Why are we stuck in neutral? Too much politics!

When I switched on my TV set the other day to watch the news, once again I heard Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III (with cheers from his Palace sycophants) throwing invectives and insults at the Supreme Court Justices. Perhaps he doesn’t know it, but all this has become too nauseating for our taste. Indeed that speech was a huge turnoff with people saying that PNoy didn’t sound presidential at all. He sounded more like a fishwife in Carbon market fighting her competitors with foul language.

PNoy accuses Chief Justice Renato Corona of being a midnight appointee and therefore calls his position is illegal, yet he doesn’t call for his impeachment but only threatens it. Perhaps it is time for Pres. PNoy to stop all that yakity yak on this issue and impeach the Chief Justice; otherwise he should stop blabbering like a spurned woman!

While all this is happening, no one is watching what’s going on around us. The other day, The Philippine Star came up with an editorial entitled “Living Standards” which said, “When you’re 128th out of 221, it can become a matter of seeing a glass half-full or half-empty. It’s below the median, but being ahead of 93 others isn’t too bad. Being ranked 128th amongst 221 other cities worldwide in terms of quality of life validates perceptions of Filipinos about Manila, or more accurately, the nation’s premier regions, Metro Manila. Mercer’s annual Quality of Living Survey of cities is based on the political, social, economic, socio-cultural and natural environment, education, housing, recreation and consumer goods.”

I’m glad to hear our Star editors noticing the importance of these surveys. Way back in the mid-90s, Cebu City was proudly ranked 8th among the Most Livable Cities in Asia by Asiaweek Magazine. A few years later, Davao City beat us and we ended up in the 20th place. Thankfully, the Asiaweek publication collapsed during the Asian Financial Crisis. But if anyone did a similar survey today, I shudder to think that Cebu City must have slid further down, while the other cities in the Philippines may have overtaken us.

If there is any single group to blame for this, I dare say that we should blame our politicians and the system of governance that exists in our country today. Yes, I blame the Philippine Constitution of 1987 which was hammered by 49 hastily gathered people suffering from a Martial Law hangover. This constitution has no provision that prevents the President of the Philippines from throwing accusations against a Supreme Court Justice.

This is why when you open your TV sets or read the newspapers, you only hear or read of politicians fighting and quarrelling amongst each other and running after those who were already in power. No one is looking at the welfare of our people and the reason for that is simply, the poor and uneducated Filipino do not even know that they have been taken for a ride, many of them applauding the President’s tirades against the Supreme Court without any cares as they don’t know the implications of such accusations.

Here at home the same thing is true, politicians are squabbling to the point that the Cebu City Council hasn’t approved the budget for the year. Why is this happening? Everyone is positioning for the 2013 elections. From Danao City to Cebu City, it’s all the same. It’s not yet 2012 and Mayor Michael Rama is already recruiting possible candidates for the 2013 elections. This is what happens to our country when we only have a three-year term for our elective officials who fight amongst each other while no one is minding the store! This, my friend, is the reason why we are stuck in neutral.

No one is paying attention to the small details that needs their attention like the problem with that road section along Juana Osmeña St. near the corner of Escario St. which has been asphalted four times already because the DEPW merely asphalts the road without fixing the problem of a water leak under the road. Now it’s broken again, much like our broken politics.

How many times have we written that ugly politics have only stalled the growth of Cebu? We already named the Ciudad Project, a noteworthy project by a Malaysian investor, which got stuck in the political quagmire between the City of Cebu and the Province of Cebu. Rep. Tomas Osmeña stopped it because it would generate more traffic in the Ban-Tal area, but looking at their plans, I strongly believe it would decongest Salinas Drive.

But then who cares about the traffic mess in Cebu for as long as politicians are able to block their political enemies. Are we going to be forever stuck in this political limbo called the Philippines where politicians gnaw at each other causing small constitutional earthquakes like PNoy’s speech against the Chief Justice to rock the constitutionally-mandated independence of our three co-equal democratic institutions?

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