Malalag Politics : A Retrospective

Two years ago, we have elected a new breed of municipal officials under the leadership of Mayor Atty. Roel O. Paras in his second term. As months and years unfolded, we saw the dramatic changes in our hometown. The rise in number of ships harbouring the Malalag Bay is just a manifestation of our lively economic growth. We cannot deny the fact that many of our young people have earned a living by doing odd jobs in those vessels though in a short period of time. Tugging along with it however, are the presence of prostitutes from neighboring towns and some of our local women are enticed to join the overpoweringly attractive lure of easy money. Selling lust has been a normal trade so to say. We are faced with serious problems among these are the spreading of sexually transmitted diseases and family feuds because some of these prostitutes are also working in the videoke bars along the bay. Many of our men tend to ask for their sexual services thereby causing troubles in the family. Our image has been tarnished with the influx of these prostitutes and our municipal officials have done nothing significant to control it.

          We used to live in this locality with much pride before the Paras administration overpowered the Montejos in the political arena. While we admit that we slowly progressed during the tenure of the Montejos but our social standing and morality are highly regarded. Paras administration brings us to the next level of political traditionalism. The presence of his small bandit of private goons are so fearsome as these men have guns parading in the locality. He is a thick faced leech sucking the local funds. Nepotism is prevalent and being a lawyer he has the courage to do it since he can defend himself. He pushed the agenda of appointing his own brother to control the Malalag port and his sister to become the municipal administrator. His siblings' competencies and capabilities are being questioned because they do not have enough educational qualifications to back up their positions. Eventually their status symbols rise so swiftly and they have easily acquired landed properties in the short span of time that their brother sits as the mayor of Malalag. Where did they get the resources to purchase those assets? Plucked from the air?

          All the while Paras used his wits and guts to hire several job order employees in order to strengthen his grip in the steering wheel of governance. These are all political accommodations so that Paras could advance further his political agenda. He will be running again for his third term come May 13, 2013. He seize the initiative of maintaining quite a number of job order employees as it will be converted to votes, times three (3) perhaps. A very good idea but the local funds suffer because the funds for beneficial projects are being diverted to accommodate the salaries of these job order employees. It is not new as other municipal mayors also done it for their own advantage disregarding the welfare of the whole constituency and favouring the few.