The blaming game; casino hullabaloo

“People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.” J. Michael Straczynski

By Alex P. Vidal

Like Brazil’s semifinals shellacking from Germany in the FIFA 2014 World Cup, Ilonggos already anticipated with absolute certainty the floods that hit the city last July 7 due to heavy downpour brought by typhoon “Florita”.

Several days before the Germany vs Brazil showdown, everyone was already talking about the host country’s impending exit from the world’s most prestigious soccer conclave when it was crystal clear that Neymar and Thiago Silva would miss the important match.

Each time there was non-stop monsoon rain in Iloilo City, Ilonggos were expecting the water level to rise rapidly due to our poor drainage system and clogged manholes. Waterways were blocked by garbage and other debris thrown by irresponsible characters.

Aside from the inefficient flood control program from our local government that dates back during the incumbency of post-EDSA OIC mayor Rosa “Tita” Caram, the lack of discipline also did us in.

We are actually not blameless. We also neglected our social responsibility; we were complacent and passive. We move only like a house on fire when calamity is already on our doorsteps. When it comes to blaming others, we are World Cup winners.

STRIKE

When calamity strikes, we resort to endless buck-passing and blaming games. We denounce our public officials and unload unrestrained brickbats at city hall without letup to emphasize our disgust and outrage.

We always expect too much from our authorities. We think they are supermen and wonder women who can solve the crisis overnight. We forget the fundamental factor why these public officials are also hard-pressed to address the gnawing problem that has bedeviled the Ilonggos for more than forty years now.

We lack a comprehensive urban planning. The city’s physical layout and infrastructure is tailor-made for floods. Since time immemorial, we elected politicians, not urban planners and highly skilled engineers. Our squalid electoral system has goaded or programmed our psyche   to vote for glib-tongued punks and tantalizers.

We have parsimoniously avoided or refused to vote for candidates not gifted with eloquence in speaking but are genius in architecture and engineering works. We are suckers to debaters and smart alecks who mesmerize us with empty rhetoric during the campaign period.

And now that these ninny lobcocks are in power and can’t solve the flood problems in one fell swoop, we angrily raise the whimper and resort to trouncing them with unsavory remarks. And we get a high blood pressure.

-o0o-

Some members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod who unraveled a can of worms involving the Casino Filipino’s failure to secure a business permit from the Iloilo City hall since 2012, are now the objects of a smear drive.

Some city hall minions who authorized Casino Filipino’s monthly remittance of P500,000 cash to the city treasurer’s office and allowed the gaming establishment to operate without a business permit, are jittery since no less than the Iloilo Business Club (IBC) has issued a terse statement that no one should be given a special treatment when it comes to securing the mandatory business permit before being allowed to operate a business anywhere in the city.

They have more reason to be panicky now that the local legislative body has hinted that it would conduct a committee hearing on the hullabaloo.

We have emphasized earlier that operators of Casino Filipino can’t invoke the weight of the monthly largess they gave the city government as a bargaining chip so they could be exempted from their obligation to secure a business permit.

The caveat is clear and categorical: the city tax ordinance does not exempt any individual or entity from securing a business permit. There is a whale of difference between a donation (in whatever amount) and a fee paid for the business permit.

THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA

“The thought that so many people get their news from social media really is scary.” Rush Limbaugh

By Alex P. Vidal

A FEW minutes after major streets in Iloilo City were flooded due to monsoon rains brought by typhoon “Florita” last July 7, the whole world immediately learned of the situation via social media.

Photos of flooded downtown streets immediately spread in the Facebook and Twitter, enabling fellow Ilonggos living outside Western Visayas and in other countries to get a clear ringside account of what was going on in the City of Love.

The speed and accuracy of the news transmitted via social media that very moment gave disaster coordinating councils in the region ample time to spruce up their rescue operation teams just in case the situation turns awry.

Forty years ago, photos of floods and other disasters reached the attention of people in other regions only after several weeks when newspapers published them. Horrors of actual damage and deaths were chronicled only on radio reports. Even television networks at that time were not as fully-equipped and as state-of-the-art compared to the technology we have today.

HIGH-TECH

Most high-tech mobile phones now have digital cameras that can transmit photos and videos in a snap of a finger to the global village via the social media.

It was not hard to get the sympathy of people in other countries when super-typhoon “Yolanda” struck in Central Visayas last November 2013 because the destruction was seen all over the world courtesy of the social media, thus foreign relief assistance poured in dizzying speed and volumes.

Access has become smooth and easy to actual scenes of riots, earthquakes, tsunamis, mining disasters, violent police operations, collapse of buildings, dispersal of street rallies, fisticuffs involving parliament members, traffic altercations, ATM robberies, burglaries, sex scandals as these can be conveniently taken from the CCTV and mobile phones and uploaded to YouTube via mini tablets, laptops and desktop units and become parts of household, office and even school entertainments.

The power of social media is limitless and boundless. It can sway public opinion; it can provoke insurrection; it can be used to destroy and promote personalities, clubs, products, religious groups, politicians, athletes, and events.

NETIZENS

Netizens have become the most influential purveyors of real and reel information and reliable liaisons between media and public. In terms of speed and accuracy, the netizens have given the mainstream press a run for their money, so to speak.

Because of social media, Fr. Romeo Obach of Sacred Heart Chapel in Jagobiao, Mandaue City was forced to apologize to the 17-year-old unwed mother he had humiliated during the baptism of the girl’s child last July 6.

More Fr. Obachs all over the country made the same horrendous misbehavior in the past but managed to get away with their demagoguery because their evil acts and verbal abuses were not recorded for all the world to hear and see. Suffice it to say that if the unwed mother’s 12-year-old sister did not record Fr. Obach’s ungodly misconduct, the prelate would not have capitulated.

Social media also gave us front seat view of how Brazil was steamrolled by Germany in one of the host country’s lousiest FIFA World Cup matches in recent memory last July 9, and how fast we learned that San Antonio Spurs defrocked Miami Heat in the 2014 NBA finals last month.

Flood not a reason to spit at our officials

“As a biblical inerrantist, I believe that what the Bible teaches is true and bow to the text, including its teaching about the Flood and its universality.” William A. Dembski

By Alex P. Vidal

Hot-tempered and impatient, many Ilonggos were quick to rib their public officials by calling them “negligent” and “incompetent” each time flash floods would cascade down the city and province of Iloilo brought by monsoon rains.

They scored their public officials’ failure to come up with comprehensive plans and management on flood control, and for their lack of foresight and preparations to deal with natural calamities.

While we have an abundance of neglectful and even incompetent public officials, our problems on flood control and other disasters won’t be solved overnight if the only quick-fix solution we believe to be most effective is to train the guns and crucify them only because we are irritated and inconvenienced. 

Much as they would like to solve this gnawing problem, most of them just don’t have the capacity and extra time and energy to deal with floods, which requires devotion of their full attention, experience and technical expertise.

Most of our public officials become allergic to media interviews when the people start to become restless and hell-bent to wring their necks for being the convenient scapegoats.

POLITICIANS

Take note that most of our public officials are politicians and not urban planners. They are good in debates and SOPs (standard operating procedures, the euphemism for kickbacks on projects), not on dredging of dams, building of manholes and dikes, pipelines, water canals, and other technical works.

Many of us may argue that the public officials’ job is merely ministerial and they can always legislate or enact ordinances and laws, or issue executive fiats, to that effect, to commence the urban planning and widening of waterways and other infrastructure projects that can help address the flood problem. The tasks are inherent in their powers under the local government code.

But knowing the mentally of most politicians nowadays, worrying about gargantuan problems that would eat up a big bulk of their time and energy would be the least of their concerns.

After all, our politicians have fixed terms and aren’t married to their positions. They come and go and are normally at their best only when elections are near or when they are trying to deodorize their tattered image.

PROBLEMS

Floods, like power blackouts, have been the perennial problems of the Ilonggos. There is no escape, actually, whether we like it or not.

Geographically, Western Visayas sits in the area where typhoons from the east, west, north and south poles regularly pass, thus there is no way for us to be spared from their wrath. Plus Iloilo is a highly urbanized city with a large population. In thickly populated areas, garbage problem that clog the drainage is one cause of flash floods, not to mention the wanton cutting of trees in the province’s mountainous areas.

As city residents, we are living witnesses since high school days how flash floods rattled the commuters and pedestrians that are mostly students and office workers caught flat-footed while on their way to schools and offices vice versa; how traffic disrupted important schedules and destroyed appointments.

Floods also wreak havoc on business establishments that lose substantial amount of income when potential customers are stranded and unable to go shopping.

Instead of pointing accusing fingers at our public officials it is best if we do our own share in the preventive measure. After all, an ounce of prevention is always better than a pound of cure.