Foul bait

The Honorable Cebu Provincial Governor, Gwendolyn F. Garcia, must have acquired detailed bits of news about the incoming projects at the South Road Properties of Cebu City, which are inaccessible to most of us ordinary mortals. Her information must have raised her eyebrows to such a degree that, out of the blue, she just as suddenly has gotten interested in the SRP. Watch her lips carefully and observe her body language. Something is behind her smirk which her moves seem to tell.

A closer scrutiny at the chronology of recent events may help us understand the reaction of the governor. Please let me start from the few days His Honor Cebu City Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña was still in New York, USA for a medical examination. The mayor’s city hall factotums announced that he was coming home for a very brief visit. I, for one, hoped that he would complete the medical attention he needed. So, I felt uncomfortable that the mayor had to travel thousands of miles and interrupt what was set out as a recuperative process.

The brief homecoming was unnecessary. Even before he left for the initial medical check up, the mayor boasted that he had so prepared the city officials, (including giving city councilors executive functions), to run the affairs of the city efficiently. From the time he left for New York, up to the announcement of his return, there was nothing that sputtered in the city’s machinery. Everyone assigned certain tasks was doing what was expected of him.

But, there was something very important for the mayor to come home to. Yes, something urgent that needed nothing less than a personal appearance, like receiving a commitment for a project which was consummated by a hand shake. I searched the horizon for anything that could approximate the urgent, the important and the necessary.

None announced by city hall seemed to fit the description. The SOCA or state of the city address, traditionally given at the start of a new fiscal year, was not due yet. No government chief executive, whether national or local, had ever given such kind of address in November. In fact, there were times in the past that he preferred not to deliver the SOCA even when it was required. Then, city hall made sure that we knew most of the medical steps undertaken for his well being via press releases. So, the mayor did not have to travel thousands of miles to tell us about it.

Reports had it that when the mayor arrived, he checked in at an expensive hotel. Specifically, he was resting in a yacht no one, without clearance, could apparently get near. It was, to me, an environment more designed for secrecy than transparency. Thus, if he intended to rest, he should not have taken the trip in the first place. On the other hand, if he wanted to meet his people, the reclusive yacht of the exclusive hotel was not the venue.

Of course, city hall is entertaining the unsolicited offer of the Filinvest Land Inc. to invest billions of pesos at the SRP. Knowing that the south reclamation project is his baby, the mayor does not want to miss every aspect of the negotiation. He must have come home for this. Not the SOCA nor for any other thing.

 Whatever Mayor Osmeña came for, Governor Garcia must have learned. It is either a plausible commitment for the mayor the governor frowns upon or an investment which the latter feels the province can match or improve. It does not have to be separate package for an investment can contain some worthy commitments.

 Moved by what she must have learned, the lady governor has stepped forward with the province being ready to pour its resources at the SRP. With this move, the governor is actually foul baiting, to borrow a basketball terminology, more than attempting to spite the mayor. By announcing that the Cebu province is interested in the joint venture which the city hopes to tie up with a private investor, Gov. Gwen tries to bring out into the open every minute detail of the intended project. Her move forces the city to reveal all provisions of the proposal of the initiating investor and make the latter tip toe. This will pre-empt confidential stipulations especially of the undesirable kind and that is good for all. But if the city chooses to withhold relevant information, Gov. Gwen can unleash a floodgate of speculations and it will be bad for the mayor. Oh gosh!