Wednesday, October 08, 2008 Carvajal: Two probable grandstanding cases By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
CASE One: Vice Mayor Rama and the controversial lamp posts he wants uprooted.
To be very candid about it, I see “grandstanding” written all over the vice mayor’s proposal. The way he reasons for their removal points to a very shallow understanding of what is at stake here and to an even shallower motive to impress. One must admit, it is quite a dramatic gesture to the impressionable and/or gullible.
To uproot the controversial lamp posts is to destroy the evidence of corruption and make us forget our need to fight for justice until the culprits have been punished. To uproot them because they do not have a permit is to make City Hall vulnerable to accusations of complicity even if it did not get anything from the transaction.
For, why did City Hall allow these structures to be erected without a permit when it is known to be quite strict about permits? Why only now does it object to the absence of permits for these lamp posts? And why would Vice Mayor Rama want to destroy the evidence when Cebu City Hall did not participate in the anomalous transaction?
Our local politicians should focus on improving governance. Essentially it means uprooting corruption and helping people not just meet their basic needs but improve their lives. I do not see how uprooting the lamp posts can in any way contribute to these priorities. Money spent to remove them is wasted money.
The practical thing to do is to issue a permit and spend a little more for repairs in order to make the lamp posts useful. As long as they stand there to light our streets, they will remind us to continue to be vigilant against forces of darkness in government.
Case Two: Rep. Raul del Mar and the Reproductive Health Bill.
Congressman del Mar’s well publicized interpellations on the Reproductive Health Bill might be another case of a local politician grandstanding to impress his very Catholic constituency for politically selfish reasons. I suspect him of grandstanding because of some very preposterous allegations he makes that I did not expect could come from a person of his stature and intelligence.
How can he make us believe that the sponsors of the bill have deceived us by disguising a wolf’s pro-abortion bill in a sheep’s reproductive health clothing? This is, of course, not as bad as Dr. Rene Josef Bullecer and some priests demonizing those of us who favor the Reproductive Health Bill but it is almost just as bad.
How can Congressman del Mar deprive the poor of reproductive health services (99 percent of the bill) on the unjustified fear that one percent or less of it might promote abortion? He can do this only if he just wants to be in the good graces of the bishops for political reasons.
