Thursday, July 05, 2007 Wenceslao: Mabilog’s fight By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
OSCAR Mabilog was one of the colorful news sources of long ago, that was when he was still with the Cebu City Office for Substance Abuse Prevention (Cosap).
Thus, when I read the report in yesterday’s paper about his death, I dug up images of him in my mind. What I got was his profile, hazy, from the ‘90s: bespectacled and smartly dressed.
I won’t write about what Mabilog is as a person; that I would leave to fellow Sun.Star Cebu columnist Homer Sayson, who knew him better than I do. If I remember it right, Mabilog was once Homer’s employer, thus Homsay must have many memories, fond or otherwise, of him. But if you talk about Mabilog, what comes to mind is Cosap.
Cosap, under Mabilog, was synonymous with aggressive anti-drug campaign. Mabilog combined media savvy to raise people’s awareness of the problem with the implementation of noteworthy projects. That made Cosap a leader in the local campaign against drug abuse and Mabilog one of its leading advocates and news sources.
I still have to see other institutions waving the same cause achieve a level of respectability and prominence as Cosap. That was probably the reason why Cosap thrived under a demanding mayor, Tomas Osmeña, and under the administration of Alvin Garcia. Something wrong happened along the way, though, and Mabilog left Cosap in 2001.
We all know that Cosap hadn’t been the same since, which is a testament to the leadership quality of the man who once took its helm. But while Cosap was no longer the same without Mabilog, Mabilog, too, was less effective without Cosap. He did form the Philippine Office for Substance Abuse Prevention but while the group flew it didn’t soar.
Sadly, the fight against drug abuse is not a one-man or one-institution show but a total community effort. Despite Mabilog and Cosap and all the other anti-drug groups and campaigns that flourished after, the drug menace has worsened. The illegal drug trade has corrupted law enforcers and even ordinary people, whose livelihood depended on it.
As a result, the feeling of hopelessness is hounding the anti-drug campaign, and with it, acceptance, or the embrace of the idea that, if you cannot lick the problem, might as well be part of it. That is a negative way of approaching the issue, of course.
Which is why people like Mabilog will be missed. They are both positive and competent.
