Perspectives

“It was six men of Hindustan
To learning much inclined
Who went to see the elephant
(though all of them were blind)
That each by observation
might satisfy his mind…”
Their conclusion of how the elephant looked like depended upon where they touched: a wall, for the belly; hand fan, for the ear; tree branch for the trunk; spear for the tusk; rope for the tail; pillar for the leg.
“And so these men of Hindustan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right
And all were in the wrong.”
YOU STILL remember that story shared by both Hindus and Buddhists and was – as we quoted some parts above – the most famous poem of one John Godfrey Saxe, The Blindmen and the Elephant?
It was the first thing that came to mind with the torrents of reactions to the “dialog” last Friday between the Reverend Governor and the sangguniang panlalawigan.
“Prosecutorial,” said one of Senior BM Cris Garbo’s incisive questioning of Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio.
“No, inquisitorial,” corrected another. Though I could not for the life of me imagine Garbo garbed in the ecclesiastical robe of Tomas de Torquemada.
“They ganged up on Among Ed,” cried another focused on the solitary figure of the governor with only two recording clerks by his side, facing the near-full phalanx of the whole SP.
“Abjectly ignorant of administrative processes,” concluded one after the governor said the hiring of Balas personnel was mere exercise of executive prerogative which was blasted by Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao, to wit: “If you yourself will pay their salaries from your own pockets, then we have no problem. But you are seeking to draw from the provincial coffers, then their hiring should have passed through the SP. For the use of even but a single cent from the provincial government funds requires legislation.”
“Plain ignorant of what is going on within his own office,” snapped another as the governor repeatedly denied having received, moreso seen, the invitation from the SP for him to attend the hearing on Ordinance 172 on the rationalization in the sharing of quarry taxes as proposed by the Pampanga Mayors League that was passed as Ordinance 176, which subsequent veto by Panlilio was overrode by the SP.
Panlilio stood his ground of never seeing the invitation despite Guiao’s presentation of the receiving copy duly stamped “received” by the Office of the Governor.
“There he goes again with his doublespeak,” shrieked one as Panlilio denied having mentioned in an interview over CLTV 36 of a “grand conspiracy to remove me from office.” When Garbo insisted that he himself watched and heard the governor did so, Panlilio riposted “what matters is what I am saying now, straight from the horse’s mouth.”
“Panlilio has two different personas? One for television and one for the capitol? So, give him one more and he is one-god-in-three-persons,” silently whispered an ex-seminarian to my ear.
So what was that “dialog” all about? It was what – to the blind men – the elephant was all about.