Theres The Rub
Wrong message

By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:03:00 08/05/2008

There were a couple of stories here last Saturday that drove home the point that those who can’t do preach. The first was Bayani Fernando warning the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) against touching his posters. “Unlike other billboards, they don’t pose danger to lives and property. They’re part of an intensified information and educational campaign of the MMDA to instill discipline among residents and restore order in the metropolis.” The DPWH, he said, should tear down instead the commercial billboards that flout the law.

What idiocy. The DPWH shouldn’t just touch his posters, they should touch him, preferable by mixing him in cement, and even more preferably not just metaphorically. More than the commercial ads, his posters are a threat to life and property, inviting as they do drivers to ram their vehicles into the offending posters. They are also a threat to health, his picture, like that of his boss, being enough to crowd hospitals with patients suddenly afflicted by hypertension and other diseases related to feelings of unbearable oppression.

At the very least, those posters subvert their professed intention. Discipline is the last thing they will encourage among the public—rioting is first. How can you instill discipline among the public when you yourself display cheekiness and irresponsibility beyond belief? Those posters were already an eyesore last year when Metro Manila residents could count whatever blessings in life they still had. They are an absolute abomination today when those same residents are reeling from the prices of rice and gas, the two most basic needs of an urban resident, that are rising faster than their leaders are falling. The fortune that went to making those posters could have been put to better use.

While at that, the fortune was harnessed only to fuel Fernando’s political ambitions. They are campaign posters, nothing more, nothing less. You know it, I know it, he knows it. The only comfort, a truly cold one, anyone may take from those posters is that they show the future voters exactly what would happen if they ever felt suicidal enough to put him in higher office. That is what he will do to their taxes.

I do know something that will assuredly instill discipline among the public. That is to throw Fernando in jail for a few years for illegal use of funds and campaigning well before the stipulated period. At the very least it would instill discipline in him. At the very most it would instill discipline in the rest of us by showing that lack of discipline, or plain abuse, won’t be tolerated in this country. It will be poetic justice as well: Finally Fernando will get a taste of what he has been giving undisciplined pedestrians to force them to keep to sidewalks. That is to fence him in.

Bayani Fernando Poster spotted in Zambales

Photo credits: Tsikot.com member glenn_sp

MMDA errs, dismantles LRT ‘eyesore’ in Caloocan

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has mistakenly dismantled the vertical clearance bar in Caloocan City owned by the Light Rail Transit (LRT).

LRT officials said they were surprised that the overhead clearance sign located near the Fifth Avenue Station was identified as an illegal structure by the MMDA. It was dismantled last Tuesday.

The clearance is used by truck drivers to measure if their vehicle can safely pass under the LRT concrete beams above.

“This (dismantling of sign) is very dangerous… this structure warns the trucks. When they hit the clearance, they cannot pass under the rail,” said Mel Robles, chief administrator of the LRT.

Robles added that his office was advised about the removal of the structure.

He urged the MMDA to re-install the clearance for the safety of the trucks passing through.

The MMDA, meanwhile, admitted that its personnel committed a mistake in dismantling the clearance sign.

“This is all human error… my men made a mistake. There were unconfirmed reports saying that they did know that it was owned by the LRT, but this excuses no one,” said Robert Nacianceno, MMDA general manager.

The clearance is currently at the MMDA’s impounding area. The agency said it will take two days before it could re-assemble the structure. With a report from Gretchen Malalad, ABS-CBN News

Sa motel, sa di-lubos na tanggap na lunan ng sexual na pagnanasa, pinapanasa na ang ibang uring pagkamamamayan na may finansyal na yaman para maka-book ng kwarto: pulisyahin ang sexual at iba pang pagnanasa, pumanatag sa itinakdang panuntunan, at tamasain ang temporal na kaligayahang iniendorso ng estado. Hindi na trespassing subject ang nasa loob ng motel, ipinaloob na siya at ang kanyang ginagawa sa lehitimasyong pang-estado ni Fernando at ng MMDA.

NI ROLAND TOLENTINO
KULTURANG POPULAR KULTURA
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 18, June 8-14, 2008

Hindi ako nagtaka kung hanggang sa kwarto sa Sogo, isang higanteng chain at gusaling motel, ay napanood ko ang cable show ng MMDA (Metro Manila Development Authority). Siempre, ang bosing na si Bayani Fernando, na ang tagumpay sa munting syudad ng Marikina ay nire-reproduce sa iba pang syudad ng Metro Manila, ang bida.

Hindi lang siya bida, siya ay bidang-bida. At sa ilang saglit, tulad ng kanyang mantra (Metro Gwapo, Tao-Ganado), ay bigla nga siyang nagkaroon ng personalidad. Minsan ko nang natunghayan si Fernando sa isang poetry reading sa lumang bahay na trinansforma sa isang cultural center sa Marikina. At winish kong sana ay nagbaon ako ng unan.

Monotono ang kanyang boses, dead-pan ang mukha. Pero ang bangis ay nasa ilalim ng hitsura. Tunay na megalomaniac ang hitad. Kinuha ang wallet sa likod na bulsa ng pantalon, at may tinanggal na pirasong papel. Dahil nga poetry reading ang event, nagbasa ito ng sinulat niyang tula. At balak niyang ipalilok ang kanyang tula sa marmol sa sports arena pa raw!

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