Demonizing Dabu

By Joselito Basilio

The curious cat that I am, I visited the blog site calling for the ouster of Atty. Vivian Dabu, Among Ed’s controversial administrator. I was glued to it for a long time reading and analyzing the articles posted by the anonymous blogger and the raves the site has been getting mostly from anti-Dabu forces.

The anonymous blogger uses vile language in describing Dabu. There, she is being depicted as an obnoxious, an ugly and a dim-witted character. If the stinging, bitter and acerbic comments on Dabu were to be translated into punches Dabu would be knocked down instantly and die of internal hemorrhage.

I would like to believe that the creator of the blog site is a lawyer like Dabu because he (or she?) employs words frequently used by lawyers like “putative” and ably cited a jurisprudence (Supreme Court decision) to justify his portrayal of Dabu as an unintelligent lawyer. Whoever this blogger may be, his call for Dabu’s resignation will not gain ground for a simple reason that he is attacking Dabu’s person and character rather than presenting a reasonable argument that would persuade people to support the ouster call. At the end of the day, I believe the Dabu will earn more sympathy than those who want him fired.

Honestly I do not know or have met Dabu. We all know she is not perfect. No one is. I agree that she has her own negative qualities like everybody else. Nonetheless, I believe she is a good and an honest administrator. She displays a political ill never seen in the previous administrators, a rare character needed to rid the corruption-prone capitol of graft and corruption. Like Among Ed, she’s not been tainted with corruption up to now which I find remarkable. This is much more important than her perceived bad management style other segments of civil society are complaining about.

Assuming, for the sake of argument, that Dabu is fired by Among Ed. What then? Would her ouster placate the Provincial Board and the Mayor’s League? Would it mollify the civil society? I do not think so. The aftermath is going to be a vicious cycle as when Cory fired Executive Secretary Joker Arroyo in compliance to civil society’s pressure. Believe me.