From political underling to being ingrate

By Leonardo Micua

 

BEFORE our deadline, and unknown to many at this time of the pandemic I received a report that the old dirty tactic of herding grassroot politicians, including media men kuno, for a “pow-wow” has made a comeback this early and is now taking place in one district in our beloved province.

No wonder, my source tells me, kapitans and some radio blabbers are awash with cash lining their pockets in time for their Christmas shopping. How so? Soon as they left the pow-wow, the “guidelines” in the form of an envelope (shade of the Marcos era) were not so subtly slipped into their hands.

The dole-out from this ambitious government factotum was obviously intended to win as many allies who can support his upcoming showdown with the incumbent and also and in a bid to deodorize his name that was already tarnished by a series of political setbacks in his old district.

The radio blabbers, who obviously hope to keep the cash flowing like a stream into their wallets, are not only singing praises to their new master and but are labeling the incumbent (and his family) he seeks to dethrone, with odious names.

Is he insane or just too obsessed with his political ambition that he has to employ media mercenaries in his stable to malign his would-be opponent? Many are asking.

My source said the ingrate should look at his image on the mirror before entertaining any ambition to run against the incumbent in the coming election. He should ask himself, “Where did I come from?” and he is certain the wannabe will remember that he was once a political underling, but someone took him under his wings to be what he is today.

If he has forgotten all of these, said my source, then he must be suffering from amnesia and should not be trusted.

Perhaps believing that money, which he has plenty of today, can buy everything and everyone, he will soon find out he is about to self-destruct by throwing his hat into the political ring for 2022, knowing that the odds are still against his favor.

Given his past political setbacks in the past, he has yet to learn how to win, and win respectably.

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Whether it is from the Astra Zenica, Pfizer, Moderna, Sinovac or Sputnik, a COVID-19 vaccine should reach our shores at least by the second or third quarter of next year. Without the vaccine, our life could never be normal or return to normal.

COVID-19, which originated from Wuhan City in China, put the whole world, the Philippines included, in a grip of fear since the first quarter of this year and the threat is still far from over even as the year is about to end.

With many still confined in hospitals and isolation facilities and others dying, a COVID-19 vaccine is our only hope to bring our economy back to where it was during the pre-pandemic period.

But what’s this talk that some people already fattened their back accounts because of the pandemic. These people are perhaps those who took advantage of their positions in government or private life and sold overpriced test kits and personal protective equipment or pocketed the financial assistance intended for the poor.

It’s criminal of these officials and persons who withheld the ayuda that should have been doled out house to house many months back and are just being distributed now with the addition of some noche buena items if only to give the impression that that it will be they who will be remembered as the generous ones who care for their constituents this Christmas.

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The Sangguniang Panlalawigan passed an ordinance resetting  the curfew hours from 9:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. from the previous  8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. curfew and the original 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. curfew.

The SP is aware that under the Modified General Community Quarantine, many industries in Pangasinan have reopened and the essential workers of industries are Authorized Persons Outside of their Residences (APORs) and, therefore, are exempted from the curfew.

The readjustment of the curfew time should be a big boon to all this Christmas but since President Rodrigo Duterte himself asked everyone to put in check their festive mood as COVID-19 is still very much around, that it is still not safe to stay outside at night.

Remember the prescription of UP-OCTA that COVID-19 is Iikely to spike after the Christmas season because of our penchant for festivities, parties and reunions.

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