Change they say is the only thing that doesn't change in this world. There will always be constant changes in our daily lives. As a dynamic individual living in an evolving society, where success is measured by one's financial capacity and position in the community, change would be our constant shadow.
For people who likes the comfort that familiarity brings, change in any way, is always an intrusion. An intrusion which is often treated with wariness and distrust, for the possible disruption that it may bring to their otherwise familiar lives and sometimes with hope too, for the possible goodness that such change may bring to their otherwise, stagnant lives.
THE PAST
Likewise, the people of the town of Roxas have mixed feelings and opinions on the immense changes to this place. For one, for almost three decades, this municipality had been ruled in peace by the F family. From the father down to the oldest son and his wife, then back to the son, they have interchangeably ruled as local chief executive of this town. The people have become so used to these family and they have easily won the support of the people through their kindness and humility. Of course, as human as they are, they have their own imperfections and shortcomings as government officials but these were inadvertently shadowed by their magnanimous hearts, towards helping their constituents.
THE TRANSITION
Now, the people has to get used to the fact that there is now a new management, a Local Chief Executive who originally hails from another town but who have made Roxas his home since then. So many presumptions and prejudgments were formulated and disseminated by word of mouth before the official assumption to office of this new leader. Some are good but most are incline to biases garnered from vineyard-news-sources, passed on from one person to another, added to and subtracted as they please. There is really no other way to determine the truth of the matter, except to experience firsthand the leadership and management style of the new Chief Executive.
The townspeople should give the new leader a chance to prove himself and his vision for this town. He will only be as good as the townspeople would allow him to be, for if they would closed their minds and hearts to him, no matter how great his endeavors are, he would only be as remarkable as they would want to believe.
On the other hand, perhaps the supporters of the new leader should not be too harsh in generalizing everything in relation to the past administration and labeling them as bad, corrupt and weak. The past administration has its own bad and good points. What is perhaps very noticeable is the fact that due to the kindness of the past leader, some of his followers and supporters had gone astray and went beyond what is legal and good for public service. Some of these supporters had abused the kindness of the past leader by selfish motives and hidden agendas. A poignant lesson to be learned from their story, To be kind and good is not enough to be an effective leader – you have to have a political will.
EXPECTATIONS
These presumptions do not seat well with the present administration. They face a lot of challenge, to negate all these conjured up stories and disappoint the expectations of those who prejudged the new leader. As we all know, nobody is perfect. Each of us possesses some trait or character which we would say as our strong points but we also have attitudes and habits which characterized our weakest points, vulnerable to criticisms and judgment. We could not expect the new administration to change the system and ways of the local government which had been practiced for almost 30 years or so, overnight. This would certainly takes time and effort. The ascent towards a progressive and well-developed town, with its residents enjoying a fairly high standard of living and the government being able to deliver the basic services to people with great efficiency will be a very accessible goal.
For now, there is nothing that the people can do except to support the undertakings of the government which are for the benefit of the majority of the public, if not for everyone. The people should open up their hearts and minds for the changes and for the coming other changes, which are for the benefit of the people and the town, in general. Should the new management do otherwise, well, three years is not that long enough and come judgment day in the next election, the results would tell and they would reap the rewards of their labor for the next two years or so.
