‘Vanguard’ Joavan

Perception of detachment from power is as important as actual detachment from it.

In the country’s’ modern history, the public has been suspicious of the agenda of families who together occupy several closely related positions in the government.

We remember the time of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when relatives of hers led by son Mikey sat in the Lower House.

We saw the hiring as then consultant Gwendolyn Garcia in the years when her father was governor of Cebu as a political strategy for another Garcia to keep the helm of the province.

The hiring of two Abads, Julia of the Presidential Management Staff and her father Florencio in the Department of Budget and Management has been a springboard for questioning the sincerity of President Benigno Aquino III’s rewidening of the democratic space in the country post the Arroyo regime.

We became anxious when we learned in reports that the wife of impeached chief justice Renato Corona held five simultaneous positions in a corporation while he rose up the ranks of the judiciary.

We could not remain unsullied in the face of all these simply because proximity of family members in the halls of power effectively renders insincere any vow a public official makes of remaining in office for the common good rather than for the prosperity of kin.

Now what exactly was the purpose of Talisay City Mayor Socrates Fernandez in hiring his son Joavan as part of the locale’s environmental police, so to speak?

What particularly qualifies Joavan to be a green worker with the Vanguard group that his father says has been deputized by the Environment Department?

Joavan returned to the headlines after he seized Cebu City trader Julius Abad’s truck that was carrying sand purportedly because it lacked clearance. This was disproven in the Talisay City Hall.

Abad and the Fernandezes may contend forever about the issue, but what affects the public at this point is the fact that the mayor hired his own son.

Is that really in the public’s interest, or is it a means for the mayor to keep his chronologically aging son under close watch after the latter pledged to depart from the “bad boy” life?

The government is not exactly the best place for someone like Joavan who is trying to start life over because so many would be affected in the moments he backslides.

Mayor Fernandez, father to a son and father to a city should find a more creative plan to support his son in what he claims to be the new path he is taking, not one that compromises trade or any other aspect of public life.