juicy

i've always thought any news of a politician's romantic tryst will surely fail to draw interest from me. and in this post-Erap period, i can only remember but two that had somehow found their way to the front pages of media broadsheets. one being the supposed more-than-political liaison of the president and then justice secretary nani perez, earning the latter the moniker "first boyfriend" by the malacañang press; and the other brought about by the controversial disbarment case filed by a certain celia suarez against, this time, the first gentleman, citing immorality, claiming they were steady lovers, and providing rather graphic details of their, well, "carnal relationship." but all these issues died a natural death and were put to the trash bins like a typical tabloid report.

romy and tom. not a usually catchy title for an article, but i've been lurking around ellen tordesillas' blog for months and decided to read what she's up to this time. in utter surprise, a new exciting twist in the series of events following the NBN/ZTE anomaly almost made me fall off my chair this otherwise boring afternoon. from what i gather, it looks like fear of a personal scandal, and not physical threat, is what's preventing romy neri from turning opposition witness and had him repeatedly invoking executive privileges in this huge political row. presidential representatives allegedly relayed the message to neri that he can talk about what he knows of the telecommunications deal "up to the level of COMELEC chairperson benjamin abalos" (hahaha, sacrificial lamb!) but restricted him from going up the ranks of gloria arroyo and mike arroyo or he'd risk having the juicy details of his same-sex love affair (with "tom", thus, romy and tom) land in the headlines.

again, i personally find this issue too tabloid-ish, but here's my forecast: either neri goes to senate, testifies and implicates the first couple in this scandalous deal, and i declare him my personal hero, or he leaves the country in the classic garci fashion, and continues to allow the present administration to hold him by the balls, literally. oh, and i can also see ellen adding this issue in her stack of libel suits... but did the supreme court not just released a circular favoring fine over imprisonment in libel cases? that's going to be chicken for ellen then.

but seriously, you see? i believe that in the long run, it's just hero or no hero for neri. his sexual preference is immaterial. and in this day and age, even uttering a single gender slur is a crime!