Letter to the Editor — Hidden voices in Barili

This is a reaction to the column of Orlando P. Carvajal (July 12, 2006) aptly titled: "For the Love of Barili". I freely agree with "Noy" Lando's proposition that we should give Mayor Chuckbong Nemeño of Barili, Cebu a benefit of the doubt relative to his sincerity in switching political camps from a notorious centurion of the Roman emperor to a Pauline conversion, "Saul, Saul, why hath thou persecuteth me?"

While we can't fault the author's digression to brevity, it would benefit everybody if one be candid about it and explore deeper the dynamics of local politics of the town, especially in this episode of unsettling ambivalence now pervading the populace.

For six years that the town suffered the ill effects of obnoxious hostilities between the Garcias and the Osmeñas, the moaning must be heard no matter how society dictates complacency, insulating its mores from direct contempt or else risk the same fate as Theresa Pangilinan or the unfortunate event at Ecole Lalande in Roxboro, Montreal, Canada.

Elsewhere I have subscribed that there are a number of ways one can find uncertainties in terms of whose point of view one is looking at. Like from the point of view of John H. Osmeña, the mayor's erstwhile political patron. If political turncoatism were a crime, the mayor should find his head over his heels if the former were to strike an equally demeaning counteroffensive akin to Israeli air raids hunting a lone Hamas militant hiding somewhere in that big Gaza City.

From the point of view of the Capitol, it was a coup de grace, a hammering blow to a political adversary. Capitol dads swooped down a big fish suggestive to the arrest and subsequent hanging of Nazi straggler Adolf Eichmann in Argentina by an epic Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. Unlike Eichmann, Mayor Nemeño was clothed like a king instead. The important thing is, it pains the old senator.

From the point of view of the mayor, well he must have repented. To recall, he was known to be the foremost obstructionist to Capitol-funded projects of the municipality and have mouthed diatribes and expletives at his predecessor, the late Barili mayor Robert V. Alquizola, over the latter's joining Gwen's camp in 2004. Now he has his mouth full of his own words. But then only he can ascertain his own motives for the departure.

Finally from the point of view of the people. This is the hitch. Most people know that the whole thing mutually benefited the capitol and the mayor. Not the people. One politico's loss is another politico's gain. Barili's development is inextricably knotted in politics. Well, nothing wrong with that. It's the acrimonious hostility between the Garcias and the Osmeñas that bleeds bad blood for this ancient town. How then should the people take a somersaulting mayor?

Truth to tell, the people are not against reconciliation, but justice shall be given its due course. Shall it be construed then that the mayor's withdrawal from John Osmeña in favor of the Capitol, that his offenses against the people, be absolved? Or is the Capitol too harsh to Barilinians? You can push a horse into the river but you can't force it to drink the water.

In a nutshell, Barilinians are not anti-Capitol but are definitely anti-Nemeño.

Ethelbert Molina
Barili, Cebu