Why the interferences

Soon after His Honor Mayor Michael Rama, assumed his new office as Cebu City’s top man, we read of the announcement that his predecessor would not interfere with the way the new city chief executive would manage the affairs of the city. There were at least two good reasons that gave weight to the non-interference policy adopted by the neophyte congressman from the south district of this city.

First. I believed in the declaration of the honorable congressman because I thought that he would be too engrossed in discharging his position as lawmaker. He himself said it and his statement was so good a copy that all media outlets carried it as if it was gospel truth. Legislating would be a far too different work from administering a city and if he would want to be an effective lawmaker, he had to do a lot of catching up.

Second. I thought he was an honorable man. He served our city for about two decades and no matter how we would rate his performance, it was his most honorable thing to do to let his successor handle the job in the best way he knew and as free as possible from the lawmaker’s influence.

But, soon after the congressman’s pronouncement, some policy declarations of the new mayor appeared to get skewed. For instance, the project of organizing a city orchestra, which would have been a priority cultural topic of the new mayor, got a battering. It looked to me that the city council removed the fund that the mayor allocated for the project.

Then, the vice mayor entered the scene. Out of the blue, he announced that the city government would buy three junk airplanes of the Department of Education. The mayor, whose clearance was not previously sought, was made to look like a buffoon. Why would such a major decision come from a subordinate without the boss being given the courtesy of a prior consultation?

There was a third incident. A city councilor announced the establishment of a trust fund where all the sales that might be generated out of the lots at the South Road Properties would be placed. In other words, no money could be used for any project outside of improving the SRP.

I believed that the former mayor was responsible for those incidents. There was no doubt in my mind that those were all orchestrated by him. That being the case, he breached his own commitment not to interfere with the mayor.

In the next few days, we shall see another interference by the south district congressman in an affair that properly lies within the ambit of the sitting mayor. He already said that the chairman of the Association of Barangay Councils should come from the north district. And this statement came from somebody living in the south!

I see no other reason for the south district legislator’s interference in the selection of the ABC president than politics. Absolute control of the city council is his sole objective. In announcing that his choice would be either of the two aspirants from the northern barangays of T. Padilla and Capitol Site, the congressman only wants to block the mayor from picking a person who will become an ex officio member of the city council.

Here is a scenario that I, for lack of a better word, will have to describe as horrible. The former mayor, with all councilors loyal to him, keeps an absolute control of the sanggunian panlungsod. His dictates prevail. It is upon his call that the council so votes.

This situation puts the incumbent at the total mercy of the former mayor. No project of Mayor Rama will be funded unless cleared by the affirmative vote of the city council. If all of the councilors wait for the signal of the congressman (and not that of the mayor) in each project requiring funding, the mayor forfeits all chances of administering effectively because we, of course, know that a local chief executive, on account of absent fund support, cannot deliver the basic services people look for. Indeed, that situation makes him a lame duck.

Yes, I surmise that that situation is what the congressman wants to achieve in interfering in the selection of the ABC president. If someone out there has a better idea, I am willing to get educated.

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