Bad for Tourism

I joined my daughter on her class field trip to Luneta last Friday, 7 October 2011. I was quite surprised at the number of tourists. There were busloads of students from as far as Bulacan and Laguna, pre schoolers, grade schoolers, high schoolers and even a group of college students. A few foreign tourists were also present, mostly Asians in small groups of ten or so.

The mood was colorful. Kids playfully mimicked the march of the honor guard. The horse carriages and wheeled trains took smiling guests around the park. Vendors vibrantly peddled all sorts of goods, from balloons, to hats to photography services. It was fun, it was festive.

 But there was one big eyesore: The Luneta Park Tourist Police. There were about a dozen of them. And they were all huddled in and around their outpost, chatting, texting, sleeping and even getting a massage!

We were in Luneta for more than 30 minutes. And during the entire time we were there, the tourist police never budged from their comfy corner. Man, what a life these guys have. They seem to be enjoying more than the tourists they're supposed to watch over.

Wasn't it not too long ago that the head of the Luneta Tourist Police was sacked because their outposts were not manned? Well, apparently they learned their lesson for this outpost was certainly manned. By no less than a dozen lazy bums!

This is not good for tourism.

Who he?

I was in Starbucks Tomas Morato this morning enjoying my usual grande cafe mocha when in walked a not so tall yet regal looking man surrounded by at least six burly, baron-clad men, some with bulging clutch bags, a few holding folders.

It was the senator who not too long ago was released from military detention for his coup de etat attempts.

It was not a pleasant sight. Not that the senator was pushing his weight around. He didn't have to. His entourage took care of that. By their sheer size and number.

Was this his security detail? His friends? Or his fellow co-conspirators who were expelled from the military for what they did?

I was never a fan of this senator or of the military group he represented, Though I sympathized with their cause, I never agreed with the way they took the law in their own hands. No matter what, the end does not justify the means.

And as I left the coffee shop I spotted four more security men outside. It looked very much like a war zone.

How ironic. The man who spent so many years under strict guard now moves around with his own phalanx of men.