THERE USED to hang a billboard along infamous “Jopilan” Street in San Francisco, Mabalacat town that read:
“The cementing of this road is a project of GOV. MARK LAPID
in coordination with Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales
through the efforts of MR. JUN CASTRO.”
That is a representative sampling of all billboards – now better known as tarpaulins – that have been made integral to government projects. There are even times when the tarpaulins have all but totally disintegrated at the project sites before the actual works get started.
Our sample captures the real element and true end of these types of billboards – an expensive exercise in ego massage, to fool the people at their own expense. Tax money being used to pay for the billboards, from their design and printing, to their posting.
While we recognize the need for some sort of information on the projects, if only to let the people know of what their government is doing for them, we at the same time become leery when the information is not on the project but on some character that have had some small thing to do with it.
There, the propaganda of self takes primacy over the projection of deed. Name and face recall believed to be more lasting. Which to a great number of blokes is what would win them votes. To their utter political peril.
A case in point is our very sample. Lapid miserably lost – the tail-ender in the gubernatorial election of 2007.
Castro – for all his vaunted war chest – was a sorry mismatch to the unheralded Atlas Morales in last year’s barangay elections in Dau, Mabalacat.
And, in contrast, Boking, microscopically fonted in that billboard like a mere afterthought, has remained lord of Mabalacat for an unprecedented, incredible five terms now – in a three-term post – and still counting.
Then, there was the practice of the late, lamented Mayor Tirso Lacanilao when it came to these billboards.
They simply came in big bold letters: “This is a project of the people of Apalit.” Be they posted along roads under construction, buildings under rehabilitation or attached to garbage trucks and police vehicles.
And Lacanilao, beloved Mayor Pogi, to his constituents overwhelmed all the challengers to his post for three terms.
Thus well on the right track is this latest move at the sangguniang panlalawigan to “standardize” billboards in project sites to contain primarily “important information regarding the provincial government’s development plans, ventures and undertakings deemed beneficial for Kapampangans.”
“First and foremost, billboards of this kind must announce that the project is for the people and by the people.
It should send a clear message that the provincial government is returning to the people of Pampanga their taxes through these beneficial projects, and that it is not through the instance of a single official but the entirety of the administration in concurrence with the Kapampangan constituency here.”
So said so well and so rightly Art Punzalan, executive assistant to Vice Governor Yeng Guiao, who has been tasked to do some prototypes of the standardized billboards.
Guided by the SP’s direction, Punzalan said the messages will cut through clearly as the billboard would contain information on the project’s title, location, cost, contractor, timeline and the very important source of funds, topped by a huge logo of the provincial government and a title that reads “A development Project for the People of Pampanga in cooperation with (name of partner agency or LGU).”
Clear as a whistle is both medium and message there. So unlike the current “Pamisaupan” billboards that hang around some government projects.
With the smiling mug of Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio dominant, and “Pamisaupan” in bolder and bigger fonts than “Provincial Government of Pampanga” and the hardly readable scant information about it, the people are led to believe that the whole project is Panlilio’s personal undertaking.
“The vice governor and the SP stressed that such billboards must show that all development projects emanating from the capitol are coordinated undertakings for the people of Pampanga in cooperation with the various local government units involved.
This must be clear and understandable to the people, especially those critical of the projects and those who keenly monitor such,” Punzalan said.
Yeah, as it is an equal partner with the executive in provincial governance, the board should be billed right there as co-actor in the delivery of services to the people.
Yeah, where billing is fair, no star complexes there.
NOW WHATEVER happened to that proposed SP resolution?
Did it ever pass the committee level? Or was it no more than a flash of brilliance as easily gone pffft?
Sayang, the SP could have had the self-fulfillment – if not the bragging rights – of having predated Maid Miriam by three years on such a landmark legislation.
