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By Nora Soriño

ILIGAN City–Riding for home on a jeepney, I got to appreciate the road clearing ops that had been done so far. Even the ones viewed as “baletes” (read: untouchables) retreated several inches backward.

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It was a good sight. Praise this admin under mayor Celso Regencia. Of course, we have to thank Yorme Isko, too, of Manila who first thought of this. With DU30 seeing it as good for Ph. Well…

This was in Palao where the obstructions then were once threatening to extend as far as the middle of the narrow streets.

As the jeepney moved forward, was I in for another pleasant surprise. There stood the “modern market’’ in all its glory!

What? Overnight, a modern market had sprung? Like that beanstalk story of Jack, where the beans sprang to as tall as Jack’s window overnight after he had thrown the seeds during the night?

I must be dreaming…

To recall, the site where the once not so proud market stood, was flattened to the ground, March of this year. And now, from the ashes stood the market. Wait, “ashes’’ is not the right word as there was no fire there. The fire had only been in the eyes of the mayor as he looked at the vendors inside the “karaan” market for they had initially refused to transfer into their temporary location at Tambo at the site of the bus and jeepney terminal. Who would gladly settle there with the drainage problem, the “waterfalls” problem cascading from the not-so-good roofings?. Later though this was all “corrected,” the city said. So, the vendors who were initially reluctant to transfer did transfer. Unhappily…

I looked at the new market closely.

That was only a tarpaulin. Which said: “On this site will rise the Palao Market.” With the picture of course of it. With vehicles parking around it. No specifications as to the cost or when it would be started or finished. Or the specific contractor. No nothing. Only the picture. But a picture they say can speak a thousand words. Ah, so… Still, I wondered whether those words would include the start or finish. And the cost.

Of course, cost, like age is just a number.

But it is not just “a number.” But several numbers. Like P420 million. Or P500. Or P590 million.

The latter is the latest number. With or without a basement parking.

 At first, it was with basement parking. At a cost of that much, P590 million which was already “approved.” With a basement parking.

But there’s “another mayor” who decided that it would be without that kind of parking, so said an influential employee then. But that influential employee was overruled. By “another mayor.”

Hence, the resignation of, okay, Atty. Leo Zaragoza, erstwhile city administrator.

A few days ago, on-air, he cited that situation. Of the city’s having “several mayors.” The traffic problem in the city would worsen with that development, that is, doing away with the basement parking. Businesses would have a hard time parking their vehicles in the area, he added. In the process, he said he didn’t want curfew. “What is the curfew for?” he had asked in several words. Are they afraid of thieves? What are they afraid of being stolen? The basins? The pails and other containers?

“They,” of course meant the city officials led by the mayor.

“I know the real ‘kawatans!’ They are in city hall!” Atty Z had exclaimed. “Shall I name them?”

He did not. The traffic problem in the city would worsen, he said if the basement parking is done away with, he added.

But my recall of what Atty. Z had said was stopped because somebody had exclaimed inside the jeepney excitedly: “Look, there’s the ‘modern market!’ “ That was her perception. That the ‘modern market’ would come about. Perception is a reality, some say. At that point though, I became aware of another reality— the tarpaulin reality. Which is somewhat akin to that, only a perception.

“If it will be constructed…” I said slowly to the woman who had nudged a fellow passenger beside her, a friend who was just as fast as her.

“It will! It will!” Was the reply. Perhaps that fat lady who believed that it will be constructed had a son or a daughter who had a job order there at city hall? Ahh, maybe, the unbeliever and the cynic in me had worked overtime… I moved my head to the left to shake off that negative thought.

But later, I saw that I wasn’t alone in thinking those thoughts. For when I got to talking with Gani, a friend in media, he said of the tarp at Palao: “That’s just an advertisement for a paint company!”

“What?” I said. And then I realized too that the tarp had displayed too, along with the “modern market,” a prominent paint company complete with logo, the company that begins with a letter “D.”

Gani smiled a little. I smiled, too, in agreement.

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