Fallouts from the Capitol standoff

Today, January 10, the petition of suspended governor Gwendolyn Garcia for TRO against her suspension will be heard at the Court of Appeal in Manila. Will the case be resolved after today, or will there be more hearings? My guess is that it will take some time before a decision can be issued. In the meantime, the tug-of-war between the two claimants of governorship continues.

The case is suspected to be a political power-play being staged with full backing from Malacañang. Of course, that office has been trying to put up a stance of seeming neutrality, but only the most naïve can go along with it.

With this trend no bureaucrat can afford to incur the displeasure of the Pasig office. And the associate justices in the Court of Appeal handling this case may yield to pressures from above. However, there is no reason to surmise that professionalism and fair play will not be factored in the judges 'appraisal of the case. Herein lies the hopes of the Garcias.

If a favorable decision will come out a few days after January 10, the standoff at the Cebu Capitol will end, and Garcia will resume performing her duties as governor. An adverse decision will not restore normally because she is likely to take her case to the Supreme Court. There more weeks or even months may elapse before a resolution can be made. Or possibly, no such resolution will come out until after the May elections in which case it will become moot and academic.

In the interim, what scenario would be taking place at the capitol building? Certainly the suspended governor will remain something of a non-performing asset in the provincial government. unbending and defiant while the acting governor will have her hands full trying to protect  herself from court cases filed against her. The acidic verbal exchanges between the warring women will certainly go on to the delight of media people but to the disappointment of most Cebuanos.

Cebuanos are disappointed because the provincial government is no longer functioning as it should. Basic services are getting compromised while urgent projects are held in abeyance. There's an evident polarity of sentiments between the advocates of the two political groups which should not have been happening at this early, and this of course is counter-productive to province's development thrusts.

This is not to under-rate the leadership of acting governor Agnes Magpale. But an acting official is an acting official. She is a mere care-taker and the most that she could do at present is keep the provincial ship afloat. In fact, even a regularly elected official usually takes several months of orientation and planning before he can go full blast on his kind of governance. And to think that Magpale is running only for a vice-governor post in the forthcoming elections.

Talking of elections, what is happening now in the provincial government is actually a big drawback to the Garcias in their candidacies.  As a suspended governor her hands are now tied from doing the usual stuffs that governors do, including giving out goodies to disadvantaged constituents   or simply just visiting them for fellowship and goodwill and of course win their supports come elections.

More damaging than this is the posture of being anti-establishment created by the suspended governor's refusal to yield to the decision of a disciplining authority. From a legal viewpoint one understands that for her to vacate her post would render the case she filed with the Court of Appeals without any leg to stand on. But how many Cebuanos understand this? To the general mass the feeling that the suspended governor is being unreasonably disuspectful of the law cannot be avoided. This may not negatively affect her candidacy for Congress but surely this is a big let-down to the aspiration of her brother to be the next governor of this province.

The Garcias may counter this by trumpeting Gwen's accomplishments in her nine years as governor which, despite accusations of irregularities, have made Cebu a front runner in socio-economic development. Whether Cebuanos will have ears for this, the results of the May elections will tell.