Topsy-turvy governance

The chaotic situation in Talisay City under the fledgling administration of Mayor Johnny V. de los Reyes, aka JVR, looks more uncontrollable every day.

The latest disaster happened last week inside the Talisay City Hall during the distribution of payments to the city’s so-called job order employees. Because there were only two City Hall workers giving out payments to some 1,500 casual workers, they crammed the City Treasurer’s Office. In the process, a garbage collector named Agripino Oyuan lost consciousness while lining up. The 67-year old employee was later pronounced dead at the local hospital.

There are many issues that can be raised from the latest incident on top of the previous ones leveled by political rivals and observers against the De los Reyes administration. The treasurer’s office is directly under the city chief executive and what happened last Thursday is a reflection of topsy-turvy governance. I’m not surprised many people like taxi drivers passing by the Tabunok area everyday who expected things will change for the better under JVR are disenchanted about what they perceive as worsening conditions in Talisay City.

JVR was earlier castigated for hiring his sons and the spouse of one of them as confidential assistants. The mayor has discretion to hire as many as seven relatives as part of his confidential staff but stung by incessant attacks, the neophyte chief executive said he will let go of his relatives after 100 days in office. He said he only appointed them because they have his trust, but the issue gave political rivals belonging to the Alayon party ammunition to denounce him for lack of delicadeza. Of course, these politicians should be the last persons to lecture on good governance, but with JVR committing lapses left and right, he has become fair game to political adversaries.

The number of the so-called job order employees is a major headache because 1,910 is such a huge number and puts a lot of strain on the local budget. On the other hand, JVR can’t also close his eyes and ears to the pleas of people who supported him during the last elections so he accepted 1,500 job order workers. I think the mayor would have wanted to cut the number in half, but there was so much pressure that he was able to reduce it only by about 25 per cent.

However, the mayor is misled if he looks at the job order pool merely as political rather than as a potent instrument for good. In other words, the issue is not about quantity. Rather, it is the quality of the casual assembly that needs to be looked at.

For example, the city chief executive is constantly harassed by complaints of traffic flow in Rabaya street because tricycle and habal-habal drivers compete for parking space in this major thoroughfare which allows for no street parking. I hope that he visits this area in the evening when taxicabs line up the street as if it is part of the taxi company’s garage.

In Tabunok, sidewalk vendors and sellers of street food, ukay-ukay, including habal-habal and tricycle drivers spill onto the road causing motorists’ blood pressures to rise when they pass this area. Nowadays, fish vendors occupy the sidewalks in the afternoon, crowding the street close to the flyover because people no longer buy fish in Lagtang public market.

The people who elected JVR have been fired- up by the closure of the Tabunok market and he is poised to make good his promise to reopen the old Tabunok market. Since this cannot happen overnight, he should see to it that city streets remain passable and orderly and not allow vendors, tricycle and habal-habal drivers to take control of the street.

This should not be a gargantuan task because he has 1,500 foot soldiers to help him. However, after the death of the 67-year-old garbage collector, the question is really not about the huge number of casual employees that City Hall subsidizes but about how healthy and able-bodied they are.

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888 News Forum marks its 7th year tomorrow with a celebration at the plush Marco Polo Plaza. “888” is the abbreviation or nickname of the must-attend weekly news event and when I think that it has been around for seven years. I can’t help but look back to the time when I met travel executive and eco-tourism advocate Jenny Franco through a mutual friend, Cebu Daily News publisher Eileen Mangubat.

This was in 2005 and after becoming fast friends we came up with plans for a media forum that would highlight tourism issues. The original concept later made way for a news forum, one that distilled the issues of the day.

My friend Jenny will be sorely missed in this year’s 888 anniversary but she will be with us in spirit, in solidarity with her colleagues in the Board of Trustees, namely Ricky Poca, Dawnie Roa, Honey Loop, Rey Fuentes, Bobby Joseph and this corner.

Jenny is a nurse by profession and she is giving all the tender loving care to US-based family members who are under the weather at this time.

888 would like to thank newsmakers in the public and private sectors for gracing the show these past seven years. Big thanks to Mr. Hans Hauri, general manager of Marco Polo Plaza and his hardworking staff for their unflagging support.