PUNCHLINE
by Ali G. Macabalang
I enumerate here some of the wishes I hope to get fulfilled on or before the end of this year.
Wish No. 1 – I fervently wish that candidates and supporters in the 2022 elections will refine their habits in political remarks and acts in faithful observance of ideals set in human laws and Divine rules. My wish is particularly meant for Maguindanao and Cotabato City where exchanges of barbs have started heated up even before the start of the filing of candidacies in Oct. 1-8.
One or more political camps kept accusing rival quarters of fomenting disunity and lies, seemingly not knowing it was them that had been involved in such whimsical deeds. Rival camps would certainly lash back in a cycle I fear to make a repeat of bloody consequences years ago, e.g. the 2009 “Maguindanao massacre” of 58 people including 32 media workers.
Wish No. 2 – I ardently wish for Divine intervention in the settlement via write-off of the still ballooning over P14-billion debts of the Lanao del Sur Electric Cooperative (LASURECO) and over P2-billion debts of the Maguindanao Electric Cooperative (MAGELCO).
Local pleas for creditors to condone the debts when LASURECO was saddled with less than P2-billion debts and the just facing only about P800-million loans did not gain favorable attention from higher authorities. Now the debts reach a highly alarming level, I wish God will twist the mindset of higher authorities – the DOE, PSAM, NGCP and etc. –into writing off the debts as the BARMM governance came into the rescue of the two power cooperatives.
Wish No. 3 – I strongly wish for an end in the year-old squatting of lands inside the Mindanao State University-main campus in Marawi City. As one of pioneer residents of the MSU main campus, I am immensely disturbed to see unauthorized residences outnumbering hundreds of state-owned buildings in the academic ground.
I also hope that the current MSU system leadership will abide faithfully by the state-mandated transparency policy in fiscal administration, especially on transactions involving huge funds like the P2.5-billion interconnectivity and distant learning projects implemented this year in the main campus.
Wish No. 4 – I likewise wish to see the MSU main campus administration shunning away from wayward recruitment and promotion of personnel according to merits and the preferential policy of university alumni. I hope that concerned authorities will instantly realize that a university is meant to foster academic excellence, not as a recruitment agency.
Wish No. 5 – I equally long to see all national officials to be elected in the 2022 polls to provide Mindanao her due or equitable share from the national annual budgetary pie.
I have a lot of wishes, but the foregoing ones would suffice so far to be known this early to gain solutions. (AGM)
PHILIPPINE MUSLIM TODAY 