Celebrity

There is something absurd and even narcissistic about Camarines Sur Governor LRay Villafuerte’s TV ad which has been airing for awhile in local television.

The TV ad shows numerous public school elementary students milling and crowding around the youthful governor, with some of them even shrieking as if the said public official was a movie celebrity. The ad then focuses on a young female student who expresses her thanks for the scholarship supposedly given by Governor Villafuerte, as well as for the bags she and other students have been given. It ends with the same girl blurting out the governor looks like her crush.

We can only hope that this TV ad which has been airing for several weeks now has not been paid for by taxpayers’ money. It would be scandalous if it were.

Moreover, we wonder what exactly was the point of the ridiculous ad which seemed to have no rhyme or reason, except perhaps to project the image of the governor as a celebrity. Yet, if that were the case, it would appear very narcissistic of him.

In our political culture which remains personality-based--as opposed to being principle-based--the governor’s TV ad makes a lot of sense nonetheless. Cultivate and promote a cult following is a patented ploy of traditional politicians, or as they are aptly called, trapos. Use utang na loob to establish loyalty, like providing scholarships and school supplies. We wonder too if the scholarships are from the personal funds of the governor and not from the hard-earned money of the province’s taxpayers.

For were the funds for these scholarships channeled through the governor’s initiative, little credit must be given him: these funds remain to be the taxpayers’ and not his. As such, gratitude must be accorded to them and not to the public official who presumably is only doing his job of rendering public service.

If the governor wishes to promote himself as a celebrity like the ones he often hobknobs with at the province’s (and not his or his family’s personal playground) Camarines Sur Watersports’ Center, then he ought to ensure that taxpayers’ not be “dis-credited” in the process.