Here’s your suggestions on how the Baguio City officials should spend the P20 million which they have budgeted to buy cars for their personal use. Our first post is here.
From KM of Session Road Blues:
- Use the money to fund recall elections for a new city council. 🙂
- Add more to the proposed budget so we can fit the cars with bombs.
- At least make sure all the cars’ license plates have the same end number, maybe number 1, so we can have a whole day’s rest from these clowns – and maybe be able to start the week right. (Oh, but wait, these clowns more than one car, so scrap this)
- Double the amount and just give it to them directly if they all resign from their posts.
From jagfdo of Ygolottes.com:
- Provide a pabahay program that is affordable to the constituents– maybe they can benchmark with Puerto Prinsesa’s Pabahay program for squatters along their baywalk.
- Fund and provide livelihood projects.
- Compensate and sponsor the hiring of additional teachers in public schools
- Repair and improve the children’s playground (and probably remove the silt in the burnham lake)
- A SPA treatment for all constituents of the CITY— since they are ageing fast because of how “the elected” run the city and since they will buy those luxury cars—
From the Jester in Exile:
- With that kind of reasoning from the good councilor, I have a suggestion on how to spend the P20M.
- renovate melvin jones to accomodate an execution scaffold in the middle.
- use part of the money to pursue, incarcerate the corrupt in our local government (or maybe the criminally idiotic) and prepare for their execution — last meals and all that.
- have raffle tickets printed. what will be up for grabs will be the chance to operate the guillotine on their favorite government official.
P20M? adda baryam pay, kabsat. more to the point, mabalinpay nga fund raising dagitoy nga executions.
(of course, no panuonuotentayo nga naimbag, Cordi head axe laengen, tapno traditional ken isupay nga agaramidtayo pay ti guillotine hehe)
And a note from The Nashman:
Paris and London are way bigger but their mayors take public transport or cycle.
I once saw the crown prince of the netherlands cycling to work one morning. and he takes the train if he wants to inspect the far corners of his kingdom…
***
Thanks, everyone. Hopefully our suggestions will not fall on deaf ears.
Hmmm…why don’t they buy a thousand trashcans that has partitions for segregation where people of Baguio can easily segregate their wastes…that way, our streets would be free of those piles of uncollected trash…
or better yet…they use the 20 milion to protect the remaining pine trees in the city…
haaayy…naku!
Most “tongue-in-cheek” ideas and recommended programs appear to cost more than P20M in total initial and follow-costs. Some are downright absurd.
Residents better come up with a better set of implementable ideas otherwise the cars might prove to be the better idea for the P20M afterall.
Oh no! Oh yes!
it is clear that the proposal and approval of the idea to use P20M to purchase running “metal toys for the city hall boys” is ill-advised and absurd. Whatever explanations they give (of course some of them “wise as serpents” opt to keep quiet)reap more condemnation from taxpayers. Perhaps the better way now is for them to rescind that approval and keep the money intact. Meanwhile these city hall boys may consider going on a spiritual retreat during the Christmas break so they could have “council & counsel time” to come to their senses. While they wanted early christmas bonuses for themselves via their “running metal toys”, they might instead give their PERSONAL TIME for retreat as their gift to their constituents.Siguro naman kahit the city hall will spend for this retreat for as long as the “council boys” will give it their time, walang aangal among taxpayers sa gastos. I mean RETREAT ha, hindi swimming or goodtime lang! Then maybe, our council after the retreat, will be ready to serve us “commonsensically” starting January.
Ay ngem no ipapati nila ah ket I suggest Manong Bill, paki kitam man no makaaramid dagiti kailyan nga Ifugao along kennon iti wooden “car-cars” and sell them at 1 PESO each ta gumatang amin nga mangkayat. THEN GATHER ALL THE TOY CARS IN SACKS THEN FLOOD THE HALLWAYS & ENTRANCES OF CITY HALL WITH THE TOYS ta uray alan ti COUNCILORS ta iyawid da for their pillows. Siguro ti katangken ti kayew nga pungan for a week will soften their heads to be more considerate next time they decide. Then whatever profit is raised from the “toy car drive”, idonate tayo for the library or other more worthy causes!
Centennial Council’s Fatal Blunder
It is not yet too late for our centennial councilors to redeem themselves from what is now turning out to be a fatal blunder. They can still show that they are sensitve to public sentiment by recalling the now infamous resolution setting aside P20M for cars for themselves. In that way they might still turn a negative into a positive.
It would be sad if our centennial councilors would lose their moral ascendancy to preside over Baguio’s centennial celebrations just because they couldn’t resist their itch for new cars. Maybe they still believe that their poloitical savvy, which enabled them to win in the last elections, will once again prevail in the long haul. Or this may prove to be a fatal blunder.
Hi JM,
Good suggestion too. There really are better ways to spend that darned money. Thanks.
Hi Anonymous(6:56),
As you said, they’re tongue in check so let’s not take all suggestions seriously. But there’s been enough good suggestions which are way better than spending the money to buy cars for one’s use. Thanks 🙂
Hi Anonymous (1:08)
Hehehe fun suggestion you’ve got here. Meron ka pang “council and counsel time” hehe. Good that you brought up the fact that some officials are opting to keep quiet on this. I guess it’s an indication that they are feeling the heat. Even the mayor who, according to news reports, knew about this from the very start is saying na hindi niya alam. I don’t know if its true na hindi talaga niya alam but let’s hope he’ll veto the whole darned thing. Thanks.
Hi Jack,
I didn’t realize that they are centennial officials. I guess they were dreaming of using the cars to attend centennial celebrations to maybe impress dignitaries?
But as you’ve said, its not yet late for them to reverse themselves. Hope they listen to all the criticisms coming their way. Thanks.
I want to add: a couple, senior product manager and doctor who owns 2 latest 2007 edition of Toyota car with their old cars, are riding in a train also. Another couple, a lawyer and a doctor taking train everyday to their work instead of using their cars. I personally know them here in Ontario. (every house here owns two or more than cars but still they love taking trains to and from their work)
So what makes a difference from being a politician?! They are public servant though. Why not take public transportation or take a walk so that they can see well the situation in the place where they are serving, instead of buying cars from the expense of “kaban ng bayan”.
Hi all..! I hope you don’t mind if I post some of your comments in a local Cordi paper with nick names/namesand all. Cheers!
HI all…I hope you don’t mind if I lift some of your comments to a weekly Cordi tabloid with nicks/names and all…Cheers!
Let me comment on JM Agreda’s remark:
JM Agreda said…
“Hmmm…why don’t they buy a thousand trashcans that has partitions for segregation where people of Baguio can easily segregate their wastes…that way, our streets would be free of those piles of uncollected trash…”
My answer:
“V”-emblazoned fiberglass trash cans from the days of Mayor Vergara — worth P22,000 pesosessss each — were all piled up at the Engineers’s Office yard the last time the Philippine Greens Cordillera proposed for the same project.
It is said that they will no longer be used because the Zero Waste Program is “in place.”
Hi Ellen,
Thanks for the info. Oo nga, I think in Canada the culture of taking public transport is ingrained. Dito sa Pinas, because of the wrong values we have, it is as if nakakahiya kung public official ka tapos nag-dyijeep. We should get rid of distorted values like that. Thanks again.
Hi Nadjhin,
Lift all you want as long as you credit the commenters 🙂 Thanks.
Hi Chi,
Really! Wow, didn’t know that Mayor Vergara went to the extent of trying to immortalize himself by putting “Vs” in trash cans. Hope Mayor Bautista will not get the same idea. Thanks.
Why the comparison of London Mayors and Crown Prince to these councilors is beyond me!
Baguio is located in a Third World and corrupt country. Find me a mayor or crown prince in East Africa, Central and South America or Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos who takes the bus or the train. It’s just an unfair assessment no matter how you look at it.
While some suggestions are quite dandy, let’s all narrow it down to:
8 million to BGH
8 million to improving the city library and buy quality books NOT
photocopied materials
2 million to various legitimate fundraisers including Ramon Dacawi’s
The remaining 2 million or less, have mayor Pete buy his councilors one HORSE each, good for the environment of Baguio and clean air! I’d like to see Perlita and her cohorts visit their constituents on horseback.