1 Barbers out, another in

Leo N. Tolstoy, Russia's eminent literary figure along with another fiction icon - Anton Chekhov - has enshrined his short story "God Sees The Truth, But Waits" in most anthologies.

As connoisseurs of literature know, this story is of a Russian merchant named Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov who is wrongly accused and convicted of a crime he didn't commit, and incarcerated in a Siberian prison. In his frustration, Aksionov lamented: "It seems that only God can know the truth; it is to Him alone we must appeal, and from Him alone expect mercy".

While poetic justice finally prevails with the real criminal protractedly confessing the truth, thus redeeming Aksionov's name, it's still a tragedy as the order for Aksionov's release was overtaken by his death.

Well, push the button fast forward… The overwhelming victory of Mandaue City Mayor-elect Jonas Cortes over Jonkie Ouano finds parallelism in Tolstoy's theme that God sees the truth but waits to render redemptive justice. To recall, early in the 1986 Cory Aquino EDSA I government, her hatchet man Aquilino Pimentel Jr. run roughshod nationwide by ousting LGU executives summarily. Before Mayor Demetrio "Boy" Cortes was replaced by OIC Vicente dela Serna, for reason of ill-health he had given way to then VM Alfredo Ouano as acting mayor.

It was then that acting city treasurer Ophelia Oliva frantically pushed for withdrawal of Mandaue's P11M deposit with the PNB. But Ouano refused to sign the withdrawal and, instead deferred to on-leave and sickly Boy Cortes whom Oliva convinced at his hospital bed.  And so, the P11M was withdrawn from PNB and safely kept in the city treasury vault.

If memory serves right, when ousted Mayor Boy Cortes later ran for a legislative seat, his political nemesis - whom most Mandauehanons know even without dignifying his name - maliciously made such blatant lie by accusing Mayor Cortes of misappropriating the P11M for his by-pass heart operation in Houston, Texas. What was most unsporting of the unchristian canard was its repeated airing over the years when Boy Cortes was in debilitating health, and even after his death during elections involving his sons, in a manner as if repetition of the big lie would make it true.

Indeed, God in His infinite wisdom works in mysterious ways… Some may impute it to "karma"; others heaping on the son the sins of his forefathers; gamblers blame it on Kismet or fate, just like the roll of the dice; or on the law of averages that exacts payback time. But to those steeped in religiosity, or to the literati like Leo Tolstoy, indeed, God sees the truth, but waits when to wield heavenly justice to even up things.

Thus, to the faithful believers of the integrity of public governance by the late Mandaue City Mayor "Boy" Cortes, whose name had been spitefully stigmatized, the convincing victory of his son Jonas Cortes is an apt redemption. It's a salvation from the bizarre historical anomaly victimizing an innocent and honest public servant.

To the Mandauehanons now both here and abroad - never before so torn by anxiety and so involved over the demise of Mandaue's old glory - the changing of leadership at City Hall is also their redemption in more ways than one.

Jonkie Ouano's graciousness in defeat is at par with Jonas Cortes' magnanimity in victory. And the VM-elect and councilors-elect of the opposite camp have to fiscalize reasonably without being obstructionists. Otherwise, they antagonize the electorate who conferred on Jonas such special and awesome mandate to bring about the reformation or restoration of what Mandaue has sadly lost and missed, in its resources, heritage, and the priceless values for about two decades now.

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