When Al Pacino played the role of the devil in one of his movies which I’d rather not name lest I’ll be accused of promoting this old theater flick, his famed line was “vanity, definitely, is my favorite sin.”
Though far from being my most favorite, I loved that movie which I was reminded of when I read in the news that President Noynoy Aquino’s Public Works Secretary had ordered a ban on politicians who are predisposed in putting up their huge (literally) names and faces on billboards of infrastructure projects.
If it’s not vanity, to me, it’s definitely a sin.
Sec. Rogelio Singson issued Deartment Order 37 37 directing the Regional, District Engineering and Project Management offices of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to follow the revised Standard Project Billboard format that bans the display of the name or image of any personality, including the president himself, in project billboards and even ambulances.
Kudos to you, sirs!
PNoy himself does not want his name or face to appear in those silly billboards which are placed there primarily for the people to know the name and location of project, name of contractor, the date the project started, contract completion date, contract cost, construction consultant, implementing office of the DPWH, and source of fund, among others.
But some ingenous politicians saw these billboards as a venue to advertise themselves with their names and faces loudly displayed therein. In case they forget, it’s the people’s money that was used in these projects, not theirs. Maybe they pocketed some but that’s a different story that I’m definitely going to write about in the future.
In the Senate, a bill seeking to criminalize the naming of government projects after public officials and persons associated with them was filed by Senator Francis “Chiz" Escudero.
Senate Bill No. 2187, said naming projects such as waiting sheds, ambulances and even trash bins after politicians “falsely gives an inflated sense of accomplishment to public officials to their constituency."
The feisty Miriam Defensor Santiago also refiled Senate Bill No. 1967, which seeks to penalize the act of affixing the name or image of any public official to a signage announcing a proposed or ongoing public works project.
Vanity comes in many forms and has many faces. The worst case, however, is the one that uses people’s money for political cosmetics.
That, definitely, is the work of the devil.
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