Make 2013, Year of the Citizen

WE open the year with several good news of how Pangasinenses are making a difference in their communities.

There is Mario Armas of Malasiqui, later supported by fellow citizen Osmundo Lambino, who bravely and persistently put up a legal battle against the very top municipal officials – including the mayor, vice mayor and council members – to save his town from an iniquitous deal with one of the provincial mall giants, the Magic Group of Companies owned by the political Lim family of Dagupan. Unfazed by the dismissal slapped by the Regional Trial Court in San Carlos on his petition, Armas carried on and brought his case to the Court of Appeals, which decided in his favour. A fight in a public and legal court as what Armas pursued would have cost him considerable time, money and emotional strain. The people of Malasiqui have a lot to thank him for.

Then we have the other kind of heroes who in their more quiet ways have equally shown how they can contribute to change. The tipster who reported three men in Alaminos City illegally cutting a Narra tree – the Philippine’s national tree and a valuable hardwood now considered endangered – has demonstrated how we must value the environment, our heritage, and respect for the law.

Citizens nowadays, especially the young, have effective and indispensable tools such as mobile phones and cameras that they can use to achieve the change that Pangasinenses and the rest of the Filipino people have long been yearning for. They can report anything and everything wrong from bad road manners, to unmanaged trash, misuse of public funds, and even corrupt government officials and politicos.  On the part of the media, society’s watchdog should be able to assure citizens of protecting their identities. At least The Punch will and makes that pledge.

And it’s election year, a time when citizen power is at its strongest because the people hold in their hands the right and the responsibility to choose on voting day those who will lead them and be in charge of public development. We choose wrong or sell our votes, then we would have wasted that power.

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Cutthroat cliff

WITH the recent defection of Syria’s chief military leader to the rebel side, the days of Assad are numbered. Assad, who inherited the dictatorship regime of his father, appeared unfazed at the obvious unstoppable advance of enemy forces at the Palace gates. He has ignored calls for him to leave Syria, with Moscow, his chief ally, more than willing to give him an asylum. With deaths already registered at a staggering 44,000 or so in the 15-month-old civil war, with innocent civilians as mostly the victims (many of whom are hapless children), it is imperative that Assad immediately flee Damascus before he suffers the fate met by Khaddafy. Khaddafy, the Libyan strongman, died brutally in the hands of his own people after deciding to tough it out with the rebels last year. Like Khaddafy of late, Assad is also on the cutthroat cliff now.

Oftentimes, indecisiveness is the mother of disaster.

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