When Robert Ludlum was still alive, I used to read a lot of his books. I practically got so hooked to his works starting with The Scarlatti Inheritance in the early 70's that I, with the permission of my late mother in law (she was the constant face manning the Oriental Book Store, then), would always be the first one to get a copy of new titles as they arrived. Thru his literature, I learned the application of a number of words that were new to me. The term "covert operation" for instance, which almost always found its way into his books, meant some kind of a secret action waged by highly skilled intelligence personnel. In Ludlum's usage, the operation was efficient but brutal.
I remember Robert Ludlum, may his soul rest in peace, when I learned of an on-going operation by a Cebu City councilor of the north district. No, he is not an intelligence officer. In fact, he is far from being intelligent (pun is intended), although he loves to act more like a policeman than as a local legislator. Because of this preference of his to be a cop, popular radio man Mr. Bobby Nalzaro called him, "pa-pulis pulis" many times in the past. But yes, this councilor is brutal.
What is the current covert operation of this councilor? It is something that is not related with his functions as a member of the sanggunian. Of course, it may not matter to him, because, for all we know, he may not have even read a line of the Local Government Code appertaining to the job for which we pay him. Or perhaps, he might have, in his rare moment of sobriety, attempted to peruse the law but failing to understand it, he could only opt to do something else less mentally demanding.
His kind operation is one that only persons who are insecure in their position and unsure of what to do undertake. He calls incumbent barangay officials to his office, like a warlord does his fief, and promises them funding assistance in the coming October elections as long as they do what he wants. He really thinks that these officials owe him a favor. That's the sad part because that is wrong. Truth to tell, the reverse is true. He is the one who owes them the favor.
Anyway, did I hear one of such barangay officials say that this city councilor mentioned the amount of One Hundred Thousand Pesos? Repeat: P100,000.00. Will this city legislator really give that kind of huge money to support each candidate for barangay kagawad? It is important to ask that question because, my source of information said, he already promised a number of prospective candidates this October barangay election.
Let us assume he has that fortune to throw away. If we reckon the fact that in the north district of this city, there are 46 barangays, the total figure is humongous even if we just peg the number of candidates he offers to fund at two per barangay. He must really be starting to organize a corps of campaigners for him so that when he serves his third term as a city councilor, he can challenge the incumbent city district representative in the lower house.
This city councilor already called almost all of the incumbent officials in the small barangay where I live - Kasambagan. His covert operation is not really covert. In a most demanding voice that characterized the unlamented regimes of disgraced charlatans, he wanted honorable barangay officials to do dishonorable deeds. He must be a wicked practitioner of treachery that he felt it was easy to command other people to betray others. Oh how callous was he to say without hesitation that they should betray their friend; that the betrayal of words of honor was not disgraceful!
In a higher scale of probability, this city councilor does not have a sense of timing. The day he promised to give huge monetary support to barangay candidates in Kasambagan under the condition that they should junk a team mate, a house in Casals Village was burned. The conflagration could not have been controlled earlier because the fire trucks broke. A television footage caught a lady saying "the fire trucks are so old and dilapidated that, as usual, they broke". And the words "as usual" grammatically misplaced but wholly intended, horrified me. Had the councilor's mind been on his job, he would have thought more of providing funds to modernize the fire department rather than bribe some people to do a Brutus.
But, saddest part of the situation was that when I analyzed his case, I realized that I cannot expect him to do any good.