A woman, who looked more than a man to me, shrieked as if she's just had an orgasm after sleeping with Brad (or perhaps Angelina because she looked more than a man to me, told you).

I gave it to her --"her" because I want to be correct here--that not so often a commoner gets a chance to shake the hand of a smiling President who is embattled by the controversies and the deafening calls for her to resign--and still can afford to smile.

The scream of the woman, as she bragged about how she managed to point her camera-ed phone and shoot the president, was a stealer that even the smiling president, clad in sky-blue suit, had she not been too engrossed at giving out that signature smile and countless thank-yous, could have been irritated by it.

Honest, I saw the woman's esophagus. And irritated was one senior journalist who had to, amid the chaos, ask the woman "idol mo siya (you idolize her)?"

The woman,surprised by the question, for a split second, stopped. Recomposed the self and grinning but still exposing the tired esophagus, proudly said "syempre!"

She was very happy, sure, that the President shook her hand. But the President also shook several dozens of strangers' hands Wednesday afternoon and the President, I bet, would never ever remember one face in the crowd.

Honest, I am wondering whether the President, described by the members of the League of the Municipalities of the Philippines-Mindanao cluster as someone with "integrity and honest," could even remember the feel of a person's hand.

But that was not my problem Wednesday. I know something was wrong when I saw some journalists--those who do not mind dying just to be where the news is happening--at the lobby of the hotel when they were already supposed to be at the ballroom, waiting for the President to, well, give out the news.

My problem was whether or not the more or less 15 journalists who were stopped by the guards at the lobby (or those who were forced to leave the ballroom prior to the arrival of the President) of the hotel will be allowed to go up even without the the security pass.

But you know, I for one, already have a security pass numbered CN 070. I got hold of the pass, a Malacanang Media Pass signed by the head of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) and accredited and cleared by Media Accreditation and Relations Office (MARO) of the Office of the Press Secretary, during the media briefing the day before the President arrived.

The security was really tight. And the the secretariat was not attending to the queries of the journalists who were stalled and were really, really getting anxious because the situation only meant one thing--we will be missing the statement of the President.

But we realized that we did not have to worry about whether we will be able to hear her announcements. One senior reporter said: "She needs us more that we need her."

With that, we proceeded to the bar and allowed coffee and a platter of French fries to simmer us down. Few minutes after, we went outside the hotel to only overhear a woman, apparently a servant of the MARO, telling a group of journalists that "I can allow you to get inside the hotel but not go up the ballroom."

Hell, what was she thinking? That she owns the hotel? That people cannot go inside the hotel without her facilitating it? That people cannot be in that hotel because the President was there getting the assurance of Mindanao mayors that she has their support, no matter what, in exchange for a fat annual internal revenue allotment? What?


That plus the frustration later pushed the journalists to tear the Malacanang issued Media pass.







PS.

Forgive my address of the President as the President when I could have used her name instead to avoid annoying repetitions. I have to be consistent with her recent assertion that "...ako pa rin ang pangulo."