Mayor Dors Rivilla opened his recent early Monday morning radio program “Paniqui… Lipad Nang Umunlad” with an appeal to a few people who would rather play mischief in times of calamity not to make the relief and rescue operations any more difficult than they already are. It’s not easy to understand how some people could even think of becoming pranksters when a huge portion of Paniqui is under water and countless people are in evacuation centers. The scary text messages regarding rivers overflowing and dams cracking had been verified as baseless. But they had been successfully disseminated obviously to scare people. They do not make things any easier in this most difficult time. On the contrary they bring additional unwanted stress to people already in great distress. Quite appropriately, Mayor Dors narrated the parable of the boy who cried wolf. To the pranksters, do not be like the boy who cried wolf. In the end he cried with profuse tears because he lost all his sheep.

The campaign period becomes closer at hand each day. Criticisms have become cheaper as critics have become bolder. A few observations, thank heavens, are objective; more often, however, we stumble upon some that have been concocted with moral turpitude. A case in point is the recent report in a local radio station claiming that Mayor Rivilla had declined offers of relief goods that had the names of the donors printed on them. What could be a more preposterous reporting than this? Simple logic would dictate that a mayor who wades through the floods, dramatically abbreviates his sleeping hours, uses his energy, resources and resourcefulness to attend to the needs of people in distress cannot be selective in accepting aids from generous donors both identified and anonymous. His only concern is to alleviate the plight of people turned homeless and without food to eat. The Mayor knows full well that he cannot and must not feed his people, hungry and cold, with politics.  The problem is here and now. Naturally, the solution has to be here and now. No time for tweedledum and tweedledee. There’s time only for giving away the goodies hurriedly, even if Robin Hood decides to write his initials on them!

But then again, as I said earlier, the campaign period is close at hand. Beware of pranksters and liars who multiply like parasites during this period. For comments / reactions, please email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it