A Nation of Whistleblowers

I realize only today, April 04, that, yes, what the newest mass-media darling Rodolfo ‘Jun’ Lozada, former President of the Philippine Forest Corporation (PFC) has been doing is whistleblowing. I wasn’t minding the act as much as the actor and what he was acting out (see my ‘The Audacity of Hype’ and ‘A Fractured Hero’ and ‘100. The Original Jun Lozada Jokes,’ frankahilario.wordpress.com), until I reread the 21 March 2008 issue of the in-house newsletter ICRISAT Happenings, where among other things reported, the Board of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) had approved a whistleblower policy for the Institute.

Come to think of it, the Philippines is a nation of whistleblowers, and we have made whistleblowing a spectacular circus act, with Senate President Manuel Villar as Producer, Chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee Alan Peter Cayetano as Chief of Extravaganza and former PFC President Jun Lozada as Clown. As the whole world knows by now, we Filipinos are masters of extravaganzas. I must admit it is very highly entertaining though. So, keep your TV sets open and entertain yourself if you had nothing better to do. If your PC is high-tech enough, go to YouTube and play Jun Lozada. Me? The Windows Media Player 11 that comes with Windows Home Basic that comes with my new HP Compaq Presario C700 Notebook PC is good enough for me. And while I listen to music, say the Beatles and Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra and the Corrs and Jennifer Paige and MYMP and Lea Salonga, I write.