Seares: Joavan and Soc - Do they listen?
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
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“A WISE son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.”
— Proverbs, 10:1
Msgr. Esteban Binghay, Cebu Archdiocese episcopal vicar and close friend of Talisay City Mayor Soc Fernandez, has advised the mayor to discipline his son Joavan.
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Joavan’s brushes with the law have infuriated the community and saddened his father — not the mother in Proverbs as it has always been Mayor Soc whom the public sees hovering over his son.
There has long been a need to discipline Joavan but there may now be a need to discipline the mayor too.
Bible-quoting Mayor Soc must know by heart this Proverbs 13:1 line: “A wise son hears his father’s instruction.” And the mayor must have instructed Joavan. Yet the string of criminal cases filed against him indicates a stubborn streak that shuts out any instruction.
‘Over-protecting’
Msgr. Binghay says the mayor is “over-protecting” Joavan, which must have made the son believe he can get and do anything he bloody wants.
The good priest, party boss Rep. Eddie Gullas, and the mayor’s fellow officials at City Hall have been telling him: Send your son to rehab.
As city mayor, Soc is bound by his oath of office to uphold the law. In trying to keep Joavan out of jail allegedly by using his influence, Mayor Soc isn’t enforcing the law, he’s frustrating it. There’s conflict of interest and maybe even abuse of authority.
Who can discipline the father? The people he leads can, if they want to. If Soc were no longer mayor, perhaps Joavan would no longer go on rampage, bully residents, and rant as if he owned the city.
