Wednesday, July 23, 2008 Malilong: Clean port area, dirty sports center By Frank Malilong The Other Side
TRUE, running a government is not a popularity contest but when your public approval plummets to a record low, there is reason to be concerned. Unless Mrs. Arroyo’s men are paid mainly to humor her, they should lay it straight to their master and say, hey, we can’t be like the proverbial ostrich who buries its head in the sand in the face of an onrushing train.
The President’s unpopularity couldn’t just be because she has made hard decisions. Past Malacañang tenants had been there and done that, too, but none among them, with the possible exception of Ferdinand Marcos, had been as harshly rejected as Mrs. Arroyo.
What is even disturbing is that the widespread disapproval rating has hounded Mrs. Arroyo since day one of her second term and has consistently grown ever since. The loss of public trust wasn’t a sudden plunge; it was a case of a tide gaining momentum.
We can only hope that ambitious and opportunist groups will not take advantage of the President’s unpopularity by attempting to oust her from office through extra-constitutional means. The last thing that we need in these times of food and oil crises is another silly mutiny or coup attempt.
Let them wait. The next presidential election is just around the corner. If Mrs. Arroyo’s unpopularity continues unabated – and all indications say that it will – Malacañang is theirs for the taking in 2010. The way it looks now, nothing short of a miracle can save Mrs. Arroyo’s chosen ones from a thorough drubbing in the 2010 polls.
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Those who have been to the Cebu port lately could have noticed how dramatically things have changed in what used to be one of the dirtiest and most chaotic sections of the city.
Credit should go to General Manager Angelo Verdan and the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) for the transformation. The makeshift stores and carenderias that used to fill up every meter of roadside space in the port area are gone. In their place are fresh-looking walls. On my way to the office last week, I even noticed potted plants where a shanty used to stand.
Traffic has also become orderly after the CPA strictly enforced its policy of parking in designated areas only. A more pleasant surprise is the absence of uncollected garbage; it seems that Angelo’s men work 24 hours a day sweeping the streets.
I wish I could say the same thing about the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC). What used to Cebu’s showcase of a modern sports facility has become one huge dumpsite. Some people are sleeping on their jobs.
I go to the oval six days a week so I know whereof I speak. Plastic bags, bottles, candy wrappers and almost all kinds of litter are spread all over the complex, including the football field where the refuse compete with the uncut grass.
It wasn’t like this during the time of Juan “Dodong” Aquino. The track used to be as smooth-looking as a ten-year-old girl’s cheeks; now it has the appearance of a woman who hasn’t been to the Belo clinic for years. And the place was squeaky clean then; the man we called Sir Dodong saw to that.
I do not know who is in charge of the center now but I am fairly certain that he has not been to his assignment as regularly as he should have. Or he is simply not up to his job.
Of course, blaming the CCSC management for the deplorable state of sanitation in the facility is only telling half the story. The people who use it are mostly students, businessmen and professionals but I don’t think they remember what was taught in grade school about “cleanliness” being “next to Godliness.” When it comes to keeping their surroundings clean, the stevedores and the pier workers behave decidedly better.
