Chasing dreams and rainbows - JAYWALKER by Art A. Borjal

I'm glad that Rep. Heherson "Sonny" Alvarez, my good friend from college days, finally got his appointment as Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a position for which he is eminently qualified. Some sectors of so-called "civil society" have been vigorously objecting to his DENR posting, saying nasty and unfounded things about him. But as the saying goes, one cannot put a good man down.

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One issue that is being raised by "civil society" against Sonny Alvarez is the allegation that he is a tradpol or trapo. As though being a traditional politician is an inherent evil, a mortal sin. It is unfortunate and sad that the traditional politicians of current times have allowed the tradpol label to be associated with wickedness, with vice, with things that are very ugly.

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Yet, civil society’s insinuation that all tradpols are a reincarnation of the devil is misplaced, misguided and distorted. If these do-gooders from civil society will only look back at the political history of our country, they will discover that many of our great nation-builders, the most highly-respected political personages in this and past generations, were actually traditional politicians.

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Actually, many traditional politicians espouse the same or even better causes preached by civil society. And what is admirable about these tradpols is that they can make good things happen regarding their pronouncements. In other words, they are not content with wasting saliva on their advocacies; they make these happen.

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What is ironic is that self-anointed leaders of civil society, known for their versatility with blah-blah-blah, cannot even get themselves elected as barangay captains in their own communities. Yet, they pontificate and preach as though they are know-it-alls to whom everyone, including the traditional politicians, must kowtow.

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Going back to Sonny Alvarez, I still remember distinctly those heady and adventurous times in 1965 when we, as student leaders, were campaigning for the re-election bid of President Diosdado Macapagal. I had taken an old, rickety interisland vessel to Calbayog City, to deliver some campaign materials to the Liberal Party leaders of that Eastern Visayas City. My allocated cot was in the lower level of the ship, very near some pigs and piglets that were being ferried to Calbayog City.

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Staying in an old pension house in downtown Calbayog, I was told that Arturo Macapagal and Sonny Alvarez were also in the city. I found the two in a picturesque nipa hut beside the sea, owned by Fr. Basiling, the parish priest of Calbayog. My meeting Art and Sonny saved me from going back to Manila via another foul-smelling interisland vessel. Art invited me to join him and Sonny in an Air Force plane, the ancient type that must have been mothballed by now.

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Looking back now, I am amazed how I, with my pair of crutches, was able to negotiate those gangplanks, without any handrails, leading to the deck of the interisland vessel. I wonder, too, how I was able to clamber up that Air Force plane, with its door fastened to what looked like pieces of rope. Without any assistance at all from anybody. Oh, to be young again, without fear of anything, daring to do what now seems impossible.

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The melting of the years did not end my interaction with Sonny Alvarez and his creative and dynamic wife, Cecile, who was also my close friend during college days. Our paths always crossed, oftentimes with Fr. James B. Reuter, S.J., and mostly in socio-civic and political affairs, espousing common advocacies and chasing after shared dreams affecting our nation and our people.

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There were times we were not able to reach the highest mountain. But credit us for having never stopped trying. And Cecile, Sonny and I, together with mutual friends, have been trying to climb the highest mountains for almost half a century!

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Sonny Alvarez has always been an environmentalist, always fighting for the protection of our environment and always working for a clean environment. How he got the ire of some do-gooders in the environment community is not hard to explain. Sonny is a realist and a consensus-builder, which gives him the ability to make good things happen.

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The first thing I am going to ask Sonny Alvarez, after he takes his oath as DENR Secretary, is to stop the senseless and inane dumping of garbage in a vacant lot at the heart of many residential subdivisions in Cainta, Rizal. That garbage dump is right beside a carinderia and gotohan, at the back of the Iglesia ni Cristo chapel, and six blocks away from my home at Brookside Hills, Cainta, Rizal. Sonny can do away with that atrocious garbage dump because it never got an environment clearance from the DENR.

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The proposal of opposition senatorial candidate Edgardo J. Angara to put up a giant "Electoral Wall" in the heart of Metro Manila is wise and very sound. Ed’s grand idea is to list down all the senatorial candidates on the wall. Under each name would be details on their private lives and public careers. Since the senatorial candidates will have to legislate and advocate once elected to the Senate, the information to be contained in the proposed "Electoral Wall" will be a helpful guide to voters.

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Angara will, of course, have many things to list down on the proposed "Electoral Wall." There are few present-generation senators who can really match Ed’s legislative output. The Free High School Act, the laws that created the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Government Assistance to Teachers and Students in Private Education (GATSPE) were all principally authored by Angara.

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Angara was the main driving force behind the bipartisan Commission on Educational Modernization (EDCOM), which produced the in-depth report on the ills of Philippine education. The law on the national insurance program, which created the Philippine Health Insurance or PhilHealth, was also sponsored by Angara. And so was the Magna Carta for Health Workers, which was responsible for the increase in the compensation of public health workers. The list of Angara’s legislative output is very impressive.

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Agriculture was the last big concern of Angara before leaving the Senate in 1998. He was the principal author of the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA), which is now the blueprint of the government’s modernization program for the sector. Under Angara’s stewardship of the agriculture department, agriculture posted a dramatic rebound from the negative 6.6% growth rate in 1998. In 1999, with Angara as steward, the sector grew by 6.3 per cent. Last year, the growth rate was 3.4 percent.

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Voters are being bombarded with propaganda, and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) should put up that giant wall to help voters make a responsible choice. The voters should know the lives and public careers of our candidates, who they are and what have they done.

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My e-mail address: <[email protected]>