MAMBULAOWATCH: Meyor Dong: Shunning publicity, discarding transparency

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

Meyor Dong ... 'no to publicity'

MEYOR Dong, aka Mambulao Mayor Ricarte ‘Dong’ Padilla, shuns publicity that focuses on his official and non-official activities. Or whatever.

He’s not fond of publicity for projects which he committed to carry out, I was told.

As he shuns publicity, he also deprives the people of vital information about his governance.

So what happened to his transparency policy that he has always espoused?

There’s no transparency if the people are not informed, properly informed or well-informed.

If the locals are clueless as to what he’s been doing lately, how much more with those Mambulaoans overseas?

Of course, Meyor Dong loves publicity. 

He loves Facebook to promote his pet projects, such as the bridge and the squatter relocation projects, or the tree planting gigs.

And he would dish it away, as he pleases. But that’s all.

It’s self-serving, to say the least, for public officials to be doing this.

Parang epal, eka nga.

Let somebody else report on his accomplishments. This way, it gives acceptance to the credibility or significance of such a project.

Facebook, as you would see, is publicity of convenience, since you can control the information on things you want to share to Facebooktizens and sanitize it for safety.

Meyor Dong doesn’t want his good deeds get publicity, so says one of his assistants.

What about his bad deeds? Can we report them?

With the pork regime being shut down for the anomalies it spawned over the past many months, the more Meyor Dong would keep Mambulaoans in the dark.

Why? No pork means less LGU activities to push major projects such as the road cementing program.

We all knew last year that much of the cement that was poured into the concrete roads was funded by pork from friendly senators, congressmen and national agencies.

There were also a lot more which were funded by pork money.

And the mayor won’t be inclined to let the people know about the drying up of pork that has now stalled his pet projects -- to keep them soaring high on good expectations  that he said would come in the next two and half years of his office, second term.

Since he shuns publicity, he also discards transparency.

This is bad, or shall I say, bad signs of things to come.

Meyor Dong can’t play transparency while playing hide-and-seek.

For comment, email the writer: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg