EDITORIAL - In the hands of Cebuanos

What Cebuanos have apparently failed to understand up to now regarding the ongoing power struggle between Mayor Michael Rama and Rep. Tomas Osmeña is the fact that it is not up to either protagonist who eventually emerges the winner.

Rama cannot prevail over Osmeña nor Osmeña over Rama without the direct participation and approval of the Cebuanos. It is entirely up to the Cebuanos who they want to lead them now and in the coming years.

To be sure, no Philippine election goes untainted by extraneous influences such as money or intimidation. But at the end of the day, it is still up to the voter inside the voting booth who ultimately decides whether to vote freely or be swayed by these influences.

For two decades, Osmeña lorded it over the city. Whether his entrenchment in power reflected genuine Cebuano love and approval or a successful employment of extraneous influences is water under the bridge now that he is out of City Hall.

But he is now positioning himself to come back in, the reason why there is such a hue and cry between him and Rama and their supporters. Yet funny how the proxies can fight so mightily and noisily while their principals — the Cebuanos themselves — just watch so detachedly.

Has it not occurred to Cebuanos that Osmeña and Rama are nothing but agents carrying out their collective will in managing the assets that are their birthright? Will Cebuanos never tire of these bickerings. How long can they stay passive before reclaiming what is actually theirs.

But there can be no reclaiming what they do not know they have. For all their pretentions to intelligence, Cebuanos have not really used their brains in charting their own destinies. They act as if everything was all up to Rama or Osmeña.

It is time Cebuanos need to assert themselves. They must take back the power they have placed in the hands of their proxies, who act as if they were born to be mayor. Well, they were not. The Cebuanos made them, even if sadly, they remain clueless that they did.

Two years from now will be another election. There is sufficient time for Cebuanos to wake up. Will they stay with Rama or will they go back to Osmeña. Or will they go with somebody new. Cebuanos will earn respect or be damned by how they decide by then.