EDITORIAL - Put those lampposts to good use

As one way of getting rid of the reminder of the great controversy that gripped the public in the past months, Cebu City officials wanted to uproot the controversial decorative lampposts in the city.

Contending that those lampposts have become the symbol of corruption that has been eating into the government system, the City Council recently said they have become the “bad reminder of the kind of governance that unscrupulous officials have demonstrated.” 

The move of the city officials has been unexpected, considering they are not part of the controversy that tainted Cebu’s successful holding of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation Summit last year.

Maybe these officials could not just stomach the idea of seeing the bad reminder of a high-profile corruption - in which they have never been involved - stood tall in their area of jurisdiction, dwarfing even the good deeds they have been giving to their constituents.

Okay. Even if they go out and uproot those pieces of bad reminder, they could not however guarantee that by doing that, they erase the public perception that corruption has been playing a role among the ranks and files at the City Hall.

While as much as they wanted to present themselves as perfectly clean as possible before the public, they should learn to accept the fact that corruption has been ravaging the walls of City Hall everyday.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña has already been aware of the shady activities involving some City Hall personnel. In fact, there were many occasions in which the police or the National Bureau of Investigation arrested several City Hall employees involved in illegal activities.

The decorative lampposts had been put up not only to beautify the major thoroughfares in the city during the ASEAN Summit but to light up the routes used by the attending heads of state. Uprooting them in order to rid the city of the reminder of a massive corruption only defeats the purpose of why they have been erected in the first place.  

Instead of uprooting them, it is better for the government to have them repaired. Once they are operational again, these lampposts can better serve the public by lighting up the streets during nighttime.

Furthermore, uprooting them would only lead us to believe that the lamppost program was, after all, a waste of fund and should have not been part of the summit preparations.