It's innate in human nature that people who are vulnerable for their questionable actuations are prone to be cautious and dovish in speech and behavior. Seldom do they throw the first punch or cast the first stone, lest any retaliation break their brittle house of glass. Over-stretching their patient composure, even when riled, or slapped, they may proverbially turn their other cheek meekly.
However, the lesser-gifted in wisdom and equanimity, may pose the opposite, that is, carried by the streak of brashness and foolhardiness, may resort to "offense is the best defense" street philosophy. Or, otherwise said, the application of reverse psychology in bungling inanity.
In government, for example, there are those who oppose for the heck of it, especially when feeling threatened with manifest accountabilities that are indefensible.
The state of affairs of Mandaue City is a case in point… Mayor Jonas Cortes whose public motto is "Be honest even if others are not", has often met the monkey wrenches strewn across his way by the opposition City Council. Absent any scam in his service of transparency, obstructionism defines the theme of his detractors.
Just a few samplers… When Mayor Jonas restored to sanity the free passage of the City Hall-Church premises from nigh labyrinth, he was hied to the Ombudsman for alleged "destruction" of nebulous notion of Mandaue's "heritage". And yet, when the cultural pretenders literally barred St. Joseph in isolation, razed Justice Sotero Cabahug's memorial statue, destroyed the Plaza House and the Mandaue Tennis Courts, blocked the Rizal-Bonifacio stage and made it useless, these pseudo-cultural cognoscenti didn't call them "destructions".
That the "restoration" project of Mayor Jonas has been consistently pursued, is evidenced by his clearing of Zamora Street, B. Ceniza Street, and Gomez Street defining the old public market periphery from the illegal vendors that had been abetted by the previous administration. Such "restoration" completes the sanitizing of the City Hall-Church bloc that used to be a "heritage" of mess and chaos like the Casbah of old.
Germane to this amusing variation of reverse psychology is the continuing warning, nay, threat thrown at Mayor Jonas Cortes by the City Council for prosecution and suspension over these restoration projects. And, like a servile acolyte, the spokesman of the departed administration chimed in that his defeated boss is also warning Mayor Cortes of more lawsuits. Thrown in was the dig that Cortes is "an inept leader whose only competence is to destroy" properties of value.
But most Mandauehanons here and abroad are in the know that aside from the lamppost overpricing scam, there have been so many questionable transactions that Mayor Jonas' administration has unearthed. So many that his legal department has its hands over-full in prioritizing for whatever appropriate legal action to pursue, as yet.
Just to cite some at random… One - The scandalous abuse of cash advances totaling P19M as of March 30, 2007, some of which incompletely settled only in late June, 2007; Two - the "midnight" purchases of overpriced and proscribed supplemental books/materials in violation of DepEd memos, from the Special Education Fund (SEF) totaling P18.226M in 11 checks, seven of them issued on June 27 to 29, 2007, or just a few days before Mayor Jonas assumed office; Three - The highly-touted "modern" City Abattoir is a mess, with P14M worth of restoration job and "lost" equipment unaccounted for; Four - The premature operation of the Mandaue City College without any certificate of compliance from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) as required by law; Five - the thorny issues on the NHA-funded high-rise housing project in Looc; Six - The excessive expenses for the City Hall park and garden including its over-priced lampposts, before that of the ASEAN Summit.
Instead of threatening Mayor Jonas Cortes of more lawsuits for illusory wrongs, such clumsy attempt at reverse psychology may only be an invitation for a boomerang effect.
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Email: lparadiangjr@yahoo.com