CITY OF SAN FERNANDO\u2014Kapampangan pride received either a boost or a beating depending on who you ask among the cabalen of Senator Manuel \u201cLito\u201d Lapid concerning his first-ever \u201cperformance\u201d at the Senate impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
\nFor a few minutes, the action star-turned-lawmaker, not exactly known for eloquence but more for his membership in the so-called committee on silence, rose confidently on Day 10 of the trial to throw questions in Filipino at a prosecution witness from the Security and Exchange Commission.
\nLapid took to the floor on Wednesday at the time when he was in the media spotlight albeit for an entirely different case closer to home: His wife Marissa was charged with dollar smuggling in the United States last week.
\nKapampangan musician Irwin Nucum was hardly impressed by what he saw. He dismissed as \u201cinsignificant,\u201d for example, Lapid\u2019s question on the difference between a \u201ccash advance\u201d and a \u201cloan.\u201d
\nThe issue then was about the P11-million loan taken by Corona and wife Cristina from a supposedly inactive company owned by her family in 2003.
\n\u2018Gentleman from Pampanga\u2019
\n\u201cFirst of all, he himself should know the difference between the two terms,\u201d Nucum said, adding that Lapid\u2019s performance showed the level of his intellect.
\n\u201cI felt ashamed when [Lapid] was called a \u2018gentleman from Pampanga,\u2019\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI wish he talked first with his chief of staff [before he rose to ask questions] so he could avoid becoming a laughingstock,\u201d said lawyer Dante David. \u201cI was hurt, and I felt pity for him.\u201d
\nBut for social worker Tess Briones, Lapid\u2019s courage was admirable enough. \u201cWhether he asked the right question or not, I was glad to see him stand up to ask questions,\u201d she said.
\nFor writer Caesar Lacson, Lapid was \u201cgood at being an exceptional comic relief in the trial.\u201d
\n\u2018Shining moment\u2019
\nBut for Lapid\u2019s own lawyer, Ricardo Sagmit, it was a shining moment.
\n\u201cHe did very well. First of all, a company that has been dissolved cannot transact regular business. Second, upon his questioning, the matter of nondisclosure and betrayal of public trust came up,\u201d said Sagmit, a member of the 1971 Constitutional Convention and lawyer of then Chief Justice Hilario Davide when the latter faced impeachment in 2003.
\nThe Philippine Daily Inquirer tried to reach Lapid on Thursday, but the senator did not take the calls on his mobile phone.
\nIn speeches delivered when he was still Pampanga governor, Lapid often recounted how he only finished high school because of poverty.
\nHis father, Jose, a cameraman who doubled as a stuntman, died when he was young. His mother, Eleuteria, worked as a laundrywoman to support four sons and three daughters.<\/p>\n