His detractors call him “amoy lupa”, a pejorative to describe someone who is not only old but who is like a walking cadaver. Literally, it means “a person who smells like cemetery earth”. Indeed, this mayor looks like a skeleton wrapped in very dry and wrinkled human skin. It’s a very unpleasant sight. His healthy face is plastered in all the billboards around the city by the sea, but the picture was taken years ago when he was up and about. In reality, he has been moving around in a wheelchair.

Because of his failing health, he no longer runs the city. Several interests, including his wife, do the “mayoring” in his behalf. They want him to remain as mayor despite calls that he should relinquish his position for medical reasons because his continued stay in office benefits them for one reason or another. They benefitted a lot from his reign when he was still in good physical shape. And they continue to benefit from the powers that stem from his position which they wield for their own ends because he no longer has the faculties to do so.

He still makes public appearances but his wife is always behind him, making sure he stands erect to fool the unsuspecting that he still can run the affairs of the city. They don’t want him to relinquish his post despite his miserable condition because they will surely be displaced once the vice mayor takes over. If they can find someone who can impersonate him just to show to people that the mayor is still okay, they will do it just to perpetuate themselves as “proxy mayors”.

The mayor’s dealings before were evidently questionable. Accusations of corruption were hurled against him but nothing prospered. His political opponents say he is vindictive. Those who dared oppose him received his wrath. He made their lives miserable. He perpetrated himself in power as if nobody is qualified anymore for his position. And he wielded power with an iron fist, treating everyone as his subjects and inferior to him. Now that he is so ill, perhaps, karma finally caught up on him.

The city is in disarray. That was the situation when he was still in control. It got worse when old age and sickness downed him, and when his minions took over and turned him into a puppet. There is criminality all over. Illegal gambling is corrupting every one. Graft money is making his cronies happy while city residents continue to suffer from poor and substandard government service. There is wanton disregard of the law because the city has already become a snake pit ruled by a fraudulent body a la Council of Trent that emerged after he fell ill.

Only the favored few enjoy brisk business because the city government – err, the council that runs the city in the mayor’s behalf – is lax on them. Many of them have projects left and right, and talks of overpricing and rigged bidding circulate everywhere. These charges have remained unsubstantiated though. Meanwhile, those whom the council dislikes either receive shabby treatment or were taxed heavily in a bid to cripple their businesses. Stringent requirements are imposed on them to make it difficult for them to transact elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the mayor’s health is now worsening. He already finds it difficult to make it to his wheelchair, and a court case has been filed to declare him physically and mentally incapable of running the city. However, his wife continues to take the ailing mayor to his office several times in a week to prove that the chief executive is still in command of his senses and should not be stripped of his post. But the daily torture is exacting a heavy toll on his very frail and very weak body infested by the termites of greed courtesy of the people around him. At 90, the mayor finally rendezvous with death.

May he rest in peace!

NOTE: I know what you are thinking. But the story that you have just read is not a prediction of what is going to happen in Iloilo City if a derelict is elected mayor in 2010. This is just an attempt to reconstruct from newspaper accounts the last years in office of Mayor Pablo Cuneta of Pasay City and is in no way intended to blacken his memory. If history will repeat itself in this part of the country, Iloilo City voters will have no one to blame but themselves. Be warned!

2 Responses to “The Derelict”

• 1
  Elijah Simonio
  November 10th, 2009 10:58

  Firstly, thank you Mr. Lujan, for a very profound article…and hopefully it will serve as a wake-up call to all of us!
  Secondly, how loathsome is loathsome? Just look at the life of Raul Gonzalez Sr. to get your answer. This old man was the Secretary of Justice, the one who was supposed to protect us from drug dealers and murderers. Raul Gonzalez broke his oath to every and all Filipinos because he used his public office to protect these brutal criminals so that he can make money. How loathsome is loathsome? Just look at Raul Gonzalez!
• 2
  Jaden de la Rosa
  November 11th, 2009 02:20

  Raul Gonzalez Sr. is the biggest crook. He will bankrupt Iloilo City if given the chance. He will destroy the lives of our youth with his close ties with drug dealers. Raul Gonzalez will continue to spread violence with his commitment to protect serial murderer Etik Espinosa.
  RG is an old man and old age has given him a renewed lust and determination to abuse power. We better do all we can to defeat Gonzalez in 2010.

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