|
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Editorial: ‘Don’t mess with me’
Check out Cebu Port Customs Collector Lourdes Mangaoang. She must be (a) courageous, (b) naive, (c) just hamming it up, or (d) a mix of all of the above.
Newly installed Mangaoang is telling politicians she doesn't want to talk with them now because they will ask for favors and they better stay away and not mess with her.
Would you believe that?
A news story in Tuesday's Sun.Star (Metro, A11) said she did just that.
If she did out of plain courage and with sense of mission, we must applaud. But then, it might be premature. We can't tell if she is serious and if she is, if she can survive.
Her predecessors didn't. Some were eaten alive by corruption at the port. Others had to be yanked out for one scandal or another. The few who were able to warm seats for long had to sell their souls to the devil.
The devil is metaphor for those who decide who keep plum posts like the Cebu port. It may not be the President but people close to her who see the Cebu port as too lucrative a source of windfall to skip.
Mangaoang's predecessor Billy Bibit stayed longer than many others because he met the quota on taxes and pleased as well the politicians who brokered power.
Critics wondered how else Bibit could have been Cebu port collector for so long. During his watch, there were various scandals and irregularities never adequately explained, including the hiring of an army of "hao-siaos" and bodyguards paid with tainted money. Then, there was that thinly concealed contempt for oversight inquiries.
If Mangaong doesn't know how politicos pressure customs collectors and bosses, she is in some neverland this government doesn't have.
Playing up to the gallery, on the other hand, can be worse than innocence. A babe in the woods may soon wise up and acquire "good sense." But one who teases the public is devious, creating expectations never to be met and hopes soon to be dashed.
However Mangaoang will turn out to be, it will be interesting to watch if Mangaoang can drive away politicians from her door and yet keep her job.
Politicos want favors from her for this or that exporter who collects payment for past and future campaign contributions.
Mangaong has a task in the food chain. Smugglers feed politicians who in turn pressure port collectors to feed the smugglers.
Now she wants that food chain broken?
We wish her success, for whatever it is worth amid the severe realities she must face.
(May 11, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
