Slumming with the constituents

There’s a news story about how Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte would drive a taxi around the city to touch base with his constituents. The story has gone viral in social media.

It didn’t take long before his son Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte also admitted to riding taxis and jeepneys to monitor violators of traffic laws of which there are still many in Davao City despite his father’s tough stance on lawbreakers.

The strategy isn’t new. Celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and ’70s shows like Candid Camera used this to mine reactions of people on everyday issues long before it became the staple of reality TV shows.

And just last month it was reported that Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg released a video of himself driving a taxi and talking with Norwegians as part of his reelection campaign. Whether that trick succeeds or not will be known when Norway holds elections this month.

This powerful-official-as-ordinary-citizen-of-the street approach found a contemporary match in Pope Francis who was photographed riding buses in Buenos Aires. He also didnt mind posing for a “selfie” with Catholic teenagers who immediately posted the photo on Facebook and Instagram.

Both Stoltenberg and Duterte have the advantage of driving taxis with some form of security as befits their status. In fact, Duterte drives a unit of his family-owned fleet of taxis.

Still, can we realistically expect Cebu mayors and officials to do similar acts of empathy to see what life is like for their struggling constituents?

We pose that question in light of the announcement that more prayer rallies and protest actions are being planned to pressure Congress into eliminating the pork barrel and its variations.

The identified mastermind behind the P10 billion pork barrel scam, Janet Lim Napoles had been described by Thelma Chiong, whose sister supposedly worked as an advisor to the businesswoman, as “a simple, jeans-wearing type” with no airs.

The description of Napoles is in sharp contrast to the videos posted on the Web of her fashionable daughter who’s living in the fast lane in the US.

Only by examining the paper trail left d by Napoles does one see the gross picture of corruption.

No amount of “slumming” or “selfie” campaign videos of them driving a taxi, eating street food or posing with babies can exempt local and national government officials from the onus of shared blame for the brazen abuse of taxpayers’ money.

Instead of happy, smiling faces, public officials will have to see for themselves angry, complaining constituents (who may pose a selfie or two) demanding anew for the abolition of the pork barrel.

And this time, officials should take heed.