Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Rebollido: Pamuyboy
By Rommel G. Rebollido
Open card
AMONG the worst thing that could happen to a Pinoy is for that person to be confronted with "Wala kang utang na loob!"
Down south of the country, most people refer to that in the vernacular as pamuyboy.
To the parties involved, it is a difficult situation to handle because it tends to escalate into varying degrees of emotional restiveness.
In a worst scenario, terms like "way uwaw" or "baga'g nawong" usually emerge, setting off tension-filled exchanges while the receiver of such invectives tries to reject shame.
As such, most locals would dare not touch on matters that would lead to pamuyboy. But many so-called leaders ride on it to get into the consciousness of the electorates.
With the elections approaching, it is pamuyboy hysteria once again.
You would be wondering how they can do it without hurting the sensibilities of voters.
Well, for one, it is something they have honed for so long, passed on from generation to generation.
They seemingly have perfected the skills to defy the idiom, "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder," even making people look at things they way they want them to.
Say, when they embark on certain projects, they want people to appreciate these and look at these as a meaningful and beautiful undertaking not worthy of any criticism. Try to say a word against it and expect hell to come your way.
They can confidently, yet, shamelessly emblazon their faces and names, in huge bold letters, in owning infrastructure, livelihood, or whatever projects they can claim as their own: "A PROJECT OF HON. MORAG AKOYNIGASTO for the benefit of the people of the Municipality of Waynagpakabana."
Some even blatantly paint their names on ambulances and even police vehicles. The more daring, and perhaps desperate, did not exempt garbage trucks and garbage receptacles. Whew!
How about printing those faces and names on paper wipes in public toilets? That may prove to be a novel way to sneak into the hearts of voters, who knows?
Seemingly, people who are actually targets of these pamuyboy by politicians could take all these in stride and seemingly not give a whimper about it.
I asked a lowly vendor about this and she retorted, "Wa man tay mahino ana kay sila man ang gamhanan. Bahala na sila."
No wonder most of them can take the pamuyboy of these so-called leaders. They think that they do not have the power and influence to resist such pamuyboy, even becoming blind followers to the detriment of coming generations.
This is one sad reality that many people still do not know such simple things like they have a stake in those projects since money spent for those came from taxpayers' money and not from the pockets of these so-called leaders.
For now, we can only expect this situation to be there for a very long time because many of those who were paid with taxpayers money, tasked and swore to perform their job of telling people about such basic realities in governance, have long been snoring in their jobs.
Remember, it is soon election time and pick your choice, magpabuyboy na lang pud ta.
For Bisaya stories from General Santos.Click here. (This section is updated every Monday)
(September 25, 2006 issue)
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