There's a new politics and that means change!

 I met former Congressman Antonio “Tony” Cuenco, currently the Secretary General of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) at the 888 Forum last Tuesday and he looked like a person “raring to go” and get back his old post as Representative of the South District of Cebu City, a post that is now being occupied by former Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña. Tony must be extremely bored with his new job in Jakarta, after all, being a congressman for all these years were exciting times for him.

 So when I asked Tony what party he belonged to, he told me that he was still under the Bando Osmeña Pundok-Kauswagan (BO-PK). But we read in the news that BO-PK head Rep. Tomas Osmeña wasn’t so excited about Tony’s comeback plan. This could only mean that Tomas was hurt or wasn’t happy about Tony Cuenco’s “loyalty” to his party or could it be that Tomas has already taken Jonathan Guardo, who ran for the same seat, on his side?

 Let me just say this clearly that if the BO-PK allowed Tony to seek his old seat in Congress, at least in the battle for the congressional districts in Cebu City, the BO-PK is still the party to reckon with. Right now, only Mayor Mike Rama and his kin are “outside the kulambo” from the BO-PK, which should also mean that Mayor Mike Rama better decide soon as to what political party he would carry in the 2013 polls.

 So the million-peso question is, will Rep. Tomas Osmeña allow the BO-PK to splinter further? If he pushes Tony Cuenco out of BO-PK, he just might force a Rama-Cuenco fusion, something that has not yet been tried, but given the reality that the two are formidable political giants in the South District of Cebu City for many decades, they would be hard to beat.

 There is no doubt that Rep. Tomas is raring to go and retake his old seat as Mayor of Cebu City. Everyone here in Cebu knows this too well that he is not happy in Congress and his performance there is lackluster at best. But the rift between him and Mike Rama is telling the people that he wants full control of Cebu City and he would turn against anyone, including his own friends, who might threaten his hold of power. This happened already to him and former Mayor Alvin Garcia and we all predicted that this would also happen to Mayor Rama, and it has.

 At this point, I can only advise Rep. Tomas to look at the gains he had in the past. Tommy was a nobody when he came back to Cebu after the EDSA Revolt to reclaim that old image of Cebuanos being “bisag unsa-on.” We supported him in many, many elections and Cebu City grew under his leadership. Along the way, Tommy made a lot of friends who also helped him achieve his dreams, especially when he made that slogan, “Cebu a city second to none.” We all bought into that dream.

 But something went amiss on March 9, 2011 when he had his stroke. After he got out of it, the Tomas Osmeña I used to know became a changed man. As soon as he recovered, slowly he alienated his friends, one by one and now his only real friends are those who surround and play “sip-sip” to him. He has become so quarrelsome; it’s no longer a joke. We abhor politicians when they quarrel, but then that’s only politics. But when it prevents the development of Cebu City, then we must look for ways to stop it. The Ciudad project for instance is a clear example of politics turned bad and ugly.

 Whether he likes it or not, there is a new politics out there and you can smell it in the news about the Arab Spring or in the Occupy Wall Street, which has spread around the globe. Today, many Cebuanos are hooked on their smartphones or in the Internet. You may dismiss it as toys of the rich but it is out there. Do our traditional politicians really care? I guess they don’t because anyway they can still buy the votes of the majority of our poor people, which is why years after that “city second to none” slogan; we still have the poor in our midst.

 The forum I attended last Tuesday at the University of San Carlos (USC) Gansenwinkel AVR dubbed “Reforming the Philippine Political System” was an eye-opener for me because I was in the midst of the youth who wanted to see our country being run by a new kind of politics and consequently a new kind of politicians. And they too are asking for change.

 The main speaker of that forum was former Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno and he gave us something to ponder… recalling a quote by George Santayana “Those who do not remember their history is doomed to repeat them.” Then the former Chief Justice said that if you read the news today, you are actually reading something about our past. He is right, you know. We just observed Bonifacio Day the other day and if you read that story, it was about a politician named Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo killing his political rival Andres Bonifacio. Not much different from the politicians today who either kill your character or end your life.

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