IT APPEARS that newly-minted Magalang Mayor Malu-Paras Lacson had reasonable grounds in selling the 4,000 or so hogs in a piggery that served as convenient cover for a shabu lab in her – our – town.
There was public health, on the one hand, and public expenditure, on the other.
She can’t be faulted for her decision on those grounds.
But that’s not the core issue.
She has claimed regularity in the process of disposing the animals, a presumptive benefit that she deserves as a public official.
The PDEA, however, is challenging that position before the Ombudsman. It’s a good move. The controversy has spawned a lot of issues-- issues so important to good governance, to the unending saga against corruption government to Constitutional right to due process and, critically, to public opinion. It could make or break.
It’s not inconceivable that the fate of Lacson in the next election rests on the outcome of this controversy.
Both context and culture makes common sense a needling whisperer in this case. Indeed, it’s hard to believe that the simple transaction of selling the pigs to a sole bidder at P7 million was all there was to it. It’s almost like saying the Pope is not a Catholic.
I am pig raiser myself. I can’t simply outgrow my being a poor farmer’s son. I have been raisin sows (female pig, that is)- one at a time -- for years now in our backyard, both as a pet, for profit and for protection. (It’s top secret). I built a septic tank to take care of the waste. The animal produces around 20 or so litters a year. I own the sow but my wife owns the litters in accordance with our conjugal arrangement.
My wife was incredulous that the Magalang pigs were sold at around P1,700. She thought it was bad business. At that price, you can hardly buy a good piglet. She sells hers for P2,200 minimum, backyard price as opposed to commercial farm price. The Magalang hogs, I supposed, could not have all been piglets.
It doesn’t take a genius to do the math and conclude that the transaction was a real bargain or a steal.
The challenge now for the Ombudsman is to find out who went laughing all the way to the bank. And whether good faith, as Bacolor Mayor Jomar Hizon invokes, is good enough justification to get off the hook.