EDITORIAL - Serve up the lollipop

When President Arroyo, during a brief visit to Asiatown I.T. Park last week, commented that Cebu was fast emerging as the number one destination of business process outsourcing firms worldwide, she was referring to Cebu as a whole, without distinction between city and province.

But Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña did not appreciate the vagueness. Wanting to be sure, he clarified, several days later, that the president meant Cebu City and not Cebu province, as if the distinction truly made any difference.

For what does it really matter if BPO firms locate in either Cebu City or in Cebu province? The important thing is that they locate in Cebu and, as a consequence, benefit all Cebuanos, who do not need visas to flit back and forth between city and province.

The insistence of Osmeña in claiming the bragging rights is obviously due to his running feud with Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia. If he can take away the glory from Gwen by whatever means, that he would do without the slightest hesitation.

Let us suffer Osmeña his lollipop. Let him gloat over the presence of BPO firms in Cebu city, of which there are admittedly many. But can he truly claim responsibility for their presence here, or is Osmeña merely taking credit for a clear happenstance.

Osmeña had nothing to do with the decision of BPOs to locate here. Those are management decisions of which Osmeña is not a factor in the consideration. When they were made, those who made them probably did not even know a Tomas Osmeña ever existed.

What is most likely is that Cebu as a whole, without distinction between city and province, made up the biggest consideration in the determination by BPO executives on whether to locate here or not.

Government officials are but transitory figures in the landscape. If they are considered at all, they are considered in fitting transitoriness. Business decisions such as those that BPOs have to make take into account long term scenarios, not short-term pufferies.