That exact moment an artist puts the last daub of paint in a work of art, it breathes its own.
Intrigue, like art or like the truth, these things earn lives and live on their own, uncontrollable.
So we did not break sweat in following the end of the $81Million bank account as intrigue flapped its wings, fanning the fodder of corruption. And again, it involves an alleged Capitol official.
After decades of decadent television culture, bland vaudevilles and run-on telenovelas, people have imbibed the culture so attuning: intrigue to get one immersed in the cold art of storytelling.
For those whose past weeks were spent in the closet, a lawyer journalist spilled the details of a tale but adeptly omitted the links to cook up an arcane tale. The story however perked up the intrigeros.
It said, a woman who deposited an amount in a bank, was erroneously handed the wrong passbook.
Of course, the woman, unnamed, saw the deposit, which was too much, realized it was not her passbook. So, she returned it to the teller and pointed to her the error.
The teller, accordingly panicked and profusely apologized, before handing her the real passbook.
Then, like any ripe intrigue, the tale went on saying, this woman’s conscience couldn’t keep her settled, she has to confess to a priest. The priest too, accordingly passed the story. Besides, the teller vanished.
And the art, intrigue, lie or truth rolled like a snowball, picking up tiny details until the whole tattered story stood whole, menacingly rattling the loose nutheads at Capitol.
So the tale nudged Boholanos via newspapers and editors who find a lawyer’s and a journalist’s statement too good to pass off as hoax. Well, even lying politicians can be news sources, so why not a lawyer who knows he could be laundered in the washing machines of public opinion if he faults?
Feeling slighted by the tale of a multimillion deposit, and feeling too early heroic, a legislator at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan stood to demand an investigation.
And apparently, the arcane tale hooked an arcane legislator too, who seems authorized by the Vice Governor to lead the Committee of the Whole, invited media messengers, all but one.
So what do we have?
A story now, with P81million now wrongly seen as $81M, a woman depositor who is not a woman after all, a priest who denies he is that unnamed priest, and Capitol again behaving like it had all the money to spend just to deflect an issue that nobody would have believed.
So what if the alleged priest breached the vows of confession to share the story? And so what if a banker, who happens to apparently step on the feet of the current association president, breached bank secrecy laws?
Well, if indeed there is no meat in the tale because it was just an intrigue, then why the spin?
Ah, because like a lie or an intrigue, truth too must have its way of getting revealed. And because no matter how arcane the tale is, the smoke always leads to a fire somewhere.
