Political teleserye

Ms. Susan Roces has proved to be the award-winning actress that she is when she asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign last Wednesday.

It was theatrical: she delivered her lines very well and she properly executed the matching facial expressions in perfect timing.

She was an instant hit. She immediately captured the masa crowd, like what she had always done in her box-office movies in the past.

In contrast, President Arroyo’s “I’m Sorry” episode, while it may have had a wider reach because it was simulcast in several national radio and television stations, did not sell much. It was a dismal flop, with movie critics unanimously giving it a thumbs-down sign rating.

Her show spawned more demonstrations instead to ask her to step down.

If the President had failed to convince her audience in her public apology, it may have been because she had a bad script. Or, that she simply did not act her part well, being an amateur actress.

Or, it may have been simply because she had no originality, her show being a poor remake of a Bill Clinton international starrer in the late 1990s, when he figured in a White House sex scandal.

But as the country’s present political teleserye unfolds quite fast, the people are also entertained no end -- despite the economic difficulties that it has created – because of its several twists and turns and sub-plots, including the untimely insertion of a comedy trailer starring a clown named Jaime Aquino.

Who will prevail in the end depends on who will keep a better storyline and better actresses and actors.

In the Malacanang-produced segment, the latest is that First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and son, Mikey, a congressman and a movie actor, went on self-exile, leaving a “very sad President.” Even FGs lawyer had to emote when he read FGs statement.

On the other hand, supporters of the “griping widow” (as Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales had called Ms. Roces), are now consolidating their forces and gathering more support to take back the Presidency, which, they said, was robbed from them.

There is a guessing game now on how the show will end and when. A fortune teller says the President will in the end follow her husband in self-exile.

Another fortune teller says that Ms. Roces will be prevailed upon to shoot a full-length movie with most of its dialogues taken from the controversial Garci tapes.

But Mama Akong, my favorite balut vendor in Calasiao, told me that he is no longer interested to see how the teleserye will end because, he says, he and his family will remain poor anyway, whoever sits there as President.

Abangan ang pagpapatuloy ng teleserye.

ENDNOTES: Last Friday, the Rotary Club of Dagupan, led by its incoming president, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, launched its Patak Vitamin A Project at the West Central Elementary School. The project will benefit some 6,000 pre-school and Grade 1 pupils… On July 13, the Pangasinan-Washington Sister State Association (Pawassa) will be sending a delegation to Washington State. The delegation will consist of provincial and municipal government officials, as well as business and media representatives. Pawassa and its counterpart Seattle-based Washington-Pangasinan Sister State Association (Wapssa) has been sending poor but deserving Pangasinan students to college, among other projects.

QUICK QUOTE: Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson