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YOU MIGHT BE A DIE-HARD GOV. ED FAN IF...
You come up with an online survey on your website on whether controversial Provincial Administrator Atty. Dabu should be fired from her job but cancel the same survey just when everybody is checking the Yes answer because well, you didn’t want to hurt her feelings.
You unceasingly cite your favorite Bible story David versus Goliath when people ask how Gov. Ed plans to win the 2010 presidential election without the machinery, money, and the votes.
You question the credibility of a survey on presidential wannabes because results shows Gov. Ed’s name at the very end of the list getting a measly 0.2%.
You vehemently agree that Atty. Vivian Dabu is the ONLY person in Pampanga who can do the job of a Provincial Administrator, and nobody else!
You brag about the “achievements” of Gov. Ed but purposely do not read the local dailies in Pampanga showing the real score there because you believe that all the local journalists are paid publicists of the Lapids, Pinedas and Arroyos.
Grabbing every chance you get, you don’t forget to quote Gov Ed’s P1 million per day quarry tax collection but purposely forget to mention that it stopped being that a long, long time ago.
You feel sorry but hold grudges against the former confidence team members who has left Gov Ed’s side because of Atty. Dabu, thinking, “Oh those poor misguided, incompetent people, they just couldn’t keep up with the pressure.”
You think all the criticisms and bad news against Gov. Ed are untrue, fabricated, imagined and exaggerated because Gov Ed is oh so perfect!
Now, you really are a Gov Ed die-hard fan if…
You secretly accept a brown paper bag full of money from an unknown man while in Malacanang, if caught, hold a national press conference and ask the Office of the President to issue you an official receipt.
You tell the whole world that it seems you were bribed, but only after you spend some of it. Goodbye, evidence!
You are the governor but you are “not privy” to the provincial investment plans. AYOS!
Because you are so humble, you refuse to put your name on the government projects billboards but it’s perfectly alright to put a nice Borj Meneses’ photo shot of your smiling face on all of them.
You enter into a commitment via a dialogue with protesting BALAS employees but four days later forget all about it and ask, “Did I really say that? Show me the minutes!”
You insist on being a priest but you don’t want the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary at your office, and if asked, just say “Oh, I now keep her in my room to get closer to her,” thinking the Mama Mary’s devotees will love that!
Knowing there will be a big rally of incensed truckers against a new Capitol policy, and you know they would definitely demand for a dialogue, you immediately call all the media people available to come to your office and then shut the door and have your bodyguards ready. When the rallyists come up, knock loudly because you just won’t open your double-locked door, go tell the media: “Oh look, they want to attack me!”
You agree to the Governor's move to have former PNP Provincial Director Keith Singian fired because he did not rush to the Governor's Office to "protect Panlilio" from the imaginary "attackers".
(To be continued)
TO the readers: Thanks for the emails and the wonderful ideas and keep them coming! You might also want to email me your own versions of “You might be a die-hard fan of Gov Ed if…”.
ONSEHAN
ONSEHAN
I am pleasantly amazed by the sudden display of guts and militancy by priest-politician Pampanga Governor Ed Panlilio, at least for his brave short speech at the anti-Con-Ass Rally held in Makati last week. There he roared, “Tayo po ay ino-onse ng gobyernong ito!” (“We are being fooled by this government!”) Finally, he made his position clear! No more camouflage.
He went on to speak about all the mighty-sounding ideals of “abundance, justice, power to the people.”
That came after the much talked about Anti-Con-Ass paid political ad where together with other politicians and concerned individuals, Among Ed expressed his refusal to be silenced by the powers and dramatically taped-off his mouth and said, “Hindi ako papayag…”
The many that have bones yet unpicked with the priest-politician and the not-quite-a-damsel in Capitolio is definitely not fooled by this timely patriotic exhibition.
“Among Ed, kami po ang inoonse nyo! Hindi kami papayag!” is the comment that I got from a former BALAS supervisor who even now, after almost a year of protest seeking only a small amount of unpaid wages and benefits but out of vindictiveness of the lady administrator have failed to benefit from the true meaning of justice that Among Ed so easily speaks about here and there.
Luchie Gutierrez is banned, with matching security guards, from entering her own office despite the court declaration that her 90-day suspension by the jury-judge-executioner governor is null and void. Luchie is clearly being subjected to harassment as more cases are filed against her. Not only is deprived of what is just and fair, but she is a victim of Panlilio’s selective practice of his favorite phrase “rule of law”, as it usually becomes nothing more than a simple “opinion” of the court if it runs against his wishes.
Again I wonder, is good governance just about making a stand against corruption? Did he really just become the governor of Pampanga – and now aiming for higher a post – to fight corruption? Aren’t incompetence / inefficiency and injustice/abuse of power higher forms of corruption? Is not the fight against corruption based on the fight for justice? But what is justice for Panlilio? One that is just only for him and not for those who have differences with him?
To speak about fighting corruption while he himself may be guilty of it is the worst kind because there is deception, a local form of pang-o-onse and taking people for a ride.
NUMBERS DON’T LIE: How Among Ed Plays the Game of Stats and Still Lose
The recent press statement of Panlilio congratulating himself and the new BALAS Boys for having surpassed quarry collections compared to the past administrations is really a clear attempt to deceive the public by creating the wrong impression and elevate himself as the good and honest governor.
Everybody knows that prior to Panlilio’s assumption as governor of Pampanga, Vice Governor Yeng Guiao has already sued the Lapids for plunder because of alleged irregularities in the quarry collections. In fact, Panlilio himself capitalized and benefited from this very issue, partnered with that of jueteng, and used both as effective campaign lines to defeat his political opponents in 2007 elections.
Now, why did Panlilio and his public information office compare his own quarry tax collection performance to that of the Lapids, and a huge announcement at that toying with statistics (millions and millions of that, more than double this, 14 times more than that) even while, as we all know, the latter were ridden with multiple allegations of corruption?
Oh, that’s right, it was a nice friendly reminder to the public of the long running good vs evil theme, and a build-up for his next move which he did four days later (Yeng says 1 year later) to file the graft and corruption charges against the Lapids et al.
Oo nga naman, aside from projecting himself as THE ULTIMATE GRAFT BUSTER, he can also try to steal Yeng’s thunder (going after the Lapids on the issue of corruption in quarry collections was Yeng’s bitter and lonesome crusade) and strategically try halt Leon Guerrero on his tracks on the way back to Capitolio.
He knows full well that he may have luckily beaten the son, but there is no way he can win over the father. Besides, with him being a disastrous flop in what is now clear to many as being nothing more than an act as Pampanga’s governor (where Dabu is said to be the director), his chances of getting re-elected is glaringly slim-to-none.
Okay, please bear with me, say for the sake of argument, let us suppose that GOOD AND HONEST GOVERNANCE in Pampanga is only about the quarry tax collection of the last 23 months as Panlilio’s recent statement seems to imply. Can we all truthfully say that such is at work in this province? Has he satisfactorily explain why his administration failed to meet the benchmark of P1 million per day collection that it has highly publicized and therefore set during the first few months of his career? If the system is good, and the management efficient, shouldn’t the quarry collections increase instead of plunge?
Reports and figures clearly indicate a downward trend in the collections, especially after the termination of the original supervisors and checkers of BALAS:
If, as the governor declared, the collection for the 23-month period is P397,608,000.00, and the total collection from July 2007 – February 2009 is P347,510,000.00, then the collection from March – May 2009 can be grossly estimated as only P50,098,000.00 – that’s on the average P17M of monthly collection – a far cry from the P24, 20, 21 millions collected during the first 3 months of Panlilio administration!
Instead of the spurious comparison between the Lapids - Panlilio quarry performance (which by virtue of Panlilio’s graft and corrupt charges against the Lapids would be and is actually very low), why did he not instead evaluate his own 23-month performance and honestly explain why the collection is going down instead of up? In fact, as per reports, there are more or less 3,000 trucks of sand hauled from the quarry sites all over Pampanga every day, and with a truly efficient system of collection, the province can collect as much as P900,000.00 daily. The benchmark. So what happened?
What is happening?
This ‘cheating’ of Panlilio to deceive the public is a trapo technique. Paging Kaya Natin and the Ateneo School of Government: Please teach Among Ed to be ‘honest’ in his political propaganda.#
Keh-se Rah-Rah?
KEH-se Rah Rah?
Credit must be given to my alma mater Ateneo de Manila University for its unyielding vision and efforts in moving to establish an ideal Philippines. I have to say though that I am somewhat wary of their most recent project, Kaya Natin!, in particular, the taste and judgment of its leader, their young idealist professor, Mr. Harvey Keh.
Kaya Natin! mainstays Padaca, Robredo, Lorenzo, Panlilio and Baguilat were successful in winning elections, beating tremendous odds in securing their respective positions in government. In fact, two of them, Padaca and Robredo are recipients of the prestigious Magsaysay Award with their glittering record of accomplishments in governance. My only apprehension is that out of the total 81Governors, 1,577 municipal mayors, 118 City Mayors, 41,982 barangay captains, 238 elected reps of which 26 are partylist representatives, they have not increased the number of the faces they brag about as good governance politicians.
Bakit kaya hindi na dumami ang napupusuang mga elected leaders nitong Kaya Natin?
Hindi naman kaya napakataas ng qualifications nitong si Keh?
But if Keh’s standards are high, I find it really strange why and how he came to hero-worship the priest-Governor Ed Panlilio, school-hop and parade him around, brandish him in the national media as a leader worthy of emulation.
Stranger still is that Keh continues to rah-rah for Panlilio despite knowing that the governor, more than half-way through his term, still do not have any real and concrete socio-economic program for this province, not even a blue print. I’m sure that he had been made aware of the serious and unanswered issues surrounding the governance of his revered leader (having had an earful from colleagues at the Ateneo School of Government who have also given up on Panlilio). He must know that for the Kapampangans who had once believed him, he had long lost his “poster boy” status as a moral leader and champion of good governance. Why, then do Keh act like he does not know? I am beginning to wonder the seriousness of his intensions for our country.
The line was drawn when Panlilio’s head got bigger than the ideals of the Kapampangan Crusade, when his views were clouded out of fear of the many Rs – Recount, Recall, Requiem, Resign, Return to priesthood, and what not. By the way, none of which would have materialized if only he did his job well. But since he did not, now see what is happening!
It was all downhill when he arrogantly plugged his ears against the well-intentioned counsel of his proven allies and listened only to Dabu and then after, to himself, her alter ego. Despite being the obvious cause of his blunderful performance as a governor and the disillusionment / division among the crusaders, Panlilio unreasonably stuck it up with the indefensible Dabu.
The two of his staunchest supporters in the local civil society groups Kapampangan Marangal, Inc.(KMI) and Kapampangan Coalition, Inc (KCI) publicly demanded Dabu’s resignation, called for immediate reforms on his evidently flailing administration and supported the protesting BALAS Boys. What any bright, upright and democratic political leader would do is to yield to the people’s clamor. Instead, he bullied them. In KMI’s case, Panlilio and Dabu went on and appealed directly to KMI municipal leaders and coordinators and formed KASAUP from among them. This created KMI’s great divide, and, let’s pray not, may even be the cause of the eventual dissolution of this organization.
Now, what moral leadership of Panlilio is there to speak of?
And what of his honesty and integrity?
About a year ago, Panlilio was in hot water when the local media got hold of his obviously miscalculated COMELEC campaign contributions report. This caused serious doubt (on his honesty and integrity) and confusion among his official-receipt-carrying donors when their (our) names had mysteriously disappeared from his list. Harvey, what was your governor’s answer to this? Was it not, “I will have to consult my lawyer,” or something like that?
Last July, when he sat down with the anti-Dabu BALAS boys in SACOP for a dialogue, facilitated by priests, participated and witnessed by leaders of supportive civil society groups, he gave his word of their reinstatement among other commitments. What did he do? Why, did he not ask for a copy of the minutes (or was it a voice recording?) that he indeed gave such commitments? Dios mio! Where is the spirit of dialogue there! Worst still, the BALAS boys when they reported to work after the “dialogue” were reportedly given such a hard time by Dabu that they sooner sacrificed their jobs than suffer further humiliation from the lady administrator. Resuming their protest, they were automatically sacked, then after harassed, threatened and bullied at their picket line.
But the BALAS Boys did what no other Panlilio groups would have dared to do at that time, i.e. they made a poignant but a much enlightening point – that Panlilio was the wrong candidate of the Kapampangan Crusade, for he is incompetent, arrogant and he failed exceedingly well in leading and governing this province.
Of course there is the issue of the en masse resignation and even firing of Panlilio’s handpicked confidence team members, composing of most of the Bakal Boys (the tireless ex-seminarian volunteers whom Panlilio himself referred to at his speech last year at, yes, Harvey, Ateneo, as his workhorses, the provider of spiritual dimension in their everyday struggles during the campaign.) Shockingly, these very same people were either considered incompetent or unprofessional by Panlilio – Dabu and so, of the original confidence team members (too many to mention), only Dabu seemed have gained Panlilio’s real confidence.
Harvey Keh & Kaya Natin should be careful in chosing his leaders that he will bring all around the country asking students to stand up and fight the evil of corruption in government and advance the ideals of good governance in our country. God knows we need this. His cause is very noble. I myself had my share in this fight against corruption, some quite high profile, others not. I continue to study, learn and look for solutions on how to fight corruption in the system and the best governance practices (not just good) in our country.
The danger is when people who do not know how to govern at all, much more be good at it become leaders of a noble cause. Consider carefully their track record, not mere popularity. If high popularity is seen as an important factor for the popularization of the cause, I think it will make a lot of sense and will add credibility if you begin with knowing how popular potential leaders are in their own locality, before anywhere else.
Panlilio’s only claim to fame is the increase of quarry collection that he managed to rake in for the province in the first few months of his term, but even this has consistently and sadly been going down.
If my intentions for writing this piece is, for one reason or another, doubtful to Mr. Keh, I seriously suggest that he personally visit the province, stay awhile, talk to our Kabalens, the civil society groups, the Capitol employees and other elected officials here. We can’t all be wrong.
