Our government of many problems, zeroing in on none

“WELL, GMA has been in Cebu three times in the first two weeks of this month,” said my favorite balikbayan friend while we were sipping coffee in our favorite uptown mall coffee shop yesterday. “She is getting to be a fixture in Cebu, and putting the local officials on their toes, if I may say so. They have never experienced this before, having the sneaky feeling the President is right there, looking over your shoulders. . . .”

“Yes,” I said, “but at what cost? I heard presidential trips to the provinces cost something like P350,000 each. That amount times three makes more than a P1 million already. If you apply a kind of cost analysis to it, would being present in the burning of confiscated shabu, or inaugurating the new court of appeals building, be worth it? Perhaps, addressing international conferences once in a while is all right.”