Naga at Random - In the City

A quick glance at my sidebar shows how long I've been counting up since Election Day. As of this writing it's been about 24 days and only ten senators have been proclaimed so far.

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One of the activities I assigned to myself in my trip back in the home city was to monitor the local elections. My past entry had presented the background for this: on a widely-criticized decision from the local Comelec Division, the Villafuerte camp, whose politicians were contesting key political positions in Naga and Camarines Sur, had managed to succeed in troubling Naga's favorite mayor Jesse Robredo, with a citizenship issue that had failed many times in the past. I was expecting Naga to be a little bit more abuzz than usual with this new development. Instead, it was business as usual in the city. Those I had asked would say Robredo shall win and they say it in a calm and confident manner, no worries at all.

Well, if there was one barely exciting event, it was a fairly massive motorcade organized by the Villafuertes that snaked from their headquarters to the downtown plaza a kilometer away. Ferried by the vehicles was an obvious non-Nagueño hakot crowd carrying placards screaming disgusting sacrilegious nonsense like "Abang Mabulo supports Villafuerte." Surely, those caught in the ensuing traffic jam must have cursed the Villafuertes to hell many times over.

It's still debatable, though, whether the old man Villafuerte would care about his afterlife, but his son Jojo was surely politically damned in the ensuing city elections. To the further chagrin of the elder Villafuerte, the renegade son L-ray was re-elected as governor of Camarines Sur (the people of the province recognized, at the very least, that L-ray had improved tourism with the CamSur Watersports Complex). As a consolation, the old man Luis also retained his spot in Congress, and judging from his appearances in news stories, he currently seemed more interested in pursuing his national ambitions.

It seems all's well that ends well as the status quo is maintained, but what worries me is how the Villafuerte's political clout had suddenly strengthened, notwithstanding the apparent schism of the governor-son from the patriarch. In fact, even though Robredo won with a huge margin, it still took skilled bureaucratic acrobatics from a few good persons to outmaneuver moves to prevent a proclamation, and I'm damn proud that Nagueños are capable of standing by their principles and, more impressively, of keeping cool and refusing taunts that could spark civil unrest. However, what would prevent the Villafuertes from raising another issue against the mayor, or stifling government funds, even those for disaster relief? Clearly, typhoons are not the only challenges to Naga's development boom (recently affirmed with a soon-to-rise SM mall, the first in Bicol).

It would be such a tragedy to reverse efforts to make the local bureaucracy a well-oiled machine. For instance, I liked it that my transactions at the Naga SSS office to apply for an ID took less than an hour even with a lot of people there. Also, it would really hurt if the commercial development popping left and right would suddenly find a less conducive business environment. I would not want thriving spots downtown (called centro by the locals) return to the idle lots that they were five years ago.

-oOo-

Okay enough with the seriousness.

Speaking of the new commercial spots, I'd first like to comment on one edifice that catches my attention everytime I pass it by. And no, I don't quite mean it as a good thing. I can't help but make a second look because its facade is a small-scale replica of the one in Greenbelt 3. Aw, come on! Greenbelt 3 is Greenbelt 3, and imitating its facade is not impressive but tacky! In the first place, there won't be any patrons in there that's as high brow as in Greenbelt. Besides, I don't think conservative Naga is ready for commercialism as blatant and wanton as in Metro Manila. Actually, one Metro Manila is enough; I wouldn't want to come home to another one. A place could be cosmopolitan without losing its identity. Thankfully this aberration is just found in one city block (or maybe I haven't gone around that much).

And then there's CamSur Watersports Complex. If Mo Twister hears about this (perhaps he already did), he'll be riled up like he always does about "Bora." He does have a point about the abbreviation of Boracay: there's such a place called Bora Bora and it's not in the Philippines, so alluding to this foreign beach (again, tacky) does not help local tourism one bit. Now unlike the one-syllable-longer-than-Bora "Boracay," "Camarines Sur" is indeed a mouthful (not to mention it eats up texting space at 13 characters long.). I may excuse it in text messages, but I'd prefer that the name of the province be said in full. The people from that place have grown up calling it "Camarines Sur" even back when it's just a nondescript province that one passes by on the way to Mt. Mayon as well as the province that gets mentioned in typhoon reports. Oh, so it's like a transformation: with newfound "glamour," the province is now called CamSur?

I also passed by the well-known Avenue Square (temporary link because the main URL has expired) along Magsaysay Avenue. Currently lording over the strip of restaurants, Avenue Square boasts of the hottest gigs in the city, drawing in celebrities like Parokya ni Edgar, Brownman Revival, Heart and Echo, Imago as well as wholesome Spongebob to scandalous FHM models. (Are they cover girls or just extras? This shows that I haven't read the magazine for a long while.) Pictures over the Internet give me the impression that this prime location in Naga could be what Metrowalk is for Pasig (heck, locals are proud enough to compare it to Greenbelt, again Greenbelt). However, it was the afternoon of Election Day when I passed by, so all I saw was a plain two-storey building housing new-in-Naga establishments half-full with customers (some enjoying free WiFi). Maybe I should drop by again in a full-blown gig and see Avenue Square in all its pimped-up glory.