Saturday, September 08, 2007 Editorial: Reinventing the Capitol
THE reigning but not ruling chief provincial engineer may have been the only official in the Provincial Capitol who has fully grasped the real intent of the current administration.
It is hopefully for better and not for worse, no less than a reinvention of the Provincial Government. If reinventing the wheel is a prescription for the impossible, this one may be next to it.
Engineer Jay Macatuno, the clipped chief, may not be saying exactly like it is, but he’s point about reviewing the current mindset is not just an idle one, especially the one about clustering as a microcosm of the grander scheme.
As Macatunos sees it, the clustering game lacks thorough thinking that potentially sets up the system more for failure than for the success intended. The clusters, he said, or at least some of them, are composed of people with eclectic background and skills but are not compatible for the job the team is supposed to accomplish.
Using the analogy of a combat team going to war, Macatuno said some of the teams have “soldiers who do not even know how to fire a gun.” If that were the case, those cluster “soldiers” are luckier than their counterparts in Basilan . At least, whatever happens, they will not end up being ambushed or, worse, beheaded.
Macatuno’s analogy exposes the folly of an idea not well thought through, not to mention thrown around for some consensus-building. Democracy, essentially, has been invented because men and women are not infallible. Checks and balances are its core principle. When this is set aside, even the best ideas run into problems and opposition.
Never mind the waste of time, energy and resources -- and goodwill, too.
There must be a better way at improving governance without unnecessarily throwing any or all of the above down the drain. In this wise, Macatuno suggested invoking common sense and a good pragmatic approach, among others.
The Macatuno formula is an idea worth kicking around before some butts are kicked senselessly.
Tale of two bridges
Two mayors in San Luis town -- one former and another current -- are at loggerheads over a P150-million bridge that will soon rise -- or fall, depending on whose side will eventually prevail.
The former mayor, Narciso Salas, thinks that the new bridge should not be placed side by side with the old one. Apart from being ridiculous, the choice of the location, he said, is bad. The new structure could be placed somewhere else where it could be of optimum value to its users.
The current mayor, Jay Sagum, a doctor like the wife, Pampanga fourth district Representative Anna York-Bondoc Sagum, said there’s nothing wrong with the location of the new bridge. It’s the old bridge that’s the problem. Salas, he said, should have not built it where it is.
The disconnection the new bridge has created between the two leaders has raised a relevant question: Who decides where a bridge should be constructed, the mayor or the Department of Public Works and Highways?
The question becomes even more nagging when one considers Sagum’s warning that the bridge may not materialize at all if people like Salas keep opposing it. It’s time bridges are depoliticized so that even politicians can cross over and agree what’s best for the people they have, at one time or the other, vowed to serve and serve only.
