EDITORIAL - Mens sana in corpore sano

Mens sana in corpore sano — a sound mind in a sound body — wrote the Roman poet Juvenal as early as the first century A.D. Clearly, mental and physical health is not a new preoccupation designed for present day partisan political purposes.

That the legitimacy and validity of mental and physical health as a political issue did not enter the picture sooner than it did is not because it has lost its relevance over time. On the contrary, it is still as valid today as when Juvenal first said it two thousand years ago.

The only reason citizens felt a little reluctance in giving the issue of mental and physical health the importance it truly deserves in making informed choices regarding governance is because Christian charity lies deeply-rooted in the Filipino character.

However, it is both a great mistake and a big imprudence to let Christian charity get in the way of being enlightened. For it is one thing to be kind, and another thing to be careless. What needs stressing is that it is never unchristian to seek the truth.

For instance, it may be easy to ascribe political motive on the demand of Atan Guardo for Tomas Osmeña to step aside if the latter cannot prove he is physically fit to met the demands of the office to which he and Guardo are fighting over.

It is also easy to ascribe the same motive on Osmeña's own sister Georgia, or even cousin Sonny, who have both joined Guardo in asking him the same thing. After all, both are politicians too. What Cebuanos need to realize is that, motives or not, the demands are valid.

And when the demands are valid, they must not be set aside just because those making the demands happen to be politicians. Motives alone do not make demands infirm and invalid. It is the inherent value of a demand, regardless of who makes it, that should determine its importance.

Stripped of political color, the issue at hand is very clear. Tomas Osmeña has an ailment so serious that quality time and quality performance pertaining to the office he seeks cannot be fully assured. And to not be able to give that assurance is to shortchange public expectations.

It is as simple as that. If the importance of "mens sana in corpore sano" was already clear to society in Juvenal's time, how much more for the society of today, when so much depends on the mental and physical capability of leaders to carry out their mandates.