Wrong spelling, poor grammar get Gibo's goat

It takes a misplaced comma to get on administration party bet Gilberto Teodoro Jr.’s nerves. Teodoro, a Harvard-schooled lawyer and a bar topnotcher, said in a radio interview on Tuesday that little things such as wrong spelling and bad grammar tend to irritate him. “‘Yung mga maliliit na bagay na nakikita mo tulad ng maling spelling, maling grammar. Naiinis na ako dun (I get irritated by little things that I see such as wrong spelling and bad grammar)," he said in an interview with broadcast journalist Mike Enriquez in the radio program “Ikaw Na Ba?: The Presidential Interviews" aired over radio dzBB on Tuesday morning. Enriquez had asked him what makes him mad. Teodoro explained that poor grammar and wrong spelling are signs of “incompetence" and “lack of dedication" — two of the things he said he hates most. During the same interview, the Lakas-Kampi-CMD standard-bearer said he would be a “meticulous" president, since little details could make a big difference. “Dapat tama ‘yan. Ayaw ko ng mali-maling ganyan sapagkat isang (maling) comma lang, maiiba na, pwede nang maiba (ang ibig sabihin) (These little things should be correct. I don’t like wrong details because a misplaced comma could change the meaning of a sentence)," he said. The former defense secretary said he acquired the habit of paying attention to little details from former justice secretary and solicitor-general Estelito Mendoza. Mendoza is currently the lawyer of Marcos associate Eduardo “Danding" Cojuangco Jr., the chairman of San Miguel Corp., reportedly Southeast Asia’s largest food conglomerate. Teodoro worked for seven years in Mendoza’s law firm after finishing his law studies at the University of the Philippines and topping the Philippine Bar Exams in 1989. Best in grammar Teodoro has the right to be nitpicky since he speaks the English language best among the 10 presidential aspirants, according to a grammar expert from the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman. “According to my colleagues and to most of my students, Gibo is really the best speaker among all the candidates. He does not intimidate and he knows what he is talking about," Professor Rosalina Bumatay-Cruz of the UP Department of English and Comparative Literature told GMANews.TV in a phone interview. “I think it is only right for him to have a good command of the English language [since he studied in Harvard]," she added. Bumatay-Cruz however said that Teodoro’s “command" of the English language can also be a “disadvantage" especially if he wants to appeal to the masses. “It is a disadvantage if you want to speak to the masses. A candidate should know both Filipino and English and should be able to shift from one language to the other depending on the audience," the professor said. Teodoro continues to register single-digit preference ratings in recent presidential polls, making him the consistent fourth placer in surveys, way behind frontrunners Senators Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III and Manuel Villar, Jr. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV