Cuentas claras

WITH GOD as his promised platform of government, Eddie T. Panlilio swept the twin evils of Pampanga politics to the moral dustbin. Now must the acclaimed “moral alternative” walk his talk, so to speak, and effect the moral regeneration of the Kapampangan.
Transparency, Panlilio’s recurrent refrain during the campaign, has to evolve presently into something manifestly concrete.
So how about Panlilio now going transparent enough to categorically state whether he had ever known – in the Biblical sense – one Yeng Zapata of San Vicente, Sto. Tomas, Pampanga or any other woman? Thus collectively asked the espresso crowd of Clark yuppies, mediapersons and local government executives at Firenzzi in SM Clark one lazy afternoon last week.
We recall that even at the early stages of the campaign, allegations were already raised of Panlilio having shattered his priestly vow of celibacy with not one, not two, not three but five women, foremost among whom was this one Yeng. Allegations that really dogged Panlilio but which, in radio-tv talk shows and press interviews, he deftly dodged with non-sequiturs, readily swallowed hook, line and sinker by his herd of faithful, if not fanatical, followers..
I would rather though that we left Panlilio to his conscience and his God in this regard.
Of greater importance to me in the aspect of transparency is for Panlilio to publicize his campaign donors and their donations – as prescribed in the election laws, someone said. I am not sure now if that someone was ex-city councilor Alex Cauguiran, tocayo Bong Alvaro, or forever-mayor of Mabalacat Boking Morales.
Even beyond election laws, I deem the publication of the donors as of the highest interest to the people of Pampanga: it would enable them to know and to give due recognition to those to whom they owe their salvation. Tune pin king kapamilatan da mikabus ne ing Pampanga – as Panlilio’s campaign blurbs promised.
The quarry collection – once grandiosely, if not shamelessly, showcased in Porac palaces and luxurious vehicles – to come out now in billboards and in the press too is transparency at its best. Cuentas claras as all caballeros y caballeras subscribe to.
All Panlilio has to do to make one hell, err, heaven of a difference in the annals of local governance is for the quarry income to accrue to the public coffers. I have not an iota of doubt that this will come to be.
My doubt lies elsewhere.
It was a self-assuming “moral force” that pushed Panlilio to the Capitol. It was the same “moral force” that Panlilio addressed in his May 21 letter “…to keep that fire burning as we journey together for the next three years.” It was the same “moral force” that I called in a past column as the Third Farce. And, unapologetically, I still hold that opinion, Panlilio’s victory notwithstanding.
Like their leader, this farce of a force has to adhere most sincerely to the diktat of transparency. Transparency as in: the businessmen among them paying the correct taxes, respecting the rights of their employees, renouncing the evil that is labor-only contracting; the doctors among them issuing receipts to their patients, dispensing with their hypocrisies and sincerely abiding by their Hippocratic Oath; the lawyers among them doing more pro bono services; and the priests among them in perpetual renewal of their vows of celibacy and obedience. Yes, they too must do their own cuentas claras.
Panlilio is right. The crusade has to go on. Isadsad ya ing crusada. The moral renewal of Pampanga has to continue and be taken to its glorious end the full moral redemption of the Kapampangan.
But it must start with Panlilio himself and his “moral” crusaders.
Only then that we in the constituency of evil – those who supported the two candidates of evil – can in turn be saved by their redemptive grace.
Then I shall stop singing Kapampangan ku, sese na ku ning diablo...