MikeLigalig.com

source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

If we’re looking for bad examples of local governance, the decision of Gov. Erico Aumentado of Bohol province to scuttle a road project in Boom Boom Bautista’s village should stand out. (“Boom Boom's village loses road project after boxer's loss,” Inquirer, 8/13/07)

Are infrastructure projects identified and picked on the basis of the results of boxing bouts? Is this a new development paradigm? Is this a new incentive for young boxers to make good in their boxing careers so their villages could benefit from the promises of local government executives? Where is the development logic here? Aren’t we using need and development potential as criteria for identifying infrastructure projects?

Aumentado was not even shy about it: he made sure that his displeasure with Bautista’s loss and his decision to “punish” him and his village would be known by the whole world through the media.
Poor Boom Boom Bautista. Had he known his village would lose the road project this way, he might have used a spade and a hoe to batter his opponent into submission.

Will the governor please explain to the country why he’s acting like a jerk?

JALILO DE LA TORRE (via email)

Just look at what an inaccurate information can do, worse, a badly written news title.
I dare say it was outright dishonest for the the news writer to say that Boom Boom's village "lost" the road project. The truth is, the road project is still there, as scheduled (a later date). What was really meant was that should Boom Boom win, the road project will be MOVED AHEAD OF SCHEDULE. Since the boxer lost, the schedule stays as is.

Poor letter-writer to the PDI, he got himself carried away by inaccurate information without checking his sources. And poor news writer and whoever wrote the title (for sensationalism, of course)... they sure did cause a lot of tempest in a teapot.

Now who is the jerk?