Resign

After disappearing from his post to join the LP’s virtual campaign sortie in Cebu earlier in the week, MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino materialized in the streets Wednesday to help direct traffic. He made sure the foray was well covered by the media even if the effort did exactly nothing to alleviate the snarl that plagues all commuters.

It was too blatant a stunt, too insulting a ploy to let pass.

The day before, the venerable Cardinal Rosales, himself trapped in traffic, stepped out into the rain to help clear a logjam. In this case, the effort was meritorious. Rosales is not trying to be senator. He simply understood that sometimes an authoritative figure is all that is needed to convince myopic motorists to yield to reason.

By contrast, Tolentino, for some insane reason, wants to be senator of the Republic. He craves for the media space that might help him achieve that goal. He wants to create the false impression he is an assiduous public servant – a rare bird in the aviary of indolence that is the Aquino administration.

Therefore, this stunt could not possibly have been motivated by good faith.

It is a stunt intended to dupe the beleaguered citizens of this metropolis where governance has certifiably failed. Being busy and actually achieving anything are two different things. Tolentino, after stealing time off for electioneering, tried to appear busy even if what he does adds no value to solving the problem.

It is such a cheap stunt, Tolentino could have resorted to it only because he takes all of us for fools. Our citizens, bless them, instantly saw through the ploy. Tolentino received all the bashing he deserved on social media. We are not about to be duped by this two-cent politician.

What exactly has this presidential appointee with no experience in urban management actually accomplished?

He deployed an army of “constables” who extract bribes more than they direct traffic. He instituted “motorcycle lanes” that are now routinely ignored. On the wide avenues such as Commonwealth or Macapagal, he slowed traffic where they could be fast by imposing low speed limits. Lately, in an effort to improve traffic flow, he implanted brightly colored cones that eat up road space.

None of these initiatives abetted traffic flow. What we need is a comprehensive program to economically and efficiently move millions of commuters in this large metropolis. That is beyond Tolentino’s head.

To be fair, he has demonstrated kindness to his people.

Faced with the prospect of long duty hours during the Papal visit, he prescribed adult diapers for the enforcers.  During the hot months, he made his “constables” wear cargo shorts as standard gear. For their safety, funny plastic helmets were issued the constables – which they are apparently hesitant to wear.

Nevertheless, he has done nothing to prevent our streets from flooding at the slightest downpour. His “constables” knock off from work at 7 p.m., at the height of the evening rush.

Even as he has spent much of his time fending off the DPWH from doing its thing, the traffic situation just gets worse everyday. Since no one seems in charge, business groups have petitioned government to appoint a “traffic tsar.” But that is exactly Tolentino’s job.

Metro Manila is no longer the “Gates of Hell.” It is Hell.

Because of that, several commuter groups have launched an online campaign to ask that Tolentino resign. For them, that is the only concrete step towards a solution to the mess we deal with each day.

I agree.

Resign all

That was an indecent sight we saw in Cebu last Monday during the LP’s “Gathering of Friends.” Dozens of appointive public officials were away from their desks, engaged in thinly veiled electioneering.

To make matters worse, some of them even tried to sing before the hastily assembled crowd of yellow-garbed flunkeys. That is something we might justly call impunity.

They were all there: DOTC Secretary Mar Roxas (who resigned his post but has not been replaced), Justice Secretary Leila de Lima (who sings impulsively about everything), MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino (who should have fiddled while the Metro choked) and PhilHealth director Risa Hontiveros (whose face appears suspiciously wherever we look these days).

These are public officials whose wages are paid for out of taxpayer money. Electioneering instead of working ought to be a form of graft and that makes this Cebu “gathering of friends” so despicable it should be labeled a form of political pornography.

And who else was leading this chorus line but the very person whose job it is to ensure that his Cabinet was at work.

In fact, it was not only the Cabinet that was out playing truant that day. Local officials affiliated with the LP were all obliged to appear at the campaign rally. That means they were away from their work too.

If Tolentino, on his own, insults us by the cheap stunt he pulled Wednesday, the chorus line in Cebu insults us wholesale by telling us they were not campaigning to help their unremarkable standard-bearer on the eve of the voter preference surveys being fed out.

If we are asking Tolentino to spare us more misery by resigning now, we should ask all those appointive officials who will compose the LP senatorial ticket to resign now – if only to spare us from their singing on workdays when we pay their wages.

By resigning now, they will spare us the added burden of enduring their duplicity. By resigning now, they might help restore some decency to the public service.