A leader ready to listen

Bencyrus Ellorin .

THERE is something in this man that people should be given an opportunity to at least take a peek.

He has his share of vilification, that ever-existing chatter about himself as what-have-they on him but that should not be the basis of the value judgment on the man.

This season of Lent, we ask, kinsa ba ang walay sala? The important thing is that people, every person can repent. The Bible is replete with stories of people with checkered pasts who repented and were saved from eternal damnation. This is also the season when it is fitting to remind everyone of one of the 10 Commandments: You shall not bear false witness against your fellow men.

Alam Lim is the man of the masses, if we are to believe that the default candidate of the middle class and even the Catholic Church is the articulate, highly educated lawyer who has wowed people with his gab of speech and intelligence.

That man from Nazareth though is certainly not the messiah. Aside from his articulateness, we ask what substantial thing has this man done to the people of the second district of Cagayan de Oro?

Of course, he has done a lot, if one is to believe all the projects he claims to be his or contributed to its foundation. I can’t imagine that he claims to have been key in modernizing the JRB Hospital. As one official of the hospital said, Wa man gani ko kakita ana niya nakatunob dire.

Can we ask why this man and his family are throwing money literally at the people? Galit sa pera, so to speak. This is ironic when the poor and hungry would kill for a few dimes. What business do they have except politics?

Combined, the brothers have three terms each in Congress. That is equivalent to 18 years. One completed his three terms as a regular member and wants to come back, the other had two terms as party-list congressman and a regular term.

By the way, who is the congressman of the second district now? Any word from him? Hi! Hello! Now that this congressman is officially done with his third term and bro is trying to get back, he has his wife as No. 1 nominee of the party-list better renamed Abante Nazareth. If a congressman has a pork barrel of around P100 million a year, that is almost P2 billion. You do the division…

If people in the second district tend to have a “high” standard for a congressman, why would the people at the city’s first be different? And they are happy with the very loving, lovable Rep. Klarex Uy serving the legislative and developmental needs of the people in the 2nd district.

Twenty years ago, I developed my motorcycle riding skills going up and down the dirt roads of the city’s hinterlands. A few months ago, I had gone on a joy ride on a city car going up to Tumpagon and Tignapoloan. The difference: you do not see huge tarpaulin posters nailed on trees and posts. I had a chit-chat with Congressman Klarex a few days ago, and he asked me to check validate claims that majority of the beneficiaries of the medical assistance has placed in the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) are from the city’s second district.

Unlike in the second district where a small concrete pathway merits a huge tarpaulin claiming the project, in the first district concrete farm-to-market roads have no such claims except those fine prints in COA required billboards. Truth to tell: kanang mga pathways og uban pang proyekto sa kabarangayan, semento ra iya ana. Ang labor and aggregates ang katawhan sa barangay nag-produce.

Now for my clincher, why does Alam Lim, the only man to get a 2nd term as president of the Liga ng mga Barangay sa Cagayan de Oro City, be any different?

I was asked, would Alam debate with Rufus? I said, ask Alam. Debates and public fora are good so that people can be informed, made aware of the what the candidates stand for and who they are as a person and what are their competences.

But to say that candidates who shun debates are hiding something is well too presumptuous. As a student of public communications, the idea of broadcasting or mass dissemination of information as the primary mode of information sharing is being challenged, especially with the pervasiveness of social media.

Still, the best and most effective means of communication is human-to-human, person-to-person conversation. While I do get aroused by public fora, it should be noted that there is no conversation there. What you have is an exposition, a display of what-have-they up there on the stage. If ever there is a plenary discussion called open forum, it is but an appendage of the process. The same with political rallies.

Pulong-pulong or community meetings are very important. There, a candidate can have conversation with the populace. Even in hand shaking, there is conversation. Conversation is two way.

Both speak, both listen. Now, that is the essence of ang lider andam maminaw!

In the last four months or so Councilor Lim, the president of the Liga ng mga Barangay of the city, has deliberately just done that. I asked that with the amount of walking each day attending to an average of four pulong-pulong in the margins and cul de sacs (suok) of the city to have conversation, he hasn’t shown any fatigue, and loss weight? He whispered with a smile: Alang mukaon man pod ko unsay ilang ihatag!

Alam Lim may not be good speaker, but having conversation with the people in over 500 such meetings and directly interacting with over 30,000 people, logging about a thousand hours is a feat more than showboating and glib in public fora and debates.

From his conversation with the people, Alam gained a better grasp of reality. And true to his character as a problem solver, remedy-seeker, he had already made concrete actions on several key issues. He does not want to wait for the election to be over to deliver the goods. As an incumbent city official, he uses his powers and resources judiciously.

In response to the problem of lack of livelihood in the uplands and coastal areas of district 2, he had facilitated the release to qualified poor farmers 50 cattles from the Department of Agriculture (DA); he had secured the release of 90 motorized fishing boats from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Fisherfolk associations in the nine coastal barangays in the 2nd district will be get 10 motorized fishing boats each.

To help alleviate the garbage problem he also secured the release of six bio-digesters for organic solid waste late last month. To address the peace and order problem, he capacited the barangay tanod by subscribing insurance for them, facilitated capability-building and the issuance of communication equipment and uniforms to these barangay tanod.

You can just imagine if Alam is given the opportunity to have access to the bigger pie, he could surely bring a bigger piece of the pie, with not much noise, but contentment in the hearts of the people.

That is ang lider andam maminaw for you!

(The writer is a former journalist who is now in public relations and NGO work.)