EDITORIAL – Official business is nobody's business

Why is everybody ganging up on this city councilor? Just because somebody posted on Facebook a photo of a city-owned van assigned to this councilor at a new mountain zoo in a municipality more than 40 kilometers away doesn't mean he has done anything wrong. Why, the post was probably not even fact-checked by Vera Files and Rappler.

Instead of ganging up on this councilor, he should be appreciated and awarded for his honesty. He readily admitted, after the photo was posted on Facebook, that he was indeed the one who used the van. He even volunteered the information that he was on official business at the zoo. Anyone who doubts the official nature of his trip to the mountain zoo must have forgotten, or is ignorant of the fact, that the councilor is chairman of the city council committee on agriculture.

Besides, it was a Sunday. So, rather than gang up on the councilor, he should be commended and rewarded for continuing to do official work on a day that the rest of the people on the planet consider as their rest day. Such drive and initiative are truly rare these days, so let us all be grateful there are still a few exemplars of dedicated public service around.

And our councilor is a true paragon of family life as well. He is a man who should be emulated by all fathers everywhere. For even while he had to do official work on a Sunday, checking whether agriculture has anything to do with a zoo, he still found it necessary to bring his boy along so that they might have some quality time together. But in order not to get too distracted from his work, he allowed his boy to bring along some of his classmates so they can have fun while he worked.

That is why our councilor cannot understand the uproar generated by the Facebook post. As a result, he challenged the guy who posted the photo to sue him. Now that is a very horrible thing to do. The guy who posted the photo should do no such thing. It would be an affront to the sensibilities of those who truly appreciate real work when they see one. Suing the councilor is no way to reward industry.

It is just too bad that the election for local officials is still about a year away because this councilor truly deserves to be endorsed for reelection. In the meantime, however, let the uproar over this incident subside. Our councilor deserves to have his own space. It is not easy to be working so hard. His detractors should just grapple with the fact that they are not similarly blessed with sterling qualities.