Dedicated to Vice Mayor Rama: "I am, I said"

There is a line in an old Neil Diamond song which runs like this: “Now I am lost and I can’t even say why”. The title of that song is “I am, I said” and it was recorded sometime in 1971. I like to contract that title by picking some letters from it and form the words “I am sad”, hoping that they rhyme with and probably fit to the situation of the Honorable Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama. Despite the lapse of almost 40 years, the Diamond song, at least in the line quoted above, finds application to the city vice mayor.

To be sure, I have seen the kind of Vice Mayor Rama’s unquestioned loyalty to His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña. It borders on canine devotion and as such it defies logical reasoning other than attributing it to political survival. After all, the vice mayor continues to harbor the idea that without the mayor’s blessings, the course of his political plans is, at best, uncertain.

To demonstrate that he would do the mayor’s bidding, all of them, I mean, the vice mayor made himself appear funny many times in the past. There were such worse instances when he somersaulted from earlier statements he uttered and contradicted himself if only to align with the perceived position of his political master, the mayor. Oh yes, in doing so, he stained the respect of independent minds. But, in each occasion, the vice mayor displayed a smile that indicated he knew what he was doing.

Well, Hon. Rama might not have really known that he was better off less being the kind of spineless character that he managed to project. Or he may have miserably underestimated his political stock forgetting that it has always been there, dating back to his grandfather. The Rama supporters are a huge block. There was no election in the past either before the Martial law years or post Edsa, where no Rama got buoyed up, in big numbers, by this bailiwick.

The sad part of the vice mayor’s saga could have been anticipated sometime ago. There were writings on the wall, so to speak. But, he had more faith that his loyalty was to be rewarded than in the irreversible teachings of political history. For example, he consistently ignored the warnings of well-meaning friends that Mayor Osmeña might not be comfortable reprising the event where he gave way to his lieutenant. He refused to acknowledge that the bitterness of the Osmeña-Garcia enmity would make the mayor resort to everything to stay clear of its repetition. By behaving like a slave to an Osmeña master, he thought that the mayor would never espouse a family member or perhaps, a more mindless sycophant as his eventual bet for city chief executive.

 Vice Mayor Rama was so consumed in his belief of being the anointed one that he was devastated upon hearing that the mayor might not support him come 2010. His reaction said it all. It was sadness of the inexplicable genre. I am sad that he compounded his previous blindness with a dumb act. Imagine that upon the hint, just hint, of the mayor to deal with the village chiefs, Rama had to apologize to the barangay captains. His language was incredible. He was a fool of a lawyer to have counseled himself with that course of action. He said he had done nothing wrong yet, he asked forgiveness!

The years of the vice mayor’s acting subservient might have reduced his capacity to think and act logically. But, now is the correct time to accept hard facts and deal with them bravely. Hon. Rama need not fight the mayor. All he has to do is be himself and apply his learning as a lawyer and his experience as a politician in dealing with the myriad problems at city hall. His only guide must be what is correct and honest and he will have repaired all the damage he inflicted upon himself all these years.

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