EDITORIAL - City execs: iPad Taxpayers: iPay

"City execs: iPad/taxpayers: iPay." This was how The Freeman bannered the story about City Hall's acquisition of P1.4 million worth of iPads for use by its department heads. The story couldn't have been titled any better. It cut right straight to the bone.

And the city administrator cried ouch. But the story was straightforward. Not being a commentary, it added neither hyperbole nor ridicule to embellish what the hard facts can narrate. The story was understandable for what it was.

Thus, city administrator Lucelle Mercado should just have stopped at ouch. But she chose to say more. In fact, she said a mouthful. Lesson: You say a mouthful, and you are overly defensive. When you are overly defensive, something must be afoot.

"Please don't put the wrong thought on this initiative by City Hall," she said. The Freeman never did. The story simply stated that taxpayers will be the ones to bear the cost of the iPads. That is not the wrong thought. That is the correct thought. It is not even a thought. It is a fact.

"People are just trying to put a bad image into something very innocent," she went on. Well, when you put iPads into the hands of department heads and let people who do not even have cellphones pay the cost, there is no other image to be "put" there but bad. Mercado can put herself in the shoes of a taxpayer to see clear.

She insisted there was nothing irregular in the purchase. She can insist all she wants till she can insist no more and the effort will be for naught, because nobody ever said anything about irregularity. What was merely said was that taxpayers will be paying for the iPads in the hands of department heads.

Mercado, in defense of the purchase, said we now live in the modern world and the technology is available (she probably means the iPad) that would spare her the effort of asking department heads to come to see her in her office.

Correct. Just as it is correct to say that it will be the taxpayers who will bear the cost of sparing her the effort of calling department heads for a meeting. So you see, we are just going in circles here. No matter where the argument takes us, the bill still ends in the hands of taxpayers.

So, it would have been better if we just stopped at the first ouch. After all, people have very short memories. Taxpayers will even forget eventually what they are paying for. Unless, of course, Mercado rings up a department head for a meeting and his daughter or other answers, instead of sir department head. Ouch.