Before anything else, I would like to congratulate my former classmate from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP)—Sta. Mesa, Manila campus, Bob Hufancia Clutario, for having been elected as councilor of San Jose in Camarines Sur.
From our earliest days in college, I knew this guy was going places. He was elected class president during our first year, where he quickly became known as a “no-nonsense” leader who always pushed our class to be better not just academically but as a group that can be counted to stand together in times of crises.
Having followed his career in recent years as a broadcast journalist in Camarines Sur’s Partido area, I had a feeling that Bob will somehow be destined for public service. I wasn’t surprised, therefore, when I heard that he has decided to run for councilor in his hometown.
Congratulations, Bob! I know you’ll do well in your new job.
-o0o-
Some supporters of President-elect Bongbong Marcos are now reportedly displaying utterly childish behavior to supporters of other candidates on social media.
Several of these supporters (although I can’t be sure whether these are real supporters or just trolls) have resorted to name-calling and hurling hurtful remarks to those who supported other candidates, especially — and I must emphasize the word especially — to supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo.
Wait a minute, aren’t you guys the one who called for “unity”?
If you guys are really serious about that, why the heck are you treating those who didn’t vote for Marcos like dirt?
Shouldn’t you say instead, “All right, I know your candidate lost, but could we join hands together for the good of this country? Or like, give this guy a chance?”
Just because your candidate won doesn’t mean you have the license to be mean and bitchy to the losers.
That’s not politics, that’s basic Good Manners and Right Conduct – which, unfortunately, many of Marcos’ supporters have had yet to learn.
-o0o-
In my hometown of San Pedro City, new faces are expected to take charge in two months after Vice Mayor Art Mercado, in a shock win, ended the Cataquiz family’s two-decade grip in the city.
I have no doubt that San Pedronians genuinely want a new face at City Hall after seeing three decades of just two families – Vierneza and Cataquiz – lording it over the town, and for good reasons.
Way back in 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic, I had written in OpinYon Laguna that nearly seven years after San Pedro was declared a city, the city seemed to have been “frozen in time” with little opportunities for economic growth and little improvement in its basic services.
What concerns me now is that a year or so ago, the city government under outgoing Mayor Lourdes Cataquiz has launched a massive infrastructure program that aims to drastically improve and modernize the city’s services to the public.
These include a new medical center, a new city hall annex, new buildings to house the city’s various departments, and improvement of our open spaces and parks.
Will those projects be scuttled or scaled down once Mercado takes over? I hope not.
The problem with our politics, critics have charged, is that there is no “continuity,” with many major projects “killed” once a new administration takes over.