Philippine Eagles 28th National Congress Day 2

Congressman Plaza.

Congressman Rodriguez.

President EstradaIt was back to Cagayan De Oro tonight to the 28th Annual Fraternal Order of Eagles National Congress. Tonight was the formal banquet in which the national officers were elected. (Epril and I rode in a Jeepney in our Sunday best. I actually had the laptop with me, and edited photos from last night's meeting on the way. It certainly makes the trip go much better... when you have something to distract you. Epril's iPhone television was also nice to have along.) As the night previously, lots of awards were handed out, the Philippine Eagles anthem was played and played, and dinner was served (pancit, fried calamari, a serving of a beef stew, and rice) and Beer Na Beer flowed liberally.

Also, the most famous members of the Philippines Eagles were in attendance, sitting at the President's table, and they did some speaking as well: Former Senate President and former Ambassador to The United States, Kuya Ernesto Maceda was there. Kuya Joey De Venecia, who was instrumental in exposing governmental corruption in the NBN/ZTE broadband case, was there. Congressman Kuya Rodolfo Plaza and Congressman Kuya Rufus Rodriguez both got up to speak... and the previous four Kuya all got up to offer kind words to the fifth Kuya, the keynote speaker of the evening, former President of The Philippines, and current Presidential Candidate Kuya Joseph Estrada. The big ballroom was filled to capacity and standing in the wings.

Below is the Presidential table: From left to right, you have (1) Kuya Ferdinand Bernisor, National PEIL (Membership and Protocol) Director, (2) Kuya Joe Longcob, the incoming National President of Eagles, (3) Kuya Ernesto Maceda, 4) Kuya Joey De Venecia, (5) Kuya Nilo Raymundo, founder of The Philippine Eagles, (5) Kuya Rufus Rodriquez, (6) Kuya Joseph Estrada, (7) Kuya Vincente Avila, outgoing National President of Eagles, (8) Kuya Erlquin Lim, National Vice President of Eagles, (9) Kuya Rodolfo Plaza, (10) Kuya Miguel Piso, and (11) Kuya Sonny Raypon, District Governor for Eagles of Northern Mindanao.


President Kuya Estrada seemed to entertain the crowd greatly... although I have to say that I missed the humor: For the dry and uninteresting political bits, he spoke in English; then for the self-deprecating and humorous bits, he broke into Tagalog. (Although, in referring to his time in jail, he did say, "No one can argue now: I'm a man of conviction.")

(Just a note: I'm writing about President Estrada as a fellow Philippine Eagle in a blog post about The Philippine Eagles. I'm omitting discussion (pro or con) about President Estrada's political career on purpose.)

Anyway, it was another lovely evening. I did get to shake Erap's hand (and I have Mike Turner to thank for his split-second camera handling for getting the handshake (sort of) on film) and had my photo taken with Congressman Plaza as well. After that, Epril and I caught a taxi back to Jasaan... with a quick stop at Jollibee drive-through on the way. (The dinner was good... but not filling.) We were home right around midnight.

Conressman Plaza and myself:
President Estrada and myself: Yes, it's a crap picture. I had about 2 seconds to get my camera out, turn it on, hand it to Mike Turner, and say, "Get a picture of this," before offering my hand to the former Philippines President, and Mike had about 1 second to point and shoot before Mr. Estrada was gone. Well done, considering.