Another friendly fire directed against the mayor

The assault on the leadership of His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Michael L. Rama, continues. It started on day one of his assumption of office as our city chief executive. The volleys aimed against his administration appear to be disjointed but they are arguably concerted.

So that we will have basis for this statement, let me try to recall few of such events. First, before he warmed his seat as our mayor, there was this announcement by Mayor Rama that he was organizing a Cebu City Orchestra. He knew that the leading cities in the world have their orchestras to accompany their great cultural events. So, apropos to his plan, he included in the budget the initial fund of about Two Million Pesos. To the mayor’s shock, the city council, in a move that demonstrated contempt of him, deleted the item from the budget.

The second thing I remember was the announcement of the vice mayor that the city was buying three junk airplanes. The idea was supposedly to repair the planes and use them in those extremely rare and remote times of searching for people in distress, presumably at sea. To me, purchasing junk (and therefore useless) planes for an uncommon event was a major policy direction and it should have come from the executive. I saw some sinister scheme behind it. The idea was so bad that the people would surely raise a collective howl against it. Had the mayor failed to nip it in the bud, he would be crucified.

Third. Someone in the city council surprised the mayor with the move of putting the sales of any part of the South Road Properties in a trust fund. It means that all proceeds that may be generated out of the SRP may only be used for the reclaimed lot. In other words, Mayor Rama cannot touch a single centavo out of such sales earnings to spend for his projects in other parts of the city. Clearly, it was designed to deprive the mayor from achieving what he wanted to do for the barangays, by putting the funds beyond his touch.

The author of that move forgot that the SRP was funded out of the money paid by even the smallest taxpayer in the mountains. Considering that only the rich can acquire a part of the very valuable SRP and surely not any poor family in the city can, it becomes clear that the idea of putting in a trust fund the sales of the SRP carries the tag of being anti-poor!

Then, the mayor opens the possible avenue of solving the impasse between the city and the province on the issue of the province-owned parcels of land located within the city. Some sectors rightly call this concern as related to Ordinance 93-1. Mayor Rama probably believes that it is in the best interest of his constituents to seek an acceptable compromise. If I may surmise, the idea he probably, has in mind is to find a way whereby the city voters occupying the province owned lots may, somehow, be accommodated in a such way that the province can maximize utilization of whatever it can retain. If that end can be approximated by the mayor in a meeting he announced he would seek with the governor, that will strengthen his political support in the city.

Here comes another assault, the latest, I figure, against Mayor Rama’s leadership. A city councilor has issued a demand against the mayor to consult him first. By the way, this local legislator is one, who, in our long years of association dating back to when he was yet a college student, has earned my respect and confidence. This move of his jeopardizes my trust in him.

We all know (and I like to believe he also does) that this demand is misplaced. To be honest, it is garbage. It has no basis in our bureaucratic processes. Since when has it become a legal contraption that the superior, like a mayor, consults his subordinate, like a councilor, on matters of executive paradigm?

I think that the councilor made this demand without being made fully aware that the sole purpose of this move is to put the integrity of the decisions of the mayor in question. Had the kagawad been completely informed that this act of his only subjects his soc-dem orientation to a serious doubt, I figure he would not take this course. That being the case, who manipulated him to assault Mayor Rama’s leadership? Your guess is as good as mine.

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