Face power

In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a handsome young man who spurned a nymph named Echo who loved her own voice.
Instead of getting seduced by the nymph, Narcissus chose to stare in a pool and he eventually fell in love with his own reflection.
On or off campaign period,  elected officials love to post their images anywhere and everywhere, announcing to the world their achievements, their power and emblazon their names and faces on billboards or any surface available.
This pervasive behavior  is opposite their campaign spiels packaging themselves as humble servants ( “sulogoon”)  or even slaves of the poor and the sovereign people (“ulipon  sa kabus og sa haring lungsod” ).
Democracy recognizes the people as the sovereign source of all state power.
Fair elections  are held so the people can delegate this sovereign power to run the government.
So it’s repulsive indeed to see public officials preen and take  personal credit for work they are expected to accomplish, and then post their face and names on projects spent for with taxpayers money.
Should  people be indebted  to them for  roads built,  scholarships granted, or school supplies doled out?
As delegated authority,  elected officials are accountable to the people.
Consider  these realities:
A citizen’s  fixed income can get taxed from 5 to 32 percent.
The cost of a  cedula or residence certificate is equivalent to 1 percent of a citizen’s declared annual income.
When one  eats in a fastfood outlet, buys groceries, checks  in a hotel or resort, the tab is computed with  12 percent value added tax.
Electric,  water and other utility bills can get taxed up to 30 percent.
When traffic is stalled in  bad roads, remember that the price of gas  is taxed 40 percent. A  substantial part of it is Road Users Tax.
From womb to tomb, everyone pays a tax.
Engraving the face of an official in brass medals intended for  scholars supported by the Cebu provincial government or having it adorn the front cover of school notebooks is  not just a vanity but a waste of people’s money.
The Capitol under the current administration would be foolish and courting an auditor’s disallowance  if it pays a  P520,000 bill presented for medallions that immortalize the face of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.
Undelivered stacks of notebooks and school supplies worth P19 million are also in the bodega, a hidden shame, recently exposed.
Good public servants know that their tour of duty is temporary and that the  satisfaction of genuine  service  is its own reward, not engraved images that impose their likeness in  the memory of taxpayers.