‘… now she had to face the consequences of her running riot just because her local politician-lover had a new apple of his eye, leaving her drunk and heartbroken.’
FOLLOWING my column last Monday entitled “Of councilors and mistresses,” I received so many messages on Facebook as well by SMS expressing a wide array of commentary on the incident I was involved in. Many were kind messages telling me how fortunate I was that I was not hurt in the collision; others condemned the recklessness of the driver and included demands that she never be issued a driver’s license ever again.
There were just as many that were amusing, hooked on the illicit nature of the relationship between the driver of the car (it was a Mitsubishi Mirage, not a Toyota Vios as I first thought) and her honorable councilor-lover whose name she was liberally dropping and who, she said, she discovered to have someone else. It was this discovery that triggered her road rage that, thankfully, did not result in a single injury to limb or life, albeit leaving a trail of damaged vehicles behind.
But one comment on Facebook that struck me was from a UP Elementary and High School classmate who is now based in the US She said: “Isa ‘yan sa dahilan ng pangungurakot kasi ‘yung ibang pulitiko, dala-dalawa o mas marami pang pamilya ang binubuhay at binibilhan ng mga luho at kapricho nila.”
Indeed, having a woman on the side seems to be par for the course for many a politician. But in a macho society like the Philippines, no politician fears being punished by the voters – no need to name names here but womanizers have been elected to posts ranging from local government units up to the highest elective office of the land.
And they win over and over again.
But though these politician-lover boys may not live in fear of the voters, who knows how many of them could very well be living in fear of the wrath of the wife?
There, too, is the hurt they can inflict on the children when they find out that dad has not been loyal – especially if the children are so supportive and protective of their clueless mother.
Maybe it was because she was intoxicated – even the traffic aides along Quirino Ave. noticed it and I, of course, noticed it myself when she sat next to me. Or maybe it was because she was hurt and angry and afraid and wanted or hoped she would be treated better if she name-dropped. But for whatever reason, Ms. All-Black was not shy about telling whoever she could confess or apologize to that she was a kept woman of councilor so-and-so, even mentioning that because he was running for re-election, he so wanted this whole thing settled as quickly as possible.
(“Kept woman” is so devoid of the emotional and even sexual tensions that are attached to the Filipino version of the word: Kabit. I can tell you that Ms. All-Black was pained and proud to use the Filipino word when she proclaimed that that was precisely what she was.)
I’ve been inundated by messages asking me if I knew the identity of the Honorable Councilor Lothario. Some were even more specific, asking me if the lover named was this councilor from this district of Manila. She did mention his name to me, three times, and almost every single policeman and traffic enforcer involved in the incident anyway was aware of the identity of Honorable Councilor Lothario, who, she kept repeating, is a re-electionist. And who is married and has children.
Remember this – Ms. All Black flew into a rage because she found out that the Honorable Councilor was cheating on her. Surely “cheating on her” didn’t mean that he was privately seeing his wife, yes? Because for sure Ms. All Black would not consider that cheating, would she? But if, as she claimed, the Honorable Councilor was indeed cheating on her, then that only meant that other than Ms. All Black, there’s a third lady in the mix!
A Lothario indeed.
Anyway, as more collision victims were arriving at the Sta. Ana police station and negotiating with Ate (aka Ms. Costume Gold Jewelry) about the amount of damages they were seeking, I turned to Ms. All Black who was still seated next to me and gave her a short lecture. “Look, (I said) there are about four billion men on this planet. Take away the gays, the babies, and the seniors, you still have a lot to choose from. Don’t let one man make you lose your sense of value so much that you injure not only yourself but so many others and make the situation even worse than it already is. You deserve better.”
She nodded, her eyelashes heavy with tears that were ready to drop but couldn’t maybe because of the thick mascara. I was not too sure if she was really listening, or if she could really break away from that local politician who must have wined and dined her and promised her the moon. And who must have delivered on his promises as politician-lovers always do (ha-ha) – until he found a new one.
She sighed, and I could smell the alcohol. But being a non-drinker, I could not identify the drink. But more than the stench of alcohol, what stuck to me were her words: “Kabit po aka.”
Later on, I watched her, sitting so forlornly in the passenger seat of a PNP AUV as she was taken from the Sta. Ana station to undergo a medical checkup. This was more than four hours after she started ramming vehicles from Quirino to Paco. Young and good-looking, she was still lucky that her mad spree behind the wheel didn’t end up killing anyone. But now she had to face the consequences of her running riot just because her local politician-lover had a new apple of his eye, leaving her drunk and heartbroken.
Politicians with mistresses. I guess that’s par for the course indeed!
(How the settlement discussions ended will be for Friday!)
