Flyover

Netnet Camomot

ILANG tulog na lang! And this is for what now? SM Downtown is already open, so, this must be for City Mall.

Or this could be for Cagayan de Oro’s coastal road, the completion of which is dependent on a house. The House of Representatives? Nope.

That house, by the way, is only one of the six road right-of-way (RROW) challenges that may require flyovers to be built along that coastal road. Yup, a flyover for each unresolved RROW issue. But, of course, the Department of Public Works and Highways won’t like that at all. Better resolve the RROW issues in a manner that’s agreeable to all parties, otherwise, CDO will end up with more humps, er, flyovers that are much shorter than the one presently flying over from Licoan to Gaisano.

Each government project always inspires question marks to hover above our heads, and after Dr. Emil Bolongaita’s speech last Monday on corruption, the bigger the question marks have become.

The complete title of last Monday’s forum was “Corruption and Development: A Public Forum with Dr. Emil Bolongaita” held at the XU Little Theater.

He warned that he’s the type who could discuss corruption on and on and on. Well, I didn’t mind. He had many interesting stories to tell about corruption, a topic that’s already familiar to Pinoys who unfortunately are so used to such stories; they would be shocked if there’s no corruption at all in Pinas.

It’s not nice to think negatively of the government and its projects. After all, we were the ones who made it possible for Pinoys to become politicians by voting them into office.

But we know that the amount lost to commissions, pockets, and foreign bank accounts are humongous, we are no longer shocked of its enormity and the blatant disregard for public welfare in stealing from the national treasury. Some people are simply too greedy. And I’m referring to people instead of zooming in on Pinoys since corruption can be everywhere, as long as there’s no check and balance in a country where citizens have lost the courage to fight for what’s right. Or are too afraid to fight for their rights.

A combination of money and power can talk so loudly, a person who feels his survival depends not only on meeting his basic needs but also his wants will have no other choice but to obey the one with money and power.

There are people who can buy a person’s loyalty. That person now exists in a cage along with his blind loyalty, and will never be free from the vicious bond that continues to choke him.

It must be stressful to have that kind of life where a person’s blind loyalty is often tested by the people who have bought that loyalty. When he always has to say yes to all of their requests. The ultimate test is, if these people ask him to eat s**t, will he?

Pinas’ political climate changes every three years, depending on election results. Once a new winner is proclaimed, the locality has to change colors, with flyovers even morphing from violet to, hmmm, black and white?

Or should that be six years, with the president, vice president, and senators setting the pace for the country’s next chapter.

Dr. Bolongaita said, “The level of corruption in the Philippines is palpable.”

Yup, you can feel it in the air especially now that the new environment secretary has yet to level up to Gina Lopez’s passion for the environment.

There was that day last week when social media bombarded us with one breaking news after another. Overwhelmed with a new environment secretary, an acquittal in one case involving Janet Napoles, and I don’t remember anymore what the third news was, I opted to write about… Gosh. Was it about food and diet again?

Well, the fridge in the room has not had any food items for several days now. It doesn’t mean, though, that I’m eating less. There’s still the fridge downstairs, and the invites to eat out. Plus Mother’s Day which was another occasion to eat. For those who succeeded in waiting for a San Isidro fiesta invite last Monday, lechon paksiw pa more!

And when we talk about lechon, we remember the pork barrel.

At least there’s SM Downtown now to help the stressed Cagayanon keep his cool. If only he can fly over the traffic.