Neglected memorial reflects country’s sorry state of politics

Please allow me to react to Erika Sauler’s article about the A.H. Lacson sculpture (Metro, Inquirer, 4/21/13). The current Manila City administration’s neglect of and indifference to the apparently abandoned statue (or what remains of it) of the late Arsenio H. Lacson along Roxas Boulevard is actually a reflection of the sorry state of politics in this country and the harsh realities associated with it.

Is the fact that the memorial was a project of former Mayor Lito Atienza, incumbent Mayor Alfredo Lim’s predecessor and political rival, the reason for its neglect and desecration?  Or is it the absence of a Lacson political dynasty in Manila that emboldens the current city administration to deliberately dishonor his memory?

Believe it or not, part of Lacson’s principled legacy was to prohibit his direct relatives from running for public office while he was alive. Among politicians these days, it is a rather strange proposition.

Understandably, political dynasties out to protect their own interests have become a commonplace evil in this country, while the casual shifting of political alliances favoring whoever wins is now as routine as changing one’s underwear, best characterized by the term “weather, weather lang.”

Can the good Mayor Lim (or whoever wins in May) rise above petty politics and do what is appropriate and just? Can the mayor possibly set aside partisan sentiments by restoring the Lacson sculpture in a manner that is befitting a good and decent man who once served as mayor of Manila?

 —A.L. SEVERINO,

Quezon City