"Promises, promises, promises," Dionne Warwick used to sing.

That happens also to Mr. Politico's theme song in the last expensive campaign.

Today, the time for double talk is over; the time to roll the sleeves is here. Today, time is not on our side and the clock is ticking. Today, the demand for public services is infinite; your resources and time are limited.

But you knew these to be part of the equation all along; so people will not accept excuses. You ran after a position of public service - give service to the public. It is late in the day to return the mandate you sought - sometimes with clean, sometimes dirty - hands. But regardless.

Those of you who stole the people's will by vote-buying, commandeering people through intimidation and pressure to vote a certain way and cheating in the counting - you know who you are. Just expect that the Law of Karma will spare no one, you included. Or maybe you, especially. It is just a matter of time. Not every day is Sunday.

But let's leave that for the moment. Suffice it for now to remind our newly installed public officials that their constituency expects much from them. To who so much power has been given are likewise expected to render service more.

The three categories of inductees are the (a) First-Timers - who are probably still full of visions and dreams, (b) Second-Termers - who will have the chance to rectify the errors of the past term and (c) Third-Termers - who may be lulled into a wrong sense of semi-retirement state.

The First-Timers must attune their blueprints to the will of the Majority who voted them because they were chosen as the "best options" in the open field. They should keep their ears to the ground and listen to the voice of the people rather than be the "eager beaver" out to sprint the distance without consultation.

Those who did high profile campaigns must come down their horses now - realizing that running a government is five times harder than winning an election. They must not be drunk with power one hour too early by choosing the wrong advisers and insulating them from the sentiments of the people by a "cordon sanitiare" - trained in the art of making the public official hear what he wants to hear. That is a sure-fire formula for a public affairs disaster.

The Second-Termers are the "lucky ones" in the sense that the public gave them a fresh mandate but has the luxury of a 20-20 vision (accorded by hindsight) to correct the errors of the past. It probably just takes some fine-tuning of the planning process.

Because certainly, he who "fails to plan, indeed plans to fail," as our favorite Corporate Planning guru says.

The Third-Termers could be considered the most vulnerable to a falling out with the masa. One, he could be oozing with over-confidence that the third mandate is indicative of his being "deified" in his community and thereby wrongly entitles him to breeze through like a semi-retired eunuch. Two, he could be tempted by the serpent "to make hay while the sun is up" and (do his worst) (corruption) since, anyway, he has no election contest to face up to.

There are two simple things to combat such mundane enticements. (a) Be transparent and have integrity (which translates simply as "what one does, when no one is looking) and (b) Have the sincerity to serve only the public good and no hidden personal agenda and bullshits. They are easier said than done, we tell you frankly.

Since it has been a most expensive election, the public's eye is wider now in its scrutiny of public projects and how the honorable elected officials will recover their humongous electoral expenses at the expense of the People. Watch out, believe you us.

Everyone's Pork Barrel and Projects will be under the microscope. As City Mayor Dan Lim said in a radio interview - he will monitor First District Edgar Chatto's Pork Barrel as intensely as his (Chatto's) brother-in-law Vice Mayor Toto Veloso will watch Mayor Lim's output. That is well and good for everyone.

The 3rd District Congressman-elect Adam Jala, aside from being soon-to- be-busy putting fires on allegations of alleged election irregularities in his area, will have to prove that while he may be "his father's son," he has an independent lawyer's mind and will not allow Big Daddy to run the show in the district.

Last-termer Bob Cajes of the 2nd District will have to live down the raging controversy surrounding the stupendous Irrigation Project in his district, sponsored by NIA but opposed by NEDA for excessive over-runs. What role will he play in this battle which he can ignore - at his own peril - since it is raging right inside the heart of his community?

Mayor Dan Lim has projects to finish: the Agora, the Sports Complex, the Waste Treatment Facility, better roads, curbing criminality - and of course, realizing that vision of making Tagbilaran as one of the best "Dream Cities" to live in the entire country.

Governor Erico Aumentado had a string of successes in the province -resulting in an almost unopposed third term electoral campaign last May. It would be such a pity if his Cinderella finish in life - for most things - will instead leave questionable monuments of waste rather than a perpetual legacy of honorable achievements in the Irrigation Project and the Panglao Airport Project.

If these two projects blow in his face it would be like losing an otherwise basketball "won-game" in the last two minutes. Nobody would perhaps like to see that.

So show time is over, guys. Let's pick up the shovel. And let's get it on.