“The President must give us much more than he has, so far, shown he has the capacity to give.”
by Ducky Paredes
First, it was the wang-wang and P’Noy’s decision to stop at every red light. Now, we have the instruction to all agencies not to use his name or his picture on signs, tarpaulins or other media in announcing the start or the progress or the completion of government projects. This is only right and ought to be followed by every politico.
After all, clearly, the repair of a road or the construction of a bridge cannot be solely credited to the good graces of the congressman, governor, the mayor or the barangay chairman simply because what is spent on these projects is the people’s money. Yet, when the announcements are made, the accompanying billboard, credit goes solely to the congressman, governor or mayor with a passing mention of the President and members of the provincial board or city council.
That P’Noy wants this practice stopped (or at least his name kept separate from those claiming credit for what has been funded by the people’s money) is a good move and something that, hopefully, others will imitate just as they have also stopped using their wang-wangs.
We voted for a man who ran on his honesty and, so far, so good. What he has started are things that bring honesty to governance by doing right by the people.
But, is that it? Will we be served with little stuff that remind us of how things ought to be? Is there no more to his presidency than these small tokens?
Our problems are legion. We have too many of our people living below or just barely above the official poverty line. What will P’Noy do about this?
True, it is also important to get things back to normal and the dark shadows that the past administration has left to haunt us must be banished. But, doing this will take time and the new President may not have the luxury of time. Besides, he faces rearguard action from a congresswoman and her chief of staff on every fix that the new President wants to do, engaging him at every EO.
Perhaps, besides the feel good things that he is doing, he must quickly get down to the bottom of our problems and begin to cure them.
We have millions who are jobless, primarily because there are no jobs to be had in the Philippines. Yet, we graduate thousands every year who, the day after their commencement, realize that there are no jobs to be had in their own country. To find work, one has to go abroad.
We have no industry to speak of. What products do we sell to the world? Clearly, if we had industries – manufacturing, extractive enterprises – we would have more jobs for our workers and they would not need to leave the country to find work. Perhaps, if there were enough jobs (and we need about ten million), even our various insurgencies would lose steam and adherents.
Thus, even as we applaud the things that the President has done and is doing, these are not enough. We also need to move this country forward. The President must give us much more than he has, so far, shown he has the capacity to give.
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Here’s another letter-writer on BI’s former boss: “This is an observation/comment to a letter sent by Mr. Bobby Donayre which you post in your column of August 6, 2010. The sender is obviously impressed with former BI Commissioner Nonoy Libanan, citing reforms in the bureau for which he ‘earned praises and admirations’ for what he has done. I will not argue with the sender that Libanan is a ‘multi-awarded government official and did more’ to improve the bureau.
“But I would like to take exceptions to his claim that ‘ everybody was hoping that Secretary de Lima would retain him’, for which the poor Secretary earned the wrath and ire of Mr. Donayre when she did not.
“First of all, not everybody, would like Libanan to be retained as BI commissioner. Career officials in the bureau are not happy with the way Libanan and his Gang of Four – Atty.Tansingco, Atty. Balato, Atty. Rivera and Patch Arbas — turned BI into a fiefdom of Warays. They, together with about 1,200 contractual employees mostly from Samar-Leyte area, were the only ones clamoring for Libanan’s retention and never the organic employees of the bureau.
“Secondly, as of this writing, Secretary de Lima has only named an OIC from the BI itself, a far more morally upright civil servant than his predecessor, and that he is not close to the Secretary as claimed.
“Clearly, the sender’s letter is part of a series of PR campaign of Libanan to look good to be able to retain/regain his post. He has spent time, effort and money for the position. He covets it badly and would not let it go just like that.
“He worked hard for the passage into law of the Immigration Bill that would make him a permanent commissioner and almost succeeded. After Pnoy won, Libanan became an instant Liberal (daw) after campaigning hard for the previous administration. (He is a ranking official of Lakas-CMD.)
“He immediately put the picture of Pnoy in the main building replacing GMA’s, his erstwhile benefactor. And while professing that he would resign, he started working covertly for his retention by asking people known to be close to Pnoy to vouch for him. A showbiz celebrity (a provincemate), Senator, Congressman, former mayor of Metro Manila and an influential religious sect were approached and help was seeked in his favor. Balak pa nga lapitan si Joshua and Baby James para magpatulong. He has the gall and stomach to do those things.
“Maybe Mr. Donayre was wondering why Sec. de Lima did not retain Libanan. I commiserate with him. I too was asking the questions: Could it be that there are 200 or more ghost employees deployed in satellite offices? Or could it be the renovation cost of the main building and its offices? Or could it be that regular positions were offered to the highest bidders? Or maybe it was because of the Queen-sized bed that Sec. de Lima found in Libanan’s room/pad in the 4th floor when she paid a visit to the Bureau.
“Marcelino ‘Nonoy’ Libanan would do better playing his guitar.”– Daniel Gutierrez
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Hopefully, this will be the last letter on this issue.
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hvp 08.09.10
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