Pubdate: Tue, 28 May 2002
Source: Sunstar Pampanga (Philippines)
Copyright: 2002 Sunstar
Contact:  3rd floor, Sun.Star Building, P. del Rosario St., Cebu City 6000, 
Philippines
Feedback:  http://www.sunstar.com.ph/

HYPE OR HOPE IN MABALACAT?

It came almost like the early rains that ended this summer's sweltering heat.

We mean the pronouncement over the weekend that Mayor Marino "Boking" 
Morales made about the illegal drugs problem in his municipality. He said 
he has intensified efforts against it, whatever that meant in concrete or 
rhetorical terms.

In a priming town as Mabalacat, one raring and no less deserving to be 
anointed as city, that is a ray of hope, however faint, in the almost lost 
battle against the proliferation of illegal drugs. Even then, we wonder why 
it has taken Mayor Morales that long to get back to his senses and move 
more aggressively against this scourge.

Almost everybody knows the sale of illegal drugs is rampant in Dau. Ask any 
one in Dau or anybody at the Mabalacat town hall. Or just anywhere in the 
municipality. The last time we heard, that's where Mayor Morales still 
lives --in Dau. The merchants of those illegal substances, mainly shabu, 
flaunt their merchandise almost literally under the Mayor's nose. You don't 
have to walk very far from where the Mayor resides to buy shabu. All it 
takes is some legwork. Or ear work.

Maybe the good mayor should start taking brisk walking around the block as 
part of his intensified effort. It is also good for his health. It could 
also work wonders on his, well, bulging pouch. The elegant barong doesn't 
seem to elegantly fit him anymore, so Max Sangil dared to say in a less 
flattering way over the radio probably at the same time the Mayor was 
musing over his political future.

It could be an epiphany of some sorts. Or something else, maybe even 
political gimmickry. For whatever reason, Mayor Morales at least is tacitly 
admitting that illegal drugs are his town's scourge and that he must now do 
something about it. For far too long those evil merchants have had their 
ways. It's time Morales showed some teeth.

Henceforth, what we - and the people of Mabalacat, principally those from 
Dau, - expect from the mayor is some honest-to-goodness updates on what has 
his intensified drive has really accomplished in real terms and real time.

Ambitions, political, of all, can warp a person's sense of reality and 
time. Mayor Morales is not immune to such disease, particularly now that 
his political career hangs in the balance. He has to have something to 
jumpstart his campaign (for vice governor?) for 2004. His so-called renewed 
war against illegal drugs is a gusty move and a nitty-gritty approach to 
protecting public welfare.

Assuming he means well, it could not only earn him political dividends 
going into the next elections. Beyond politics, ridding Dau and the rest of 
Mabalacat of pushers, users and their ilk would be the best thing that he 
could ever do for his community.

There lies the import of his recent pronouncement.
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