Think about it
Watch your public official
By Jun Velasco
THERE is a quiet outrage among Dagupeños who get their regular dose of graft and corruption reports about the conduct and behavior of officials they have elected to run the city affairs.
Since not many of them are lawyers and can hardly see through the facade of legalese and official gobbledygook brandished by Smart Alecks at City Hall and the Sanggunian Panlungsod, the public could only vow to reject in the coming polls, if it will be held at all in May, those who stole their goodies when they were minding other things.
You can tell the thieving Smart Alecks by how they face the hard issues. We must thank the local media, especially this punchy paper, for not reneging on its job.
It would be unthinkable for our public officials to wish the media ill amidst their obvious limits and mistakes because the media are precisely there to ensure the public interest and public good.
Don’t forget that Thomas Jefferson’s oft-quoted “were I to choose between a press without government and a government without the press” and sided with the press is the hallmark of our democratic life and need for freedom.
The local lackeys of power-grab, who were initiated into The Prince’s immoral code, have developed a penchant for greed masquerading as public service because our present politics is simply that, to attain victory at all cost.
Hence, we have painfully resigned to the new definition of politics as the game of the three G’s — guns, gold and goons, to ensure victory.
Who would want to be in that circle?
Back to Dagupan, where a microcosm of the national government is at its most graphic. The political game here is a quid pro quo culture where those who make it to the top (officialdom) have filthy hands. If they have clean hands, how can they win?
It is precisely on this account that we have joined the clamor for charter change in hopes that some immediate and real cleaning – or cleansing – of the system can be done (character change)
Watch keenly how your favorite official or pet peeve deals with money issues. You might be surprised that he or she now wears a new persona.
* * *
If you have not seen former Governor Vic Millora, 74, lately, you will be surprised at his youthful looks. We asked him how he has sustained his conquest of old age, and the brilliant pride of Infanta simply cracked a you-know-what-to-expect humor that’s so typical in our macho and machonurin society.
His legal brilliance still shines. But his wisecracks have become sharper.
One day, he bumped into the late Carlos P. Romulo in the elevator. Being members of the mutual admiration club, the five-footer general said, “What do we have in common, Vic?”
The Infanta enfant terrible quipped, “We can see eye to eye.”
Aside from his diminutive physique, Kuya Vic’s inexhaustible humor and clean conscience have made him forever young.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/think-about-it/)
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