Incredible SOCA

LAGI KONG sinasabi na kailangan natin ng mga superman at superwoman upang mabuo ang ating mga pangarap…

Kayo ang tunay na mga superheroes! At siyempre malaking bagay rin na makasama ko kayong mga bagong halal na barangay at SK officials sa okasyong  ito upang tayo ay magtulungan at sama-samang maglingkod ng tapat…

Ang pagsulong ng San Fernando ay nakabatay sa pagpapahalaga nito sa sariling kultura, kaugalian at kapaligiran.

This will be the new standard: pagmamahal sa kinagisnang yaman sa pagpapa-unlad ng kinabukasan. The new standard therefore is still the old standard.

As we enjoy the fruits of our progress, we will remain proud of our heritage and driven by our sense of pride of being a Fernandino…

SO, delivered – so eloquently – Mayor Edwin “EdSa” Santiago his state of the city address Saturday at the Laus Events Center, the thundering applause that punctuated it verily well deserved.

Proud of our heritage. Driven by our sense of pride of being Fernandino. Truly, what nobler articles of faith as foundations for city governance than these?

Why, not even the ardent student of history that is Oscar S. Rodriguez had as eloquent an articulation of governance as EdSa’s in any of his nine SOCAs! The 4^th World’s Best Mayor’s clarion call of Magsilbi Tamu! utterly paling, if not failing, in comparison to the intellectual depth, the patriotic evocation, the can-do fervor of EdSa’s pagmamahal sa kinagisnang yaman sa pagpapa-unlad ng kinabukasan.

Why, it even harks to one core Filipino value embodied in the maxim: Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.

And that reference to the local leaders as real superheroes! How it hews closely to Maoist paean to the masses – deeply conscienticized in his predecessor Rodriguez – Ang masa, ang masa lamang ang tunay na bayani.

Wow.

Incredibly, with but the introduction to his SOCA, the putative non-intellectual, no-sense-of-history EdSa effortlessly transformed himself from so-so politico to a social philosopher.

Aye, I have never held the Honorable Edwin Santiago in so high an esteem as at the opening of his SOCA. Hence, I can only bask in his glory as he power-pointed the heights of social, economic, and physical development to which he, along with his co-superheroes, has taken his city, monumentalized in – periods, instead of commas now for easier breathing – Presidential Award for Child Friendly Cities. Top Tourism Hub. Most Business Friendly City. Seal of Good Local Governance. ISO 9001:2015 Certification. PESO With the Highest Jobstart Placement Rate. Outstanding Local Civil Registry Office Award. Regional Gawad Kalasag Award. 

A total EdSa believer have I so become at that point that I could only grasp gospel truth in his exhortation: Let us not worry about the future. We can start to create it today.

Comic turn

And then, WTF! From the heights of the intro, the SOCA descending to the abyss at his extro. EdSa himself reducing the sublime to the ludicrous.  

Kung napanood nyo at naintindihan ang mensahe ng movie na Incredibles 2, we need superheroes to work with the government maging sa hanay nilang mga kabataan.

Jack-Jack represents the emerging Generation Z. Sila ang mga culture creators na may napakalaking potensyal na maging mgaling, mabuti at matino with conscious parenting and nurturing care of other adults.

Gaya sa pelikula ang magtataguyod ng ating kinabukasan ay ang mga kabataan tulad ni Jack-Jack na hiunubog sa pagmamahal at suporta ng kanyang mga magulang, kapatid at komunidad.

Proud of our heritage. Driven by our sense of pride of being Fernandino.

In one fell swoop, EdSa absolutely negated that he so exalted at the opening of his SOCA.   

Pray tell, EdSa, where obtains Jack-Jack or the Incredibles in the Fernandino heritage? Or even in Filipino culture?

Culture creators? Alien culture, yes. But neither Capampangan nor Filipino, definitely.

Impacting Jack-Jack to the Gen Z or I-Gen as their representative role model is as much a profound contempt for real heroes – Fernandino and Filipino – as an unwitting insult to the intelligence of the Fernandino youth.

What is there in the animated Jack-Jack’s potential for being “magaling, mabuti at matino” that has not been actualized in the heroism of Nicolasa Dayrit, of Don Pedro and Jose Abad Santos, aye, in the very martyrdom of the latter, as indeed in that of Rizal, Bonifacio, and Sacay? Or to an extent, in Ninoy Aquino?

Gaya sa pelikula ang magtataguyod ng ating kinabukasan ay ang mga kabataan tulad ni Jack-Jack…How EdSa could have made Rizal turn in his grave at this profanity!

The pride of the Malay race’s A la Juventud Filipina….bella esperanza de la patria mia long immortalized, fatuously arrogated to a comics creature!

Or is EdSa of the belief that the Gen Z lives and breathes in an altogether different universe of superheroes in the Incredibles, the Justice League of Superman and  Batman, the Avengers of Captain America, Thor, and Ironman? A world more alive, albeit cartooned, than that of the dead Rizal, Bonifacio, Abad Santos, et al?

Then, EdSa may do as well strip Philippine History off the curriculum of the City College of San Fernando; stop celebrating all heroes’ days in the city; scrap all  those monuments to national and Capampangan greats at Heroes Hall or anywhere else in the city, and put up in their stead those of the Incredibles, with Jack-Jack taking that pedestal where now stands Jose Rizal.

EdSa grounding the Fernandino heritage on alien culture, on a cartoon character at that!. Truly, shamelessly incredible!