TRUTH, they say, is only truth when you say it to the right person, at the right place, and at the right time.
Our good mayors, who belong to the Pampanga Mayor's League (PML), proclaimed last Thursday the "truth" about the social and political situation in our home province - as a result of the "autocratic style of governance" of Gov. Eddie Panlilio.
They told the "truth" mostly to the members of the Metro Manila-based media, at a restaurant in Quezon City, and three days after Panlilio charged Rodolfo "Bong" Pineda with plunder.
Bong is the husband of former board member Lilia Pineda, who lost the last gubernatorial race to the priest-turned-politician, although she is still questioning the result of the election before the election body. Bong is also the father of Lubao Mayor Dennis Pineda, president of the PML.
It is not really for us to question the way the mayors had decided to convey the "truth." They chose to say it before the Metro Manila-based media, in a place outside Pampanga, and three days after Panlilio held his own press conference in Manila. They're entitled to do it in their own way, whatever motives or reasons they had.
The fact remains that they preferred to say it before Metro Manila newsmen, instead of the newsmen in Pampanga. They preferred to say it in Quezon City. They preferred to say it at time when political observers may suspect the timing of their "revelation."
The mayors invoked in their press statement God and "divine intervention" amid "the seemingly unconvincing leadership of Panlilio."
They criticized the governor for his alleged failure to implement concrete solutions to multi-faceted problems like solid waste management, flooding, environmental concerns, prostitutions, drug addiction, increased crime rates, lack of support to agriculture, lack of clean and safe drinking water, dilapidated and lack of school buildings, lack of medicines and insufficient support to district hospitals, slow-paced implementation of annual plans, and political divisiveness.
Most of these, however, as Section 17 of Republic Act 7160 (Local Government Code of 1991) clearly stipulates, are concerns that also need to be acted upon by a town or city chief executive. And this is the plain truth.
