'David' was self-righteous!

Sporting enthusiasts point to basketball as our national pastime. I do not intend to dispute that for, in fact, I, like many others, also spent a part of my abundant youthful energy playing the game.  That was decades ago and the court fronting the Pari-an Fire Station was our favorite venue where many of our games usually ended in fracas fighting for a 25-centavo bet per player rather than by the scores registered on the boards.

Few years ago, upon the suggestion of Pol, of T. Padilla, one of our former group members, I planned to relive our comradeship. I then requested Pol to round up the brothers Boy, our guard and Butch, our center, Dodong, Noe, Sergio and Nelson, whose brother Rolex, our reliable scorer, had earlier passed away.

Pol wanted my acquiescence to include a barangay official who, although not a frequent part of our rag-tag team, played with us a few times. I readily agreed because the parents of the man were my friends when I, many years after shooting basketballs, dabbled in politics. I told Pol that the father of the person he wanted to invite was a government engineer who usually dropped by my city hall office then for coffee and some words of wisdom. In return, I also visited him and his wife, a former barangay officer, at their home.

When Pol came back, he was a picture of mixed emotions. Sadness etched on his face. Despite obvious efforts to contain his disappointment, his gestures betrayed his feelings. According to Pol, he could take a no for an answer for he, too, was not sure everybody was available on the appointed time. But, to him the manner by which the barangay official turned down a sincere invitation sounded like a mighty superior reprimanding a lowly worker. Pol could not understand why the officer said “Ah, ka sayo sad ni Aven mamolitika, da” when he, accordingly, made a round-about way to explain that the simple Christmas party I was hosting was his own suggestion. He said that if I only heard the self-righteous harangue of village leader, I could perhaps, measure the depth of his hurt.

I remembered that incident few days before Christmas 2012. It was my idea to write about it but equally important subjects needed earlier space. It is my fondest hope that this belated article is true to the off tangent nature of this column.

What brought my memory to that unfortunate event of years ago was a trip to my small garden plot way up in the mountains. Along the way, hundreds of pre-mature political advertisements called “David and Goliath” suddenly appeared. Precisely because “sayo ra kaayo tong panahona ipamolotika”, I just considered the huge amount spent for them as wasted expense.

I got a chance to read the text of the propaganda. It was pasted on an electric pole near my garden. When Pol, years earlier, mentioned of “self-righteous harangue”, his explanations came in the form of the propaganda. One. It was not the time to place political ads yet, kay sayo ra”. Had our non-regular basketball playmate put to practice his aversion to pre-mature campaigning, he would not have wasted thousands of pesos to do what he did.  But, it would not serve the interest of the village official to heed his own “righteous” proposition.

Two. Days before having the occasion to read the ad, I secured the record of the Cebu City council for 2012. To recall, there were only 27 ordinances passed by the sanggunian panlungsod for the whole year. By my standard, that was a pitiful performance. Worse, not one of those very few ordinances was a product of the idea of the village leader now a city politician. I do not know what he wanted to project by his adopting the Biblical word David. I always associated David with sterling accomplishment. It is the misfortune of the city electorates to find out that the performance of this member of the city council, who advertises himself as David, is a big fat zero. While the committee he has chaired is saddled with humongous problems, he has not come up with a single measure to benefit his sector. How sad!

If I write this article now, it is my way of urging him to do better in the remaining months. It can help in his political endeavor. Ah, for old time's sake.