By Alex P. Vidal
“Sustainable development requires human ingenuity. People are the most important resource.”—Dan Shechtman
AS the highest planning and policy-making body in Western Visayas, the Regional Development Council (RDC)-6 supposedly serves as the counterpart of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board at the sub-national level.
It was not created or in the business of ruining the careers of high-ranking appointed officials who refuse to toe the line of politicians and influential characters that rule the RDC-6.
If the RDC-6 Infrastructure Development Committee (IDC) succeeds in yanking out Iloilo Airport manager Manuela Luisa Palma and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) regional acting area manager, Engr. Eusebio Monserate Jr. because the Iloilo Airport in Cabatuan, Iloilo is in a sorry state, nothing can stop it from destroying the careers of other ranking government executives or even lowly employees in the future.
When a powerful body like RDC-6 IDC passes a resolution seeking to oust powerless managers like Palma and Monserate Jr. for their agency’s inherent shortcomings, it is tantamount to destroying their careers as well.
They may not lose all their privileges as civil servants, but the jaw-breaking RDC-6 IDC resolution has painted them to be incompetents and good-for-nothing custodians of government property.
Merciless Goliath trampling on the two Davids.
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IDC has pinned the blame on the duo because, according to IDC head and Iloilo City Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Trenas, the Iloilo Airport is being bedeviled by pressing issues such as broken escalators, insufficient air conditioning, and unclean toilets, among other woes.
But the wounds of Iloilo Airport are heavier, heftier, and more complicated that even prompted Trenas to “urgently” request the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to expedite the Iloilo Airport’s privatization and improvement since last year.
Both Palma and Monserate Jr. had claimed they also did their part to help address the problems but the snail-paced bidding processes and other red tapes in government that normally occur in the national level were already beyond their control.
IDC has demanded for a complete change in leadership owing to what it believed to be clear signs of a broader problem in upkeep and leadership but why zeroed in only on Palma and Monserate Jr. who aren’t the major players in as far as large-scale job orders is concerned?
Why not go all the way or address the IDC resolution to the top CAAP national leadership instead of picking on the minions in Iloilo?
If the problem is national in scope, seeking the dismissal of airport managers and CAAP regional chiefs anywhere in the Philippines will not solve the complex problems.
Asking for Palma’s and Monserate Jr.’s heads is a trivial matter that should be left to their immediate superiors if the situation warrants, and not for the whims of RDC-6 IDC.
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OUR UNIQUE MUTATIONS. We have more than 100 unique mutations within each other’s DNA. A joint team from England and China recently sequenced the y chromosome of two men who were separated by 13 generations and counted the genetic differences. Most of these mutations have no influence on appearance or health, but some can cause diseases.
SAVING OUR PLANET. Slow-slow our shower. Installing a low-flow shower head helps save water. It may take getting used to, but after a few showers, we won’t even notice the difference in water flow.
AGLIOPHOBIA is fear of pain. Anesthesia forever?
HYELOPHOBIA is a fear of glass. Hyelophobics should be careful of their eyes. Eyeglasses will forever strike terror in their hearts.
LIQUID SILICON. The earliest breast implants were done in the 1940’s by Japanese prostitutes hoping to entice the American GI’s. They injected their breasts with liquid silicon.
HAPPIER, BETTER. Among transsexuals who choose sex-change operations, females who elect to become males are reportedly happier and better adjusted after the procedures than males who elect to become female.
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While contributing little that could be described as entirely original to the philosophical canon, Voltaire (the pseudonym of Francois-Marie Arouet), poured out to the world a most extraordinary mixture of novels, plays, reviews, pamphlets and historical words.
In many ways, with his total commitment to the world around him, he was the epitome of the Age of Enlightenment.
Voltaire’s early satirical works earned him a year in the Bastille and later, in 1726, exile to England.
Already a radical and liberal, he quickly saw in England a society that enjoyed far greater justice and freedom than France.
In his Letters Philosophiques, he praises social, religious and political liberty and uses social utility as the definition of good political institutions.
He was a firm believer in God but was entirely opposed to the views of the Church and proposed that doubt should be the beginning of wisdom and enlightenment.
He saw evil as essentially man-made, and a mystery that refused to be solved.
His most famous tale, Candide, highlights a world where human life and dignity are of little importance.
Voltaire’s portrait of Pangloss in the novel was at the expense of Pope and Gottfried Leibnitz.
Voltaire, unlike many of his supporters, was a strong advocator of non-violence and believed with passion that the fight against authority, tradition and conformity could be won without the spilling of blood.
Although he died before the onset of the French Revolution, his style of thought did much to inspire the events in 1789.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)
