Suroy-suroy London while Liloan wept

The couple Rep. Duke Frasco and Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco tried to justify their trip to the United Kingdom while Cebu, particularly Liloan, was being crushed by Typhoon Tino.

The two of them are completely bereft of any sense of delicadeza. They don't know the difference between what is urgent and what is merely important. They have a twisted sense of priorities. Worse, as reported, they brought with them the mayors of Cebu’s 5th district, leaving their towns without leaders. Only the LGUs of Danao and Borbon were fortunate, as their mayors prioritized serving their constituents over strolling during the devastating calamity.

They were aware that Typhoon Tino was coming.

To shift public attention away from his own ineptness, Duke tried to turn the tables on Governor Pam Baricuatro. “Hunong na, sakto na ang sigi'g pamulitika. Stop politicking and start governing, Governor of Cebu,” he said. He must have been talking about the traits of the former governor and of himself.

Speaking of politics, it's dirty politics that runs through his system. Remember, he signed the impeachment complaint against VP Sara Duterte without giving a respectable justification. Also, whose names and pictures appear on the tarpaulins in almost every corner of Liloan and the 5th District of Cebu?

Duke, you have no credibility lecturing anyone about “sakto na ang sigi'g pamulitika.”

In fact, in the midst of people's grief, you continue to advertise yourself. You insult their sense of decency by putting your face on every item of your relief goods. Are you so scared of being forgotten? Well, the people of the 5th District of Cebu will not forget that you were in London while they were suffering. Your epal ways deserve your own advice: “sakto na ang sigi'g pamulitika.”

Duke even had the gall and the temerity to ask, “Asa na man mo?” Wake up, Duke. You must be having jetlag. It's the people of Liloan who should be asking that question to you. You were enjoying yourself in London when the raging typhoon badly hit Liloan.

He tried desperately to justify his travel to London: “My travel to London was an authorized official mission as part of the Philippine delegation to the World Travel Market (WTM), one of the largest and most influential global travel and tourism expositions in the world.”

Who cares whether it was authorized? Who cares about the World Travel Market? What everyone wanted to know was whether he cared about what would happen to the people of Liloan, given the fact that a typhoon was coming.

But Duke does not have the humility to accept that he committed something serious. Worse, he wanted to drag the governor into the picture.

His wife, Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia, under whose leadership the state of the country's tourism is something to be ashamed about in comparison with other countries, wanted to impress us about the importance of her presence in London. “I arrived in London on the morning of Nov. 4 as head of the Philippine delegation at the World Travel Market. I represented the country at the Ministerial Summit and also led the opening of the Philippine stand in the evening.”

Clap, clap, clap! All these, despite knowing that a raging typhoon struck Cebu.

Secretary Frasco did not explain why the presence of both of them at that event was indispensable. One cannot be without the other! Sadly, such a story might work in novels or in “Suroy-suroy” events, but not in good governance.