Arangkada for August 8, 2005

 

IGNORANTE SA DENGUE

 

        Ang labing epektibong paagi sa pag-alkontra sa dengue mao ang pagpanglimpiyo, dili ang pagdeklarar og state of calamity.   Mas epektibong paagi pagpalayas sa mga lamok ang paghabwa sa tanang nagpondong tubig o pagpangita og lutsanan sa nabara nga mga kanal, dili ang pagpangompra og minilyon ka pesos nga balor sa kemikal.   Mas daghang kinabuhi ang maluwas pinaagi sa pag-edukar sa mga molupyo sa tukmang mga paagi pakigbatok sa lamok kay sa pagarpar ug salida sa mga politiko aron lang pagtagbaw sa ilang kahigwaos paghilabot sa dakong calamity fund.

         Pero ang mga konsehal sa Syudad sa Sugbo nipili sa pagsalida, pagasto og minilyon ka pesos aron pagpalit sa way kapuslanang mga kemikal ug kahimanan, pagdasig sa mga molupyo pagsunod sa ilang ka-ignorante ug, labaw sa tanan, pagrisgo sa mga Sugbuanon, gikan sa labing bata ngadto sa labing tiguwang, sa padayong paghasi sa mga lamok nga nagda sa makamatay nga sakit.

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        Ang problema sa kampanya batok sa dengue di lang sa Syudad sa Sugbo, nga sa labing uwahing ihap maoy labing daghan og kaso sa tibuok Pilipinas, kon dili sa ubang lugar sa nasud mao ang tokar-tokar nga kakugi sa lokal nga mga opisyal ug mga molupyo pagpanglimpiyo sa mga nataran sa kabalayan nga kasagarang maigo sa dengue.   Si Dr. Susana Madarieta, regional director sa Department of Health sa Central Visayas, niangkon nga usa sa posibleng mga hinungdan sa pagsaka sa mga kaso sa dengue karong tuiga mao ang pagkumpiyansa sa mga molupyo ug mga opisyal human sa pag-us-os sa mga kaso sa niaging tuig.

        Nga kadasonan sa mga numero sa niaging lima ka tuig.  Human sa pagsaka sa mga kaso sa dengue sa unang tuig, naninuod pag-ayong mga opisyal ug mga molupyo pagpanlimpiyo sa ikaduhang tuig.   Tungod sa pagtidlom sa mga kaso sa ikaduhang tuig, nangiyugpos na lang maong nisaka na sang dengue sa ikatulong tuig.

        Ang subo nga kamatuoran mao nga di makapausab sa atong batasan ang pagahin sa Cebu City Council og P3 milyones batok sa dengue.

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        Usa ka adlaw human gideklarar sa konseho ang state of calamity, napalit dayon ang mga kemikal ug gisugo dayong mga kawani sa Cebu City Health Department sa pagpasirit ini sa Banawa, Guadalupe ug ubang lugar nga grabe ang dengue.   Nikalit ba lag kaabtik ang burukrasya sa City Hall o nakontrata nang daan ang kemikal maong gi-apura ang deklarasyon sa state of calamity?

        Ug samtang susihon may subasta bang morang kilat nga pagpamalit sa kemikal, maayo sang pangutan-on ang mga konsehal nganong wa piski og bisan usa ka dako ang mga kahimanan sa Cebu City Medical Center pag-atiman sa mga pasyente sa dengue.  Sama sa ilang blood refrigerator nga dugay nang guba ug gihimo na lang butanganan sa mga dokumento.  [30]  leo_lastimosa@abs-cbn.com

Inquirer Editorial

Editorial : Sense of the possible

EX-SENATOR Raul Roco, who passed away on Friday, did not leave the scene like an Old Testament prophet, unhonored in his own country. From his youth, he had received the grateful recognition of the various communities he served, expressed in diverse forms: academic honors, unqualified professional success, an outstanding lawmaking career, untold political capital.

And yet there remains a sense that the country he served did not quite give him the final recognition he deserved. This sense, of course, is based on his two unsuccessful runs for the presidency, on the notion that his defeat was ultimately the nation's loss.

It is worth noting that, in the outpouring of praise from all sides of the political divide, the tributes from the younger politicians have been stamped by a deep imprint of what-might-have-beens. A fellow Bicolano, Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., said that if history would judge Roco the "best president this country never had, no one will contest such a judgment." At the other end of the political spectrum, Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casi¤o echoed this view: Roco was "probably the most qualified president the country never had."

These are remarkable testimonials, considering that history's list of highly qualified candidates for president includes Claro M. Recto, Raul Manglapus and Jovito Salonga.

They are all the more remarkable coming from the country's younger leaders.

The older members of the political class have not held back on their praise for Roco. But it is in the language used by Andaya, Casiño, et al. that the sense of unfulfilled potential is strongest, and at its most plaintive.

Why is this so?

In part, the tribute is a function of the very language they used; the praise may have been suggested by the phrase.

But the tribute is also a function of their youth; they were not around when Recto and Lorenzo Tañada and Manglapus tilted at the windmills of Philippine politics. Roco's example may have made a stronger impression because it was an experience they lived through.

But in greater part, the tribute is a reflection of Roco's own appeal: He drew the young, understood them, spoke their language.

We do not mean that he spoke in rap or wrote in "textese." We mean that he appealed to the idealism, the sense of the possible, that animates the young. His last campaign theme, offering "new hope," was political sentimentalism; but it was political sentimentalism with a specific demographic in mind.

It helped that his appeal to idealism was backed by a reputation for competence, in his law practice and in government service, and for wit.

These three virtues-idealism, competence, intelligence—all came together in an iconic episode during the Estrada impeachment trial. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, a former judge, had insinuated that a witness, a young lawyer who had left a job at one law firm for another with lower pay, was somehow in the wrong. "The normal reaction is to accept the higher salary," Santiago sang. Roco used his turn to ask the witness to defend, not only the lawyer on the witness stand, but all lawyers. He asked questions that allowed the witness to say the truth, which is that money was not the only consideration. Then he turned around and smiled: "The law is not a business but a noble profession."

In a sense, he owed everything to that profession. His work ethic was shaped by the brutal realities of lawyering, Philippine-style. As many of those who worked for him have said, he did his homework, and drove himself and his staff hard.

He had his shortcomings, of course. He was not much of a coalition builder; for him, politics was not so much addition as geometry. He believed that a single man with Archimedes' lever could move the world. But in Congress, and in the Senate, and in the Department of Education, the reality is that no lever can ever be long enough.

This shortcoming was felt most in his presidential campaigns, which lacked the network and the resources that a Senate slate of equally impressive candidates would have made available. The outpouring of praise since Friday is thus doubly poignant; if these politicians had supported him then, perhaps, his fate would have been different. Eulogies are wasted on the dead.