Politics and nothing more
The issue of the non-action by the Sanggunian Panlungsod of the City of Cebu on the supplemental budget submitted by His Honor, Mayor Michael L. Rama, has been thoroughly discussed by almost all of the profound opinion writers in our midst. Radio commentators, too, have exhaustively aired their views on the matter. I notice the seeming unanimity among our socio-political watchers in condemning the majority of the councilors, belonging to the group called BOPK, for their ill-advised failure to do their sworn duty. Their words are resonant in saying that when the dominant number of the city councilors, who happen to belong to the group opposed to the city administration, refused to act on the mayor's additional appropriation measure, they have become mindless peons of political demigods and in the process, they have recklessly abandoned the higher call of statesmanship. And I cannot add anything to the welter of their arguments.
I am an ordinary citizen and I hold in high respect some of the better minds among our local legislators. When I use the word "some", I refer to only a few members of the Sanggunian, whom I admired for their public philosophy, and for whom I cast my ballot in the last election. Never mind the mediocre ones who don the garb of honorable aldermen. I like to think that they know who they are and I do not want to aggravate my disappointment in naming them here. My granddaughter, when she was only 7 years old, believed in them. She, in her innocence and I, in my own naiveté, rested our hopes in these supposed leaders' proclamation of dedication to good service and fidelity to the cause of the citizenry.
For a while, I really thought that the best interest of the city residents was in their agenda. There was no doubt in my mind that they were social scientists bent to do good and willing to stand up for what should be best for our city with least consideration their political well being. I entertained the idea that confronted with the choice between acting for the general welfare of the city residents and some personal discomfort, they would respond to the obvious nobler calling.
Permit me then to express my dismay on the actuation of these few councilors using the haunting words of Rolando Carbonell's Beyond Forgetting. "How wrong I was!" in entertaining that idea that they were rara avis belonging to the vanishing breed of idealists primed with the principled notion of selfless public service.
I was wrong in believing that they were motivated to serve our city beyond the convenient call of politics. I erred in thinking that they would fight every inch of the hard way to promote the interest of the majority of our people even if their own political convenience would be put to a test. I faulted in accepting their pronouncements to place on the highest pedestal their love for the city and the residents.
How else could I conclude? As I understand it from news reports and analyses, there are, among many, at least two prejudicial consequences of the use of numerical force by the BOPK. One - their failure to act on the mayor's supplemental budget means that all of us tax-paying city residents will continue to bear the astronomical cost of the South Road Properties when the proceeds of its sale could have paid all the loan with which we are all damned to shoulder. The city cannot use a portion of the sale-generated funds to wipe out the loan liability, once and for all. So, the result is that when a great part of our taxes are spent to honor our SRP loan obligation, an insufficient remainder of our tax funds will not even be enough to pay for garbage collection. Two - because the members of the city council belonging to the BOPK continue to sit on the proposed appropriation measure, whatever amounts allocated for additional infra structure will not be available.
I think that is the end purpose of the BOPK dominated council. They will not allow the mayor to have access to funds to enhance public service because they believe that it will wipe them out in the coming polls. In other words, they are looking at politics, and nothing else, when they refuse to act on the mayor's supplemental budget. That is the point I see and I am infuriated.
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