Tongpats

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Pinoys are so great with word play. We could invent a new word just by reversing or inserting certain syllables like ‘pa’ or ‘ga’ in between syllables. I loved doing the ‘pa’ and ‘ga’ game back in grade school. My mom would be horrified every time I said something like,

“Apalampam mopo bapa napa apakopo aypay hinpindipi papa kupumapakapainpin, Mapa?

You just have to take out the ‘pa-pe-pi-po-pu’ after every syllable and you have the exact translation. The ‘pa’ inserts depend on the vowel of the previous syllable so if you have ako, you say it as apakopo. The same goes for the ‘ga’ inserts only the ‘pa’ ones are easier to use.

We also make up new words by mere association. The infamous Jologs for Jolina’s Organization started when rumors about Jolen’s alleged transfer from UP to AMA was because of the former school’s lack of star treatment for her. Berks for barkada, as popularized by ABS-CBN’s teeny-bopper series with the same title, was originally used to refer to the brand Birkenstock: predecessor of Havaianas’s fame. Then we also have Granma which, when said nonchalantly sounds like grandma, actually refers to Grand Matador Brandy.

My favorite, I have to say, is word reversal. We’ve made tons of them from bokal (kalbo or skin head), olats (talo or losing at something), amats (tama which is the tagalog term for when you get drunk), and even yobab (baboy or pig or referring to someone fat).

Tongpats or patong is a relatively new term. It means two things: (1) to put on top of and (2) to augment. It’s not used in just your everyday conservations like,

Paki-tongpats naman ‘tong dyaryo sa mesa (Please put this newspaper on the table)

Oh no. It usually refers to the amount of money a politician or any government official or anyone can ‘take home’ – tax free. Tongpats can also be put in more legal terms such as arranger’s fee, broker’s fee or notarial fee just like in the cases of Ben Abalos, Jocjoc Bulante and now joining the list is the Speaker’s bro, Jose Nograles.

The Fertilizer Scam and the ZTE-NBN Deal are both out of season. The new thing in is the Swine Scam which allegedly put out 5B pesos for loan facilities for swine purchases in the LandBank. Jose Nograles was initially paid with a hefty 14M pesos for notarial fees through his ONL Consultancy firm but Quendancor president Nelson Buenaflor later said that Nograles was also paid 100M as tongpats or arranger’s fee to the project. Harry Roque said that the arranger’s fee was unjustified since the transaction was between two government entities and that the deal used government securities as collateral.

But Speaker Nograles says that his bro is not even a lawyer so why would he be paid notarial fees? For the Speaker, this is outright lies made by Sen. Jamby Madrigal to tarnish the Nograles name. But then again, when your name gets hitched into one of these fiascos, one cannot truly escape scrutiny: your bound to public distrust and humiliation. A perfect example would be new SSS president Romy Neri. I think the constant rallies in his office are enough proofs that his constituents are not on his side, more so trust him.

I hope this time the Blue Ribbon Committee can do something more concrete about this case: not just pa-kodak moment with the media especially for those 2010 presidentiables.

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Filed under National Broadband Network, ZTE Corp, ben abalos, mumblings, pgma, pinoy stuff, politica et.al

Tags: granma, harry roque, jologs, jose nograles, nelson buenaflor, quedancor, romy neri, speaker nograles, swine scam, tongpats