In contrast to the politically volatile atmosphere at Cebu City Hall, things were a little smoother down Mandaue City where the new mayor, thanks to a strategically valuable alliance with his predecessor, managed to take over where the other one left off.
It’s still early days yet so Mandaue City Mayor Luis Gabriel “Luigi” Quisumbing still has a lot of problems to handle but aside from cracking the whip on two job order employees who played video games while at work, there were the usual notable examples of committed local government employees who perform above and beyond the call of duty.
One such employee is traffic enforcer Davide John Catinoy who received P5,000 from Mayor Quisumbing for issuing a citation ticket to the mayor’s cousin who turned left on a road in front of the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion last Saturday.
The Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (Team) is enforcing a no-left turn policy in the area and it may have been a good thing that Catinoy did not know the violator was in fact the mayor’s cousin lest he could have looked the other way and let it pass.
Thankfully, the mayor’s cousin didn’t take it personally and even told him that he was proud of Catinoy for what he did. But he wasn’t alone in doing his job since another Mandaue City traffic enforcer, Francisco Nodado Jr. was lending a hand to a passenger jeepney driver whose vehicle got stranded in the rain just outside Parkmall.
Nodado not only helped the jeepney driver but he made the lives of other motorists and commuters just a little bit easier with his deed since the jeepney congested traffic at the time.
Nodado’s efforts were promptly recognized by one netizen who lauded him for not leaving his assigned post despite the heavy rain. But even if the post didn’t circulate in social media, we would like to believe that Nodado would have helped the jeepney driver all the same.
At a time when some police officers won’t hesitate to hide under the shade of a tree or an imposing concrete building to escape the summer heat or a heavy downpour, Nodado is out on the field braving the elements just to make traffic less congested and the roads and streets easier to pass and cross by the public.
This is the kind of service that Filipinos and President Rodrigo Duterte expect from government servants, a lot of whom are cooped up in their offices and hold a lackadaisical attitude toward their jobs, however mundane and unimportant it may be to them and to the public at large.
They may not be paid as much as those big shot types working in the upper echelons of government or the private sector but traffic aides like Nodado and Catinoy are just as valuable and needed by the public for their services.
Whether it be cash rewards, incentives or public recognition, everyday public servants should be commended as well as spurred on by their superiors to deliver and give their best to the public.
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