EDITORIAL - Calamity

It was a well-argued speech Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella delivered at the City Council last week in defense of the city government's decision to extend P20,000 financial assistance to City Hall officials and employees in December, following several calamities that visited Cebu earlier.

Labella was driven to deliver a privilege speech after he and several other officials were sued administratively for alleged grave misconduct and grave abuse of authority in connection with said financial assistance.

Again, it was a well-argued speech. The vice mayor was correct in saying there was nothing illegal in the financial assistance, given as it was with the approval of the City Council, which earlier declared a state of calamity over the city. Even President Aquino placed the whole country under a state of calamity.

Labella also argued beautifully and convincingly that a calamity is not only manifested in physical losses such as "broken doors, dislodged posts and roofless houses." It is true real suffering from calamities can come in the form of trauma and anxiety which "the naked eye cannot distinguish."

In short, Labella was very persuasive in defending the city government's decision to give P20,000 in calamity assistance to city officials and employees. Legally speaking, there appears to be no case to speak of here. Legality extinguishes liability almost completely.

There is, however, a little something that the city government may have overlooked outside the legal framework from which it has chosen to view the issue. And that little something is a tiny commodity of which there is so little of nowadays -- morality.

Morality screams for recognition in the fact that only City Hall officials and employees were deemed qualified to be given P20,000 in financial aid. What about the rest of the city residents? While it is true the city gave ample relief for physical losses, that is an entirely different thing.

We are talking here, remember, of losses not manifested in broken doors, dislodged posts and roofless houses. We are talking here of some form of trauma and anxiety that cannot be distinguished by the naked eye, and which everyone must have suffered, not just city officials and employees.