FRANKLY, Special Assistant to the President Bong Go is fast turning out to be my most hated probable senatorial bet in the May 2019 elections. Sorry to say this, but I reckon the man’s hide is special because he has no qualms politicking with every tragedy that hit this country.
Consider: A day before typhoon Ompong was set to make a landfall in Cagayan after it entered the Philippine area of responsibility, Go toured the province’s vice governor and some of its mayors, vice mayors and Provincial Board members around Malacañang.
He has to be the tour guide because he is the one set to run for senator and not, say, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.
This is the same Bong Go who has made it a habit of using government money to give assistance to victims of natural calamities placed in packages with his punned name printed on the wrappers. In Cebu, didn’t he distribute those health cards using actor Richard Yap and made it appear he was the one with the “malasakit” and not the entire government?
During the launching of the Malasakit Center of the Philippine General Hospital recently, the tarpaulins that were hung and the health cards that were distributed bore his image and that of President Duterte. But the PGH Malasakit Center is a joint project of the Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Philhealth, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
I first noticed the politicking months ago while streaming our cable television connection and got stuck, out of curiosity, to a program hosted by Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Margaux “Mocha” Uson.
That show featured the same Bong Go helping some Lumad children in Mindanao, with Uson lavishing praises for the man apparently to raise his stock as the senatorial polls near.
Because of this, I may have to do some reverse campaigning. On May 2019, please don’t vote for Bong Go for senator. This man is special in a negative way.
***
I monitored government’s preparation for the entry of typhoon Ompong and missed Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazard), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)-backed disaster risk reduction and management program under the administration of former president Benigno Aquino III. The Duterte government refused to fund the operation of Project NOAH, so it was forced to shut down. It has been salvaged by the University of the Philippines, though.
I actually got better information about typhoon Ompong when Cable News Network (CNN)-Philippines interviewed Mahar Lagmay and other personnel of UP-Project NOAH than from the bulletins issued by the weather bureau Pag-asa. It turned out that Project NOAH has already set up a number of monitoring instruments around the country that could have been utilized in tandem with those of Pag-asa to better prepare the people for weather disturbances that bring storm surges, landslides, etc.
It’s just sad that a good project and a good concept (using modern technology to better prepare for disasters) went unappreciated.