“It is worth noting that in most of the accusations thrown at Mike Defensor, his sincere concern to help others in need has been unfairly portrayed as underhanded ploys to cover for the current administration . Despite all odds, Victorina has helped the subjugated like Brian Gorrell, Gen. Boy Miranda etc. etc… Now, as the founder of Dona Victorina, let me say my piece about an article written by Louie Logarta of the Tribune!”

As someone who has known Mike Defensor for over three decades now, I feel the urge to speak out on his behalf, if only to parry the uncalled-for and malevolent blows Mike been subjected to over the past few years. It has been a vinegary turnaround of public perception for Mike since he allied with the administration. Gone are the days when people greeted him with thunderous cheering as an opposition congressman. All of his close-to-impossible feats in government (like the NAIA opening or the activation of the PNR) seem to dissipate with the mere mention of the three letter word G-M-A!

Anyone who has really gotten to know Mike Defensor knows that he will stand up for a friend. Not many know that in a bid to help Udong Mahusay in 2003, Mike was accused of trying to silence a witness of Senator Ping Lacson. Few know that Udong’s brother Jojo has long worked as a driver for Mike; and it was in fact Jojo who requested Mike to intercede. On several occasions, Mike Defensor has interceded in my behalf - even to the point of intervening and visiting the military rebels incarcerated in Camp Aguinaldo. I know Victorina got him in trouble for this…

Mike Defensor’s genuine desire to help others has regretfully become an easy target for those pitted against the current government, to the detriment of Mike’s reputation. It is worth noting that in most of the accusations thrown at Mike, his sincere concern to help others has been unfairly portrayed as underhanded ploys to cover for the current administration.

Now, as the founder of Dona Victorina, let me say my piece about an article written by Louie Logarta of the Tribune!

It was no less than Doris Lessing who said: “that the great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion.”

While sipping on a mocha latte at Starbucks one day, I was left with one of those trashy papers - The Tribune (or Philippine Tribune or the Manila Tribune???); it was the only paper left in the newspaper rack that no one bothered reading. Forced to flip through its pages, I chanced upon the column in the Tribune of the aging newspaper columnist, Louie Logarta.

In his column, “War in Q.C.,” Logarta begins with mega run on sentences that almost garroted me while I tried to savor my mocha latte. He writes; “Because who else could have had the gall, the gumption, the wherewithal and the motive to engineer such an offensive against Bautista, the perceived frontrunner in the QC mayoralty derby by virtue of his being supported by last-term Mayor Sonny Belmonte who still has all the resources of city hall at his disposal, except Defensor’s formidable demolition squad whose activities he allegedly personally oversees from his mansion on Ifugao Street in plush La Vista Subdivision?” (gasping for air...)

Logarta’s unsubstantiated accusation against Mike Defensor, using a garrulous play of words, says a lot about the ailing columnist and his morose paper.

Logarta continues; “The other day, from out of the blue, some totally unknown fellow identified as one Carlos de Leon emerged from the woodwork to file qualified theft and estafa charges against Bautista and his brother Hero for stealing from his office a one-ton tarpaulin printing machine valued at about P1.2 million last August 2009.” Logarta asserts “it is queer that Vice Mayor Bautista’s name was even included in the information lodged in the QC Prosecutor’s Office when the alleged crime was basically attributed to the brother, together with six accomplices, who was given the keys to Carlos De Leon’s office CHAM Advertising in Project 8, QC where he (Hero Bautista) was supposedly a trusted employee.”

However, Logarta, either intentionally or because of old age, failed to consider Carlos De Leon’s narration: "When I asked Hero why he took away my printer, he arrogantly said the Vice Mayor (Herbert Bautista’s) ordered him to do so." "Magdemanda ka na lang kung gusto," the younger Hero Buatista added.

He further says; “truth of the matter is that the mayoralty race is really a two-horse affair with Vice Mayor Bautista and his running mate Joy Alimurung on one hand and the group of Mike Defensor on the other…The Bautista-Alimurung tandem is considered the odds on favorite to claim city hall because of the tremendous monetary and logistic support they’re getting from Mayor Belmonte,”

Reading Logarta’s poorly constructed article left a sour taste in my mouth. I dreaded the thought of having to read more “nonsensical verbal diarrhea” as I tossed his broadsheet back on the table. Luckily, another customer was through reading “another newspaper” and quickly picked it up from his seat, leaving behind the Tribune and its nauseating print for someone else to pick apart!