FOR several years now, we have been a subscriber of Dream satellite for our TV viewing. Technicians attached the satellite antenna, a disc, to our roof supposedly for better reception. When the earth shook last Tuesday, something must have snapped up there because what we have been getting since then is this message: “No satellite connection.”
I called the Dream Manila customer service and was given the phone numbers of the firm’s local contact. Ironically, the local contact could not be contacted, and I eventually got tired of following the matter up. I have decided to shift to a cable TV provider instead.
Without a TV connection (the reception using the so-called “Baron” antenna for free TV channels in our area is bad), I went back to using my old reliable AM/FM radio for updates. While surfing radio stations one time, I caught an interview over dzRH of Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas, who was then in Cebu visiting quake-hit sites.
Anchors Joe Taruc and Milky Rigonan are veteran broadcasters and were obviously tactful in the interview. But the sarcasm showed a bit when Rigonan “praised” Roxas for being everywhere, from Zamboanga to deal with the siege by Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels to Bohol and Cebu to look into the situation of areas hit by the tremor.
I know how Roxas conducts his politics because I have been following his political career since he shook my hand during his visit to the Freeman office (where I used to work) when he was still a congressman. Since that time, I knew that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of former president Manuel Roxas.
Roxas surfaces only during the campaign period and the months immediately before the elections. He vanishes after he is elected. I wasn’t surprised, therefore, when he wasn’t as visible in the first half of President Noynoy Aquino’s term as he is on the last half. He may deny preparing for his presidential run on 2016, but his recent action shows.
But then it is not only Roxas who is upping the politicking ante. PNoy, too, his “Daang Matuwid” slogan be damned. He is allowing Roxas to do his thing by pushing him into the limelight while he recedes from it. One gets the feeling that Roxas is actually running the government now.
PNoy is doing the same thing to local allies. In his visit to Cebu City, he preferred to be with former mayor Tomas Osmeña who, like his friend Roxas, has a score to settle in 2016.
Roxas lost in the vice presidential race to Jejomar Binay. Osmeña lost to Mayor Michael Rama. Roxas will most likely battle Binay for the presidency in 2016. Osmeña, this early, is already preparing for his 2016 mayoral run against Rama.
It’s not surprising, therefore, that Binay also made his presence felt in Cebu and Bohol, and that he linked up with Rama. As they say, birds of the same feather are, well, birds.
What is unfortunate in this situation is that the rehabilitation of Cebu City might suffer.
Rama is leaning towards constructing a new building to replace the quake-hit old structure of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC). He needs funds to do that. He probably couldn’t get the money from the city’s coffers because Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) councilors will surely deny him funding. So he has to source the funds from outside.
With the way PNoy and Roxas have been favoring Osmeña, I don’t think Malacañang will give its all-out support to a Rama-initiated project. Can the mayor turn to Binay? Or more appropriately, can Binay provide the help?
Damn politicians.
(khanwens@gmail.com)