By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
Despite the evils of PGMA’s administration, the Mountain Province people have to be thankful to her. She channeled a lot of money to that province so the road from Abatan, Buguias to Bontoc was widened and concreted. Now tourists could breeze through the Halsema Highway (used to be called Abortion Road and then Suicide Road as it was so bad, like a narrow dried river bed) on their way to Sagada and other tourist places up north.
The big money for roads continued flowing during PNoy’s administration. Congressman Ronald Cosalan was able to wangle out billions of pesos for Cordilleran roads but most of that money naturally went to Benguet. So Benguet’s bad roads which Congressman Samuel Dangwa was unable to improve during his many years in Congress finally got modernized a few years ago. The bad main roads of Kapangan, Benguet—ironically, the hometown of Samuel Dangwa—are now concrete and two-lane.
During PNoy’s time, the Aluling Bridge, the country’s longest bridge, finally got finished. Started in 1978, it took 35 years for it to be inaugurated, thus, the moniker. The bridge connects Tadian, Mountain Province and Cervantes, Ilocos Sur. Now going to the Ilocos from Tadian is a breeze while enjoying nice sceneries. “The road is good,” they say.
The roads also to Sagada and to Besao, my hometown, were finished during PNoy’s time. They are now concrete and two-lane. With the dense and proliferating pine trees everywhere with no scattering of trash, these towns are now great to visit. As my in-laws commented when we went there last summer, “It is like being in John Hay or at the Country Club.”
As to President Du30 it is still too early in the day. This early, however, we, the Mountain Province people have to say we are lucky as he appointed two of our very own as assistant secretaries. The first is Atty. Marie Paz R. Banaag, now an assistant to the Communications Secretary. She was the daughter of the late longtime Mayor Rafael of Paracelis, Mountain Province. She was also the mayor of Natonin, Mountain Province, before she went to work with the Office of Ombudsman. When she was still a law student (or was it when she was reviewing for the bar?) she maintained a column in this paper. Yes, she is our very own.
Back then she was very slim but when she became a mayor I met her in an office and almost did not recognize her. She progressed physically—as everybody does when their age advance. Whenever I saw her on TV I was not sure if she was able to regain her slim figure. The other week, however, she was one of the main guests in the Begnas di Bauko. Her picture appears on the website issue of this paper and she looked beautiful, vivacious and very lively. She had a great smile and she appeared to be immensely enjoying dancing to the gongs and the crowd was enjoying her dancing and her presence. In other words, she is a real politician. Politicians naturally enjoy crowds. You can see this on their faces and how they become alive in the midst of people. If you feel drained in a crowd don’t ever become a politician.
As to her figure, she appeared slim in Bauko but not as she was when she was still with us. Naturally.
The second assistant secretary from Mountain Province President Du30 appointed is Atty. Cheryl Daytec Yangot as assistant to the secretary of the Department of Justice. She is also one of us as she is my niece.
I am sure Cheryl will make a good assistant secretary but if only I had the chance to advise her, I would have discouraged her from accepting the position for so many reasons. For one, once you are in government or in a government controlled corporation or institution, then you are trapped by the politics there and the bureaucracy which gets people to become demoralized and consequently become incompetent or inefficient. Another result of this is a person’s qualities do not get developed as oftentimes it is the “sipsip” who gets recognized and who gets the breaks or the perks.
For another, Cheryl had already developed her “brand” as a person in Baguio City. For instance, she was a leading figure in the protests against the cutting of trees by SM. She had also represented so many groups who feel disadvantaged by moneyed interests and those who were in power. With her machine gun of a mouth, am sure a lot of those she was up against feared her. In short, she already developed her “brand” and all she had to do was figure out how to make a good living out of it.
But with her having capitulated to the government side, she is now boxed in an office. Her ability to make a difference is now so small, or that she could not anymore fight for the disadvantaged and for good causes.
Will she be happy as an assistant secretary? Only time will tell.**
