“The Carnival is on!” as the dailies declared. It starts with the Senatorial Candidates showing their faces on TV, newspapers, and street posters. Their voices resonate over the radios declaring that they are for the service of children and in the side of women, the poor, and of social justice.
Come March 30, the carnival will break loose and become a big discordant barrage of noise of local candidates declaring too that they will serve the community and will promise everyone that they will be exemplary public servants.
Like the senatorial candidates, their local counterparts will unabashedly announce that they are “the fulfillment of your dreams”, “the hope for a prosperous future”, “the protector of the Constitution”, “your voice in the government”, “the redeemer in the quagmire of poverty”. Ad infinitum!
After 3 years, we start to wonder what service they have done except that we see them building their mansions, importing classy cars and traveling in big cities abroad.
One editorial cartoon in the local paper might have said it all. Political Parties are mere dumps of garbage and the politicians are the hideous flies in those garbage.
When I think about public service, I remember the case I handled as a Special Prosecutor for the Environment way back in 1994 when a poor woman was harassed and gravely threatened. In the middle of the night, she single-handedly tried to stop illegal loggers from transporting illegally cut lumbers in Dansolihon. After a rigorous trial, Hon. Ernesto Malferrari, then Presiding Judge of Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC), Branch 5, penned a decision, part of which states:
It is concededly rare nowadays to see a person dedicate herself to the service of her people and government, as was being done by the person of Guinang LYNDIE N. ACALA. The prosecution has established that Ms. Lyndie N. Acala was “deputized” by the DENR to monitor, police and report any violation of the forestry laws, especially in the matter of smuggling cut timber without proper license from the government.
It was because of her dedication to her work that the accused got mad at her for reporting them, and, since she has become a “thorn” in their illegal activities of smuggling illegal lumber, they resented very much the laudable efforts of the offended party in blocking their operations which hatred caused them to subject the offended party to Grave Threats in order to silence her and let the accused continue unhindered in their onslaught of destroying our forest.
It is not difficult to see why the accused were able to threaten the offended party. She is a woman, a simple wife, living in a place far from the protective mantle of the legal authorities, easily intimidated by threats because there is no strong arm of the law to protect her. But it is the misfortune of the accused that the offended party has the courage to prosecute them for the legal wrong they committed in order to vindicate her sacrifices and efforts in protecting the patrimony of our nation.
She was willing to sacrifice her life and time to come to court so as to seek justice for the harm she was subjected to by the accused who did not even bother to respect the fact that the offended party was only trying her best to do service to her people and nation.
True service comes in many facets. One need not be a leader in the community in order for him to sincerely give himself in the service of humanity. With so much hullabaloo in our electoral process, I feel it is time to deeply ponder whether it is wise or unwise to join local politics.
