PARADOXICAL

 The Hidden Hands Behind (LGU) Events

Unless you have a coterie of servants and hirelings, there comes a time in your life when you are asked to organize an event, any event.

In our LGU, we organize not just one event, but events, literally almost every single day. It can be a small event like a lecture or a big event like an extravaganza.

But have you thought about how it is done? If you think it is easy, it is not. There are several things, people, and resources involved, most of them hidden from view.

The first part is conceptualization and planning. This requires several rounds of meeting of minds to map out the steps to successfully carry out the activity, from the flow of the program up to the assigning of tasks. The questions of what (kind of event? theme?), why (underlying purpose behind?), when (date?), and where (venue?) are the first ones that need to be answered.

Big events require physical 'programme-invites,' so someone is assigned to draft one for lay-outing and later distribution. As part of the plan, someone is assigned to run errands, drive, procure transport fuel, write scripts, be the emcee, take photos for documentation, and so on. Other considerations are: Opening remarks? Doxology/Opening prayer? Resource speaker/s? Messages from other VIPs? Closing remarks?

At the same time, or even before the planning stage, you need to write communication letters asking permission from top management and cooperation from all individuals and departments/agencies involved, not to mention the special guests to be invited.

Upon approval, you will need to work on the procurement papers for all materials and services needed for the affair itself. You will need to ensure that the activity is within the approved plan for the year (in coordination with the Planning Office), there is a budget for this purpose (Budget Office), and you will need the signature of key department heads (Budget, Accounting, Internal Audit, Bids and Awards Committee in case certain conditions are met).

In a formal event, you will need to observe proper protocol and consult about the legality of certain things (SB, Legal).

Up next is coordination work with all the individuals and departments/agencies mentioned, whether physical or otherwise to follow-up on your request.

In our case, a lot of hands are involved, working behind the scenes.

- You have to ask the help of General Services for the logistics side -- tables, chairs, layouts, transport, even down to the cleanup before and after.

- For big events, you will need to request for proper waste collection and disposal from Solid Waste.

- You will need a sound system that works (General Services) and a LED screen for presentations (ICT).

- Certain events need medics (RHUs), rescuers (POSO, PNP, BFP, MDRRMO), and security (POSO, PNP, BFP, Army) on standby.

- Really big events need help from Engineering for little construction works, and a prior hazard assessment from MDRRMO together with the electrical engineer, plus the activation of the ICS or Incident Command System.

- A hands-on events organizer and manager can be OC with the supposedly little things, from the sound effects, microphone, lighting, refreshments, electric wiring and cables, intermission number, red carpet, air-conditioning, table skirting, down to the stage decor and floral arrangement.

- And let's not forget the welcome leis to greet VIP guests with, if not an entire welcoming committee composed of well-trained ushers, and the certificates and tokens of appreciation to be given out towards the end of the activity.

- In my experience, a lot of organizers forget one thing: request for media coverage, whether internal or external, and request for prior announcements and advertisements including infographics for online posting and standees, tarps, and streamers for posting in chokepoints (whether made in-house or via Tourism/PIO, Engineering).

You never know the potential of these supposedly minor matters in ruining your affair. You can never be too careful. Bland food will ensure a frown on attendees' faces. Spoiled food could send hundreds to the hospital all at once, not to mention potential legal charges. (In our LGU, the Municipal Administrator has an Events Team to handle this delicate side.) Faulty wiring can cause fire or electrocution. Wayward cables could trip someone up. Lack of presentable visuals betrays a lack of preparation, not to mention passion for the job. What if your PowerPoint presentation suddenly wouldn't play for some reason (virus? corrupted file?) What would be your Plan B?

I have mentioned practically all departments and agencies. Did I miss anything or anybody? I apologize in advance for the inadvertent omission.

In local government, that's not even the end of it. After an activity, you are expected to submit a post-activity report. (This will come in handy later on when you are asked to submit an accomplishment report during reviews of program implementation.)

Thereafter, the liquidation process begins, which takes up a lot of work hours per se.

Obviously, in organizing an event, a lot of helping hands are needed. But is it really a matter of "the more, the merrier"? No, sometimes, it can be that "Too many cooks spoil the broth."

In case of really big corporate events, other things to consider are:

- Contingency fund for emergency purposes

- Consideration on whether the event is daytime or night-time, indoor or outdoor

-- Considerations if outdoor: weather, parking, power outage, traffic

-- Considerations if indoor: power outage, entrance and exit signages, whether to have photobooth

- Fire exit

- Entrance and exit plan of event

- Security plan (care of POSO, PNP, force multipliers)

- Plan in case staff get stressed out during an event

- Monitoring of event details, such as number of guests, etc.; the need to always have extra tables, chairs, food...

- Provision of an event contract for the safety of both parties

I was glad when I heard that TESDA is now offering a course called Events Management. Someone figured out that organizing events is a skill and a talent that can be elevated into an art form. In fact, you can develop an entire career out of it, like some do. In fact, the most challenging ones are sometimes best left to events management professionals, if not eventologists for really level-up events.

posted by Resty Odon  # 4:00 AM 0 Comments

 Oldest Family Photo

posted by Resty Odon  # 4:34 AM 0 Comments

 “𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝑵𝒐𝒕 𝑴𝒆?”

posted by Resty Odon  # 8:09 PM 0 Comments

Surviving Super El Niño

Wasn't it just a few days ago that we've regarded rainwater as our frenemy? And yet here we are: treating it once again like some most precious commodity, something worth its weight in gold.

Now we have to deal with its opposite--and something at the extreme end of the spectrum too: too much heat from the sun and resultant drought.

Change is indeed the only thing constant in this world.

It's true what they say about the essentiality of water: a diamond has comparably no value when you are thirsty or trapped in the desert.

Now drought is nothing new. We've been through a lot of drought seasons before, and we survived them all, thank God: deep fissures on the ground, unbearable, energy-sapping heat, grassfires, banana trees withering, drying, and falling... What is new is how worse off this coming El Niño is supposed to be that it would be dubbed "Super El Niño," judging from media reports quoting at least a hundred scientists.

We're not so sure of everything at this point, but judging from what we've gathered so far, it seems to be the worst ever and therefore unprecedented. Whenever I read "climate change," though, I tend to be skeptical because I like to view things from a wide historical perspective. For example, a Yolanda-strength supertyphoon turned out to be not the first, per historical records. There were at least two before. The very name of Tacloban has something to do with such an enormous catastrophic kind of weather disturbance.

I just had to do some quick digital archaeology work on Super El Niño to get convinced. And this is what I've found: Anecdotal and documentary evidence say that the world has been through such severe droughts before (with a few years mentioned), and to put things into context, we humans only began scientifically measuring the warming of the Pacific Ocean in 1950!

Is a 3.6 degree rise in the warming of the Pacific Ocean a historical first? The jury is not yet in. Did hundreds of thousands of people die during the periods mentioned? No answer yet. Was there massive famine, one on a continental scale? No answer yet.

What probably has changed is the frequency with which these things happen, but how can we know for certain when we have just begun systematically studying these phenomena?

What we can do now is assume the veracity of the prediction, just to be on the safe side, and prepare for the worst, granted we still have time left to prepare. What is the worst thing that could happen within six months of this worrisome menace to our life and existence? My reflex reaction is to look at how people survive the desert.

Lessons from desert communities

Top of the mind are the Israelis who turned the Negev into farms using drip irrigation and through the kibbutz system of cooperation.

The Arabs of the "Middle East" are, of course, experts in this too. We must study their traditional architecture in warding off heat.

At the height of the recent heat wave in Europe which killed thousands of people, Al Jazeera's Basel Ghazoghli advised everyone to study the following tricks from the ancient world before the advent of electric fans and air conditioning systems:

- Yemen's brick tower villages were made out of thick mud but with windows that allowed air to enter. The buildings were packed together, creating sheds of cool air below, and painted white to refract or deflect red-hot solar radiation. I am reminded, however, of chronic news of massive destruction of such mud structures in Iran and Afghanistan after a particularly strong earthquake. Maybe these structures should have been reinforced with steel. Anyway, Metro Manila, with its hellish heat islands and heat index, should take note.

- Iran's ancient windcatchers called badgir were towers that funneled fresh air from outside and released humid air inside even without the benefit of wind.

- India's jaali, pierced or carved stone wall screens, blocked sunlight and heat while inviting cold air to enter the tower.

- Egypt's brick towers with domed roofs avoided direct hit from the sun.

- Ancient Granada's (in Spain) channels and fountains kept water constantly moving, pulling heat from the air and cooling the surroundings. Sounds much like Hiwata fans to me.

The problem with these desert solutions is that our country is not a desert for the most part. It has a rainy season, visited regularly by around 26 alphabetically named typhoons (and at times earthquakes of various magnitudes and intensities). Maybe our very own traditional bahay kubo and bahay na bato could point to better ways in our own context. After all, they have their own features that similarly ward off the tropical glare and oppressive heat, such as the use of light construction materials, cross ventilation, porous structures like calado panels, adjustable swing-out windows, rolling window panels, ventanillas, Persiana louvre windows, awnings, an airy silong (understory), etc. Porosity is a strong point, as anthropologist Fernando Nakpil Zialcita once pointed out.

But over time, we preferred using materials and architecture that, though sturdier, are built like heat traps and necessitating costly electricity and air-conditioning. This needs a new set of adjustments.

- Moreover, Middle East countries survive the desert by using desalination plants to make seawater fit for human use, so this is something we can look into if funding is not a problem.

Practical and doable actions

- Okay, let's wake up from dreaming, shall we? Maybe pumping and purifying water from our rivers is far more doable? I don't know. If we could easily purify tap water and turn it into "mineral water," then perhaps we can do the same with the Agno River water at least in our province of Pangasinan. (Whatever happened to all that recent excess runoff anyway?)

- On the personal level, a practical solution that is doable is to adjust our choice of clothing: it should be made of cool fabric, loose instead of tightfitting, and white or light-colored. I suddenly remember how Arab men don't wear any garments underneath their blinding white, freely flowing robes. Presko talaga! (Noted on that.)

- Staying hydrated is essential, but this presupposes adequate supply of water at any given time.

- Common sense: Avoid wasting water. Conserve H2O. The elevated areas of our town, for one, experience regular water interruptions, posing a problem to many residents.

- Recycle used water for cleaning the house and watering the plants.

- Construct giant water tanks or buy big drums to store water or collect the remaining rainwater expected to fall. A typical concrete water tank, however, can set you back for around P45,000.

- Trees are our best friends in these suffocating times.

- Vegetation or foliage in general is a significant shield as well. According to architects, moss, grass, shrubs, and loose gravel on the ground refract heat, absorb it less, and ward it off easily better than solid concrete pavements and pathwalk.

- I've heard about this air moisture harvesting technology, so we can look into that too.

- On the municipal scale, build rainwater impounding areas in catch basins.

- Last week, the national government mandated all LGUs to create a task force to find ways and means to deal with the coming threat through localized adaptation and mitigation plans.

Climate Change Commission

Speaking of government... Surprisingly, there is a government agency called the Climate Change Commission. The solutions it has broached so far include:

- Adjust school and work hours to avoid the 10:00 am to 3:00 pm window.

- Plant alternative crops--those that are not as water-intensive as palay. But what exactly are these alternatives, and would they have ready markets in a rice-eating country? Would greenhouses and hydroponics technology help?

- Use solar-powered pumps for irrigation.

- Put up hydration facilities.

- Advise senior citizens and other vulnerable sectors to stay indoors.

- I might add: Educate people about the warning signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. What other afflictions suddenly rise in incidence when it is hot? Let us remember that food spoils fast in humid weather.

- Does good old cloud seeding to make artificial rain count?

***

- Meanwhile, I've read somewhere that people in a Chinese city spend life underground to escape the heat. Apparently, they had the foresight to dig tunnels and build an alternate community there, complete with maybe movie houses, bowling alleys, and shopping centers.

- I remember how ancient Christians in places like Cappadocia escaped purges and persecutions by building a livable complex of tunnels and dungeons deep into the bowels of the earth. Not to mention the Vietnamese strategy of evading American forces during the war using interconnected tunnels.

- Another idea to escape the heat without breaking the bank in case of a power failure, which most likely will happen: Won't camping be fun at night? I mean, sleeping in tents outdoors--maybe with pre-charged JisuLife e-fans, or under the stars--with mosquito nets.

***

Furthermore, I wonder how we can put this coming delubyo to our advantage because, like fire, the light and heat from the sun also means energy and quick-drying capacity. One wonders what business opportunities intense drought and dryness could bring aside from the usual culinary offerings (halo-halo, ice cream, ice candy, etc.). Umbrellas? Solar-powered anything? Emergency cooling capsules?

In Pangasinan, there's this expression, "matalag nen say delap," which means "rarer than flood." If intense flooding has always been a rarity, what more intense droughts like this oncoming one? May they always stay that way.

How I wish climate change is not real, or is not here to stay. Denial is an effective defense mechanism, you see.

Rotating brownouts are an especially scary prospect, but running out of water would be catastrophic on all levels: residential, corporate, agricultural, industrial. (Imagine firemen having nothing to douse neighborhood fire with, for starters.) Like excessive hydration, it could be a matter of life and death.

What else can be done? All helpful suggestions are welcome. Let's all come out of this alive and well, in God's mercy, amen.

(Note: The above text is 100% *not* AI content.)

posted by Resty Odon  # 5:02 AM 0 Comments

Testing the Kids' Hyperlocal Knowledge and Pride of Place

Someone wisely said that, "Whoever has children has the future."

I had this in mind when I was assigned once again to formulate a new set of questions for a Tourism Month quiz bee--my third so far.

This meant another shot in the dark, as I wondered if kids today still knew and cared about the things that I believe should make them proud of their hometown.

So my theme for this year's quiz bee experiment is anchored on the question, "What makes you proud as Bayambangueño?"

It was question made out of personal curiosity.

To those in the know, this question was taken from an educator, Dr. Efren Abulencia, after asking it on a post published on our culture mapping FB page. But I didn't tell anyone my hidden agenda, except for our head, of course: to educate the latest batch of young ones on the various points of pride for our town--both old knowledge and new discoveries.

To avoid any leakage and get real results, only four select people knew about my questions and, of course, they were sworn into secrecy. The queries were thrown at random to give a feel of, statistically speaking, a random sampling method. I avoided questions that had already been asked in the past two quiz bees. Though education is about repetition, our local history and culture is too rich to bore ourselves with constant repetition.

Grade 4, 5, and 6 students from 20 local schools participated, a huge turnout compared with last year.

Do local learners--the academic cream of the crop, at least--still know about their own town's history and traditional culture, and do they care about current events--despite these things never being taught in school? In my youth at those ages, I knew nothing about Bayambang or its history, not even the name of the capitan of our barangay and that of the mayor.

I am happy to report that, against all expectations, the kids do know a number of things I believe they should know as local residents.

Based on the answers to the questions fielded, with not a few calculated to border on trivia, today's schoolchildren know about Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo's stay here, the Matalunggaring Dance Troupe, the Varsitarian dance group, the name of the town's first lady vice-mayor, that the father of Philippine cycling was also a renowned media man, that the local parish is 412 years old, that the world's longest barbecue on Guinness World Record is 8.016 kilometers, that the giant St. Vincent Ferrer statue in Prayer Park is in Brgy. Bani, that 'JKQ' in JKQ Medical and Wellness Center stands for Julius K. Quiambao, that we have a dairy farm in Brgy. Mangayao, that the LGU built a new school in Brgy. Ligue, that the foremost Filipina feminist is named Sr. Mary John Mananzan (who's from here), that the father of universal tertiary education is Prospero de Vera, that Rusty Lopez is synonymous with a local brand of leather shoes, that national scientist Carmen C. Velasquez pioneered in parasitology, that Col. Edwin Ramsey's aide-de-camp is named Claro Camacho, that a local martial art is called escrima or arnis, that there used to be a huge American military camp here called Camp Gregg, that an issue or issues of "La Independencia" were once published here, that Aguinaldo's daughter is named Flora Victoria, that a president (Ramon Magsaysay) once held a cabinet meeting in Mangabul, etc. etc.

I am not surprised, of course, to find out that they haven't heard (yet) about National Artist Napoleon Abueva as the sculptor of the Emilio Aguinaldo statue, that a certain Prof. Rufino Menor formed the Pangkat Kawayan, that the town has produced a Secretary of Labor named Onofre Guevara and an Assemblyman (today's Congressman) named Dr. Raymundo O. Camacho, that before Halloween and trick or treats, there was a local indigenous practice called panagkamarerwa, that we currently have six Rural Health Units, that MTV VJ and actress Donita Rose has roots here, that there is a diparan or Pangasinan saying that goes, "Aga untitit so bulilit no aga napildit." (Hindi iingit ang daga kapag hindi naipit.), and so on and so forth.

Still, I believe that our humble social media campaign in this regard, fueled by passion, with lots of research work on the side--and held throughout the years at no cost to local government--has not gone to waste.

Note that these topics can hardly be Googled and thus beyond the reach of AI so far. There is no subject in school called Introduction to Local History, Culture, and Arts after all, and there is a paucity of materials outside of it.

With such a lecture wrapped in quiz bee format--in categories of questions classified as 'easy,' 'average,' and 'hard,' with the 'clincher' round as tie-breaker--I hope these knowledge of our town's history and culture have strengthened even more today's young learners' pride in their hometown of Bayambang--which is the real agenda of the whole exercise.

posted by Resty Odon  # 5:29 AM 0 Comments

The World in Folds

In the beginning, the world was flat and paper-thin.

When the paper god was designing the world, he chose a 10-20 cm x 10-20 cm paper as basic building block. "Let there be straight lines, folds, and creases," he said.

"Mountain folds and valley folds. Reverse folds and flaps. Pleats."

The flat, inanimate material was--with sleight of hand--slowly transformed into an ecology of genetically diverse forms and silhouettes, and the world was papered over with simulacra of life.

It's an endlessly creative world made out of flatness.

I enter this world enticed by animal figures I never figured would emerge out of almost nothing: first the jumping frog, then the crane.

It is the beauty of the form of the crane that would get me fascinated. I get obsessed with it. I do crane after paper crane, using printed words as guide until YouTube videos come about.

It seems simple at first until you try it for yourself and find certain steps difficult. It requires practice. Or several repeat plays. Thank goodness for changeable speed settings on YT.

It is easy to get frustrated, exasperated, irked, insulted, if you don't get things right. "How come my folds are not the same as those in the video, like it's some false advertising?" I retrace my steps to find out which steps I missed.

I collapse some flaps. I smooth out some edges. I fold, then unfold, then squash certain folds. I nip and tuck, so to speak without cutting out anything. Using scissors is verboten, one might as well cut out toy soldier figures in neat silhouettes like some newborn child.

Why do I do what I am doing? I think that's because I feel calm and relaxed doing it--my state of anxiety is reduced.

While it's true that mistakes irk me so easily, I exercise the virtue of patience and perseverance along the way. In my experience, certain origami animals are an extra-challenge: the double-humped camel, the squirrel, certain dog varieties, certain beaver variant... These really tested my patience.

Every minute expended is a way of saying thanks, honoring life in minutes received, being grateful that I am still here, producing at least a thing of beauty no matter how trivial.

I started out with the easy ones: the peace dove, the fish, etc.--all kid's play. Then I slowly graduate to the medium or average, then to the difficult and complex three-dimensional ones that sometimes require structures they call tessellation.

I am now dealing with the really challenging ones. Sometimes I emerge victorious, oftentimes not.

I am afraid to do the advanced 3D ones that are monumental in dimensions. After all, I have limited resources, not just time. I do this in between important things, during my resting hours. I also originally set out to use just scrap papers, nothing store-bought.

The origami animals I produce have been essentially from trash, until a kind-hearted soul gifted me with proper store-bought origami paper. It ruins my unintended intention to recycle trash through arts and crafts, but I don't mind gifts from the big-hearted.

Pretty soon, I am able to create an entire paradise of creatures in abstractions, hundreds of them and all sorts of genera and species: duck, rabbit, lion, flamingo, toucan, kiwi, Pomeranian, tiger, worm, fly, hermit beetle, possum, aardvark, other Amazon organisms, other African savannah creatures...

After finishing a creature, I stare at each one in appreciation of the form, not too mindful of the miniscule errors. There is an utter beauty in the symmetry, from the exact mirror images generated through all the angle bisectors. There must be a God, no question about it--one specializing in divine architecture and design, a geometry genius behind each silhouette. How magical that each one, each complicated structure, could be so created--out of nothing, out of thin air--or in just a series of high-precision folding and unfolding, to be exact--no cuts. How transformative, how endlessly creative!

They say this ancient Japanese artform is all about mathematics, with practical applications in engineering, medicine, especially surgery, aerospace, and other fields. If you think about it, a foldable umbrella is an example of origami in day-to-day application. The possibilities of paper are infinite.

But it's not with the practicalities I am obsessed with. With origami as a form of faith in cost-free pleasure, papered over by surprise from all of the right angles, I return again and again to the fold.

posted by Resty Odon  # 8:15 PM 0 Comments

Adventures on FB Messenger

In 2016, I applied as a writer in the LGU and was eventually designated as a 'Public Information Officer.' Among the many tasks I didn't expect to have is answer messages from the people--directly--through our Facebook page, whether they were entered as comments or PMs (private messages).

In a town of an estimated 120,000 population, not to mention the expatriates, there were so many people, so many messages to handle. This alone was a humbling and exhausting work, and I was mostly alone at it.

I received all sorts of complaints. Many of those were about the services of the power provider, water provider, telecom companies, local district hospital... I answered as politely and empathetically as I could--after all, their complaints were my complaints too. But I felt bad that I had to answer at all for a lot of concerns, particularly these ones outside LGU jurisdiction.

I couldn't blame the people either. I myself didn't know before I became PIO that some areas were outside LGU jurisdiction, and this includes, I found out, national roads and provincial roads and bridges along those roads. The best we could do is coordinate with those agencies politely and relay the complaints from our people. (It didn't occur to a lot of people that they can, in fact, complain directly to all those agencies mentioned.)

The other complaints fell under different LGU departments' responsibility, and these were duly relayed to all the heads and staff concerned. So early in the morning and I was already exhausted dealing with someone whose neighbor had a stinking pigpen or a chicken hatchery overrun by flies.

Understandably, many messages were about local government services and ayuda systems: how to avail? what are the requirements? For this, I am thankful for our Citizen's Charter. Procedures and requirements are actually similar nationwide.

Speaking of ayuda, the bulk of complaints was about why this or that person is a beneficiary (4Ps) while he or her own father or mother or sister or brother is not. Another concern outside jurisdiction. (It's DSWD's this time.)

Messages come in at all times of the day and in all days every single day. Answering messages felt like it required 3 shifts, just like in factories!

There were times when I had to give updates and sometimes used my personal account for follow-ups. Big mistake. To my chagrin, I often ended up having total strangers as chatmates, with our kilometric 'convo' ending into the dead of the night. Gone was my precious energy, my limited time.

From time to time, there were messages asking for emergency assistance--even when we had an official emergency hotline fully equipped with responders of all kinds. I understand. Messaging through FB costs nothing, compared to making a phone call through landline or cell phone. Because I am too kind-hearted, I would answer anything of emergency nature and relayed whatever I received to proper authorities. Good thing Facebook eventually had a feature in which we can indicate whether the page is closed or open for messaging services.

In this task, I am particularly grateful for the screenshot feature (PrtSc) of my laptop and smartphone, while being mindful of confidentiality. (Confidentiality is a challenging legality to navigate: A lot of complainants prefer not to be identified, and we respect that, but this becomes a problem when there is a need to reveal identities. What's the name of the 'office' again?)

You can just imagine what it was like for me answering all sorts of frantic messages during the COVID-19 pandemic--all at the same time and one after another without fail. (I have written on this separately.)

I am thankful that the hiring of additional staff eventually solved the problem of the super-human amount of workload just this part of the job. (All other departments experience the same feeling of being overwhelmed, I know, that our constituents are not even aware of, with some department heads likening it to drowning.) Now, I can focus on other equally important tasks, like hunkering down on the day's write-ups and coordinating with the newsmakers: public officials and the heads of any random department or agency with an important event or two. (This is the reason I get to chat with dozens and dozens of people from all walks per day.)

What I'd like to dwell on right now, though, are the most unusual and most unforgettable requests I got.

I can't quite forget the temerity of this person asking the mayor to shoulder her daughter's debut (birthday bash) or something like that. I double-checked and the person didn't look indigent to me. I had to do a quick review of the actual mandate of a local chief executive, whether it includes throwing away birthday parties for free. I realized I had the power to say no merely by ignoring messages I thought didn't deserve a response.

I also can't forget that wife who asked where her missing husband could be while hinting at domestic trouble. Could I help her, please? I referred her to the Local Civil Registrar. There were cases of lovers' quarrel too, which I was too inept to handle.

There were times when I would feel like the town's Google search engine or telephone directory, whenever someone asks whether this or that kind of establishment exists in Bayambang, or how to get from here to there. This has opened my eyes a bit to which services or business enterprises can and cannot be found in our locality, and how to get around from our town to other places. Among the things I noticed missing or woefully inadequate at the time are ENT specialists, dermatologists, allergy testing center, hearing testing center, other medical specialists, certain drugs (medicines), certain medical tests and procedures, cashew cream de-wart clinics, specialty cuisine restos, and so on.

Complex legal issues always put us in a quandary and were best referred to the Legal Department.

On rare occasions, I had to deal with mental cases, which are, of course, best ignored.

The worst case is downright criminal. One day a female staff--she was still innocent and single then--reported that a guy showed her a photo of his erect phallus while communicating.

For other obviously criminal incidents such as neighborhood altercations and physical violence, I direct complainants to the local police page, but protocol dictates that complainants coordinate with the barangay first.

The truth is, a lot of concerns can be solved at the barangay level and need not be relayed to our level, such as videoke time past 10 PM; tall coconut trees right beside someone else's fence, giving a clear and present danger; dogs leaving poo at the gate, etc. So I routinely advise complainants to raise the issue first with their Barangay Hall, out of due respect to the latter or in observance of the principle of subsidiarity. I am often rebutted with an irked comeback: "That is why I am directing the concern to you because I was ignored at the barangay hall in the first place!"

People sometimes forget that there is a real human being behind the PMs and lose their sense of common courtesy. But as a public servant, I had to keep my cool at saintly levels you could never imagine possible, considering how impatient I can get.

OFWs in distress were the most challenging to handle, emotionally speaking. Addressing their calls for help also requires a lot of back-and-forth and inter-agency liaison work. What if someone told you she was in jail in China and they shaved her hair? Or if someone informed you that she was being raped by her Arab employer at home just because she took a bath, which was wrongly read as an invitation to have sexual intercourse?

With this form of assistance, our office is not only our LGU’s internal media and public relations arm, but something else that every LGU is required to have: a PACD or Public Assistance and Complaints Desk—or an online version of it, to be exact. (Our BPSO guards and HRMO double as PACD.)

At times, we get accused of something we are not responsible for--not the most inspiring thing. One typical incident of malice aforethought is this: A student emerges in the news to have a special achievement. In the goodness of our hearts, we volunteer to congratulate him or her with a public announcement. Alas, oftentimes, someone else gets hurt with our good intention, with the presumption that we intentionally snubbed or knowingly omitted recognition for someone having the same achievement which unfortunately we had no way of knowing unless it was out there or sent to us.

This job has forced me to be most forgiving, no matter how hurt I am.

Now one of the most valuable lessons I've had in this ‘adventure’ is to be wary of the pitfalls of the incomplete or inaccurate story, if not tall tales. A lot of complainants come to us bearing their version of a narrative. A careless frontline responder like us can easily get carried away by their stories particularly when it is about a story of injustice such as public servants allegedly treating them bad. But years of experience has taught me never to believe anything at face value, to get the other side or sides of the story until a more and more complete picture emerges. As much as highly stressful this job can get, it requires calm, evenhandedness, and equanimity just as much.

I had to shed off the natural impulsiveness carried over from my youth to get this job done right.

On the other hand, I realize that people with incomplete stories are not being dishonest in the middle of anger; it is just that their vision of reality is often warped by high emotions.

I wonder if these tens of thousands of people messaging us day by day realize how much they should be grateful to the kind, accommodating, and hardworking keyboard warriors behind each helpful answer and informative response they receive with the convenience of digital technology.

posted by Resty Odon  # 5:49 PM 0 Comments

 Where Was I on 9-11

posted by Resty Odon  # 2:09 PM 0 Comments