Sanchez: Bullish, no BS

THE politics of Negros Occidental can be quite boring. Dull. No fireworks.

Why not? When the top two provincial officials, who came from different parties – are echoing one another.

Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. sees the cup half full. Gabang, not gabâ. Bullish but no bullsh_t. Our cup might soon runneth over with social economic development.

“We are looking forward to a more prosperous 2017. From all indications, and despite uncertainties, we remain bullish about the days ahead,” said Gov. Marañon. He cited the organic movement as basically a sunrise industry.

His proof of the pudding: more land areas are being devoted to high value, organically-grown products, including livestock.

More than agriculture, there’s domestic tourism. “We expect a stronger domestic tourism base next year. Employment opportunities for the local work force are in sight as we continue aggressively to invite more investors in as many fronts,” emphasized the governor.

One hears shoppers buying their groceries speak in Tagalog. And many are not even dressed to the nines but sometimes even in their household clothes.

In other words, they most likely call Bacolod their home. Even many of signages in downtown Bacolod are written in the national language. One can see “Bawal magtapon ng basura” which can make non-Negrenses feel at home.

Is this a signal that Bacolod is beginning to develop as Baguio where the locals can speak in Ilokano or in any indigenous languages and just as effortlessly shift to Tagalog?

Marañon called on Negrenses to work together and continue to pray for a better Negros.

One thing for sure. Negrense politics is different from national politics. We don’t have a tiff between President Duterte versus Senator de Lima.

Vice Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson share the same positive outlook for this year. He belongs to the Nationalist People’s Coalition-Love Negros (NPC-LN) while Marañon ran under the United Negros Alliance (Unega).

After the national elections he affiliated with the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).

But they might as well belong to the same political party. Look at how Lacson framed the state of the provincial economy.

“The sugar industry is expected to have a better crop in 2017, the BPO industry is expected to expand, our organic farmers will experience improved income, consumerism will be strong because of the purchasing power of the Negrense,” Lacson said.

Congratulations to both. They finesse their political actions as statesmen.

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(bqsanc@yahoo.com)