Much has been said recently about the imposing steel signage of Guimaras on the hilltop overlooking the sea and Iloilo City. It’s a Hollywood-like name structure which is of course isn’t original since this is the Philippines and we are good copycats of what we feel and like from somewhere else. Except of course in Hollywood, the government spent for it while in Guimaras and in other places like Iloilo City, Leon and many others were sponsored by a beverage firm. It’s where the intelligent, assuming intelligent and those with little knowledge, started their criticisms of the Guimaras marker.

I find the discussions amusing and intellectually stimulating though. The ideas presented could be summarized under one main thesis statement. Guimaras should not have allowed the beverage firm to sponsor it and have their logo placed beside the name of the province because it is setting a bad example as it is short of promoting the consumption of alcoholic beverages. It is promoting alcohol and its use which could result to abuse and commission of crimes.

Interestingly, after the beverage firm has sponsored town and city sinages for several years now as its astute marketing strategy, its only in their Guimaras project that made prophets and saints out of people. One can deduce that Guimaras is most loved among all others as everybody suddenly cared about public morals and the perception of a questionable morality in allowing the public promotion of an alcoholic beverage company.

However, pursuing the argument that allowing the sponsorship of alcoholic beverages especially in the signage of Guimaras is pushing people to drink and insinuating that consuming it will result to crime and disorderly behavior is faulty. It simply assumes that Guimarasnons are not capable of thinking rationally and by simply seeing the signage with logo of Tanduay, people will start drinking irresponsibly.

One should bear in mind that way before the sponsorship of the marker, the alcoholic products of the sponsor are already on sale in Guimaras decades back. Theirs is a marketing stunt and given the budget limitations of the province, the offer is a welcome gesture. If the fear is it will create a bad precedence among the people, such did not happen in Iloilo City, Leon and other towns where the same alcoholic beverage company sponsored the marker.

Sometimes, the problem lies on people who are too idealistic and righteous but cannot even live ideally and rightfully. They simply want to talk and appear right. It’s a fact in life otherwise this country is now a lot far better. Meantime, they are now in search of new situations where they can talk and prophesize their idea of morality and sound more intelligent compared to others.