Just ignore policy

Ignorance means lack of knowledge but ignorance does not really mean the absence of knowledge. It shares with the root word “ignore” and ignoramus which mean to disregard that, in essence and by popular understanding, indicates knowledge but with the pretense of the unknowing. One cannot ignore that which one does not know. To ignore is therefore a deliberate act of pretending absence of knowledge and therefore not acting.

I was curious about the claim of Proxima Centuari Realty and Development Corporation that their letter of December 15, 2014 to the Sanggunian, the Mayor and the City Assessor was “not acted upon”, meaning it was simply ignored as if the letter did not exist. In fact, the contents of that letter was splattered in the headlines and aired on radio and television. Ergo, there was no absence of knowledge, but simply a pretense at unknowing.

 The letter asked these city agencies to reconsider “the imposition of (the) revised schedule market values for the Valley of Peace Memorial Park” that the company owns.

Because its petition was not acted upon, meaning ignored, the company decided to file a petition for review of the Bacolod City Tax Ordinance 08-14 before the Department of Justice.

This is then the latest and probably will not be the last complaint that will be filed either in court or with the DoJ against what is called oppressive ordinance. I heard that some homeowners associations and individual lot owners and companies plan to file their own suits.

The Sanggunian could not have ignored it, nor should the mayor and the assessor. They simply refused to act.

The SP always dockets (records and numbers) its communications and surely the letter was received before the SP held its session for that week (December 15-19) which are all working days. Why was this not acted upon? The SP is simply providing another indication that, it must be true that was P3 million distributed to hasten the approval of the ordinance.

Vice Mayor Greg Gasataya should not ignore the talks about grease money because this talk going the rounds casts doubts on the integrity, not just of the ordinance, but the entire SP which he heads. He should ask the NBI and the Commission on Audit to check  this claim, not so much to clear its name, but to identify who received part of the intelligence fund. Unlike military intelligence funds, those of the local governments are not beyond audit. He should not succumb to the “just ignore policy” of the incumbent administration.    

There is something worth noting. It seems that Proxima merely went through the motion of filing for reconsideration, but it already had in mind to file a complaint. The letter to the city officials was dated December 15 and before the week ended (December 19) it filed a petition for review to determine the validity and legality of the ordinance.

Why didn’t it give the city time to act? Perhaps Proxima has realized that under the “just ignore policy” of the present city administration, it was wasting its time asking for it to overturn its decision. Nevertheless Proxima probably thought that, at least, it gave the city a chance and they cannot be blamed thereby.

This is the danger of the “just ignore policy” that seems to be the hallmark of the Monico Puentevella government. We can cite a litany of this policy, from the illegal slaughter to garbage to traffic and the complaints against the Bacolod Traffic Authority Office and the Metro Safari, the complaints against the Office of the Building Officials - until they become so intolerable that citizens are left without choice but to go to court.

The SP, sadly, has also drifted and succumbed into this same mentality. Whatever happened to the case against the Tangub barangay chairman, the investigation on the ukay-ukay at the plaza, the illegal slaughters, to mention a few?

So the pile of cases ignored by the city rises and gives the city the image of sleeping on matters that embarrass or can lead to legal action.

The greater danger when this sense of wastefulness in asking for government to act takes hold of society, is that people would not also bother. We are actually seeing this in the way garbage is being thrown everywhere after a year of stench, despite P90 million and traffic snarling despite the hiring so many casuals,

 some of whom do not report because somebody else is collecting their pay. Proxima’s action is symptomatic of a disease in governance.*

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