Deretsahan
Damaged friendship
By Bebot Villar
HOW many politicos have we known who embarrassed themselves if not finding themselves implicated in corruption cases because of the negligence and poor judgment of their staff? A lot. And today, we see three of our honorable senators na sabit sa PDAF scam ay naging biktima diumano ng ganito.
According to them, wala silang kamalay-malay na may ginagawa na palang kabulastugan ang kanilang staff. They claim they had no hand in those anomalous transactions na ginawa ng kanilang staff. Yan ang kanilang dilemma ngayon how to make people believe na nagsasabi sila ng totoo.
I mention this because ganito rin ang nangyari sa dalawang kongresista sa Pangasinan. In my desire to help our parish church in Sto. Tomas raise funds for its renovation, I asked a few friends known for their generosity and whom I had the privilege of helping at one time or another.
Most responded generously and promptly except sa dalawang congresswomen natin. Yong isa, si Congresswoman Gina de Venecia. While it took three months for her to realize that her staff only sent P1,000 as donation, she made an effort to correct the situation. Not for anything else but let’s be real. Totally unexpected naman yong ganung amount, more so because it’s for the church.
Finally, the “misunderstanding” was resolved last week. Somebody went to our town at according to the treasurer of the church group, ipinilit na ibinigay yong tulong ni Manay—isang personal check na P20,000 in addition to the two P500 bills. Hiyang-hiya sa akin ang kumare ko dahil para na kaming iisang pamilya tapos nagkaganun pa. Ang lalim na ng aming pinagsamahan, in good and bad times.
Anyway, all’s well with us na.
But in the case of the other congresswoman who prides herself as a philanthropist, hindi kapani-paniwala ang dahilan ng staff. Sing-babaw ng ilog na heavily silted at ginastusan ng hundreds of millions of pesos for dredging pero walang epekto! How on earth could they deny she never received our request for assistance samantalang may tatak na “RECEIVED” yong letter sent to her? Sangkatutak kayang eng-eng yong staff?
I waited for some response for three long months, pero I didn’t hear a single word from her. So I gave up any hope of getting some help from her.
When both “young and oldie” were still unknown entities sa Pangasinan, I went out of my way to introduce them to our mayors and even taught them how to deal with mayors’ unreasonable demands during the campaign, and how to go about winning the hearts of the people na tried and tested formula to win in an election.
The “young”, okay… Mabait at very down-to-earth, cowboy pa sa pakiki-halubilo sa mga tao, maski mga poorest of the poor. Pero si “oldie,” mukhang feeling laging nasa Makati, kasama ang mga high and mighty. Parang langit at lupa raw ang agwat ng kanilang pagkaka-iba.
When finally representatives of Madam Philanthropist came to explain to appease me, damage to friendship has been done. Anyway I wish them good luck and I hope their millions-worth of projects in their district were properly implemented. Alam nyo naman how citizens’ vigilance work now.
My advice to friends, huwag ipaubaya ang mga mahahalagang bagay, especially involving close friends, sa mga staff lamang. At sa mga staff din, huwag maging atribida na as if you are empowered to decide on your own without consulting your boss.
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