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Thursday, February 12, 2004
Famador: Acting president
By Joel Famador
It was all about incompetence. Cebu City commuters did not have to suffer the terrible inconvenience caused by the strike last Thursday had our government people talked to the “jeepney” drivers that they were going to get a public hearing for the demand to increase jeepney fares.
And it was not “extortion” by the drivers. It was a case of gross incompetence on the part of government. Why did government have to wait for the strike to happen? Did it think that the notice to strike by the drivers was an empty bluff? Good Lord.
Gas prices had already spiraled up to the stratosphere, and government thought that the drivers would not strike? Better pack up your things, boys. You don’t deserve to be employed in government a second more.
Maybe this is what the President of this republic meant when she said she generated more than three million jobs during her tenure. She packed her government with those three million people. Small wonder government service got worse, like what happened on Tuesday.
Of course, the jeepney drivers knew very well that government was ready to give in. The problem is, our government is so centralized that people in the capital don’t have a clue on what’s happening in the boondocks. (They are busy campaigning for their boss anyway.) And their assistants in the provinces can’t give the right advice to the big boss because they don’t know exactly what to do. (What do you expect? Our government is not based on meritocracy. Everything depends on your political connections.)
Remember the late prosecutor of Cebu City, Jose Pedrosa? He served for more than three years as chief prosecutor of Cebu City but always in an acting capacity. He never got the regular appointment from Malacanang. Why? He didn’t have the right connections, dummy. So he died with the lousy title, “Acting City Prosecutor of Cebu.” What a pity.
This “acting” thing might be the trend in this banana republic. Fernando Poe, Jr., the great movie actor, is leading the President by nine points even before the campaign started. What do you think will happen when he goes around these banana islands campaigning for president? That nine-point lead would probably jump to 15 points. And it’s all over but the shouting.
And then, by the month of May, in this year of the monkey, this banana republic will have elected a truly “acting” president.
(February 12, 2004 issue)
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