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Friday, January 28, 2005
Wenceslao: The Ecleos, again
By Bong O. Wenceslao
So the Ecleos are back in the headlines, this time evading a checkpoint set up by the Lapu-Lapu City police outside the Mactan-Cebu International Airport the other day. Ruben Ecleo Jr. and his mother, Rep. Glenda Ecleo, were however allowed to leave after the police caught up with them during a chase. But two gun-carrying police escorts weren’t.
What this shows is that after years of being embroiled in controversies, the Ecleos still have to learn this lesson: that this is Cebu and not Dinagat Island or even Surigao del Norte. Cebuano sensibility is different from that in the Ecleo’s home place. Besides, their influence in Cebu is weak. Out there they are untouchable; here they are vulnerable.
***
When your gun accidentally fires in your hand, the first thing you do is pray—that nobody was hit. If the prayer is answered, you end up scratching your head and wearing that sorry grin. It is therefore not surprising that after the City Hall-issued pistol of South Reclamation Project consultant Nigel Paul Villarete went off, he became media shy.
Remember Spider Man? “With great power comes great responsibility.” For Villarete and the other armed City Hall officials, that should be used as their mantra, too. Indeed, pistols can give you the swagger, but it can shame you, or worse, bring you to jail. Villarete should frame the wayward slug and hang it on the wall of his office.
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There’s an interesting debate at the Provincial Capitol nowadays. It concerns the plan of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to put up security cameras at the Capitol building. The pros insist the move will improve Capitol’s security setup and prod employees to work better. The antis fear it will encroach on their privacy and make them self-conscious.
But I would say the debate is a waste of saliva. I don’t think a camera has that much power as what the pros and the antis are claiming. Those cameras don’t move, thus one can as easily dodge it if one wants to do some shenanigans. Besides, I don’t think it will last. Like any government property, it is expected to malfunction often.
TEXTREAX. From a texter who does not want to be identified: “The Butuanon River stinks largely because of the incompletely treated wastewater from a nearby seaweed plant. The stench there is the same as the stench found in the river.”
Jude M. of Mandaue City: “I find it odd for Mayor Soc Fernandez to have second thoughts in operating the new Talisay abattoir because of untrained personnel. Training is supposedly part of the planning stage in constructing an abattoir. I smell something fishy."
Finally, the latest news from JJ of Lapu-Lapu City: “Prosecutor Mary Ann Castro will take over the sala of Judge Ildefonso Suerte.”
(khanwens@yahoo.com/ 0927-2055064)
(January 28, 2005 issue)
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