MISREADINGS
Unstoppable political billboards
In a jeepney ride cruising the city’s main thoroughfare one quiet Sunday morning with my family, my youngest daughter started conversing through a series of whispered messages to my ears regarding political billboards and signages. To her, these billboards and signages have been following us all along.
This seemingly innocent inquiry from a pre-schooler stunned me. I attempted to get a specific illustration of what she was talking about by asking what signages or which one. Feeling under-estimated, she put up a challenge against me saying “how come I have poor observation” of things that have existed around us for a long time.
My own query revealed that she has an index of the frequent objects and its messages stored in her “hard drive” which she has collected while traveling to school everyday as part of her reading comprehension exercise. Like other children, she reads repeatedly the messages and identifies the images of people whose faces are posted in public places.
She said, everyday we are being followed by phrases like “this is where your taxes go” in our roads; “for official use only” and this is “through the efforts of (former) Mayor Jerry Treñas in our government vehicles; messages and images of politicians along the newly constructed fly-over; the picture of current Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog with messages of gratitude to all that voted for him to office in a public plaza including a big one at the University of the Philippines-Visayas; and the slogans painted in an overpass near a school.
I have realized that this is the uncalculated impact of political messages being delivered through billboards and signages by our politicians to our children, to the citizens, and to society as a whole. It will not be surprising if in the near future, we, parents, will be asked by our children if this practice is considered legal, ethical, or moral – for its seems nobody questioned its silent integration to our political life.
Out of curiosity, it is worth anticipating a deeper scrutiny on this matter by preparing a set of answers to questions as to who invented these objects and materials; why it is necessary; who are putting them together; is this material biodegradable or not; how are these materials are being disposed of; what is its impact to environment; how much it costs to have one made; and more substantially, who’s money is being used to pay in making this kind of materials.
I wanted to enlighten my daughter that this practice was established by the deeply rooted traditional and patronage politics in our society.
I can see two things here. One, this is not something new to our society but has been existing in our political life. It might have evolved with modern day innovations, yet it remains purely traditional. Our politicians are well aware of the temporariness of their hold to power so they take advantage of every opportunity available to them in order to immortalize their efforts. This is the reason why we have road signs with the names of politicians which are far more instructive than the sign itself. The same holds true with the grammatically confusing messages in our overpass structures in the city.
Two, political campaigns in the country is a continuing exercise. Undeniably, this is the blood that ensures the uninterrupted and continuing life of traditional and patronage politics in our society. This practice is even made more convenient and unstoppable with the onset of affordable computer programmed machines that can accurately print desired images and messages in tarpaulin materials.
Whether they like it or not, elected public servants are bound to end their terms of office. While it may be legal that their initiatives to upgrade equipment and facility and improve infrastructure have their names as personal reference, it remains, not only questionable, but also ethically unacceptable to the taxpayers. After all it is the taxpayers’ money that is being utilized for their own personal promotion.
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