By NESTOR MATA
MALAYA
MALAYA
‘Puerto Princesa City Edward S. Hagedorn is running for the Senate as an independent candidate, despite his lack of machinery for a national campaign.’
PUERTO Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn is joining the senatorial race in the 2013 elections as an independent candidate, despite his lack of political machinery for a grueling national campaign.
“I want to go solo…!” Hagedorn told former Vice President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, a stalwart of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), who offered him a berth in the UNA’s senatorial line-up. “I just want to give it a shot to keep the loneliness away because I will no longer be busy.” He was referring to his mandatory exit next year after having served for an unprecedented four consecutive terms as mayor of the city that he made famous for its Underground River that is now one of the world’s “Seven New Wonders of Nature.”
Not only that, with the overwhelming support of the people of Puerto Princesa, Hagedorn transformed the city as a major eco-tourism destination and model in environment protection. It won a Hall of Fame Award for being the cleanest and greenest city in the Philippines. And he himself won national and international awards and recognition for various innovative programs and projects that he initiated as city executive of that city.
When Hagedorn finished his three consecutive terms as mayor of city in June 30, 2001, the Supreme Court in November 12, 2002, in a landmark decision, qualified him to serve a fresh term and he became mayor again after winning in a special election that political observers declared as “his most remarkable victory so far.”
Since then, Hagedorn has been recognized as one of the more successful progressive local leaders of the country with his passion and dedication towards the protection of the environment, for which he earned the accolade as the “greatest mayor of Puerto Princesa.” His leadership was directed towards establishing a harmony between the environment and development.
When he was first elected as mayor in 1992, he also served as an Assemblyman of the Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development. (SPCD), a body created that was tasked to oversee the establishment of an autonomous region for Muslims in Mindanao and it included Palawan island. And, simultaneously, he was a Representative of the League of Cities of the Philippines for Region IV, and member of National Executive Board of Boy Scouts of the Philippines.
His numerous initiatives as city mayor included the Oplan Linis Program that earned for Puerto Princesa the coveted label of being the “cleanest and greenest city in the Philippines”; the Bantay Puerto Program to achieve sustainable development; the City Education Enhancement Program that was aimed at improving the standard of education within the service area of the city government by identifying and prioritizing the establishment of schools, and organizing a continuous training scheme for schoolteachers in the city; the Health Program provided effective and efficient health services for city dwellers; the Peace and Order Program made the city of Puerto Princesa “one of the safest destinations in the Philippines”; and the Tourism Program that built an image for the city as a place to go for eco tourism.
Indeed, Hagedorn envisioned Puerto Princesa as model city in sustainable development; a center for eco-tours, healthful recreation, applied research on ecology, ecosystem, marine and terrestrial flora and fauna and environmental management; and a city with boulevards, promenades and stretches of tree-lined and coastal highways interspersed with parks and resorts and provided with appropriate facilities for tourism, agriculture, commerce and environment-friendly industries.
If elected, Hagedorn, whose middle name is “Solon” (after the great Athenean lawmaker in ancient Greece), vowed that he will continue to promote his passion and advocacy for the protection of the environment, which he had successfully carried out as mayor of Puerto Princesa City, this time as a member of the Philippine Senate.
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There are many kinds of jokes in this world and the usual intent in telling a joke or playing a joke on someone is to produce laughter. Among those enjoyed in modern cultures include puns or play on words, laugh-at-life jokes, and practical jokes, political joke, but there those that are shunned, such as bathroom jokes, sarcastic, dark, biting and sharp jokes, and sick jokes.
This brings to mind the “wheelchair joke” that President Noynoy Aquino told the Filipino community during his recent state visit to Auckland, New Zealand: “Our fellow Filipinos who are corrupt use such luxurious, expensive and fast cars. But when they want to escape, they use a wheelchair.” There was no doubt that the “joke” was intended to humiliate ailing former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is under “hospital arrest” for plunder cases filed against her by the Aquino government’s compliant prosecutors.
Consequently, Noynoy was lampooned here in Manila by political critics in legal and in both print and broadcast media. “Coming from a head of state,” one newspaper columnist wrote, “Aquino’s wheelchair joke was an ungentlemanly and abnormal behavior …and surely done in bad taste.” Another called it “…not only crass, but highly un-presidential. One does not make fun of people who are sick. That was such a tasteless joke!” And still another considered Aquino’s joke “a case of human rights violation due to the fact that the former President is already sick and yet he (Aquino) still kicks her buttocks and stomach even when she is already down and out.”
In my view, Noynoy revealed himself as a petulant person, full of himself, and unfailingly vindictive, when he cracked that joke. It was certainly not just a political joke at all. It was an absolutely sick joke!
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Quote of the Day: “A joke without a point, inane and bald, is itself a joke on joking !” – Menander
Thought of the Day: “My way of joking is telling the truth. That is the funniest joke in the world.” – G.B. Shaw
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