The electorate should demand from politicos

Election fever is undoubtedly permeating the air even if the May 2010 polls are still a few months away. But we can only attribute it to the Filipinos who eat, sleep and love politics. Unfortunately for this country, we are getting the wrong end of our politics especially that our economic growth and development is tied to the narrow visions of our politicians who cannot see further than their three years in office. But then election season is the time that politicians court voters and now is the perfect time to ask our politicians what they can do for our locality … if they truly want our votes?

Too often those who are seeking the office of the governor, mayor or councilor are running for the sake of running without any idea or programs that they would like to implement if and when they are elected into their respective offices. It isn’t enough for politicos to say that we would do what the people want or need. That’s an old clique and has fallen into the pitfalls of broken promises. But our problem is not that we’ve got lousy politicians and we end up having to get by with the lesser evil. Our bigger problem can be traced from our own electorates who seem to be satisfied with the status quo. So should we be happy with our present set-up? I think not!

A case in point is Lapu-Lapu City. One of the things we’ve always wanted to see happen in Lapu-Lapu City was for the circumferential road to be linked or connected with good paved roads, complete with sidewalks to reach every 5 or 4-Star resort. We have asked this of Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza who had three-terms of office and yet, he has done next to nothing in making sure that Mactan’s Resorts are linked with good roads.

Now it is his wife Paz Radaza seeking the seat of her husband. Can we now ask Mrs. Paz Radaza whether she would do what her husband didn’t do in his three terms as Mayor of Lapu-Lapu City? If she won’t make this promise, then perhaps their constituents in Lapu-Lapu ought to find other Mayoralty candidates, who would sign a covenant with the people that if elected, this is what they would do for the City of Lapu-Lapu in order to truly embrace its hard-earned title as the country’s no.1 tourist destination.

We should also be asking the two candidates for Mandaue City, re-electionist Mayor Jonas Cortes and challenger Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz what their plans are in order to widen H. Cortes Ave. If they cannot even help the City of Mandaue now, what can we expect from them when they get elected in next year’s 2010 polls? Again, I don’t blame Mayor Cortes or Nerissa Soon-Ruiz for the failures of Mandaue City. I blame the Mandauehanons themselves for not demanding these things from their elected officials.

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Still on the election front, when we said earlier that the Liberal Party (LP) was having unity problems, I did not realize that it would go to extreme lengths in affecting the candidacies of their party members. A few days ago, I was quite amused that former Cebu Governor Emilio “Lito” Osmeña unabashedly declared that picking Vice-Governor Gregorio “Greg” Sanchez as the running mate for LP Gubernatorial candidate Hilario “Jun Jun” Davide would be a “Kiss of death” for the LP’s Provincial slate? Was this Lito O’s “Tit-for-Tat” where he blames his disqualification to an LP Senatorial bet?

When he dubbed Sanchez as a “politician of ill-repute” during an interview with our good friend, Super Bobby Nalzaro in DySS, it was indeed a big blow to Greg’s re-election plans. In effect, what Lito was saying was, Jun Jun Davide blew his chance of winning the gubernatorial race because he chose the wrong runningmate because he considers Greg as the “dirtiest” politician. In trying to do some kind of damage control, Jun Jun Davide told reporters that they got Sanchez because he is the owner of Bantay Radyo (DyDD), which in effect is saying that this radio station will certainly be biased for their gubernatorial team-up.

Indeed, the LP in Cebu has to mend a lot of broken fences and I would like to believe that this problem isn’t exclusive to Cebu, I’m sure that the LP Directorate has a lot of similar problems elsewhere. Someone ought to remind them that they need political unity with their local bets. If they cannot even unite their local candidates, what can we expect from the LP on a national scale? If they can’t fix this problem, then the LP is doomed!

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I was happy to hear that the Cebu City Council has put on hold a plan to spend P1,750,000 to purchase 250 trisikads in Barangay Basak-San Nicolas because it would only put more trisikads on our roads where there’s a law prohibiting them on our main thoroughfares. Our Councilors should draw the line on giving taxpayer’s money to poor organizations, who just make break the laws that the City Council itself enacted into law.

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