THE chief of the Kingdom by the River capped the ceremony honoring the latest batch of retirees by giving them a Timex watch each.

The vouchers read that the Kingdom paid P4,000 for each watch. However, what the documents do not say is that each actually costs P1,000, buy-one-take-one pa. For only P1,000, one gets two Timex watches. Two for the price of one!

For twelve pieces of the model that was on sale, the Kingdom spent only P6,000. But for some strange mathematics, Tibakla, the mastermind of the thievery, bloated the price to P4,000 each, or P48,000 for all twelve.

The King should wake up now and deal with crooks proliferating in his dominion, foremost among them, Kuyabog, supremo of the Trio Los Bobos, and his sidekicks Sirum-Sirum and Tibakla.

The Trio Los Bobos boast that they are instilling discipline, professionalism, patriotism and all virtues, on the citizens of the kingdom. But what they do instead is instill mere shade or poor imitation of it because all they teach their subjects is to perform mere rituals or palabas. In so doing, they sacrifice substance for form.

That explains why the Kingdom has become a giant elementary school, its subjects, many of them senior citizens already, treated like school kids, as the Trio Los Bobos resorted to stupid measures to teach school kids punctuality, attendance to flag ceremonies, and wearing proper uniforms.

As one measure, the Trio Los Bobos ordered the guards to lock all main doors of the Kingdom during the flag ceremony, so none could enter the palace to time-in or exit to join the flag ceremony.

Those who miss the flag ceremonies are marked absent for one-half day, and still have to answer the memorandum from Kuyabog asking them to explain why they should not be disciplined for failure to attend the ceremony.

The tardy ones would find their tardiness of a few minutes grow beyond 30 minutes or even one hour because the length of the flag ceremony depends on the diligence of Kuyabog and Tibakla, and at times, Sirum-Sirum, to deliver speeches none listen to, anyway.

In all cases, tardiness is another ground for employees to get memorandum from Kuyabog to show cause why they be not sanctioned. Even chiefs of offices or senior officers Kuyabo dislikes would also get those stern reminders.

But the trio miss the point as they reduce character for ritual, substance for form. They never realize that they are the object of scorn of 99 percent of the Kingdom’s citizens who know the these trio to the core.

For example, the flirting Tibakla, aside from bloating the price of the Timex, was the co-star in the live performance entitled “Illegal Connection at the Old Palace” where they were caught in flagrante delicto on the table of an office performing with her co-star, Budyawi, a bald dwarf who is himself a character deserving treatment in t his space.

Sirum-Sirum was the target of a speeding BBQ stick in the hand of a partner after the latter discovered he was shortchanged in the sharing of the kick-back of the nipa thatches bought from Bicol to aid typhoon victims, was Kuyabog’s co-conspirator in overpricing the software in the real property tax assessment.

Kuyabog and Sirum-Sirum hoodwinked a retiring officer to bloat the cost of the software from P1 M to P4.5 M. The original price, P1 M, was already bloated at that. They jack up the purchase by simply having the same supplier change company names. The thievery is not yet consummated as the Kingdom has not paid yet after the ageing official refused to risk his retirement fund.

The King should not wait for the consummation of the crime. He must strike early and hard.

One Response to “Trio Lost Bobos (5)”

• 1
  Dr. Antonio Gestosani
  October 13th, 2008 22:57

  Great tabloid reporting and excellent journalistic drama. I will say: Hail to the King who rules his Kingdom without fear of tribulations. Good for you Governor Tupas for standing firm against your critics. You have shown your leadership to take punches from your pundits; this is a kind of leader you want to lead you. The latest move of Governor Tupas not to join 5 Governors against the proposed coal fired power plant in Iloilo was his brave-heart decision to go with the majority of Ilonggos across party lines. Good for you Governor, and I applaud your bold decision. Good luck to you, sir.

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