Don’t make fun of your position as mayor

By Alex P. Vidal

“When you are in the public eye, in the name of public service, you have to understand that the more people know about you, and the more people say they want to support you, the more you have to work even harder to uphold that trust.”—Nicole Seah

THERE is nothing wrong with being an LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer or Questioning) while at the same time serving as public servant.

The terms in this acronym are used to describe a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

We know a lot of them in the Philippines and anywhere in the world; and, because of their skills, they are some of the best and the most respected.

One of them is Geefre “Kalay” Alonsabe, mayor of Alimodian, Iloilo.

It’s public knowledge that Alonsabe is gay and people of Alimodian accept him for who and what he is.

Gay is the adjective used to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic, and or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex.

In fact, the Ilonggos in general are proud of him especially when he bragged that “he is gay but not corrupt”.

By being “accepted” doesn’t mean, however, that Alonsabe must always create a stir to emphasize what he is in order to attract public attention.

Like what the mayor did when he dressed in a long white gown and a crown during the town’s recent Christmas Party.

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In a Facebook post, the mayor captioned his latest stunt as “Even though you’re growing up, you should never stop having fun…LGU-ALIMODIAN CHRISTMAS PARTY 2021…Mirror, Mirror on the wall, Who’s the fairest of them all? The Queen couldn’t stand to have someone fairer than she…THANK YOU LGU-FAMILY for the fun and laughter!”

We are not against it; in fact, we are glad that despite the recent typhoon “Odette” and pandemic, the mayor was able to provide entertainment to his constituents to help them forget sorrow and tribulation.

But he may have gone haywire out of his sincere desire to make his constituents happy.

In letter A on Commitment to public interest in Section 4 on Norms of Conduct of Public Officials and Employees of Republic Act No. 6713 or an Act Establishing a Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, the likes of Alonsabe are mandated to “observe the following as standards of personal conduct in the discharge and execution of official duties.”

That “Public officials and employees shall always uphold the public interest over and above personal interest.”

Making “fun” and subjecting yourself to “laughter”, as Alonsabe admitted in the caption of his Facebook post, may be a personal interest, but certainly not a public interest.

Also in letter B on Professionalism, “Public officials and employees shall perform and discharge their duties with the highest degree of excellence, professionalism, intelligence and skill. They shall enter public service with utmost devotion and dedication to duty. They shall endeavor to discourage wrong perceptions of their roles as dispensers or peddlers of undue patronage.”

A friendly piece of advice: Be who you are for what you are, but please don’t make fun of your position as mayor.

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Politicians, especially candidates in the May 9, 2022 Philippine election, aren’t obliged to donate cash to victims of super typhoon “Odette.”

There’s no pressure for them to give.

If they feel they need to help, they can always do it in whatever means and in what day or week.

They shouldn’t feel guilty or ashamed that they weren’t immediately mentioned in the social and mainstream media as among those who distributed the largesse and goods to the typhoon victims.

In the first place, it’s not their obligation.

We still have the government and the generous private sector that can spearhead the donation of goods and cash to the victims.

But because they are seeking a public office and have been collecting oodles upon oodles of campaign funds from various sources despite the pandemic, they think it is mandatory to donate cash and kind and look good in public in return.

Even if they distribute millions of cash and other forms of assistance to the victims and ask the media to cover it “live”, it won’t guarantee their victory in the election five months from now.

So it’s not a wise choice to cash in on the plight of typhoon “Odette” victims.

The more they try hard to help (even if deep inside they don’t feel like doing it), the more their efforts won’t be appreciated by the public.

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WHAT SCARES THE AIR FORCE. A pair of binoculars and a cellular phone can threaten modern warplanes. In 1999, Serbian airplane spotters watched U.S. aircraft leave an airbase in Italy.

The spies alerted antiair-missile battery crews in Serbia to aim their long-wavelength radar overhead, enabling the crews to destroy a stealth F-117A nighthawk.

ANTHROPOMIMETIC MACHINES. No matter how closely a robot resembles a human on the outside, if we crack it open, the jumble of wires is unlikely to bear much resemblance to our insides. A group of European researchers aims to bridge that gap–its robot prototype is anthropomimetic, meaning it mimics the human form.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)