Councilor Brian’s mom vents

I AM yielding my space this week to the thoughts of Celia Lim nee Chua, a dear friend in our teen years and now the ultimate politician’s wife to Mayor Benjie Lim and doting mother to Councilor Brian Lim. First of all, I cannot but admire her fierce tenacity to defend her young and Councilor Brian should consider himself doubly blessed for having a mother who would never hesitate to pick up the cudgels for him, right or wrong. Dated January 18, she wrote:

Dear Sir:

As you may know, I am not a politician. I am a simple businesswoman and a housewife who rarely ventures into the contemptuous world of politics, to which I now have to painstakingly share my husband and son with. But even wives and mothers have to make sacrifices, for who am I to tell my husband and son to refuse the mandate that was given to them by the people?

I have always supported my husband in his adventures (or misadventures) in politics; recently, my son has began his journey too. Through the years, I have kept my silence despite the numerous times you have condemned and attacked my husband in your weekly column. I have always chosen to ignore your comments instead of dignifying them because to me they are based on convoluted facts.

But allow me to make this humble observation: because of your clearly biased opinion, and your newspaper’s obnoxious predisposition to one side of the political fence, your newspaper is slowly garnering the reputation as the most biased local publication in Pangasinan.

My opinion of your newspaper notwithstanding, this time I am calling your attention to respond to the slanderous and malicious name-calling you made against my son in your column dated January 16, 2010, where you called my son a trapo.

Perhaps you are misinformed as to what a definition of a trapo is. Because frankly speaking, for someone of your stature and caliber as a veteran columnist, it is inexcusable for you not to know or be mistaken as to the definition of a trapo.

Let me ask you this simple question: is a trapo defined as someone who tries to correct a wrong that he sees is being done?

Because Brian exposed that the Sanggunian Panlungsod failed to do its duty for nearly three months after the budget was submitted to them for approval makes Brian a trapo?

I am sorry, but only a perverse and spiteful mind would come up with such a statement and believe it to be logical and sensible.

May I humbly suggest that before you write anything in your column, always remember that there are two sides to every story. And I believe, that in order to be a respectable member of the fourth estate, it is your responsibility to check the facts before you express your opinions. Do not wholly rely on hearsay, or what certain persons in your circle whisper to you as the gospel truth.

For example, you said in your column on January 16: “The city council is under siege by his father Mayor Benjie with the intent of making the council a rubber stamp, bending to his will on a whim…”

Rubber stamp? Perhaps Mr. Garcia you should first check whether the Sangguniang  Panglungsod in the years 2008, 2009 and 2010, conducted any committee hearings to review the annual budget passed during those years.

Here’s another: “I know he’s not dumb but why is he clueless on what’s basic in governance? If he refuses to stand up for what is mandated by law…”

Mr. Garcia, maybe in your haste to finish your weekly column, you may have overlooked what is stated in Sections 318, 319, and 323 of the Local Government Code of the Philippines. A simple perusal will perhaps enlighten you to what is “mandated by law” regarding the annual budget of our city.

I fully understand that a life in politics necessarily includes being subject to criticism. For here lies the distinction, while criticism in acceptable, malicious and baseless comments should not be.

Perhaps you should try your luck again in politics and run for office in 2013. If fortune should shine upon you, you will be able to experience first-hand what it’s like to be a public servant. As I have seen, it is by no means an easy job. It certainly is more difficult to address the city’s issues from behind a desk in the City Hall instead of from behind a desk of a local newspaper.

I also fully understand that you may think that coming to my son’s defense is the result of a motherly instinct. I admit that is true, but only partially, because the bigger issue here is the deliberate, baseless, and malicious comments you made against my son to the people who read your column and newspaper.

Thus, in the interest of fairness, I humbly ask nothing less than the publication of this response letter in your newspaper in your January 23, 2011 issues.

Please remember that we don’t have to be members of the media to speak the truth. As citizens of this world, we owe this to one another, and it is in this spirit that I have broken my silence to respond to your column. With respect, I think it is you who should stand before a mirror, take a long look, and ask if you have been fair and truthful in the statements you have made.

Sincerely,

(Sgd.) Celia  C. Lim

*   *   *   *   *

Dear Mrs. Lim: I feel your angst, your frustration and your pain as wife and mother on reading critical comments and reports about your husband Benjie and son Brian in the PUNCH. But I assure you that when we write and report about how men and women in government comport themselves, there is only one standard that serves me as editor-publisher  – to apply the Four Way Test of Rotary on governance. I ask – Is it the truth? Is it legal and is it fair to our people? Will it build goodwill and better lives for our people? Will it be beneficial to our people? We don’t profess to know more about governance than our elected officials but what we do know is that people in power tend to be abusive and that’s where journalists step into the picture – as watchdogs.

Rest assured no journalist worth his salt relishes being overly critical of the powerful men in government just for the heck of it for we, more than the politicos, are most vulnerable both in our editorial office and in the streets. We write about facts we know of because our communities have the right to know, and any attempt to concoct lies can easily be detected by readers.

I harbor no personal ill feelings towards your husband and your son. Far from it. Like you, I continue to pray for the day when Benjie, an old friend and former business acquaintance, shall be hailed as one of the best mayors the city ever had, whose administration is untainted by corruption. I, too, pray that your son Brian would shun the traditional politician’s (trapo) ways and would soon make his own mark as a respectable public servant. Ditto for other young political neophytes. My critical commentaries are about doing the right thing for our people and for themselves.

And yes, if there’s anything I would love to see is to be proven wrong by the persons affected by our reports and columns. Sadly, neither your mayor-husband nor councilor-son had given me cause and reason so far to think I was (or I am) wrong about their political agenda and self-serving official acts.  Perhaps one day, and I hope soon, I would eat my words and I will apologize to them and most especially to you, a dear friend, but until then I’m afraid I cannot do that just now.

With my utmost admiration,

Ermin

P.S. I laud the mayor for finally allowing the department heads to attend the council’s hearings on the budget. But I am again dismayed to learn that the budget as resubmitted by the office of the mayor was the product of his staff’s sloppy work.

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