Good riddance, epal?

Until yesterday, the landscape in my neck of the woods was made ugly by the huge billboards of the local dynastic naghaharing uri, greeting everyone a merry Christmas.

Looking on the bright side, perhaps taxpayers can be glad that the dynasts didn’t spend additional public funds for new materials greeting everyone a happy Valentine and kung hei fat choi.

The polluting images are actually starting to decrease in many areas. Yesterday, the merry Christmas streamers strung over inner city streets of a rival faction of the dynasts had disappeared. The walls of a low-income community along my daily route had been given a fresh coat of paint, covering the names of the local government and barangay officials. Epal images are disappearing from transport waiting sheds.

But the billboard greetings are still there.

Perhaps the Department of the Interior and Local Government should clarify that such materials are covered by the order issued by DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla for the removal of government officials’ names and images from all public infrastructure, projects and programs including aid distribution.

The epal officials may argue that strictly speaking, greeting people a merry Christmas all year round isn’t taking credit for a state-funded project. It’s still free self-promotion, however, in public spaces that are typically off-limits to ordinary people and commercial advertising.

If the DILG is powerless to stop the practice, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources should step in and file charges against the self-promoters, for garbage pollution. (Although I’m not holding my breath,  considering the uselessness of the DENR in matters such as stopping reclamation in Laguna de Bay and flood-causing projects in Bulacan.)

Maybe the epals are waiting until the last minute to take down the billboards along with their smaller materials attached to electric posts. Meralco should charge these politicians stiff advertising fees.

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Remulla is giving local government units (LGUs) up to two months to fully comply with his order. Interviewing him last Thursday on The STAR’s “Truth on the Line” show, I lauded his order, but asked him if it could be fully enforced.

Some LGUs have said they would still pass council resolutions or ordinances to enforce the order.

Remulla stressed that such enabling measures are not needed, since his order is simply implementing provisions in several long-existing laws governing conduct of public officials, as well as a new law: the 2026 General Appropriations Act. The epal prohibition in the GAA, he said, covers not only ayuda programs, but also the self-promoting practices banned under his order.

Do sanctions await those who refuse to comply? Remulla says administrative sanctions will be slapped against those who defy the order.

Joke only? Empty threat?

Remulla has a hearty sense of humor (sometimes misplaced), but we’ve seen what happens to those who take his orders as a joke. Exhibit A is Gen. Nicolas Torre III, who was forced not only to resign as Philippine National Police chief after just three months on the job, but to opt for early retirement after a run-in with the DILG chief, who is the ex officio chair of the National Police Commission.

So maybe LGU officials will think twice about defying the DILG’s anti-epal orders. And we can finally see an end to political pollution in public spaces.

If Remulla’s order can be fully implemented and sustained, it will be a much welcome improvement in our physical and political landscape, forcing a sea change in attitudes toward self-promotion at taxpayers’ expense by public officials. It will be a remarkable achievement for the DILG under Remulla’s watch.

Treating public space as private family photo galleries is an extension of crooked officials’ failure to draw a clear line between public and private resources. Unless it’s for regulated commercial advertising purposes, no one has the right to inflict their names and faces on the public, almost always at taxpayers’ expense, to promote themselves.

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Remulla, a former Cavite governor, points out that he has won elective office several times without such epal acts. The best promotion is one’s credentials and performance, he tells LGU officials.

Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto also shuns such epal acts, but is now on his third term, and even trounced his billionaire opponent Sarah Discaya last year. Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo is the same. Hurray for the voters of Pasig and Naga.

Remulla acknowledges that it will take some time to erase names and faces of officials from public buildings and infrastructure as well as ambulances and government supplies such as letterheads.

But he expects full compliance with his order within eight weeks at most. So maybe I will yet see those merry Christmas billboards taken down soon.

Remulla also acknowledges that his order could stir resentment among local officials. This could be bad news for someone reported to be harboring presidential ambitions.

He clarified to me that he never declared an intention to run for president in 2028. It’s so tough to be president, he said. But when I asked if he’s open to running, he said, why not?

Asked to expound on this, he told me he has a vision for the country, and proceeded to elaborate. But considering his answer, I think the vision is a work in progress.

His plans as DILG chief are more specific. Aside from the anti-epal initiative, Remulla is moving to improve discipline and recruitment in the police. He is also set to crack the whip on crooks in the Bureau of Fire Protection.

Remulla also hopes to expand and improve detention facilities of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, although he admits that the billions needed to provide decent, humane jails is low in the priorities of the government.

If Remulla succeeds in all these endeavors, he can get serious about aspiring for high office.

As he has pointed out, performance, not epal advertising, is the best endorsement.