Your mantra for the week: Knowing that God is within me fills me with answered prayers.

 

Last week, we gave you three reasons IAMISM, aside from being a spiritual path, is also a Course in Happiness.

 

The fourth consideration is that IAMISM speaks in the simplest terms and is in no way a cult—defined as “a system of religious veneration or devotion toward a particular figure or object”—but more similar to the Marian and Jesus Christ cults.

 

Fifth, IAMISM encourages generosity, not only in terms of the material, but also in its being open to different belief systems, and if they contribute to the believer’s happiness.

 

Sixth, IAMISM challenges people to live their full potential because it has been observed that some people, according to an eminent scientist and inventor, “die at 25 but are buried at 75” because of ignorance; because of laziness in learning, creating or using their God-given talents; or because they are simply waiting to be buried so that they can go to heaven, ignoring their own Scriptures that “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

 

Seventh, IAMISM believes that forgiveness is a tool for survival because most people’s diseases stem from unforgiveness. For happiness, nothing can beat giving, forgiving and thanksgiving.

 

Gone is the Fu-House

 

Ricco Ocampo, head of Fu-House, gave the performance of his life recently in a video that went viral on social media. However, the one who deserves an award is Ms Inah Fuentes, a VP of Sun Life, for her Grace Kelly-ish Oscar portrayal of coolness under fire. She did not even need Fu Dogs to protect her. Katrina P. Craig is now the president and director of Manila House.

 

In the past two weeks, the public was truly entertained by two events: “Best Dressed Women of the Philippines” at Okada Manila was staged for the benefit of the Philippine Cancer Society, while Tingting Cojuangco’s “Elegant Filipinas” at Diamond Hotel, for Gabay Guro.

In the former, style icon Yoli Ayson looked stunning. The only two I know on the Best Dressed list were the charming Merci Padolina (the “Alice Eduardo” of Cabanatuan) and the pixie-like Malabon Vice Mayor Jeannie Sandoval.

 

On Tingting’s list, my favorites were Kai Lim and Jessica Maxwell, who had the full support of mother Zelda Kienle, husband Jesse, mother-in-law Doris Ho and sister Stephanie with her husband Christian.

 

I was uncomfortable with Mai Mai’s being on the list, not because she didn’t deserve it, but because in the days of de buena familia, one never included a relative in one’s own praise list.

 

Who is the matter with JPE?

 

Last week, I got calls, received notes and funny confrontations about how I “lied” about being arrested and detained at Camp Crame. Juan Ponce Enrile has really outdone himself this time by deliberately forgetting that he signed the detention papers of almost all detained persons who were known critics of his boss, who he ultimately double-crossed. Among them were the Con-Con delegates like Joe Concepcion, former VP Teofisto Guingona, Ernesto Rondon, Bren Guiao, one of Ninoy’s closest friends, Jose Nolledo, Natalio Bacalzo and media people like the unforgettable “you-know-who” originator Amelita Reysio-Cruz, Balita editor Ruben Cusipag, PNS editor Maning Almario, the Manila Chronicle’s Ernie Granada, novelist Celso Carunungan of “Satanas sa Lupa” fame, feisty columnist Louie Beltran, writer and Con-Con delegate Ding Lichauco, Taliba’s Benny Esquivel, Juan Mercado, my editor Luis Mauricio, my bunkmate student activist Jerry Barican, Ninotchka Rosca and our very own Amando Doronila. Let’s not forget activist-lawyer and former PCGG chair Haydee Yorac.

 

There were 86 of us arrested and detained those first two weeks of martial law, and we were provided with three toilets with no water during the day. But in JPE’s memory, all of us checked in at the Crame Hilton for a much desired vacation, because we really enjoyed having the dirtiest washroom in the country and being fed gourmet food thrice a day on a budget of P25 for all three meals.

 

At the Bonifacio Hyatt, the following were billeted: Chino Roces, Teodoro Locsin Sr., Nap Rama and, naturally, Serge Osmeña and Geny Lopez—who are not real people, just fictional characters played by Richard Gomez and Christopher de Leon in the movie “Eskapo.” And most of all, there was Ninoy Aquino, a Fil-Am from Boston who was being extradited and who “decided to commit suicide” at the tarmac.

 

By the way, this year I was paid reparation by the Human Rights Claim’s Victims Board. Fortunately, the money deposited in my bank account turned out to be legal tender. Rumors have it that Enrile is still alive because of his stem cell treatment, derived from the organs and tissues of unborn sheep. No wonder, he is baaaing away, revising history.

 

E-mail the author at [email protected]. Catch him live in his lectures on IAMISM every Sunday, 7 p.m., on his Facebook page.