"Somebody shoot him and get it over with"

For two days now, my normally quiet place got to see a little bit of excitement as Laarni and I worked on the second Coastal Resource Management Clearbook.

One would think that reproducing a 60 page clearbook full of IEC materials would be easy. It took us a day and a half of classification with the first one, around six hours with the second--edited--one, and just about the same for the third one--an expanded version.

But the day was great. We had an enjoyable lunch with Trina and by mid-noon, Sally went down to work in my place and the three of us had a blast just kidding around while working.

It was, I think, around three when we heard the faint tunes of "Spaghetti" being sung over and over.

It turned out to be the jingle for Jinggoy Estrada, who is running for Senator. Imagine the audacity of that man. Not only does his family get booted out of Malacanang Palace for screwing the people over, but he spent months on arrest at the Veterans Hospital.

Hello, big problem, you, why can't you notice???

As if that wasn't enough, a motorcade of senetoriables passed by.

Everyone was looking out: my former boss--and may I never see her again, ever--had her nose pressed to the glass on the windor next to her desk, and Laarni ran to the former big boss' room (which had bigger windows) to get a better look. Even I stopped in the middle of coaxing a stubborn photocopying machine just to look.

Eventually I gave in and ran to the former big boss' just to catch a glimpse of Rudy Fernandez whom I have never seen (he's cute but he's old)

The motorcade with Rudy passed by, which carried Alfredo Lim and the hopeful (or hopeless) himself, Jinggoy.

Sally and Laarni kept screaming Rudy, which he didn't hear. Instead, jinngoy Estrada gave us a wave as he passed by our window.

A TV camera was there and we kind of jumped back, scared as hell that we might end up on the evening news.

It's one thing to look like some groupie, but it's infinitely worse if you look like you're supporting someone who robbed the Filipino people blind just to feed his interests.

I think I screamed "What the hell is wrong with you!" at some point, but I don't think he heard me.

After a bunch of other people--including a windblown Jamby Madrigal and suprisingly Enrile, who looked rather forlorn standing at the back of a small pick-up--we trudged back to my cubicle, subdued and heading towards miserable at the sight of the senetoriables.

We had five minutes of distraught silence before Laarni suddenly spoke up:

"Wow, it's a good thing I'm not paying any taxes. That's the tax payers money that Jinggoy's wasting out there."

As an aside, me and everyone else in the office have a tax shelter because of a loophole in USAID and Laborlaw policies. It's a long and complicated thing that is a bit unfair, which is why we are going to start paying taxes this season--right after I leave.

In any case, what Laarni said deserved a high five. There is no way we would be paying for his campaign.

Sometimes it makes you wonder what the hell is wrong when people with pending criminal cases still win. Then you realize that you don't have to look very far to find the starving kids at the McDonalds not ten feet away from the motorcade.

Laarni and I agreed on one thing though: FPJ just can't win.

The last EDSA may have turned out to be a lot of fun, but we sure as heck do not want to do it again.