Punchline
Who will clean up the candidates’ mess?
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
Every election year, we see fence walls, buildings, electric posts, bridges, etc. in every nook and cranny in the country vandalized to the hilt by our politicians, this despite an election law prohibiting the posting of campaign posters in these locations.
It’s bad enough that our Comelec officials and their deputies cannot enforce a very simple law, but our politicians (both candidates who won and lost) are now inured to the sight of political vandalism they have caused, weeks and months after the election.
Watch them walk or drive through areas where their posters continue to be eyesores in the communities. They either pretend to see nothing or view the posters bearing their pictures of 10 years ago, pitifully aided by Adobe Photoshop treatment, as ingenious works of art that ought to be preserved. Yuck!
It will be futile perhaps to ask the candidates who lost to shell out more money to clear the mess they left behind but surely the winners (like Governor-elect Amado Espino, reelected Speaker De Venecia, congresswoman-elect Rachel Arenas, Mayor-elect Al Fernandez and his winning team), can show the way how to become responsible candidates by removing their (and everyone else’s) unsightly posters.
Communities would even be delighted to see their candidates’ respective clean-up teams don their familiar campaign T-shirts as they scrub and scrape off their unsightly posters.
Shame on the winning candidates in the province who refuse to lift a finger for the clean-up!
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EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF. Speaker Joe de Venecia is correct in his stance to just keep running scared if he wants to retain his coveted post in the House.
His political foes are not about to settle even for a suggested JDV’s vaunted “Improved Rainbow Coalition”. The Garcia-Villafuerte tandem already smells blood and is poised to go for the kill. If the duo’s recent unexpected vitriol and diatribe against JDV are any indication, it would appear that it has been given the green light by Malacañang to unsettle the status quo, and allow the stronger man to prevail.
This scenario is certainly not far-fetched given what Mrs. Arroyo now appears inclined to do, having been humbled and hobbled by the victorious opposition in the last elections. There are signs that she is now willing to do what was unthinkable 3 months ago – to finally replace old faces, ties and bonds that tried but failed to win her a modest degree of acceptability and respect among her people.
Speaker Joe de V should realize that it’s now every man for himself. (To Mrs. Arroyo’s credit, though perhaps still premature to grant, she now appears bent on leaving a legacy that her children could be proud of).
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DREAM LEGACY FOR JDV. If the Speaker still has not seen the writing on the wall, his constituents owe it to him to remind him that time is running out on him. He must begin to shape a legacy now befitting a man who truly cared for the people before it’s too late.
I am certain the sycophants around him insist that his achievements to date already speak for themselves assuring him that the country will forever sing paeans to his initiatives in the domestic and international legislative circles, and even citing the numerous unprecedented political coalitions he mustered, not to mention the fact that he is about to serve his fifth unprecedented term as House Speaker. He is Numero Uno in the eyes of his peers, and that’s what should matter, they say.
But as one might expect of sycophants, they will not tell him that the people by and large still derisively refer to him as the “trapo” that connotes unabated corruption in whatever he does.
This is what his constituents in Pangasinan worry about. Can he do anything to erase that public perception of him? Actually, there is.
I do know that our people would love to see him craft and push for a bill that will remove the stigma that accompanies pork barrel funds. It will mean making all legislators availing of such funds, heads of agencies implementing the projects and heads of host local government units finally fully accountable while making all transactions transparent.
This is the legacy our people would love to speak of and hear about JDV û the public servant from Pangasinan who stopped corruption among legislators!
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SAVE THE FISH, KILL THE GREEDY. The Anda Fishkill will not be the last, that’s for sure.
The unabated mindless exploitation of our rivers by businessmen, not fisher folks, for quick profits is my guarantee for a series of fishkill yet to happen in the province. Add the toothless ordinances and unwillingness of local government officials to antagonize the businessmen who bribe officials to look the other way, provide for an ideal setup for fishkills.
Our government agencies need not look further into the causes of the fishkill. The symptoms and factors have not changed one bit, i.e., change in water temperature, pollution level, etc. Instead of determining what caused the fishkill, they should begin asking WHO caused the fishkill, and immediately swoop down on them.
Fishkill is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made calamity caused by corrupt public officials and unscrupulous businessmen. What government agencies and communities must study and experiment on instead to finally put a stop to fishkill, is how to make the corrupt public officials and the greedy businessmen drown and float on the rivers they polluted.
We need a river that guarantees to kill the corrupt and the greedy.
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THERE’S A NEW KILLER IN OUR SCHOOLS. What most private schools in the province, particularly in the cities, are not aware of is that the level of pollution in their premises has become virtually life-threatening. No thanks to indifferent school management and parents.
I am talking about the injurious practice of drivers of family-owned vehicles, of school buses keeping their engines running on idle mode just so the air-conditioning can be turned on to cool themselves while waiting or simply to avoid re-starting the engine when it’s time to go.
A study made by EcoWaste Coalition has warned that our children and teachers are being exposed unnecessarily to hazardous air pollutants, air toxics such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter that have been linked to reproductive problems, birth defects, asthma and other respiratory ailments, heart conditions, and cancers because we tolerate drivers parked inside or outside school premises to keep their engines running while idly waiting.
Parents and school management should introduce and enforce a policy that requires school bus, jeepney and family car drivers to turn off the engines if they are going to park for more than a minute, and absolutely not allow the vehicles to run the air-condition while idly parked. The formation of an EcoTeam in each school that will enforce it is now imperative – for our children’s and teachers’ health.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/punchline/)
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