Susan’s Notes
By Susan Palmes Dennis
ROCKINGHAM, North Carolina—Allow me dear readers to comment on last Thursday’s (July 9) unusually large volume of people that crowded City Hall in Cagayan de Oro City for the ‘People’s Day’ program of Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy.
A program that I strongly believe is an exploitation of the poor and needy by the powers that be and a continuing failure symptomatic of City Hall’s incumbent parochial style governance.
I watched the City Information Office program aired the day after the event in which it was explained that the long lines of people that stretched from all the way out to Ysalina bridge since before the crack of dawn received ‘inside information’ to line up as early as they can to secure a priority number so they can be immediately serviced. Problem was, the issuance of priority numbers began at 7 am, not earlier in anticipation of the huge turnout.
The large crowd of people that flooded City Hall’s quadrangle and grounds was such that a 10 am cutoff was enforced to the collective dismay of many—a lot of persons with disabilities, elderly and poor carrying children—whose numbers nearly choked traffic within the City Hall and nearby Lourdes College campus areas. Not a few were angered and ventilated their sentiments on social media, questioning how City Hall could have allowed this to happen.
Without dismissing the arguments on both sides of the fence, I can only commiserate on the plight of these people—we’re not even sure if all of them are residents of Cagayan de Oro City even if it’s no prejudice to those outsiders who are in need—that had to literally beg for doleouts to survive. And City Hall has now become this behemoth doleout relief center as if being the largest employer of political freeloader loyalists wasn’t enough.
Having worked in PR myself I can understand that ‘People’s Day’ was meant to showcase Mayor Klarex as a hands on, accessible, ‘man of the people’ type of public official. But truly capable leaders need not be seen all the time in order to be proven effective. If he gets elected on a third term and he contents himself with handing ‘People’s Day’ doleouts and ‘Kasal Ng Bayan’ mass weddings, then Kagay-anons can only blame themselves for electing a barangay captain to be their mayor.
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Who was it who said ‘papunta na tayo sa ‘exciting part?’ I recall that line in response to the ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio which I watched snippets of in between my time spending with hubby Ron Dennis and Filipino-American friends in celebrating 250 years of US independence.
What can I say other than it was a bit of a stretch wading through the inumerable objections of VP Sara’s defense team against the prosecution’s witness for the first article of impeachment, namely ‘betrayal of public trust.’ A crucial element, however is the impeachment court’s move whether or not to open the bank accounts of VP Sara and her husband Mans Carpio. This may or may not result in VP Sara resigning if only to avoid opening said accounts.
We’re not even talking about the appearance and looming cross examination of her chief of staff Zuleika Lopez whose detention in Congress sparked Sara’s ‘hitman’ threat against President Marcos Jr., his wife and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez. But I suspect that it will be the opening of the alleged multi-million (billion) peso bank accounts—which as I write this piece—that will force the hand of Vice President Sara to either resign or stay put fighting.
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Speaking of US independence, the rollout of the Trump Accounts—in which US citizens under 18 years of age will be given a tax advantaged investment account of US $1,000 courtesy of the federal government—was perfectly timed for the momentous 250 year anniversary of America and I join my fellow Filipino-Americans in welcoming it.
Regardless of how the rest of the world sees him and not a few in the US wish him out of office, US President Trump made some remarkable achievements which even some hardline critics acknowledge, including closing the doors to illegal immigration. Trump is getting backlash for the war on Iran, but then I suppose how would a Democrat like Kamala Harris handle a grossly zealous militant fanatic regime in Tehran with nuclear weapon ambitions?
Thankfully she didn’t win and I don’t want to engage in those long winded Israeli-Palestinian conflict debates and the US role in that conflict. What I do want to focus on is the significance of the Trump Accounts and how this would encourage Americans with families of their own to invest in their children’s future. Under the Trump Accounts, the tax advantaged/exempted account will be turned over to the recipient once he or she turns 18.
Hopefully by then, the child’s parents would have invested in said account to help the child achieve some financial footing once they reach adulthood. But more importantly, this would help instill a ‘savings first’ mentality and financial literarcy among the American youth. I still have to see if there is a similar program of investment for Filipino children back home in the Philippines.
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