‘Little things can say a lot of things about people and places, events and occasions. And that’s why it pays to be paying attention to even the littlest of little things.’
I’VE been binge-watching “The Residence” on Netflix while nursing a bum stomach. This is the second time I’m watching the series, but this time, since I am not in a rush, I am really taking in each episode, enjoying the dialogue and the insights you can find in the ensuing humor that marks the script from start to finish. My “binge-watching” isn’t a one-sit-down-finish-all episodes affair, the way I tried to do with “Crash landing on You” and the Thai BL series with Sarawat. This one is measured by watching, pausing and rewinding where I want to replay a certain dialogue, before moving on to the next encounter, the next scene, the next episode.
As an avid follower of US politics (which, until recently, was far more “principled” than ours), there were several exchanges that I liked. One of those was when the detective was peering into the doorknob assembly of one of the rooms on the third floor of the White House, releasing the latch with a finger and looking enlightened. When asked what she was doing she referred to the case of a roving security guard who happened upon an office door which had its locking mechanism taped to keep the door open; what the security guard had stumbled upon was the break-in by a shady group called the “Plumbers” who targeted the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in a Washington DC office complex called Watergate, from which the name “Watergate scandal” or “Watergate break-in” got its name.
“It’s the little things that matter,” the detective intones. In this case, in 1974, the “little thing” discovered by the roving guard led to the resignation of Richard Nixon, the first and only president in US history to leave office in that manner.
It’s the little things that matter, too, in the “bombshell of a testimony” by a retired Marine sergeant, Orly Guteza, who had been referred to Sen. Rodante Marcoleta by former Congressman and DENR Secretary Mike Defensor. And so many of those “little things” peppered that testimony.
It began with the details that Sen. Marcoleta said led to the appearance of the resource person. The good senator, in his introduction, said that he was called by Defensor because the latter had someone (Guteza) who would link former House Speaker Romualdez to this whole thing. Marcoleta says he agreed to meet Defensor and the “resource person,” but says he had to cut the meeting short as he had to return to the Senate for the hearings. He urged the resource person to finalize the testimony because he had seen it, and apparently, that is what was done. And then, voila! Here he was, Orly Guteza, being presented by Marcoleta to the committee.
The first “little thing” I noticed was that no one in the committee had any idea what the resource person was going to say. He had a sworn statement, but no one had an advanced copy. Well, let me correct that; no one but Marcoleta. In fact, it seems that the copy in Marcoleta’s hand was more complete than the copy that Guteza had, because the Senator noticed that the resource person skipped over a part – a part that was not in the copy that was being read. So Marcoleta had to stand up and give Guteza his copy while getting the deficient one from the witness.
The second “little thing” was in the narration about bringing 48 bags of cash up to the condo unit of Congressman Zaldy Co at the Horizon Suites in BGC, only to bring down some 30 of the same bags, which they then brought to the Romualdez residence in Forbes Park. I was wondering: why bring up all 48 when you could have just brought up the number that was to be left behind? Imagine hauling 48 luggage? Then again, maybe Cong Zaldy Co wanted to choose which of the luggage brands to keep.
Others have tried to estimate the weight of P48 million that the resource person says was contained in each bag, to see whether it was realistic to expect this number to be carried from place to place and also be transported in vehicles.
The third “little thing” I noticed was how Guteza’s voice quivered when he got to the part about asking for witness protection, which left the listener sensing how he feared for his life; however, “a few moments later,” thanks (again) to the questioning by Sen. Bato dela Rosa about having a registered firearm, Guteza bravely said that he could defend himself and needed no protection. “‘Yan and Marines!” exclaimed dela Rosa, who was apparently clueless (yet again) that he had just gotten Guteza to make a damning admission that clearly contradicted the sworn contents of the document he was reading.
Other “little things” about Guteza were pointed out by Sen. Erwin Tulfo, who asked him whether his one and only VIP escort duty was for Zaldy Co, which he affirmed. However, Tulfo has a copy of Guteza’s record, which showed that during the Duterte administration, he was VIP security for several sensitive offices and personalities, including the BoC, the Presidential Communications Office, and the Office of the Vice President as well!
And, of course, there’s the participation of Mike Defensor.
For sure, these and many other “little things” will be raised at the next Senate Blue Ribbon committee. But will Orly Guteza appear?
On a totally different note: I’ve been walking the sidewalks of Bangkok for a few days now and something struck me: I have never seen a cockroach cross my path, not once, not in the main touristy places, nor in the off-the-beaten-track areas. Why? Where’d they all go? Maybe cockroaches are Christian and not Buddhist?
Little things can say a lot of things about people and places, events and occasions. And that’s why it pays to be paying attention to even the littlest of little things.
