Where art thou, Montesquieu?

Many people take many things in their locality for granted. It is possibly either that they are simply unconcerned and do not care at all or they are possessed with skewed minds and we should avoid them. To local residents, for instance, a tree that arches towards the road does not as much appear a threat to the safety of pedestrians as it actually is in the eyes of a visitor. Thus, they walk by it every day not thinking that at any moment it can fall on them.

For another, when there is an uncovered manhole, neighbors, made complacent by familiarity with the situation, do not see it as presenting so much danger. They are so used to the presence of a particular risk that they know where to jump to each time the travel near it.

But, bring in a stranger and let him walk nearby. He views these two things quite differently from someone whose eyes have seen them each day for a long stretch of time. Almost instantaneously, he will remark that the tree has to be attended to immediately and the manhole covered without delay.

It was this kind of a positive context that prevailed when Montesquieu visited America. He observed a peculiarity in its system of government that many Americans themselves did not fully appreciate. Only when the French wrote about it, did they realize the operational functioning of the executive, legislative and judiciary in a presidential system of government.

When Dr. Florentino Solon assumed the helm of the Cebu City government as its mayor, he was like Montesquieu. We knew that he was born in our city but his profession took him to many places far from home for many years so that he was just like a stranger on his return. Like the French visitor to US, Dr. Solon perceived the kind of things that needed to be addressed most of us just took for granted.

Shortly after Dr. Solon became our city mayor, he embarked on an apparently low-key project. Well, I felt that he pursued it with abundant passion. The safety of the pedestrians was his obvious target when he planted new trees in place of those that only posed perils, covered gaping manholes, leveled off the sidewalks and paved them with concrete.

In some parts of the city, we still see these cemented sidewalks serving our people at present times. They are lasting memories of visionary leadership. But many of them, have been so taken over by vendors that they have become symbols of gross mismanagement.. Take the case of the concrete sidewalks along Gen. Junquera Street specially that part beside the University of San Carlos. I walked on them decades ago on my way to the Gullas Law School of the University of the Visayas.

Today, a dizzying mixture of business what-have-you’s has taken over the place. Shoe repairs shops, sari-sari stores, food counters and many others have usurped the concrete sidewalk from the pedestrians and forced them to walk on the street. Aha, how many times had there been vehicular accidents in that area. Students are injured and maimed by speeding motor vehicles simply because they walked, not on the sidewalks, but on the street.

Come to think of it! There seems to be a remarkable similarity between the minds of some of our leaders and those who are lording over concrete sidewalks. Not only have they become consumed by their egotistical biases, they have become incapable of discerning what is really good for the people.

How else can you describe the action of the honorable congressman from the south district in initiating a case against the city mayor for the latter’s administrative directions? Rather than behaving like Montesquieu in finding out what is best for the city, he acts like a businessman on Junquera Street who pursues relentlessly his business objective using the time paid for by the Filipino taxes and on the platform owned by the citizens. Leaders like these sicken me. Worse, they paint an even bleaker future for our nation.