Polibiz
Crybaby
First district Congresswoman Janette Garin recently criticized Igbaras Mayor James Esmeralda for allegedly selling black shirts to municipal government employees who attended the mass burial of the casualties in the Igbaras tragedy.
According to one gutsy columnist in a daily paper, the neophyte solon picked up a fight with the youthful mayor in order to camouflage her failure to extend help to the people of Igbaras following the tragedy that hit the town last October 2 when a passenger jeepney carrying more than 60 passengers was carried away by the strong current of the Tangyan River while crossing the Songsongon overflow in Brgy. Barasan.
Garin scored Esmeralda for supposedly benefiting financially from the black t-shirts printed with "Construct the bridge now" sold to employees of the municipal hall who attended the mass burial for casualties of the tragedy.
Was the sale of the t-shirt worth all the media hoopla, in the first place?
It seems that Garin is sour at Esmeralda because, according to the gutsy columnist, the mayor outsmarted her in the publicity since October 2 until the rescue operations have been ordered stopped only recently.
Adding insult to injury was that during the mass burial last October 14, many irate Igbarasnons carried angry placards demanding from their public officials (that included Esmeralda, of course) to expedite the construction of a permanent bridge that would serve the regular commuters in the area and also to avoid the occurrence of similar accident in the future.
While Esmeralda took the message from the placard-bearing mourners gamely, Garin was piqued. And instead of giving them assurance of her cooperation, she turned her back on the mayor and made him a scapegoat of her misplaced tantrums.
The congresswoman should always remember that she is only a servant of the people in her district. If people wanted something to be done for their own welfare, Garin and her fellow public servants are duty-bound to listen and serve them. Politicians are not supposed to get mad if their attention is being called to perform a public service task.
By blasting the energetic mayor, she was hurting the people in Igbaras who put him in power because they believed Esmeralda deserved a commendation for staying by the side of aggrieved families since Day One. Esmeralda saw to it that all missing bodies were recovered, saved for those who were washed away to the seas and could not anymore be retrieved by rescue teams.
Why, where is your pork barrel, Madame Congresswoman?
Why don't you let your performance do the yakking and spend the people's money to help solve the primary problem of the Igbarasnons.
In harshly castigating Esmeralda because only of the minor issue about the sale of the t-shirt, Garin sounded like a crybaby who was denied of her biscuit.