat plan. I counted less than fifty.

Maybe because many feel Pacman will win handily. Odd at Las Vegas stand at 5-1. Arum had to come out and say Clottey can upset Manny, just to generate some interest. At a boxing forum, nobody wants a sig bet against Pacman unlike his fights before when many are willing to risk two months of annoyance in posting up Pac sigs. At Club Filipino, I heard tickets cost less than 500 pesos including buffet breakfast and sales are still slow.

Maybe fans will just watch the the numerous free showings that will be sponsored by candidates. This is election season after all. I should have thought of that when I bought tickets yesterday.

Who do we trust?

A survey says Villar is the most trusted presidential bet. We have to take into account that the (Villar commissioned?) survey was held just before the C5 controversy boiled over. I'm sure his trust ranking plummeted after that cowardly denial of his wrongdoing. I'm curious how his trust rating stands now after Winnie Monsod exposed his culpability in clear and simple terms.

Meanwhile, Noynoy is among the most trusted Filipino in an independent survey by the Reader's Digest. He was bested only by non-politicians Rosa Rosal, Lea Salonga, Jessica Soho and Tony Meloto. Noynoy is the top politician in the survey done late last year. Villar is in 60th place in the list of 80 influential Filipino personalities ranked based upon the public’s perceived trustworthiness. Rounding out the bottom are GMA, Erap, and Hayden Kho.

Many different survey results are being flaunted by the different camps. Who among the survey firms do we trust? One statistic I trust is that 83% of all statistics is made up, including this one.

But who among the candidates do we trust, really? I don't trust the unnaturally-jet-black hair and the botox-filled face of the one with C5 at taga.

White hair chronicles XXII - I remember people power 1

Tempus fugit! It's now more than a generation since the EDSA people power revolt but I still remember vividly those heady days.

In '85, Marcos was still so well entrenched despite the swelling sentiment against his regime that he confidently called a snap election when pressured by his American masters. I personally thought there was no way Cory could win, even without Marcos cheating. The people were still deathly afraid of him. In my office then, a government corporation, the staff was even scared to talk about the signature campaign for Cory to run. Young and fearless, I did what to my office mates was unthinkable. I signed the petition. The signature campaign caught momentum and since then I knew Marcos' end was near.

I became part of my office's hakot brigade in the Batasan canvassing. The session hall was divided between the pros and antis. The government hakots composed the pros. The antis sounded to have more fun compared to the nervous air in the pros side. They  boisterously cheered each time Bono Adaza noticed small defects on a canvass. They booed when the chairman just said 'asteriks'. I cheered and booed with them even if I was on the pros side. I wandered around the corridors to find a way to get to the antis. When I got to the other side, I proudly waved at my office mates. Their shock and disbelief is still etched on my mind.

On the second day of the EDSA uprising, I asked them who's coming with me to EDSA. Although still very wary, many dared and went with me. The atmosphere was still tense, anything could still happen. But I believed it was just a matter of days before Marcos goes. They couldn't kill us all, I told my friends. By the fourth day, I was at home when it was announced that Marcos had fled. I went outside and shouted at the top of my voice "wala na si Macoy, lumayas na!".  Ah, those were the days.

Pacquiao sings

Manny Pacquiao's attempts at singing. This video is at Yahoo Sports.


This is a link to a video at TMZ.com of the PacMan singing La Bamba.

This is from Jimmy Kimmel Live.