Childlike or childish?

On a very specific point I would have wanted to dwell on in this column today, my memory seems to fail me. I cannot remember who penned that line that theorized that the motives predicating any man's actions lie in the deepest recesses of his mind or words to that effect. My authority would have buttressed the fact that it is most difficult to find out a person's motives for doing something although his act may lead us to conclude why he has done what he has done. Anyway, my best guess is that this proposition must have come from a decision rendered by then Chief Justice Moran. If I am wrong (and the chance is high), let me advance a profound apology even if I can turn to my old age as an easy rationalization.

I wanted to find out the motivations of two of Cebu's leading political figures, the honorable Cebu City mayor and his provincial counterpart, the honorable governor of Cebu province. It was my original plan to discern what led them to their recent actions and pronouncements. If we could only approximate their motives, we could have settled early on whether they were acting childlike or demonstrating childish behavior.

To many among us, there is a whale of a difference between acting childlike and behaving childishly. He is innocent and according to the dictionary, trusting, if one acts like a child. Most probably, the closest Cebuano equivalent I can suggest is "bata-bataon", to distinguish it from "nagbinata" which I surmise leans more to the word childish.

That His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Tomas R. Osmena, dared the governor to submit to a recall election was yesterday's political issue. All of Cebu's newspapers reported the challenge of the mayor. Why it was treated as earth shaking as to be worth so much space caught me by absolute surprise.

If the mayor were simply moved by the euphoria of his recent political victory, we cannot blame him for his unfounded dare. He was just acting childlike and so we can forgive him for his wayward charge. Let us charge it to his extravagant feeling that he might have mistaken the concept of recall as if it was something he could initiate. He is innocently wrong in asking the governor for them to submit to a recall election because even if it were held, there is no way we can gauge who is the more popular between them.

But, even granting that the mayor was displaying childlike behavior, he reallycould have done better. He had earlier admitted that lawmaking, an entirely different ballgame compared to being mayor, was not going to be a walk in the park. It would have been to the advantage of the Cebuanos' cause had he emulated what boxer and new congressman elect Manny Pacquiao has done. Conceding that the congressional terrain is not his forte, Manny has sought crash course education. The mayor could have done no less. 

Also in the papers yesterday was the news that Her Honor, Cebu Provincial Governor Gwendolyn Garcia directed the recall of few multicab vehicles that she distributed to some barangays not very long ago.

What spurred the governor's action? If it arose because of the deluge of votes against her re-election aspirations, then she was not even acting childlike. In being childish, she was worse. But, we can give it to her that she was conscious her act had the likelihood to be viewed as political vendetta. So, if that be the case and she recalled the vehicles because she has good administrative reasons for doing so, then she could escape the childish label.

Anyhow, we can demand of our leaders that they set aside all electioneering. The exercise is past and done. It is not justifiable that their present actions can be excused as childlike conduct (bata-bataon) or childish behavior (nagbinata). They should focus on the enormous work at hand.