Mayor, it’s about public accountability

DAGUPENOS do wait for their mayor to report on his first 100 days (and every month thereafter). His opening statement was worrisome. “When I was told we had to prepare for a first one hundred days speech, the first question I asked was “Do we have to give one?”  God forbid that would be the policy of his government – no need to report to his constituents.

So it came as a surprise to many that he didn’t realize he had to render his first 100 Day Report, hence he didn’t prepare a report and simply took the opportunity mainly to acknowledge the help from his supporters as volunteers in various tasks in the city.

His political advisers should remind the new mayor that it is his primary responsibility as a public servant to be accountable to his constituents on every turn. That’s what he was elected to do as chief executive and paid for by his constituents. That he didn’t see it necessary puzzled many since he’s been a councilor, who attended and listened to his father’s First 100 Days Report as a mayor. Even if he didn’t attend Mayor Belen Fernandez’s report is no excuse.

“Why can’t we just keep on working? To my mind (and I could be wrong here) having to prepare for today, having to prepare for a speech was a momentary distraction,” he intoned like it was a relevant and cute thing to say.

What was redundant was his impression that all that’s needed is to simply continue working, without need of a report.  On the contrary, people need to hear what he, as mayor,  has done and will do to make Dagupeños lives safe and comfortable in months and years ahead. In fact, what his constituents don’t need to hear from him regularly is not what his supporters do or did for him.

He has to be reminded that he is not simply president of the Jaycee movement who has no direct accountability to its members, but a city mayor who has direct accountability to the people as their public servant. 

Olympic gold coming?

GYMNAST Carlos Yulo and boxer Nesthy Petecio did the country proud by recently emerging world champions in their respective events.  Yulo, 19, won the floor exercise in Stuttgart, Germany, and Petecio, 27, the featherweight gold in Ulan-Ude, Russia.  Yulo’s feat also made him the first Filipino world gymnastic champion and Petecio only the second Filipino female world boxing titlist.  With their monumental feats, each received P1 million from the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), the government agency tasked to look after the financial needs of our athletes.  The duo can earn P10 million each if they pocket the gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.  With their recent exploits, Yulo and Petecio appear ready to end our gold medal drought since we first joined the Olympics in Paris in 1924.  It’s been that agonizingly long, indeed.  Terribly painful.

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