Grand Plan at the Kingdom by the River (7)

By Peter Jimenea/ Hole of Justice

King Bungs, the grapevine says, is busy doing rounds this early, visiting contacts throughout the Kingdom by the River. He does not miss the KBL either, which is, “kasal, bunyag kag lubong”, occasions that bring kins and clans together, to share joy and sorrow.

According to people close to him, he will be running to retake the palace of the Kingdom by the River from the reigning and defending King Tura. The current occupant of the palace is shrouded in mystery. Some say he is staying only for a term because failing health would prohibit him from seeking reelection. Others guess that he’s still running for reelection and his likely opponents would be King Bungs and graduating solon Prince Jenil Burns.

Prince Burns, accordingly, is also interested in the politics of the Kingdom by the Mall. He will go for the crown of the Kingdom by the Mall if he realized that 2013 is still too early for him to challenge King Tura.

So that brings us to the possible King Tura – King Bungs rematch. The equation is that King Bungs will be enjoying the backing, politically and materially, of the party in power, he being the regional head of it. P-Noy is fully behind him.

The man who turns 80 in 2013 is still up on his feet. He still hikes and plays tennis. He neither smokes nor drinks and still trade banters and laughter with ordinary people he encounters.

So far, when election time comes and given the pace with which the current administration at the Kingdom by the River are running its affairs, King Tura will have nothing to show as proof of “pagbag-o” that was his campaign battlecry. He has only Oplan Pagbag-o, the deformed version thereof, which is currently being implemented by a pack of nitwits comprising Hydrocephallus, Dok Kagaw, Mamasang, Tibakla, Ellen of Troy and Boy Bakling.

The only tangible proof of pagbag-o is Oplan Pagbag-o that illegally kicked out Ma’am Malou and Bikya from the kingdom information office (KIO) and coerced them to submit new job descriptions tantamount to demotion. For their resistance, Hydrocephallus, Dok Kagaw, Tibakla and her sidekick Gin Butlog, deleted the names of Ma’am Malou and Bikya from the payroll should they continue to refuse to concede to lower positions and recognize Hydrocephallus as the new KIO and tsar of two other offices, namely, Kawkaw and Radyo Mo.

Three divisions have been dissolved and merged into a single department without legal basis and Hydrocephallus enthroned into the super-office without having gone through the process called “Kingdom Selection Board” (KSB) and despite his incompetence and lack of academic qualifications.

I have never witnessed such lawlessness happening at the Kingdom by the River. Not even during the reign of King Rading, during martial law, has this highhandedness happened with impunity.

Such official arrogance is seen in Hydrocephallus flaunting his Muni-Muni 2 around and giving her the authority to act like his assistant. She is a private citizen but she has the power to keep Hydrocephallus’s keys to the offices.

As Kingdom Information Officer, better still, as usurper of that position, Hydrocephallus should know that he cannot intervene with the editorial prerogative of media outlets and individual reporters. But he did just that. Unable to stop me from churning these series, he called up media outlets to shut my columns out. He threatened Kenjan of Radyo Kapuso after learning that the latter ran an interview of Ma’am Malou. “Ah, ikaw gali atong nag-interview? Andam ka lang!”(“So, you were the one who ran the interview? Better watch out!”) he told Kenjan.

On the other hand, orders of medicines, supplies and equipment that have been publicly bid in September – October last year have not yet been delivered to the hospitals owned by the Kingdom by the River; so are the requisitions from the kingdom agriculture office that were publicly bid last year yet.

Bureaucratic gridlocks erected by Oplan Pagbag-o are chaining the hands of winning suppliers to deliver.

In effect, the delivery of basic services have been seriously hampered by the circuitous procedures devised by Dok Kagaw, et al.

And the loyal subjects of the kingdom? Majority at least are loyal supporters of King Tura but that layer of buffer is thinning. The highhandedness of Hydrocephallus and Dok Kagaw is inversely proportional to the growth of support for King Tura from the ranks and file. (to be continued)