Readers' views

It is actually no wonder that Cebu City tops the Central Visayas crime list. 

This city is being mismanaged in all aspects and I don’t mean by the Mayor. Or not only him in some cases because aside from Mike Rama, we have unanimously elected twenty-four city councilors and a vice mayor. Yet, by an apparent stroke of bad luck for the city, the self-centeredness and soaring egos of the officials elected making up the Cebu City council, this metropolis is being ripped by the two camps vying for supremacy. In effect alienating the public who are the casualties in this bloody battle for political importance. 

Just recently, eight barangays and a total of 35 million of funding were denied just because the resolutions containing the appropriation were authored by Councilor Jose Daluz and Rama’s nephew Edu. 

But the arrogance of BOPK is also no wonder, it is headed by a very arrogant man if not the most, after all. His arrogance does not only extend to his political enemies but to every other person or entity which crosses him. 

I was probably too young or too uninvolved in my youth to remember this specific event that an older colleague recalled to me. The barbeque eatery of Willer’s in Lahug started from very modest beginnings. Back in the 90’s, when it was only a tiny stall selling barbeque on the side of the road, who would happen to pass along but Tomas Osmeña. This irritated the then newly elected first time mayor and what he did next did not help with his image at all. He got out and kicked the stall to fall apart and stepped-over the barbeque on the ground to emphasize his disgust. Margot Osmeña, tried as she might to salvage her husband’s image because of this outburst, patched up their differences with the Willer family in early 2000, just before Tomas Osmeña’s reelection. 

But this has had an imprint of how the big boss of BOPK could be even to people who do honest jobs and mind their own businesses. It is scary to think to have someone this short-tempered running the city. If he can easily pump this much aggression against the mayor, who is influential on his own right, just imagine the oppression ordinary people who would displease him could get.

Only when BOPK learns to take a bite of the humble pie would progress flourish and bring back the grandeur that this city once possesses.

Sincerely yours,

Maria Clara E. Ricamora

Banawa, Cebu City