DOT Sec Christina Garcia Frasco: Cebu's pride and honor

Because there is no Cebuano in the Senate, no Cebuano in the Supreme Court, no Cebuano among the commanding generals of the army, the navy, the air force, and the police, the appointment of Liloan Mayor Christina Garcia Frasco as a Tourism secretary is a very wise move politically. In all our history, Cebu has had all the records of being the top source of human talents to run the government and administer the affairs of the state. President Duterte ignored Cebu. BBM's appointment of Mayor Christina is good news to all Cebuanos.

There are, of course, two ways by which a Cabinet position can be offered to a lucky Filipino. First as a political move or as a concession to a big supporter, like the Garcias of Cebu, and second because of high technical competence to well-proven technocrats like Ben Diokno for the finance portfolio and Fred Pascual as Trade secretary and Manny Bonoan for DPWH. The president-elect and the vice president-elect have huge political debts to the Garcias. The incoming cabinet is a combination of technocrats and political appointees. Benny Laguesma of DOLE and Toots Ople of the Department of Migrant Workers are both for technical expertise and for political reasons. And to me, they are the best among the new Cabinet members. I know them personally and we worked together for many years.

All appointments are political, we should realize that, and the opposition should learn to accept political realities. The winners have the right and the privilege to choose their own trusted official family members. They are not expected to bring in men and women who will just give them headaches in the Cabinet, just like when President Cory Aquino appointed Doy Laurel and Homobono Adaza to important posts. Cabinet appointments are a sure way to express gratitude to political supporters. In the last elections, Governor Gwen Garcia, Mayor Christina's mom, delivered no less than 1,055,985 votes to BBM and even more votes numbering 1,258,538 to Inday Sara. Mayor Sara was chosen over and above a scion of a great Cebuano, Don Vicente Sotto. No other presidential bets in the past was able to garner those numbers of votes in all history.

It is only logical that the Marcoses and the Dutertes should honor Cebu with a Cabinet portfolio. More importantly, BBM and Inday Sara should pay their political debt by appointing Garcia's daughter to the Cabinet. Governor Gwen was the new administration's biggest political supporter in the whole country. It was in Cebu where the dream of VP Leni Robredo died. She got only 341,455 while in 2016, for the vice presidency, she won in this province with a whopping 807,922 votes over Alan Peter Cayetano's 656,876 (supported by the governor then) and BBM's mere 307,676 and Chiz Escudero's fourth placer's votes of only 197,189. In the last polls, Tito Sotto, the incumbent Senate president, got only 247,093. All these happened not because the Cebuanos love BBM and Inday Sara. There is only one reason; the support of Gwen Garcia.

Of course, we know that Mayor Christina is qualified, in fairness to her. She is a lawyer, an experienced local executive. She made gargantuan improvements in Liloan, just as her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, Congressman Frasco, in such a short time, achieved monumental improvements in the 5th District, which were not done by the Duranos in more than five decades. But performance alone is never a guarantee to be appointed to a Cabinet post. If not for Governor Gwen's strong leadership in Cebu, Mayor Christina would not have reached the inner sanctum of BBM's official family.

This appointment is also good for Cebu. It is our pride and our honor to be counted as one of the most important constituencies of the incoming administration.

For the sake of Cebu, and in support of the incoming secretary of DOT, Christina Garcia Frasco, we should set aside our local and parochial partisanships, and rally behind a worthy Cebuana and wish her well. There are pundits sowing intrigues that this appointment is a slap to the face of the Duranos since Ace used to be in DOT. I don't look at it that way. Even the Duranos should support the new secretary and join us all in praying for Christina’s success. She can be our next senator from Cebu. Noy Pabling, the late lolo, must be smiling in heaven. Mabuhi.