If you see any politician campaigning at the cemetery as we remember our loved ones who have passed away, erase his name from the list of the candidates that you will not vote in the May 2013 elections.
Even if they are not physically present many politicians take advantage of the crowd to have their followers distribute materials about them. The ultimate Epal.
Epal is slang which for the tagalog word ma-papel ( credit grabber or scene stealer).
Trillanes to public officials: don’t promote yourself using taxpayers’ money.
Last Tuesday, Trillanes, , who chairs the Senate Committee on Civil Service and Government Reorganization, filed a bill that seeks to eradicate the unethical practice among public officials of claiming credit for various public works projects funded by taxpayers’ money.
Senate Bill No. 3310 is the consolidated version of the bills filed by Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago
“This measure was put forward in relation to the prevalent unethical practice among our public officials who affix their names and/or pictures to announcement of projects which were funded or facilitated through their office, despite the fact that these projects were funded using the taxpayers’ money,” Trillanes said.
The bill prohibits the “practice of affixing name, initials, logo, or image of a public official to a signage announcing a proposed, on-going or completed public works projects, as well as installing signage announcing the maintenance, rehabilitation, construction of public works crediting individual public officer, bearing his or her image.”
The bill mandates the Department of Public Works Highways, in coordination with the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the Metro Manila Development Authority, to remove billboards and posters that violate the law.
The proposed measure also provides for the imposition of administrative charges against the designated officers of agencies who will refuse to and comply with the law.
“With this measure, it is hoped that our public officers will serve with utmost responsibility, integrity, honesty and efficiency,” Trillanes said.
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The EcoWaste Coalition has come out with “Pinoy Cemetery Etiquette” or “Cemetequette “ reminding us of our good manners and right conduct when we visit the graves of our loved ones.
Here are some of “Cemetequette “:
1. As you clean you love ones graves, do not dump thrash on other people’s graves. Clean, scrub, polish the tomb of your departed ones in a safe and ecological manner. If you are repainting the tomb or parts thereof, pick latex paint, or enamel paint with no lead added.
2. Enjoy the serenity and peace of a cemetery. Heed the police directives for your own and your family’s protection: do not bring beer and liquor, firearms, knives and other bladed or pointed objects into the cemetery. Do not do karaoke singing.
3. Refrain from playing blaring music with car stereos, CD players, mp3s, iPads, iPods, iPhones or radios. The cemetery is not an amusement park or a place to show off your new gadgets; use a personal headset so as not to get in the way of other people.
4. Use your cell phone sparingly as sound tends to travel in open spaces like the cemetery; tone down your ringing tone or keep it on silent or vibrating mode.
5. Be happy with your departed loved ones without being boisterous. The cemetery is not a fish market or “palengke,” tone down your voice so as not to disrupt or infuriate others.
6. Refrain from engaging in disruptive or raucous activities such as playing board, card or computer games, bingo, mahjong,“truth or consequence,” “spirit of the glass,” etc.
7. Be courteous (and stay out of trouble) by not walking over the tombs or standing on top of a grave.
8. Keep watch over your children and do not let them run wild around the place. Show them the meaning of paying respects to the dead. The cemetery is not a playground nor a theme park; no running over the graves and no fights and shouting matches, too.
9. Take care of the plants and the trees; keep off the plants; do not pick flowers, even wildflowers; do not break tree branches; do not hammer a nail into a tree, which may hurt and damage it.
10. Refrain from distributing real estate brochures, political leaflets and other promotional materials that could only add to garbage woe of the cemetery and its host community.
Cemetequette is essentially an application of the golden rule: “do not do unto others what you do not want others do unto you,” EcoWaste Coalition said.