Mayor Bona did a King Solomon

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Mangaldan Mayor Bonafe de Vera-Parayno was all
smiles after Pangasinan Vice Governor Ferdie
Calimlim received a letter of appreciation in the
induction of officers of the Volunteers Against
Corruption for the Uprightness and Upliftment
of Mangaldan (VACUUM) held  recently at the
 Senior Citizens Building in the town.

 Compared to other mayors, Mangaldan Mayor Bonafe de Vera-Parayno is not media hungry.
 “She’s a workaholic, silent worker. She migrated to the United States at the young age of 15 years old but came back in the country and renounced her U.S citizenship at the U.S Embassy in Manila before year 2010 to serve Mangaldan,” a source told me.
  According to my source she works beyond five pm when everybody at the municipal hall has cooled their heels in the comfort of their home. “Kahit sabado ho nandiyan pa rin sa municipio si Maam,” the source told me so he can rebut the baseless criticism of her detractors in the traditional and , aheem, social media like this blog.
 Another source, an expert on fiscal policies, told me that after the lady hizzoner acquired her post, one of the gigantic problems she faced were the 170 casuals who were mostly political appointees of her predecessors that the Commission on Audit wanted to be dismissed.

“COA said these people who received P170 each a day and whom the municipal government paid six million of pesos a year in benefits should be retrenched as casuals.”
 But the mayor faces a dilemma. Fire them all and court criticism for being heartless. Fire them all and see the town in disarray after her few days’ stint in office because many of them work at the abattoir, er, slaughter house and they man the traffic in a town known as ‘bedlam” of traffic congestion in the province.
 The source said De Vera-Parayno’s “Solomonic” solution: Retain the 170 as job order (their tenure is renewed every three months), depriving the “fault finders, skeptics, and cynics” at the Sangguniang Bayan of bullets since they were the ones who fueled the media to bash her and stirred her constituents to enmity against her.
 Each of these 170 workers’ salary daily take increased from P170 to P200 and the public coffer saves, I repeat, saves P6 million a year since their benefits have been forfeited” Geez man, that’s a real “Solomonic” solution:
 Keep up the pressing works at the abattoir and solve the traffic snarls at the same time avoid the “ire” of the COA.
“This is more “Solomonic” than the movie of Mr. Sholii of the Mongolian Barbecue when the judge asked the representatives of the two mothers who claim a new born baby to be theirs.
An old man appeared before the perched of the honorable judge.
 JUDGE: Are you the grand father of the baby?
 OLD MAN: No judge, I was the baby. Susmariosep! Lolo lay baby.
 Kay Mayor Bona na tayo, at least may action kaagad!
 (You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)