MANILA, Philippines?The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has been trying mightily to give the metropolis a facelift, sending brigades of workers to scrub and wash walls, flyover railings and even the pink fences it has set up in the busiest streets. Earlier, the MMDA fielded gardeners to landscape and plant flowers, shrubs and vines underneath the overhead Metro Rail Transit tracks. All these are part of the agency?s beautification campaign billed as ?Metro Gwapo.? And now the campaign has been given a face, and not very surprisingly it is that of MMDA Chair Bayani Fernando.

Fernando can hardly be described as ugly, but it would surprise many if there are a dozen people, besides his mother, his wife and his blind supporters, who would say he is the embodiment of being ?guwapo? [handsome]. But that has not prevented the MMDA from plastering the metropolis with giant tarpaulin billboards ostensibly to give the readers some much-needed lessons in civics and good citizenship, except that the tarpaulins are dominated by Fernando?s photograph. One such message, for example, exhorts the reader to change his mind-set in order to effect change in the environment (?Pagbabago ng kapaligiran / Pagbabago ng kaisipan???Change in environment / Change in mind?).

There is, however, one message under this ?Kaayusan? [Order] theme that Fernando and his political boosters did not take to heart. It says: ?Alamin ang batas / Sundin ang batas? [?Know the law / Obey the law?], Fernando urges everyone, but imposing his face on the traveling public may be the least of his offenses. In fact, Rep. Roilo Golez of Metro Manila?s Parañaque City thinks Fernando is violating the law, particularly the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

?How much has the MMDA spent for all the tarpaulins and all the pink paint for the MMDA chairman?s personal political projection?? Golez asked. ?Do all these expenses have the approval of the MMDA board composed of the mayors of Metro Manila??

Those are good questions to ask, especially since Fernando has presented himself publicly as a possible presidential candidate of the administration party Lakas-CMD in 2010. But shouldn?t the Office of the Ombudsman be doing all the asking, as it has the responsibility to investigate graft cases?

No one can be so naive as to believe this is nothing more than a campaign to educate citizens. It has politics written all over it, just like Fernando?s long-running radio ads on a similar theme. All are plainly political propaganda intended for Fernando?s self-promotion. And he is doing it all at taxpayers? expense.

But then it is not only Fernando who is guilty of such shameless self-promotion and early?if not constant?election campaigning at taxpayers? expense. Everywhere one goes in this country, one is assaulted by reminders about how this or that official has made this or that project possible. In Quezon City, for example, city officials, from the mayor down to congressmen to the most useless councilor, never pass up a chance to remind everyone of their existence. They put up posters and streamers for every occasion: Christmas, Valentine?s Day, graduation, fiestas, birthdays of religious leaders. Name it, and some city official will have his name on it, including street names.

Again it should be asked, how many hundreds of millions of public funds are being wasted on such personal and political self-promotion by these public officials? How does so much wasteful spending pass the Commission on Audit? What is keeping the Ombudsman from going after these officials who are throwing away the people?s money to promote their own personal ambitions?

This is the ugly face of Fernando?s ?Metro Gwapo? program, and that goes too for many of our politicians? campaign in various media to make themselves look good before their constituents.