Punchline
Wanted: Statesmen
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
WHAT’S happening to us?
First, we hear of provincial police directors ignoring the authority of the provincial board. Now, we have a mayor deliberately violating protocol by not inviting the governor to an event in his town being graced by the President. Then it was followed by name-calling and insults meant to demean each other’s position.
Are we seeing an irreversible damaged political culture in our midst? Have our politicos lost their sense of civility and decency just to feed their bloated egos? Has the word “professionalism” lost its meaning in their official conduct as public servants? Has our politics reached gutter-level?
Regrettably, we were witness to the uncalled for posturing of PNP Sr. Superintendent Rosueto Ricaforte before the provincial board, the intentional exclusion of Guv Spines by Bani Mayor Marcelo Navarro in a scheduled presidential visit, then the flurry of personal insults attributed to the governor that ensued. These have no place in public service. They must know that our people, who pay their salaries, deserve better decorum from them.
As I am certain they all had strong personal reasons for acting the way they did, feeling justified for their conduct unbecoming as gentlemen and public servants, their motivation could hardly be justified. The board members could be perceived as pesky distractions in life and the governor as insolent and impertinent but the fact remains they are the province’s elected board members and governor and, therefore, deserve elementary courtesy. In the same vein, people would expect the board members to accord Mr. Ricaforte the respect and dignity that his rank and position compels while the governor must be seen to extend to all mayors the courtesy and honor befitting public servants regardless of their political affiliations.
I, therefore, dread to think what our children today, tomorrow’s leaders, would be like themselves because their elders’ ill manners today were not sanctioned.
For their and our children’s sake, I hope all who failed the people’s expectations will soon apologize and admit that what they did was not only wrong and unacceptable by any standards but should not be emulated. True leaders owe this to their constituents.
It’s the only way to prove that we are led by statesmen, not by egotistic and uncouth politicos.
* * * * *
WAKE-UP CALL. The sudden relief of Bayambang police chief Superintendent Rodelio Samson as the province’s first casualty of PNP’s “one-strike” policy in the campaign against jueteng should serve as a wake-up call, belated as it is, to the police force in the province.
I am told by my sources at the DILG that PD Ricaforte will definitely be called on the carpet in addition to the immediate relief of the town police chief if another intelligence report and subsequent raid by a team from Camp Crame results in the arrests of jueteng operators in a town.
Mr. Ricaforte has been noted by Capitol observers to be very lenient with the town police chiefs in the campaign against jueteng for reasons only known to him. The raid in Bayambang could have been avoided and didn’t have to happen at his expense if he had stayed focused on DILG’s agenda.
It’s only right that Mr. Ricaforte promptly reversed his recently announced suspension of his two-strike policy for police chiefs. A suspension of his policy could only be interpreted as further leniency on his part. Since when did criminal minds declare holidays as to merit the suspension of disciplinary action against shabby police chiefs?
PD Ricaforte still has an opportunity to redeem himself in the jueteng campaign before his superiors by throwing the book at another police chief he knows to be tolerating jueteng in his jurisdiction before DILG operatives beat him to it.
Go get ‘em, Mr. Ricaforte! It’s their neck or yours. Magpa-sampol ka rin!
* * * * *
MIGHT VS. RIGHT. If you think we have already seen the worst on the existence of the Sangguniang Kabataan during the campaign and elections this year, think again.
The degradation of the organization by parents and politicos continued after the nationwide election, particularly the period leading to the election of the presidents of the city/town chapters two weeks ago, and finally hit its lowest level during the campaign and election of the president of the provincial chapter last week!
Through it all, not a single voice of protest was heard from an SK member of a barangay and town chapter to denounce the meddling of parents and politicos in what was prescribed by law as an exclusive youth’s affair. But who can fully blame them? SK members are either under-aged or of age but who are completely dependent on their parents for schooling and their needs, i.e, cellphones and daily loads, weekly allowances, etc. They would not dare, would they?
And since our Comelec has miserably failed to perform its mandate to ensure clean and honest elections in SK, I am afraid our youth have already been given the impression that vote-buying in any form is legit and a morally acceptable political practice in our country. Nobody has been charged for vote-buying or for elders’ meddling so they now presume nothing was deemed irregular and illegal in the recent SK elections. Despicable.
Going by how SK elections and campaigns were conducted, it behooves upon our congress representatives to seek the amendment of the law on SK before our children are thoroughly taught and told to embrace the wrong values about politics and public service.
I note, too, with grave concern the eerie silence of our educators’ and parents’ groups as the rape of SK continues. Have they, too, accepted these illegal practices as “practical and regular”? If they cannot band together to take a critical position vis-à-vis the existence of SK today, then they must take part of the blame if the idealism of the young is thoroughly beaten by corruption and the young begin to believe that “Might is Right” even before they can even learn to say “Right is Might”!
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