Thank you… but

Thank You to the various individuals who’ve been sending me gifts mostly because I’m a media practitioner, or in appreciation from those who we’ve given time or space on TV or in print to promote or defend their work. Last but not the least, Thank-you to the people who have always been a friend, who were always there whether I was in media or not. You don’t have to send a gift because your friendship and support in and out of media speaks tons of how much class you have.

As I write this piece, I am reminded of my past life when I used to receive a ton of gifts during Christmas while hosting several shows with ABS CBN. The number of gifts got so ridiculous that I often gave most of it away for company raffles or to security guards and utility personnel. After doing that for about seven years, I quit the job and I remember my wife saying; “Now we’ll know how many people will remember you on Christmas.” Christmas came, New Year’s Day came with a bang but the only gifts that made it under the tree were from family members and a handful of true friends and long time associates. Gone were the stacks of gifts, bottles of wine, the hams etc. My wife and I chuckled at discovering who the “User Friendly” people were. 

Now that I’m back on TV, I don’t know what’s worse, user friendly people who give gifts expecting or hoping for “quid pro quo,” or those who sent their gifts in compliance of the yuletide tradition but never accommodated our requests or invitation to guest on our TV show AGENDA? I can only thank you for your gift but your presence would have meant more. To be quite honest, receiving a gift from someone who regularly declined our invitation or did not even have the courtesy to tell us why not, smacks of poor taste. It gets worse if you’re an elected official sending a pile of the same gifts, wrapped in the same paper, accompanied by the same greeting card. Imagine how I or we felt picking up a gift from a stack of “generic” presents. To make matters worse, the presents were visibly cheap perhaps to avoid being accused of being ostentatious. Why go through all that if all you want to do is “comply” in the cheapest possible manner. As Pinoys would put it: Sana hindi na lang (Better if you did not). This is not a rant but someone has to point out such tactless or tacky behavior.

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A number of Netizens have been posting about the Christmas gifts they received from their mayor or from city hall. As a result some have questioned the Christmas gifts that mayors have been sending to their constituents even in the exclusive or gated communities. WHY? I can understand if mayors send out gift packs to squatters and evacuees or even the homeless. But why send out “Pamaskong Handog” or gift packs to people who are a heck of a lot richer and well off than even us professionals. I hate to sound like Judas saying that the gift could have been sold and the money given to the poor, but yes I’ll play the role and ask why didn’t the mayors simply use all that money to improve the lot of their street sweepers, garbage collectors, tanods etc. Imagine how much land all that money could have bought that could be used to build permanent housing for city hall employees?! If you put together the gift packs, annual cash allowance to seniors, free movies etc., I would rather that mayors simply converted all that money into a discount on our annual real estate tax come January. If they want something sustainable they should invest that money on multi-level parking garages in various barangays, save all the income and use it to bless the less privileged in our communities.

My wife warned me that writing this article could get me delisted on many peoples’ Christmas list. Hey, if you work for or in government, that’s just fine because I can’t reconcile why public officials are giving out gifts and spending a lot of money just because it’s Christmas. I bet you that if the Office of the Ombudsman decided to look into this highly irregular practice, things may change drastically. For the record, President Duterte said that it was his opinion that it was OK for government officials or public servants to receive gifts, what I don’t remember him saying is that it’s ok for public servants and officials to be giving gifts using government money.

Just to be clear, I’m not against friends giving gifts to friends. I just detest the act of giving gifts to people for compliance sake or to make one’s presence felt using public funds or government resources especially for people who have everything in the world or have more than they need. Yes, just like Judas said, give it to the poor. In the meantime for those lacking EQ or are tormented by false fears might I suggest that you invest more on things that can only be accomplished with a personal touch like reaching out, extending an invitation to a simple meal, maybe a personal call where you could make a commitment to build on the relationship. Just before I started on this article, I bumped into a Congressman at the mall and I immediately told him how much challenge we experienced this year and asked him if we could meet up next year to really talk and try to work on things together. It was a sincere gesture that I intend to follow up on by putting it on my 2020 calendar alarm. I believe that building on the relationship for the next 12 months will be more fruitful and positive than gifts and stuff. Try it please.

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