Wednesday, July 23, 2008 Mercado: A Bad Marriage By Ram Mercado First Person
MONDAY's "Dialogue" should not be judged a failure or a success. If at all, what should fare been an enlightened debate became a plain gripe session. At worse it was washing dirty linen in public -- the Capitol's dirty rags.
Another sequel to the spectacle may not need scrubbing with soap but a stonewash to rid the rags not only of mud but of its grime and slime as well.
One thing stood out definitely as a consequence, that Vice Governor Yeng Guiao has now attained the status as the chief rival of Governor Ed Panlilio to the governorship, and none other.
That was Yeng's victory. Among Ed's triumph was in ventilating his troubles to the public -- self-made or inflicted by the recalcitrant Provincial Board (PB) led by Guiao.
I have not given gravitas to Yeng's persuasive verbal talent in Kapampangan but Monday's encounter with the former priest has convinced me he was a powerful speaker in the dialect. He matched the logic of Among Ed and returned the latter's sharp barbs with his own spikes.
After Panlilio tried to put down Guiao by appealing to his conscience in approving the salary upgrade of the Balas (quarry) boys, Yeng retaliated by appealing to the governor's own conscience by considering the welfare of the other municipalities that needs to share from the windfall in quarry revenues.
I support Amond Ed's desire to provide decent wages for the Balas personnel. Any obstruction by Guiao et al to this meritorious move will not win him public admiration.
Panlilio admitted he is a "bagito" (novice) in politics. This is not a justification of his shortcomings as governing official, neither an excuse for his official lapses, nor a fig leaf to his cover naked innocence.
There was no evident trace of a "hakot" crowd, but applause was louder after Guiao's rebuttal. The veteran PB presiding officer appeared knowledgeable of provincial administration, especially in budget preparation and deliberation.
Guiao, refuting Panlilio's allegation of the PB's non-action nor approval of his budget, blamed the Gov for his absence/failure to appear during a scheduled deliberation on his fund requirements.
The Gov said he has apologized for this, and Guiao riposted the apology was well taken by the Board, but still was short of the required appearance by the Gov to justify, defend, and explain his budget. So there!
Panlilio at first earned audience sympathy by accusing the PB of not approving his P13-million maintenance and operating expense (MOE) budget. The original request for the same was P9 million which Guiao said was given without question.
The Gov explained that he had spent his Office's P9-million annual fund in six months because of the various units he created under his office. Guiao, quoting legal sources, said that was tantamount to illegal disbursement if not technical malversation. He said budget appropriated for a particular purpose cannot be used for other intents.
Atty. Vivian Dabu, the Governor's famed Girl Friday (legal officer and provincial administrator combined) whispered a cue to her boss. On the alleged malversation of funds, the Gov said the units he reactivated already exist, not as departments, but as bodies organic to the Office of the Governor, so where is the mechanical malversation? That floored the Red Bull coach.
Guiao retreated quietly with that explanation. He came back with a power point argument, displaying on a wide screen the replica of "Pamisaupan", tagged Official Publication of the Provincial Government of Pampanga.
The magazine, Guiao said, does not carry an editorial staff box where responsible authorities can be known to answer for any complaint of libel suit, as the case may be. The publication has not passed PB approval and is, therefore, an irregular and highly objectionable project, he stressed.
Guiao has a point here; the magazine should have been billed Official Publication of the Office of the Governor.
It appeared Panlilio, as a self-admitted "bagito" has not shown due diligence in provincial budgeting and administrative programs for good governance, proof of which was the non-submission of a personnel plantilla to the PB and a specific program for "scholars" for their funding.
The matter of hiring Balas boys, with attendant overtime pay, night differential, etc. should have undergone consultations with the Board which did not, considering the required outlay for their expenditures prior to hiring.
Considering the Gov and the Vice Gov do not come from the same power groups who put them to office (and the PB members, too), this matter of budget processing, technicality and agenda nitpicking at the PB breeds a cat-and-mouse game.
Having engaged in washing dirty linen in public, the two are also in doing dirty dancing, a manifestation of inappropriate behavior as in a marital union that does not work.
Like couples in non-workable relations, the behavior displayed by Governor and Vice Governor who both advocate serving public interest effectively incapacitate them from really performing mutual obligations essential to an harmonious union.
If both are politically mature, patriotic, and have the cabalens' welfare at heart, there would be no pernicious clash of personalities as manifested in budget preparation and approval, in personnel administration and deployment, in compensation upgrade for the deserving, and in putting poor young students to school, whether under "scholarship" which is a misnomer, or under student financial assistance which is a dole-out.
As the Courts would always conclude, in the same manner the marital incapacity of the two parties, actually turbulent ab initio, is now full blown with their irreconcilable differences. Guiao told Among Ed that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The Gov should have replied that hell is other people.
The dialogue, among other previous approaches, was a desperate effort to save the "marriage". In the long run, all dialogues will similarly fail.
It's time for a separation. It is time for Yeng Guiao to cut and cut clean by declaring he will fight Panlilio in the next gubernatorial elections. There is no other way for Yeng to go but up. Or be doomed as a groom's best man again.
