Mayor Nani as Mr. Nature

By Al S. Mendoza

MAYOR Nani Braganza of Alaminos City has not stopped amazing me.

First, he said he was disgusted with the national leaders in the run-up to the May 14 polls.

He went on to lambaste his political elders for what he called unprincipled forging of alliances with total strangers to form Ate Glow’s TU Team.

As things turned out, his tirades were well-founded.

The result showed an 8-2-2 count: Eight GO bets, two TU candidates and two independents came out winners last May 14.

Even the two TU winners-Joker Arroyo and Ed Angara could not be considered genuine administration allies as both are known to be staunch oppositionists.

Rabid pro-Ate Glow candidates like Mike Defensor, Prospero Pichay and Gov. Chavit Singson got clobbered.

In short, the outcome was a screaming writing on the wall: People didn’t like Ate Glow’s  bets-if not  Ate  Glow herself.

Smarting from her loss, Ate Glow has asked her entire Cabinet to resign. She has ordered 715 government factotums as well to leave their posts.

It was her way of saying, “I don’t trust you, anymore.”

She was blaming everybody for the May 14 debacle, except herself.

She sees the mote in other people’s eyes but not her own mote.

Had she listened to Nani, there might have been a different picture in the last election.

Nani tells it the way he sees it. That’s the key to keep good governance at work 365 days a year.  Call a spade a spade.

No wonder Nani ran virtually unopposed last May 14. People approve of his style because it is anchored on honesty, on a no-nonsense manner of leadership.

Didn’t he threaten to quit politics altogether before May 14, while likewise bolting Ate Glow’s camp?

Was I glad he reconsidered and ran for mayor again.

Ate Glow’s loss is Alaminos’ gain. Mother Nature’s gain, too.

Look, if we talk of Alaminos today, we don’t only talk of Nani’s hands-on, corpuscled style of leadership.

   We also talk of how Nani has restored the old grandeur that is the Hundred Islands, the most beautiful cluster of islands found this side of the universe.

Just recently, Nani’s intrepid Bantay Dagat volunteers and the Public Order and Safety Office have arrested three visitors for harvesting giant clams in the protected clam garden at Hundred Islands.

I’ve also seen the Bantay Dagat volunteers at work at Apo Island’s protected marine garden two weeks back. My hat’s off to them, indeed.

The clam (Tridacna gigas) in Hundred Islands, known to be an aphrodisiac, is endangered specie.

The three suspects, all from Manila, said they knew of no prohibition to gather the clams.

They can go, tell that to the marines.

Ignorance of the law doesn’t free any one of any liability.

All three face imprisonment, plus a fine of P40,000 for each of the clams they caught.

A while back, a Taiwanese was meted the same penalties for the same offense.

Our PUNCH’s Eva C. Visperas quoted Nani as saying, “Our guests can always freely snorkel at the giant clam garden, take pictures and even touch our clams but please, no harvesting.”

   Attaboy Nani, the amiable mayor I call Mr. Nature.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/general-admission/)

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