24 August 2005
Essay: ‘Quick, make me invisible!’
By Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr.
IT never ceases to amuse us, this familiar scene of a mayor or governor seated behind his desk patiently, if condescendingly, listening to all sorts of problems, personal and very personal, from a succession of visitors. Very early in the morning, they all come “to see the mayor” even if clearly, some of the woes they bring with them are best presented to someone else in the municipal or city hierarchy – the administrator, the engineer, the health officer, the social worker, and yes, the barangay captain.
To everyone troubled and baffled, the mayor is the “final solution”—what he says (sometimes even how he gestures, that’s for the truly fanatical) eases all the trouble and pain, no matter that he more often than not delegates the problem-solving anyway to subordinates.
This is partly the reason that we have, since we assumed a senior level in the rocking media world, tried as best we could not to step inside mayor’s offices, if we could help it. The scene of so many people seeking the mayor’s attention all at one time triggers this little voice within us to take only the minutest fraction of the former’s time as soon as we are granted an audience with him or her in consideration of the waiting crowd.
It’s almost too “criminal” to keep so many others waiting in line for that much-awaited mayor’s word – or smile – with them while you take your own sweet time shooting the breeze with him.
And into this whole busy milieu comes the ubiquitous and “solicitous” mediamen and mediawomen whose various body languages, while trying as best they could to catch the town executive’s welcoming eye, would have been such a delight to sketch or draw for the late caricature artist Gene Sendaydiego.
We can’t blame some municipal executives really for getting the creeps when a whole army of our media colleagues, men and women, descend into their offices to mix with their already overflowing number of callers – this, on an almost daily basis! And to think that only a few of these really belong to legit media outlets or organizations which would have made time spent with them worth their busy schedule.
Some mayors though, like Lingayen’s Jonas Castaneda, Urdaneta’s Amadito R. Perez, Jr., Alaminos’ Nani Braganza, Bayambang’s Leo Boy de Vera, even neophyte politician Jinky Zaplan of Sta. Barbara, we hear, (with pointers from her hubby, multi-term ex-mayor Lito) and Sto. Tomas’ former mayor Bebot and incumbent mayora Vivien Villar have mastered the art of, uh, “media accommodation” well enough they can live with it. No wonder they’re media darlings, anytime.
Word is that Malasiqui Mayor Ponsing Soriano who once got fed up with the gall of some mediapersons now treads on and treats media presence more sparingly to avoid going thru a repeat of the abuso de confiansa by the local pests, er, Press which he denounced in harsh tones once before.
Indeed, some uninitiated mayors now feel, whenever the media comes around and loiters -- yes, loiters -- that their generic name is Angelo dela Cruz – wearing the orange shirt on the Internet video with his Iraqi captors.
Still wonder why some of them have been going on hide n’ seek games when they see the familiar media faces coming?
IT never ceases to amuse us, this familiar scene of a mayor or governor seated behind his desk patiently, if condescendingly, listening to all sorts of problems, personal and very personal, from a succession of visitors. Very early in the morning, they all come “to see the mayor” even if clearly, some of the woes they bring with them are best presented to someone else in the municipal or city hierarchy – the administrator, the engineer, the health officer, the social worker, and yes, the barangay captain.
To everyone troubled and baffled, the mayor is the “final solution”—what he says (sometimes even how he gestures, that’s for the truly fanatical) eases all the trouble and pain, no matter that he more often than not delegates the problem-solving anyway to subordinates.
This is partly the reason that we have, since we assumed a senior level in the rocking media world, tried as best we could not to step inside mayor’s offices, if we could help it. The scene of so many people seeking the mayor’s attention all at one time triggers this little voice within us to take only the minutest fraction of the former’s time as soon as we are granted an audience with him or her in consideration of the waiting crowd.
It’s almost too “criminal” to keep so many others waiting in line for that much-awaited mayor’s word – or smile – with them while you take your own sweet time shooting the breeze with him.
And into this whole busy milieu comes the ubiquitous and “solicitous” mediamen and mediawomen whose various body languages, while trying as best they could to catch the town executive’s welcoming eye, would have been such a delight to sketch or draw for the late caricature artist Gene Sendaydiego.
We can’t blame some municipal executives really for getting the creeps when a whole army of our media colleagues, men and women, descend into their offices to mix with their already overflowing number of callers – this, on an almost daily basis! And to think that only a few of these really belong to legit media outlets or organizations which would have made time spent with them worth their busy schedule.
Some mayors though, like Lingayen’s Jonas Castaneda, Urdaneta’s Amadito R. Perez, Jr., Alaminos’ Nani Braganza, Bayambang’s Leo Boy de Vera, even neophyte politician Jinky Zaplan of Sta. Barbara, we hear, (with pointers from her hubby, multi-term ex-mayor Lito) and Sto. Tomas’ former mayor Bebot and incumbent mayora Vivien Villar have mastered the art of, uh, “media accommodation” well enough they can live with it. No wonder they’re media darlings, anytime.
Word is that Malasiqui Mayor Ponsing Soriano who once got fed up with the gall of some mediapersons now treads on and treats media presence more sparingly to avoid going thru a repeat of the abuso de confiansa by the local pests, er, Press which he denounced in harsh tones once before.
Indeed, some uninitiated mayors now feel, whenever the media comes around and loiters -- yes, loiters -- that their generic name is Angelo dela Cruz – wearing the orange shirt on the Internet video with his Iraqi captors.
Still wonder why some of them have been going on hide n’ seek games when they see the familiar media faces coming?
