A true meaning of a political advertisement

Shortly after I wrote about my alarm of a plausible suspension of His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña, as a legal consequence of the criminal case filed by some lawyers like former Vice Governor Democrito Barcenas and former NBI Director Florencio Villarin, Fred Sipalay and Kit Enriquez, I received three frantic calls. My callers wanted to verify if indeed there was such a case and find out if my column was anchored on documented facts. The second caller though was not consumed with satisfying a need to know. He had other concern.

On the whole, there was obvious courtesy in their voices and while they sounded very concerned with my revelation, they managed our brief phone conversations with evident professional exchange of thoughts. They made my day, to use the words of Clint Eastwood.

I did not personally know who my callers were although they identified themselves. But I told them one story. It was former Director Villarin who saw me few weeks ago and showed to me his folder of the criminal case. Among the documents he allowed me to read with focus was the Order of the Ombudsman requiring Mayor Osmeña to file his counter-affidavit. The order was specific. It was supposed to be complied with in a period of ten days or failing to do so was deemed a waiver. To lawyers more than other professionals, that caveat was pregnant with grave dangers.

In our discussion, Dir. Villarin opined that the mayor failed to heed the order. The ex NBI director whose career record is difficult to equal, based his observation on the fact that, until the time we talked, he did not receive any copy of the mayor''s counter-affidavit. And that was more than two months since he got his copy of the Ombudsman Order. He surmised that he and the other complainants as well as the mayor probably got their copies of the order at about the same time.

Dir. Villarin assumed that with the failure of Mayor Osmeña to follow the Order of the graft investigating body, the latter had no other record to proceed than those submitted by the complainants. That was why, he believed that the case could be soon resolved and the first step would be for the office to issue a suspension order. A grave danger indeed!

Comforting in the thought that I somehow satisfied the inquisitive mind of my second caller, I prepared to taper off our discussion. Then he asked me if I had seen a political advertisement paid for by our mayor. He said that it had been aired on television. Because I replied in the negative, he begged me to stay on the line and give him time to explain what it was.

The advertisement referred to is the one which seems to compare the mayors of the three cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-lapu. My caller claims that this is misleading. He anchors his position on the lampposts as projects of reference. He maintains that these projects are all over priced considering that the standard price as exposed by one Engr. Saavedra is just about thirty three thousand pesos per post when completely installed. By any mathematical calculation, my caller says the Cebu City cost of 85 thousand pesos is over priced. It may not be as odorous as 224 thousand per post, but it still plunders our coffers and Mayor Osmeña should be included in the investigation.

More importantly, my caller continues with his observation, the advertisement admits that there is corruption in the city hall. The lawyers have a word for it - admission against interest. Observe how this ad is worded: "Karong eleksyon, i knock out ang corruption". Mayor Osmeña has been there since 1988 (save for those years when he personally attended to the SRP for which reason he asked former Mayor Garcia to take active control). His advertisement acknowledges the presence of corrupt practices. If there is corruption at the city hall and which must be knocked out in the coming polls, this advertisement asks the voters to cast their lot on the party of mayoralty aspirant Mary Ann de los Santos. Wow! Is Mayor Osmeña giving up the plum?

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