Skirting the ‘Epal’ ban
There are many ways to skin a cat and nowhere is this truism more applicable than in this country, where Filipinos find so many ways to dance around and skirt the law particularly when it comes to elections.
It was last year, if we recall, when President Benigno Aquino III issued a policy prohibiting government officials from advertising their names and their images in infrastructure projects and especially on streamers and posters in strategically located areas.
That policy had a mixed effect in Cebu, where Cebu City officials like former congressman Raul del Mar and his daughter, Rep. Rachel del Mar, had to cover their faces on buses and on the flyovers and overpasses that stood for well over a decade.
But they still managed to get around the restrictions by advertising their slogan like “With You, For You, Always.” It’s not like Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is above doing pretty much the same thing; his slogan, “Together We Can Make It Happen,” can also be found in some multicab vehicles used by barangay officials.
And then there’s the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) lineup on the Kaohsiung buses featuring former mayor-and-now-congressman Tomas Osmeña along with his SRP (South Reclamation Project) logo “Suya ra probinsya” (the province is jealous) in reference to his favorite target, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.
The governor, in fact, has coined so many programs nicknamed conveniently as e-Gwen to remind Capitol employees and succeeding administrations—that if things go as planned will be ruled by her brother in 2013—about her three-term rule in the province.
Article continues after this advertisementSpeaking of Tomas Osmeña, we wait and see whether Mayor Rama will make good on his promise to remove the “Type O” posters being plastered across the city in obvious reference to the former mayor who will waste no time reminding city residents about his bid to re-take City Hall from his erstwhile partner.
Article continues after this advertisementNot only the “Type O” posters but the Vicente Rama streamers and posters that BO-PK leaders rightly said enforces name recall of the current City Hall occupant in a subtle skirting of the government policy to ban undue promotion of public officials.
Despite Rama’s convenient excuse that the Vicente Rama posters were part of the year-round celebration of a Cebu City’s founding anniversary, longtime city residents know better. Then again, maybe many people simply don’t bother looking at all these posters to care.
There’s some action already taken by the time this piece sees print, but we hope, despite threats of BO-PK followers to plaster more “Type O” posters and streamers, that we won’t have to endure the whole year having these materials prominently displayed nearly everywhere we look.
It’s still a good year ahead of the elections.
