Robredo’s good governance

BENCHWARMER
Ramon S. Dacawi

Even before he took his oath and received his marching orders as interior and local government secretary, Jesse Robredo announced that there will be no room for jueteng in the administration of President President Benigno Aquino III.

Those who know Robredo, the multi-awarded former mayor of Naga city, know better than to bet against his pronouncement, however tall his order maybe. Skeptics, and they are legion, are quick to equate his avowal to previous ones that never actually took ground, coming from a long line of leaders below his bracket. They see the fresh push no different from that of Sisyphus, whose rock inevitably rolls down the mountain each time this character in Greek mythology is close to finally settling it atop the summit.

In a country long gripped by poverty, we survive on this sisyphian myth about wishful, wasteful repetition. The odds notwithstanding, we continue to cling to the fractured hope that one day we would finally reach the mountain top with the rock securely beside us, finally in its reassuring angle of repose, never to roll down again. We never lose hope of eventually achieving this impossible feat.

So while the other nations continue to realistically dream of one day bringing home the World Cup, as Spain just did in South Africa, in a game where agility and speed count rather than heft and height, we continue to dream, unrealistically, of one day bringing home the world title in basketball.

A friend - a European by birth and a Filipino by choice and sentiment – observed that while nothing seems to work in this archipelago, everything here is possible. Against the odds, anything is achievable, like hitting the right number combinations in jueteng, even while we know the draws are rigged, the dice loaded to provide a quick fix only to those who run and bless it, but never or seldom for us, the hopeless yet inveterate bettors.

Realistically though, the impoverished Filipino got enough talent to hitch his dreams on - Nora Aunor,Manny Pacquiao and, lately, singing sensation Jovit Baldivino. Their Cinderella feats do us proud, especially those of the Baguio Metamorphosis of dance and of Ingrid Payaket, our fellow Igorot who’s beautifully into broadway music.

In politics and governance, we suddenly have Noynoy the Incorruptible, he who will never compromise his parents’ legacy of hope, courage and sacrifice. And he has picked Robredo, he who, after steering Naga as city mayor for close two decades, remains the dragon slayer that he. Others less worthy of his salt had long morphed into the ogres they once slew, seemingly without their knowledge and ours.

That’s why we’re cheering them on, this new breed of heroes who just gave us this new leaf, this fresh start towards the long, elusive path to our nation’s deliverance. It doesn’t matter that many of us don’t have yellow shirts to wear, much less cars to paste those yellow ribbons on.

We can take the cue from the President, who began his term simply by quieting the “wangwang” of arrogance. Perhaps we can start by giving away those souvenirs of yellow rubber bands to kids, if only to somehow distract them from pulverizing demons with those robotic heroes in those computer games.

Our President is no robot and the new DILG secretary is also an icon who is also human. Robredo, who was conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award for governance, has accepted a position that sought and fits the man. He was chosen for his credentials that assure us he will always be different from the slew of leaders who had used their positions to perpetuate their grip on power as the key to addressing material acquisitiveness.

First time I listened to Robredo was at the Asian Institute of Management in 1996.He was presenting Naga’s computerization program in the final screening of the country’s most innovative, creative and effective local governance programs under the “Galing Pook” awards program.

(Then and now Mayor Mauricio Domogan and I were also there to present Baguio ’s Eco-walk children’s environmental program. That’s when I saw our very own mayor stand his ground against Senator Aquilino Pimentel, a member of the panel of judges who opened up on the city’s squatting issue. The mayor later said the good senator called him up and apologized for initiating the argument that ate up a sizable portion of the limited time to present Baguio ’s program entry. That’s when I saw then Gov. Obet Pagdanganan practicing his presentation of Bulacan’s program that, like Naga’s own, made it to that year’s roster of winners in local governance.)

Listening to each presentation, I was inspired by the wealth of programs from Naga and other parts of the country. The presentations belied the common and misguided notion that good governance is a monopoly of the private sector that now calls itself “civil society”, as if those in government belong to the “uncivil society”.

Under Robredo’ leadership, Naga went on to win close to 200 international, national and regional awards, including the Dubai Award. As was his advice on Cordillera Day Thurday at the Baguio Convention Center , he and his city began with one and ended up with many model programs.

I’ll bet my yellow Noynoy rubber bands that with his experience and credentials, the backing of the President and the populace, Robredo can and will reduce, if not totally eradicate, jueteng, at least in its traditional, illegal form. His is a bitter pill to swallow for some government officials, police officers and even media practitioners on the take from the gambling racket for years now. Yet it’s time to move on – perhaps to other forms or labels like “bingo”?

With Robredo at the helm, the usual line that jueteng can only be stamped out if there are no bettors may no longer hold water.

Wanna bet? (email:mondaxbench@yahoo.com).