EDITORIAL - A sad and sordid affair

It was not the "nearly coming to blows" between Reps. Emilio Macias of Negros Oriental and Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City that made this whole episode of trying to break up Cebu into at least four pieces so sordid and sad.

The "nearly coming to blows" between the two congressmen was just a sideshow, perhaps the first of what can be a long series of serious breaches in decorum or worse, the ultimate breakdown of logic and reason.

Indeed, we should have seen it coming, ever since three last-term members of Congress from Cebu - Simeon Kintanar, Antonio Yapha and Clavel Martinez - hit upon the brilliant but not so subtle idea of clinging to power by means of converting their districts into new provinces.

As they say in this computer age, garbage in garbage out. In other words, a pathetic and unconscionable attempt to stay in power at the expense of the patrimony and future of millions of Cebuanos can only provoke and beget pathetic and unconscionable circumstances on the way there.

Just take a look at the cavalier attitude and abuse of power exercised by Macias in handling the so-called Sugbuak bills. As chairman of the committee on local government to which the bills were first referred, Macias has flatly refused to hold any public hearing in Cebu.

One would have thought Macias would see the common sense in holding public hearings in Cebu considering that the bills were all about Cebu and the Cebuanos. But Macias would have none of that. Apparently, the only voice he listens to is his own, and those of the proponents.

The "nearly coming to blows" between Cuenco and Macias did not happen because that was the preordained course of events in this sad and sorry affair. Cuenco and other Cebu congressmen like Raul del Mar, Eduardo Gullas and Red Durano actually tried to reason with Macias.

It was only after all reason failed that an exasperated Cuenco started badmouthing Macias and to which Macias responded in kind. Too bad Macias is not accountable to Cebuanos. But then, Kintanar, Yapha and Martinez are. These three the Cebuanos should remember and remember well.