CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/07 July) — In the beginning, before the big trapos wised up to its many-splendored potential for looting, pork did some good in some places—but not very much.
Just like today, the constituents weren’t consulted, let alone invited to participate in defining their own community’s priorities, identifying projects, or even in evaluating them. And just as today, all they were invited to were to “ground-breaking” rites and, of course, during the inaugural picture taking—mainly to serve as background to the grandstanding trapo sponsor.
Thus, without the community’s inputs, the roads built were substandard and the services funded were so-so. But they were always politically loaded; for they were redeemable with votes at election time.
Other projects were make-work activities that trapos dreamed up to keep their sycophants busy and content. Or they constructed makeshift structures like sheds—painted with their names, of course–that did little or nothing that was useful except impress voters.[]/a> with |||
Manny is former UNESCO regional director for Asia-Pacific; secretary-general, South East Asian Publishers Association; director, development academy of Philippines; member, Permanent Mission to the United Nations; vice chair, Local Government Academy; member, Cory Government’s Peace Panel, and PPI-UNICEF awardee for outstanding columnist. valdehuesa@gmail.com