Public servants are not royalty!

For our Straight from the Sky Traditional Christmas Presentation, we bring you an hour of music by the Sistema Pilipino Faculty Trio & Baritone. It's been our tradition in this show not to have an interview for Christmas, but because we are supporting the Sistema Pilipino, Inc. we are devoting the first ten minutes of this show by giving you the story behind Sistema Pilipino and its purpose in being and what are its objectives.

To give us a background of Sistema Pilipino, Inc. we talked to its founder and CEO Ms. Lianne Sala, whose dream to bring music to the ordinary Filipino came true when she got the support and backing of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. This is why we are having this show at the Don Eduardo Aboitiz Development Studies Center. Mind you, not many young people in the age bracket of Lianne are into classical music and she has the passion to make Sistema Pilipino touch the hearts and ears of Cebu.

After that short interview, we bring the music with Baritone Nonon Baang, Ms. Miracle Romano on keyboards, Mr. Jiovanni Tabada on contrabass (although he is playing the cello tonight) and Ms. Regina Buenaventura on violin…and what a violinist she is, she played my favorite violin piece by Massenet from the Opera "Thais", and she played it perfectly! So sit back, relax and enjoy the music of Sistema Pilipino Faculty Trio & Baritone and have yourselves a very Merry Christmas from our SkyCable TV crew of Straight from the Sky. Show starts at 8 p.m. on SkyCable's channel 61.

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No matter how they try to trivialize the incident that happened with the Binays at the Bayan Gate guardhouse of the Dasmariñas Village, the truth of the matter is, the Binay political family believes that they are entitled to certain courtesies. That's exactly what Vice President Jejomar Binay said when he defended his son, Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr. who was with his sister Sen. Nancy Binay. Come now, are the Binays asking for courtesies or are they demanding some kind of entitlements befitting the political elite? Who do they think they are? Royalty?

The whole problem really is that the Binays are lording it over in Makati and mind you, this is not the first incident. I recall some years back when heard that after an early morning jogging run, the vice president wanted to use one food outlet and was refused because the staff didn't recognize him…he had that outlet padlocked. Now it's the turn of the Binay siblings who wanted to avoid the traffic by passing through a private subdivision because they believe that they are entitled to such courtesies.

The problem is that the new guards didn't recognize the Binays. It is as simple as that. Now these security guards are in hot water for doing their jobs? I watched on ANC Mr. Ram Antonio, owner of the Eight Right Security Agency who apologized on behalf of the security guards because he believes that his security guards should have let the Binays pass through.

What I found disturbing was the statement of Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gatchalian who defended the Binays saying: "As the city mayor, the entire Makati is under his jurisdiction, including Dasmariñas Village. They should remember that the village is not an independent state and he should be allowed to move freely within the city's territorial bounds." So now private subdivisions are no longer private? That government officials can come and go as they please because they are not an independent sovereign state? Excuse me, sirs!

Listen to what Mr. Mike Bucoy, general manager of the Dasmariñas Village Association, said that plaques of appreciation and Christmas baskets will be given to those security guards. Bucoy insisted that DVA doesn't have a VIP policy, therefore there are no entitlements or courtesies given to anyone who does not have a house or property within the subdivision. So why were those security guards arrested? For doing their job? Of course they were released because the Binays couldn't pin anything on the guards.

But the damage has been done. As I've pointed many times already, it is high time that we change our system of governance. Public servants should not demand respect or entitlements from private persons or subdivisions. Any respect they will get they have to earn. But by God, they should never demand for such courtesies. They must never forget that they are public servants and therefore they must serve the people who voted for them.

Meanwhile, in a similar story, but with a totally opposite result, we learned that last Wednesday, the security guards of the Palace of Justice barred Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III from entering the building because they did not recognize him. But true to his humble form, Gov. Jun Jun Davide merely went back to the Provincial Capitol and had breakfast in the canteen. If there is anything going for Jun Jun Davide, he is truly a humble man, just like his father former Chief Justice Davide Jr. I doff my hat to you Mr. Governor for this is the kind of politician we need these days.

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