They were either miserably ignorant or sadly misinformed about the right of the public to know the health condition of the President. It should not have been kept a secret.

No less than the Constitution – yes, the very Charter that GMA’s political hucksters insidiously plan to mangle through their infamous "Con-Ass"! – provides it. "In case of serious illness of the President," according to its Article V11, Section 12, "the public shall be informed of his (her) state of health…" and "…the members of the Cabinet in charge of national security and foreign relations and the Chief-of-Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines shall not be denied access to the President during such illness."

What Malacañang’s officials and mouthpieces failed to comply with that Constitutional mandate. It was only after the media, both newspapers and broadcast networks, revealed the true purpose of GMA’s confinement at the Asian Hospital that they admitted the truth.

Before this, they lied when they announced that GMA went straight to the Asian Hospital for self-quarantine, a precautionary move against the spread of AH1N1 flu, upon her arrival from her much-criticized trips to Japan, Colombia and Brazil. Rather it was to undergo biopsies which showed that she has "masses in her breast and groin" which the hospital’s bulletins called "benign."

It may not be indeed what the Charter calls "serious illness," but the deliberate act of hiding the true state of GMA’s health is absolutely condemnable!

It’s yet another item in the long list of grave issues that has greatly and permanently damaged GMA’s credibility all these years of her lawless regime.

Well, as long as the GMA government is not honest, laws are not obeyed, and justly and impartially administered, the Filipino people will find themselves – as they have been for over eight long years now – caught in its despicable system of lies, evasions, folly, graft and bribery, and abounding scams and scandals!

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Ivi’s Festival of Flowers…. Artist, singer and good friend Ivi Avellana Cosio’s latest artworks were exhibited at Le Souffle at the Rockwell Amorsolo Towers in Makati City last week.

Titled "Floriade 5," Ivi’s 24 paintings of flowers in oil pastel on paper and acrylic on canvas were indeed a colorful festival of flowers.

Viewing the artworks gave me a very pleasurable feeling of being surrounded by a myriad of beautifully flowering bulbs and various blooming plants.

Flowers have always been the subject very close to Ivi’s heart. That’s why it’s no wonder she keeps returning time and again to the incomparable images of flora. "It’s a passion," she proudly says, "I have nurtured for years."

One can see this in her incomparable rendition of yellow Heliconias, white Callas, Neoregelias or Bromeliads, tiny flowers that arise out of the roseate and range in colors from blue, white to purple; a purple Lysianthus, an Anthurium named "Flamingo Flower," and others.

Indeed, Ivi’s painted flowers looked, oh, so real that one was tempted to touch them gently, and, regrettably, they were not redolent with the scents of real blossoms.

Bravo, Ivi, bravo!

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"A Forbidden Love Affair" … The Argentine woman in the "affair" with Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina, finally emerged from the shadows into the limelight. She’s Maria Belen Chapur, a well-mannered, soft-spoken and elegant Buenas Aires TV reporter, mother of two young boys, and speaks fluent English, Spanish, French and Italian.

She issued a terse press statement denouncing an un-named person who hacked her "Hotmail" account to download and publicly released her exchange of love missives. And then she told the enthralled media it was her last word on the affair.

Will it really be the end of an Affair to Remember?

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"The Boob Job" …After initially dismissing it as just "rumor," GMA’s voluble mouthpiece finally admitted that she had "breast augmentation" 20 years ago.

He wasn’t supposed to do that, until an ex-press secretary, rising to defend his ex-Boss, told the press: "There are two sets of breasts. One was real, the other fake!"