Gibungolan, Inc.
|
December 15, 2003
I'VE never heard Fred Gapuz laugh the way he did when a fellow "victim" told him: "Welcome to the club!"
Manong Fred, erstwhile lawyer of Dongkoy Emano, was still hurting from his much publicized breakup with the Cagayan de Oro mayor but he needed a good laugh--laughter being the best medicine. His daughter Catherine, perhaps the one who was the most affected by the display of the client's stylemark boorishness at the Sandiganbayan two weeks ago, needs a good laugh, too.
I can't imagine this respected lawyer being treated like he didn't exist. Imagine lawyering for someone and not being looked at by your client for hours. Imagine your client--a close friend at that--not speaking to you for reasons you know nothing about. And imagine your client-friend making your other friends and panero do the same thing. Worse, the only time you get to hear a message from your client-friend is when he sends another friend to ask you to quantify your services so he could pay you. I can understand how Manong Fred felt. He took all the insult and rejection from the airport to the Sandiganbayan. And I can understand how the emotionally battered man found himself calling his eldest child from Manila--he needed a shoulder and someone to talk to!
Children are fond of doing this. A child quarrels with a friend. So he snubs his friend. He also expects his other friends to snub the other child. Anyone seen talking or playing with the other child automatically becomes an "enemy". As an "enemy", you lose the privilege of playing with the group or of being allowed to enter their houses or of borrowing their toys. Your status as an enemy remains until you kiss and make up. When children do this, it's kids' stuff. But when an adult--a sixty-something--does this, it's not being childish. Either the grownup is really, really insecure or is sick in the head. It's not "wala sa mood". It's topak.
I say Manong Fred, with a little help from Cathy, should organize a club called Asosasyon sa mga Nahigmatang Higala ni Dongkoy (no relation to Manny Jaudian, Jerry Pacuribot, Roy Raagas and Bob Ocio's Pagmata, Cagayan de Oro). Or Manong Fred can simply call the group "Gibungolan, Inc." to make the name a bit catchy and crispy. Manong Fred, being the most prominent victim of mayoral uncouthness in Cagayan de Oro, can chair Gibungolan, Inc.
Gibungolan, Inc. should be non-partisan. Neither should it be anti-Emano--that is, if it wants other victims to come forward and become Gibungolan members. Rather than campaign against a continued Emano mayorship, Gibungolan, Inc. should be doing advocacy work. The club can be an advocate for good manners and right conduct as well as stand for people, especially the lowly, who were and are being treated like bums by the rich and mighty.
In these times of moral decadence, it's high time that concerned citizens organize a group like Gibungolan, Inc.. Gibungolan, Inc. can have a train-the-trainers program and sponsor seminars aimed at promoting good manners and right conduct, things that many of our children no longer hear from parents--or even from grandparents--these days.
A group like Gibungolan, Inc. should be telling parents about the need to teach their children how to treat other people like equals regardless of their standing in the political or social ladder. Sadly, many of our children today are ill-bred, insensitive and have absolutely no respect whatsoever for other people because the new generation of parents have either forgotten or have not even heard about any of the good old-fashioned values of our ancestors. That we have in our midst today a grownup who behaves like a good-for-nothing, uncouth boor who doesn't mind his manners, is the result of the failure of a lot of parents to pass on to their kids these Filipino values.
The town of Tagoloan may be the best place to pilot-test Gibungolan, Inc.'s advocacy program.
For starters, the club can begin by forming a core group of people who, like Manong Fred, have been trampled on or are still struggling to brave out the kind of inelegance in city hall.
Gibungolan, Inc. can have three membership classifications--regular, associate and honorary.
Regular members are those who found themselves waking up one day and saying to themselves: "Enough is enough. I will not be treated like chicken dung!"--especially if the tyrant sounds and looks like popular voice actor Ben David of the Gabi ng Lagim fame of the early '80s.
Associate members are those who allow this diabetic (he consumes an average of four pellets of Equal sweetener for every cup of coffee) to rob them everyday of their self-esteem in exchange for you-supply-the-word.
And honorary members are those who can't seem to make up their mind about what action to take vis-a -vis this Neanderthal attribute. Someone who never became a "flavor of the month" but became sick due to this severe shortage of civility in city hall can apply as an honorary member.
I admire Manong Fred for his forbearance. He was able to withstand this unspeakable uncouthness for 31 long years.
Pastilan.
Veteran broadcaster Sandy Bas, manager of a local radio station, needs to reexamine his conscience and motives.
On Friday afternoon, he haphazardly labeled Gold Star Daily's banner story a "lie". The story by Nilo Abroguena quoted Manong Fred as saying that the political crisis now gripping Misamis Oriental is the handiwork of Mayor Emano apparently in an effort to unseat embattled Gov. Antonio Calingin.
Sandy claimed Manong Fred told him over the phone that he (Gapuz) "did not categorically say" that Emano is the brains behind the messy political situation in the province. (Manong Fred denies telling Sandy this.)
I wouldn't mind if Sandy merely broadcast a news story based on his supposed phone conversation with Gapuz. But he quickly, without second thoughts, labeled the story a lie.
Who are you, Sandy, to say that Nilo's story is a lie? Were you around when Nilo interviewed Manong Fred? Did you hear what the lawyer told the reporter? By saying his story was a lie, Sandy accused Nilo--and Gold Star--of lying. (Nilo, by the way, is standing by his story and Gold Star is standing by Nilo.)
It would be unfair to judge you simply because you had yourself appointed by the mayor as a member of the board of the Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD). And it would be unfair to judge you simply because your appointment as a director entitles you to juicy benefits in the COWD.
But, Sandy, when your appointment is clearly influencing your reportage and commentary, when your debt of gratitude to a politician is obviously becoming your blinders, and when it is becoming obvious that you are slanting your news to please a group other than the general public, then it becomes an entirely different story.
I'm afraid your true color is showing, Sandy.
You are a godly man. You play gospel music on air all the time. And you are fond of quoting scripture--even preaching on air at times. Yet it is becoming obvious to your listeners that you are compromising your profession and work ethics.
No offense, Sandy, but your "Light" is no longer shining from where I am sitting. I think you owe your God an apology before you--and your station--completely loses credibility. It's not yet too late to right the wrong, Sandy.
You just can't be a preacher man when you have sold your soul to the Devil for 30 pieces of silver.
Repent, "Angel" Sandy, repent!
Pastilan.
| Webweaving by Zerobull |