Friday, October 06, 2006 Malilong: Good suggestion on the water supply issue By Frank Malilong Jr. The Other Side
REMEMBER “Fable,” the poem written by Ralph Waldo Emerson?
The mountain and the squirrel had a quarrel in the course of which the former called the latter “Little Prig.” “You are doubtless very big,” the squirrel replied, “but all sorts of things and weather must be taken in together to make up a year and sphere.”
“And I think it’s no disgrace to occupy my place. If I am not so large as you, you are not as small as I, and not half so spry.”
My favorite line is the clincher: “Talents differ: all is well and wisely put; if I cannot carry forests on my back, neither can you crack a nut.”
Every time I hear someone making judgment of another, I recall the poem. Every time I see arrogance, I remember Emerson. You may be high and mighty and I am not but there are things that I can see down here that you can’t.
In his prayer, St. Francis of Assisi, whose feast day we celebrated last Wednesday, asked for strength to, among others, sow love where there is hatred, hope where there is despair and light where there is darkness.
To ask for that strength, said Wayne Dyer in his “Wisdom of the Ages” is to ask to be set free from the “pettiness and judgment that imprisons us.”
I wish we, especially those in high office, will adopt “Fable” as some kind of mantra. Then we would not be as quick to pass judgment or impute motives on anyone.
***
Will somebody please tell me why the proposal of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) employees union cannot be done?
Victor Chiong says that instead of awarding the Carmen bulk water contract to private firms, MCWD should undertake the project itself and deal with the municipality of Carmen directly.
That makes sense. It does not need a degree in economics to know that the less middlemen involved in the sale of goods or delivery of services to the consumer, the cheaper the goods or services shall be. In the case of the Carmen water, the difference in the cost to the end user could be as much as 70 percent, according to the union president.
Chiong cites a law that, he claims, gives the MCWD the exclusive right to extract water anywhere in Metro Cebu. If this is so, why the need for the water district to assign the right to a third party?
From where I sit, it does not make much difference whether the selection of the private contractor is done through open bidding or the Swiss challenge. Ayala and all the other parties interested in the project share the same motive: profit. These are business organizations, folks, not charitable institutions.
I read yesterday that the Cebu City Council has passed resolutions asking for transparency in the process of selecting the contractor and questioning a supposed conflict-of-interest situation involving an Ayala consultant.
Why don’t they inquire first if Chiong’s plan is doable?
