A piece of local legislation worth second look

The discriminating eyes of Cebu City’s voting public found an independent medium in the pen of this paper’s editor. Our editor was, to say the least, disappointed with the productive output, (assuming we call that effort as output), of the City Council. I am referring to an attempt by our local legislature to approve a resolution allocating a sizeable sum of our money for their firefighting vests. “What, our councilors would want to become firemen?” was to have been the question that our editor hid in his prose, if only to minimize the sting that was carried by his editorial.

 The critique written by our editor should serve as a wake up call to the members of the City Council. Indeed, Cebuanos deserve quality local legislation. When I say quality, I mean ordinances that are substantive in making our city address fundamental issues that certainly should embarrass our councilors in tackling such measure as buying firefighting vests for their folly. At the same time, that editorial should challenge His Honor, Cebu City mayor to show meaningful leadership.

 One area requiring the collective attention of the city’s leadership is education. It is high time the city should create a city college for the thousands of our youth. It is a late action, compared to the successes of Mandaue City, Talisay City, and the municipalities of Cordova and Consolacion, but mas vale tarde que nunca.

 Actually, about ten years ago, there was submitted for legislative action of our City Council one such proposed measure. Had it been acted, our city would have been the pioneer in this educational direction. Why should I know? It was my lady Carmen, who crafted it. Her being in the minority was the main reason why the council tabled it to death.

 The proposed ordinance took cognizance of two ideas. First, the city should not put up a school that would compete to the learning institutions hereabout. We have in our midst, among the best colleges and universities in the country. They have produced graduates whose academic preparations make them lead in the fields of their choice. The doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants and other professionals who passed thru their portals are recognized learned men and women not only in our shores but in foreign lands as well. These institutions who provide their learning utilize their resources, chart their own courses and continue to advance their statuses without much aid and assistance from the city government. The least that the city should do is avoid establishing a school that tends to compete with them.

 So, in the proposed ordinance, the city college was supposed, to steer clear from courses in medicine, law, engineering, accountancy and the like as are available in the existing colleges and universities. Redundancy, in a sense and competition would be most advantageous.

 The second idea has also something to do with the first. Should the city put up a college, the course offering must be those short term courses needed by our youths to earn a living. Our authorities have a better description for this. School curricula must match with what is required by the market. According to education officials, we have, in abundant supply, a large corps of college educated individuals whose diplomas are not what job opportunities demand.

 It was unfortunate that the measure did not get, from our then city legislators, the kind of attention that it, I believe, deserved. The endorsements by the colleges and universities throughout the city supportive of the intended City College ordinance did not matter. There were favorable recommendations coming from various sectors and civil organizations, but they, too, fell on the deaf ears of our councilors then.

 Considering that the editor of this paper described the attempt to put the city college as “a whiff of fresh air” and considering further how the other media outlets in the city gave their thumbs up sign to the measure, the signs pointed to a kind of output we Cebuanos deserve.

It is therefore timely for the mayor to ask the City Council to consider the otherwise dead proposal. Such an act will mark his concern for quality leadership and at the same time whether in his desire to provide the city with purposeful direction, the City Council will be with him.