Gov’t men are just that: ‘Public property,’ nothing more

   

Our language is TRUTH, our spirit is LIBERTY

Privileged Spits 

(Sept. 19-25, 2011 issue)

Berteni "Toto" Cataluña Causing

Gov’t men are just that: ‘Public property,’ 

nothing more

By BERTENI “TOTO” CATALUÑA CAUSING

       This is my Governance 101 course for P-Noy and all other officials, elected or appointed!

  If I were the President of the Philippines, the top qualities that I would look for in choosing a person to be appointed, other than academics, work records, and integrity, are: (1) he or she should have a thick skin; (2) he or she must have a brave heart; and (3) he or she has the principle that he or she is a “public property,” nothing more.

P-Noy delivering second SONA

            By having a thick skin, he or she must not be onion-skinned that he or she does not react wildly to any accusation.

            By having a brave heart, he or she must be courageous in facing criticisms frontally and do it by means of “words against words” and not “swords against words.”

           By being a “public property,” he or she must abide by the principle that his time and body are owned by the public and not for his or her private pleasures.

       Correlating all these qualities that I would look for in my appointees if I were the President, I expect them to be persons who believe they have no right to complain even on the harshest criticisms or worst of falsities foisted against them.

 I expect my appointees know that from the time of signing and accepting their office, taking their oaths, and entering their duties, they are a “public property” and nothing more, so to speak.

 If they are a public property, they have no right to slap or punch security guards who may have displeased them as what was reported in the news that Congressman Pangandaman punched a watchman, or as the silence to Pangandaman’s act as shown now by alleged congressman of blue guards and tricycle drivers who is Mikey Arroyo, who was used to quickly rebut with arrogance while a fake Cinderella was still sitting on the throne “stolen not once but twice,” as actress Susan Roces once said.  The muteness of Mikey is deafening, even if the Wack-Wack incident where the Pangandamans went wild is yet recent to forget.

Because We Care, We Fight!

 As a public property, public officials have no right to manhandle drivers and maids or shout at kids knocking on their car windows for alms.

 As a public property, public officials have no right to shout at waiters.

 As a public property, public officials have no right to go to nightclubs or gay bars.

 Most above all, public officials have no right to complain against public accusations.

 The public owns them and they must be slaves of the public and not be “kings” and “queens” when their works were put into question.

 And for being a public property, they have no right to take mistresses or paramours for they will only serve as bad examples to the people who idolize them.  

 For being a public property, they have no right to play in casinos. 

Joel T. Reyes, the slay brain?

 On casino, I should lecture former governors Joel T. Reyes of Palawan and Antonio Carrion of Marinduque, aside from demanding from them to face and fight with truth the accusation that they masterminded the murder of Palawan broadcaster Dr. Gerry Ortega.

Dr. Gerry Ortega

 I should also remind Vice-Mayor Isko Moreno of Manila that casino is not good for him because a good mayor is not like a mouse that plays dirty when the cat is away.

 These slaves who are a public property must know that over and above academic requirements is a moral resume that can stand alone as a total qualification.

         On the qualities of being thick-skinned and brave-hearted, my best example is Dr. Rosario Torres-Yu, a professor of the Filipino department at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

            Unlike Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago who is perhaps the best legal mind UP has produced but who filed libel cases to fend off criticisms, Dr. Torres-Yu showed she is not onion-skinned but a woman with a brave heart when she posted her reply and explanation right beneath the blog story I posted.

       The blog entitled “Ex-judge and winner in Palanca prize for the same category” definitely hurt Dr. Torres-Yu. She was identified by me as the one who was a judge in Sanaysay (essay) during the 2010 edition and a contestant in the 2011 contest.

Torres-Yu won the second prize in this year’s category where the chairman of the board of judges, Dr. Pam Constantino, was Yu’s co-judge in the 2010 version.

But Dr. Torres-Yu never second-guessed. She and Dr. Constantino wrote their reactions and explained in so gracious and magnanimous words--to the point of debunking my facts.

  

I salute them.

They should be emulated by our public officials—not the kind who would react like what Mikey did, saying “Prove it!”; or like the Ampatuans did: Kill ‘em all!; or what Kalinga Gov. Jocel Baac did: barging inside the announcer’s booth of dyRK, grabbing one microphone, and smashing it on the mouth of announcer Jerome Tabanganay.

To know the details of what I am saying about Dr. Torres-Yu and Dr. Constantino, open the website at http://totocausing.blogspot.com/2011/09/propriety-issue-in-palanca-prize-ex.html.

As people of deep discernment, Dr. Torres-Yu and Dr. Constantino chose to confront accusing words with gracefully-written words.

Our language is TRUTH, our spirit is LIBERTY

Mr. Rosauro D. Bautista, Head Agent of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Puerto Princesa City, must follow the examples of Dr. Torres-Yu and Dr. Constantino.  He should have not filed libel cases against Police Files! Tonite and X-Files publisher Joey G. Venancio and editors Jack Castillo and Becky Rodriguez.

Instead, Mr. Bautista should speak up and have his mind published to refute the statements in the affidavit executed by Mr. Percival Lecias, an accused in the murder of broadcaster Dr. Ortega, which statements were published almost in toto by Venancio and company.

In that statement, Lecias alleged that Mr. Bautista got mad as he was seeing money in two attaché cases being distributed inside an NBI office on Taft Avenue, Manila.

It was just a statement sworn to by Lecias, who is a co-respondent of ex-governors Reyes and Carrion, and which statements were filed officially by Lecias in a preliminary investigation conducted by the Department of Justice to know whether there was probable cause that Reyes and Carrion masterminded the slaying.

Venancio and company never said in their news stories that these statements of Lecias are true.  They never made any remarks or opinions.

Mr. Bautista, you are just a “public property,” nothing more!

Perhaps, P-Noy discerned more what I mean when he issued a striking statement.

“KAYO, ANG BOSS KO!”

Our language is TRUTH, our spirit is LIBERTY