Rhapsodizing over the man who pays his salary, the Ministry of Human Settlements' (MHS) Tony Calzado raises these rhetorical questions about the Hon. Jose Conrado Benitez: "How does one, classify . . . a man who comes up with programs like these . . . .? What kind of high-living technocrat is this . . . ?" (Special Edition, Mar. 22-28.).

Calzado then supplies the answer: his boss is of man "who can come down to the level and language of folk" and Calzado describes how his employer conversed with a Pasay City carpenter for an hour.

And this is precisely the problem.

Calzado’s idol has no business sitting for an hour discus carpentry skills (which he does not have) or mosquitoes (whose bite he has not experienced). Instead, he should be spending weeks in front of a bank of microphones and television cameras telling the people what-he knows.

Caizedo's master should be answering questions about: (1) the P800 million poured into the University of Life, (2) the government construction materials diverted to his house and that of his in-laws, (3) the $20 million loan to the Asian Reliability Corporation, Inc., which ended up with three California electronics firms, (4) the P16 million or so in unliquidated cash advances, and the many other instances of "scandalous misconduct, financial anomalies and irregularities, . . . . and culpable violation of the Constitution" for which his expulsion from the Batasan is being sought.

JOSE "CHELE" MEDRANO