Persecuting Peewee

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Persecuting Peewee
Sunday, 09 24, 2006

Pasay City Mayor Wenceslao “Peewee” Trinidad of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) is fighting for political survival. Similar to the fate that befell Baguio City Mayor Braulio Yaranon, also of the LDP, Peewee’s predicament is a selectively orchestrated move to give his political opponents free rein in capturing the leadership of the city that has made great strides under him.

We have seen how Peewee’s governance style has transformed Pasay from simply a backdoor of Makati to the east or Manila to the north. Peewee’s Pasay, as its slogan proclaims, has continued to “Aim High!” The city has progressed by leaps and bounds — its revenue take under Peewee the biggest so far. The infrastructure boom in its limited real estate is the envy of its neighbors, and its development plan for the reclamation area moving right on schedule. City Hall is fully automated and wired for the Digital Age, and is now a model of efficiency and effectiveness. The delivery of basic services has never been as fast, effective and wide-ranging as it is now under Peewee. The stink of garbage of many years past is a steadily fading whiff now — and, irony of ironies, it has to be the garbage issue that Peewee’s political opponents would have to throw back to him.

Something definitely smells in that suspension order enforced by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). And the stink comes out of the mouth of those who say with all the seeming lack of guile that partisan politics has nothing to do with it. This hypocrisy, however, is nothing new to us; the feigned righteousness is replayed to us daily whenever the lackeys of Malacañang go into a denial mode. But then, some people have no trouble looking at themselves in the mirror every morning.

Of all things, Peewee has to be suspended for a garbage collection contract that has never been as transparent as before. The charges against Peewee and his city council, who, not incidentally, are all with the opposition, are all made up. It was easy for a salivating pretender with a letch to Peewee’s post to instigate the charges. And it was much easier for that miserable leech of a politician to secure the order to suspend. The indecent haste with which the order was secured by her — despite the earlier reported recommendation for dismissal of the case — shows the discriminatory hand of the administration. And lest, other independent-thinking mayors elsewhere miss the unsubtle message, the enforcers from the DILG gave us a demonstration of hardball tactics that would let nothing stand in the path of their uncouth behavior. But, then again, what else can we expect from this administration?

Wait, let me correct that last statement. We can expect something from this administration. Oh, boy, yes we can! With Peewee safely out of the way, it’s going to be a field day for scammers and grifters to help themselves to the extremely wealthy resources of the city with such rapacity and avarice that the Macapagal Avenue scam would look like an amateur swindle in comparison. Pasay is a prized milking cow of the administration with the ouster of Peewee.

Peewee is a local political kingpin whose loyalty to the cause of the opposition is without question. Pasay under Peewee delivered for the Opposition in the May 2004 elections. He, like Makati Mayor Jojo Binay, is not exactly the poster boy of the Metro Manila Development Authority with its harebrained ideas. Pasay, together with Makati, offers safe haven to members of the opposition who are hounded, harassed and bullied by the administration.

Lawyer Eduardo Saavedra, a seeker of the right, all the way from New York and who knows Peewee very well from way back in UP in the 1950s, their partnership in many political and other fights being legend, has this to say: “They are salivating to take over the city that Peewee has built. Political persecution, if you ask me. With the help of the opposition, Peewee should have an easy time parrying the charge, which is garbage anyway, and bring the Gestapos in government to their knees. Knowing Peewee, he will stave off this devastating and humongous injustice to him.”

Yes, the opposition led by the LDP under its president, Sen. Edgardo Angara, has constituted a legal team to defend Peewee. With this, the persecution of Peewee will not be concluded in a scenario that the administration devoutly wishes. Peewee, as the one who seeks the right, and with the assistance of his political party, and his constituents, shall emerge victorious in all these.

Indeed, what has come to this administration? Why must those who are doing well — and they are from the opposition — be persecuted? The answer should be obvious: The administration is in the throes of its demise and the scandals buffeting it are taking their toll. In its efforts to survive, befuddling the opposition has become its defense. By creating many facades of confrontation, to disperse the efforts of the opposition, it is now methodically hacking at the pillars of the opposition in the local government, among them Peewee.

Peewee is holding on tight, encouraged by the support of his constituents. The trademark smile is still there. As Shakespeare said, “The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.” Funny, but when it is an opposition stalwart like Peewee, who is besieged by the administration with the support of the military and the police, it is his constituents who come to his rescue. But when it is Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who is under siege by the people for her lying, stealing and cheating ways, it is the military and the police who come to her rescue. Someday, that might yet be her undoing. And not only Peewee, but the entire nation, will smile.

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