Friday, January 11, 2008 Maxey: A `presidentiable' like no other By Ram Maxey Bar None
I HAD the good fortune of being among a select group of local media people invited to a dinner at a local restaurant with Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Bayani Fernando last Tuesday, January 7.
The MMDA is comprised of 16 cities and one municipality (Pateros).
Chairman Fernando, who was appointed to the post by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on June 13, 2002, has the reputation of having transformed Marikina City during his stint as mayor into an ideal community worthy of emulation by the rest of the country's towns and cities.
The most salient accomplishment of his administration as mayor was the clearing of all the city's sidewalks, avenues, alleys, bridges, parks and other public places of all illegal structures and obstructions. If Senator Manuel "Mar" Roxas II is known the country over as "Mr. Palengke" (Mr. Market), Fernando has earned the monicker "Mr. Governance."
Metro Manila Council Resolution No. 02-28 prohibits the use of public places (Davao City take notice) like sidewalks, etc. for commercial purposes (no vendors allowed), as basketball courts, illegal parking, as garbage dumps, for storage of construction materials (lumber, cement, etc.), as extension of stores/stalls like awnings, as sidewalk cafes/mini-eateries, and so forth. These public places are beyond the commerce of man and their illegal use constitute both public nuisances and nuisances per se, according to a ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of Umali vs. Aquino 1 C.A. Rep. 339.
Having read and heard so much about Chairman Fernando and the many run-ins he has had with Metro Manila mayors who resent his intrusion into their turfs in the course of his implementation of projects (clearing of sidewalks and esteros, ejection of illegal squatters, strict enforcement of traffic laws/regulations), I admire him for his vision, his guts. Here is a public servant with the political will to do what he believes is right and for the good of the inhabitants of Greater Manila as long as he acts within his mandate as MMDA head.
We will be seeing more of Chairman Bayani Fernando in the days to come. His sortie into Davao City looked to me like he was testing the waters for what he intends to do: seek nomination under the Lakas-NUCD party in the 2010 presidential election.
I wonder whether his success as chair of the MMDA, whose vast area of responsibility and its millions of inhabitants are a microcosm of the entire country, could be replicated if he were to be given the opportunity to solve the problems of the Republic as its President.
