PERCY Villafana, an 81-year old Trinidadian, is emerging as a modern-day-type hero, or, as some people are referring to him, a vampire slayer for a single audacious act he carried out a few weeks ago.
Neither cloaked nor masked, and without any special super power, Mr.Villafana, who looks like any other jovial grandfather, shot to the public limelight when he physically blocked Trinbagonian Prime Minister Patrick Manning from entering his yard to greet other members
of his family.
According to media reports, Mr. Villafana told an astonished prime minister that he was not welcome to enter the private premises, and proceeded to cross his arms in the shape of an X to ward off what he considered an evil presence.
There’s been overwhelming response from the public to Mr. Villafana’s singular action of defying a prime minister who, on his current walkabouts, was accustomed to heartily embracing and vigorously pumping hands, kissing babies and stroking the heads of toddlers.
So popular is he in the twin-island, that Mr. Villafana is now on Wikipedia; he has a growing fan base on his Facebook site created by a couple ardent supporters titled, ‘Percy Villafana – Citizen Supreme’, and according to him, everywhere he goes, people are praising him for what he did.     He, however, wished more people would be brave enough to do what he has done and break the delusions that politicians walk around with.
Interviewed by a television station, Mr. Villafana doesn’t sound like he has lost his marbles or is going soft in the head. In fact, he was quite astute on his actions, and made it clear he would do it all over again if he had to.
“A $2M flag? You’ve got to be joking,” Mr Villafana said, referring to the gigantic flag posted in Port of Spain by the Ministry of Sports intended to increase national pride, but which has had the opposite effect of a national disgrace.
“Not while the Croisee is so filthy, and at any given time, there are four or five homeless people sleeping in the bus shed. Not while the San Juan River is filled with filth. And have you seen the hospitals? A disgrace. The windows are thick with the mess from birds and dust. The facilities are hideous; terrible; people are suffering. Would I do it again? Absolutely,” he said in an interview.
Going beyond the mirth and knee-slapper moment, there’s a symbolic and deeper meaning to Mr. Villafana’s unpretentious and unrehearsed actions, and it represents the suppressed and even repressed emotions of the average citizen in the country.
Dare I say that there may be many Mr. Villafana’s throughout our region who quietly witness the naked abuse of money and power, the corruption, the curry-favouring and the nepotism while basic amenities for the average citizen in the country are badly lacking.
The fact that Mr. Villafana has transcended from an ordinary citizen to a national symbol of sorts indicates a deeper malaise in the society, and that people are looking for a hero — any hero; a geriatric at that — to latch on to and give expression to their bottled-up feelings.
The act of defiance by Mr. Villafana took the prime minister by surprise. A brief physical contact with the prime minister to block him from entering the private premises immediately drew the State’s security men around him, reproaching him for touching the cloth of the high man of government.
But maybe this is exactly what Mr. Manning needs. A dose of reality — to awaken from what people say are his egotism and the self-aggrandizement that he is attaching to himself more often these past few months.
And it isn’t only a perception of the nationals of his own country. During the hosting of the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain last year, my bureau chief at an international news agency asked whether the prime minister was always so cocky and arrogant.
Well, that might have increased a notch some may say, with him having rubbed shoulders with and hosted over 80 world leaders in one year, including US President Barack Obama, and curtseying to Queen Elizabeth II.
Sensing that the tide is quickly turning for the government, the prime minister and members of his government are lashing back. The Media that have been questioning and probing several suspicious deals are accused by Mr. Manning of protecting drug barons who fear him as the singular person in the country to break up their highly profitable illicit trade.
On an earlier occasion, he accused the opposition forces and the media of trying to bring down his government because they were questioning his defence of the head of a government agency, now forced into resignation, and who, along with his wife, is the subject of a major police investigation called for by the new Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Taking up the cue from the prime minister, another government minister accused members of the media of being in the pockets of local building contractors after story after story probed questionable and highly lucrative government contracts given to Malaysian and Chinese outfits.
Mr. Villafana’s action is also a lesson for politicians, if they really look beyond his anger, that they must never lose touch with the masses, and that they must feel the pain of the people. It’s the only way to bring improvements to their lives and to the society in which they
live.
Politicians cannot get away with the crime that they can make all manner of promises on the campaign trail, and when they get into office, the masses are handled out tokens — a few dollars increase in their monthly pension allowance and welfare and disability cheques — while at the top, they witness excessive and wanton spending as though the treasury was their own personal limitless booty chest.
They have to account — and that’s what Mr. Villafana’s simple act of defiance was all about