Magalong and MSL

He’d said again to a friend recently, as he had countless times before, “I never turn my back on my men in battle. I never abandon my people in the middle of a fight.”

Some call it the Magalong urban legend, or the PMA “mistah creed.” Whatever, Benjie has collected shrapnel scars over the years to prove it. Throughout his active tour of duty, he did stand in front of soldiers he commands. He did take a bullet or more for them, and in the flesh too not just in the flak jacket.

I don’t know what act of esprit de corps Mel S. Licoben did that earned him Benjie Magalong’s patronage to THAT degree. Mel, of course, is an Army reserve officer, not quite peemayer but Cavalier enough to come under the homage of that strange military fraternal culture of “my brother, right or wrong.”

So the moment Benjie took Mel under his wings and told everybody in NEA to back off, Mel could already stop feigning humility, bashfully walking around like he was tiptoeing through a minefield. No one—not even NEA—can take out Mel Licoben now without standing in the crosshairs of Benjie’s avenging wrath. If he said, “hayaan nyong mag-retire ng matiwasay yang bata ko” no one’s going to waste any energy on a rejoinder. Like I’ve boldly said, you can put away all those “MSL is my GM” placards now.

NEA is NEVER gonna touch Mel Licoben—not as long as Mel is this tech-savvy SCADA-pushing GM, and Baguio City is this ambitious Digital Smart City morphant, totally laser-focused on spending to the last centavo its P200-million (plus plus, I heard) computer smart city integrated data-collection and management program. Or as long as Almeda himself is substantially invested in the Philippine subsidiary of the international digital company that sets up these things in cities like Cebu, Davao, Baguio—and I heavily emphasize here that there’s NO connection between these bits of grapevine trivia I just picked at random.

Trust me, at this point NEA’s problem is not how to neutralize this “MSL is my GM” clamor from the Licoben fans club—it’s how to discreetly IMPLEMENT it.

On the ground, it’s much easier. They have Mel ACTUALLY running all the daily business at South Drive, sitting behind his old GM desk in his old GM corner office. They still just won’t call him THE General Manager—or pay him less money, lest they run afoul with the Labor Code.

Mel CANNOT loudly and publicly acknowledge Benjie’s extraordinary protection. But he will demonstrate by the way he commands his own battle units of “warriors of light” BENECO linemen that he can “do a Magalong” too, not in the NPA-infested forests of Mindanao but in the equally-trouble prone forest of BENECO poles.

Ramil Rafani is still, of course, the acting GM and he is really working hard on polishing his acting. What’s the matter with you guys? You can’t just put out all these BENECO announcements and put “BY MANAGEMENT” at the bottom line—you gotta stick Rafani’s signature somewhere in there, too, come on…

Almeda is still several steps ahead of everyone, too, at this point. He has all but totally disarmed the once militant MCO chatterboxes—and all it has cost him so far is nothing. After failing to persuade Marie Rafael to stay on so long as she “go with the flow” (of supply current), he dropped her “upwards” and settled for just looking for another ambitious woman to frontload. It didn’t take long or hard, of course, for as they say it in the vernacular, “kung palay na mismo ang lumalapit, ano pang gagawin ng manok?”

But I don’t guarantee the veracity of that. You have to “factcheck” it yourself.

Back to my aimless reverie on that “MSL is my GM” mantra, I sought to prove its expired necessity myself as I paid my last bill at the drive-through, “sino nang GM nyo, nakkong?” I asked.

“Ni Sir Mel ladta, sir.”

“Not Ramil Rafani?” and she panicked, so I had to calm her down, “No, no, no—no need to explain, hija. Baka ma-miscount mo pa yang sukli ko!”

“Thank you, Prof!” she whispered before I drove away. I wonder what gave me away—perhaps the “No, no, no” part. All my Alpha Class students would always remember that.

So at the AGMA—if I were Almeda or his minions—I would carefully massage this “MSL is my GM” mantra, artfully set up the people demanding for it on how to subtly recognize that NEA has ALREADY heeded it—because Almeda has no choice. He couldn’t care less what any MCO wants, but he can’t lose Benjie’s fruitful friendship either. NEA just cannot be loud about it, lest the Magnificent Seven pick up on it. Touché—trust me, if I can read it, so can they.

It’s really only the MCO’s who either haven’t read the situation thoroughly yet, or are doing their best to escape the fact that they know it.*

(post-script: I hope you continue to put up with me, i.e. shorter posts, still no spiffy graphics. These doctors won’t even let me bring my laptop into the room and they have no wifi)