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Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Who Paid for All These?




My otherwise peaceful morning drive to the office is always disturbed every time I reach the sidestreets of Manila. They may not directly affect me (I live in Quezon City), but I just can't help but get enraged over the assaulting presence of the preposterous posters of the father and son tandem of Lito and Ali Atienza.

I would have tolerated this insensitivity if these were just mere privately funded pre-election hoopla. But what's utterly revolting is the fact that it is being passed off as a government initiative.


The posters say:

1. "This is an inner city development project". You ask, what the hell is the project here, specifically ? The lamp posts to which these posters were nailed to? The walls of the buildings where they were unceremoniously posted? The electric cables where they hang?

2. "Project: Barangay Alley". This is what the logo in the middle says. Must be the name of the mythical project. But it was so written that the second letter "l" of the word Alley, is shorter than the first and the "ey" is blurred, thus reading "Ali" . Creative huh?

3. "Buhayin ang MayniLA". Yeah right. Manila is so alive with these expensive "banderitas" blocking our every view. And I will not be surprised if one of these days, more posters will invade Manila with a new handle: BuhAyin ang MaynilA - for the successor Ali. I hope just hope Manileños will not buy this stupidity.

4. "This is where your taxes go." At least these thick-faced politicians are honest. But despite this admission, why are they not facing charges for wasting government funds and using people's money for personal interests? If some public officials can be prosecuted for violations of the Anti-Graft Law for amounts as low as P 20,000.00 (remember Gov. Neil Tupas?), why are the Atienzas exempted when the evidence is all over the place? These posters and billboards, given their omnipresence in Manila, surely cost by the hundreds of thousands. Would I be wrong to assume that in this country, laws are imposed only to those who oppose the implementors?

I know I shouldn't have asked.

7 comments:

Oman said...

Res Ipsa Loquitor

ek manalaysay said...

hahaha... i like the description "thick-faced" for these politicians! with these kind of political ambitions involving a father and son tandem, they only make the local government a family company! local government should be of public office because the public owns them; the public feeds them, the public dresses them, these politicians should know that!

Ali instead of Alley and MayniLA, hah! PR-ness as its best (if there is such a word)!

deejayz said...

every pedicab has their closeup combo. and now, its all Ali atienza's projects. that's "maximization of resources"

atto aryo said...

Lawstude: He he. Wala munang Latin. Biglang naiisip ang bar e. :-0

Yatot: I hope the voters of Manila will be intelligent enough to realize that a public office is not an heirloom na pwedeng ipamana. Ok lang sana kung deserving. Ano na nga ba ang nagawa ni Ali?

atto aryo said...

Deejayz: I have seen the tricycle posters you mentioned. They used the same mug shot of the flower boys (he he, gawin bang criminals). But notice that the logo of the City of Manila is there. Which means that public funds were likewise spent in the making of those obnoxious posters. Kapal no?

Jay Lagat said...

Political dynasty at its best... sadly, manila doesn't seem to mind what's happening o the sidelines.

Makoy said...

i have the same observation in paranaque city. i feel disgusted with these politicians whose using the money of the government.