IT WILL be noticed that billboards and placards of all shapes and sizes with names and faces of politicians are scattered all over the country. These are not election campaign paraphernalia. These are announcements and declarations of projects that politicians were supposed to have sponsored or implemented.
Well, it is comforting to know that our leaders have projects, but still, they are additional expenses that we cannot afford at this time and extra costs that we should not pay for at any time.
The issue here is not the legality or the legitimacy of the installation of these billboards and placards. The concern here is the unreasonable and unnecessary expenditure of the money of the people.
To be sure, there are other more useful and more functional purposes for the money spent to publicize and immortalize the names and faces of our politicians. It could be used to expand the coverage of the area involved or to increase the quantity of the units purchased or to improve the quality of the items chosen. It could be used for so many other more efficient and more practical purposes other than political advertising and personal exposure.
This is not to say that education, information and communication on these various achievements and accomplishments are not important. They are. But they should not be at the expense of the people especially at this time of crisis and adversity. And there should be other ways of informing the public about them other than these memorials or monuments of self-promotion.
It is also but proper to give credit where credit is due. But the money used for these billboards and placards come from the taxpayers so it is not right and not correct to give the credit to these politicians whose high-paying jobs really are to serve the people, through projects or otherwise.
There is no excuse or justification, therefore, to spend money for these kinds of billboards and placards. They are inappropriate and unacceptable disbursements of scant and scarce resources.
Congratulations and commendations should then go to the Department of Public Works and Highways, with regards to the matter at hand. This office has already declared that they will no longer allow the placement of the names and faces of politicians on billboards and placards related to the infrastructure projects that their office will undertake, even though these projects may be part of the pork barrel initiatives of the politicians.
Applauses and acclamations should also go to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, with regards to the matter at hand. This agency has likewise already announced that they will no longer allow the placement of the names and faces of politicians on ambulances and mobile clinics that their agency will distribute, even though these vehicles may have been solicited through the efforts of the politicians.
Admirations and approbations should similarly go to the Department of Interior and Local Government, with regards to the matter at hand. This institution has equally encouraged all local chief executives not to brandish their names and faces on local government projects, even though they are financed by local government funds.
It is hoped that the other government offices, agencies and institutions involved in projects will follow suit, so that slowly but surely all these billboards and placards with names and faces of politicians will be eliminated and eradicated.
It is wished that the money of the people will be spent only for the necessary and desirable, not for those which are obviously wasteful and apparently uneconomical.
It is prayed that our politicians act like public servants, not as commercial models.
Comments are most welcome. Please send them to onesmallvoice2010@gmail.com.