I AM glad to know that members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Bohol have changed their minds about buying 14 brand new vehicles at this time! Good for you! Listening to the voice of your constituents is submitting yourself to accountability.
Public service is imbued with public trust. I am sure that you’re aware of that. You should always consult and listen to the voice of your constituents; be sensitive and responsive. After all, they are the very same people whom you convinced to put you in your present pedestal, so to speak.
And to my fellow Boholanos, kudos also to you! Let us always demand the highest level of accountability from our elected officials. If we don’t, we just wasted our votes.
I am aware that there exists a significant mass of principled people who do not and will never pander to shameful habits occurring during elections – these people I genuinely applaud – and these enlightened ones have the moral ascendancy over a political reality managed by half-truths, capricious and manipulated truths!
Sadly, truth nowadays is twisted to suit political interests. It’s not only practiced in politics though. It also operates in the corporate world, in work places, even in society at large.
Manipulative people – don’t we have many of them!; I bet you can count them with your 10 fingers right now – peddle their versions of the truth and undiscerning people – the gullible and naïve, easily get manipulated.
However, no matter how bleak the picture is, there is always redemption. We still have principled people who can speak the truth and whose truth resonates with ours. That’s why it is important that we start trending the truth.
Each time our political leaders say something and we find it lacking in truth, we speak out and voice our own truth. The more we speak our own truths, the more we expel the manipulated truths.
We should not allow ourselves to believe any
information hook, line, and sinker. We should be more discerning by reviewing
this information in our heads; weigh it against ethical standards; our personal
values; and our spiritual values.
If the information we receive goes against everything we believe, then we
should trust our instincts and debunk it!
I know it takes practice but in time we will get there. The hardest part is starting. Once we start, the path will be easier to tread.
So for this round, the constituents; the electorate of the province of Bohol scored.
I am glad.
***
Reality check. Sometimes we need to remind our civil servants – elected or appointed – that our office chairs are not ours until the grave. Maybe we should also remind them that creating a turf – spreading one’s powers by hiring people to obtain loyalty – goes against ethical principles, delicadeza for one. You are in government service after all.
The local government unit of any city or province should not be made into a turf of the sitting chief executive executed by his top honcho through the selection and hiring process.
It’s bad enough that people are not hired in
government service without a connection from the inside; it’s completely worse
when an insider competently performing the vacated position is unceremoniously
eased out because you have someone in your head for the job! By golly! There’s
no sense at all, especially if the ones you eased out are highly qualified!
And next time, have the decency not to use your high chair to pass judgment on
(read: criticize) a qualified applicant to diminish her in front of a selection
board because you are rooting for someone else. Lady, it is utterly poor taste!
I have worked in government for 18 years and I have met this type of supervisors, heads, and managers. They want to enlarge their camps by hiring individuals who will owe them loyalty and not the government institution they are supposedly serving.
These are the types who want to be looked up to for the power that they wield.
Government should weed out these types of people. And chief executives should know better, if they do.
***
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
No responsibility of government is more fundamental than the responsibility of maintaining the highest standard of ethical behavior for those who conduct the public business. – John F. Kennedy
oo0oo
For comments, you may reach the writer at belca.87@gmail.com./PN
