EDITORIAL - 2013 a test of Cebuano intelligence

Many political pundits, encouraged in no small measure by the political personalities they write or talk about, could hardly sleep anticipating a battle-royale in 2013 between Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and his predecessor and now Cebu City south district Rep. Tomas Osmeña.

To be sure it will be an interesting battle. What most Cebuanos do not realize, however, is that more than just being a battle between Rama and Osmeña, it is a test of credibility for the Cebuanos themselves.

In almost any forum, big or small and formal or otherwise, the Cebuano, if given the opportunity, will always try to project himself to the world as intelligent, including in the manner of choosing his political leaders.

The question in 2013, therefore, is: Will the Cebuano continue to exercise intelligence in choosing his mayor? Prior to that, another question begs an even more urgent answer: Is the Cebuano aware of what people in other places say about him in relation to his past choices.

We do not wish to provide the answer to that one. Instead we challenge all Cebuanos to ask anyone who is not a Cebuano what he thinks of his previous choices of mayor. In other words, let others lift the veil on our intelligence, which we love to claim has guided our choices.

We have tried it ourselves, in a limited, informal and random way, and have been floored by the condescending manner in which other people regard our choices. The answers we got gave us the feeling of being disputed in our claim to intelligence.

Let it be stressed that other people have a very high regard of Cebuanos in other fields of endeavor. Other people actually envy us for our industry, resilience, innovation, and plain old friendliness and charm. But they smirk when we mention a particular political name.

The feeling we got is that other people find it incomprehensible for us to seemingly allow ourselves to be shackled to a particular name given the almost immeasurable pool of talent that Cebu has and others can only wish for. “Wa na gyud moy lain makit-an?” is what they say.