Remember the days of Sugbuak?

She's not even in Congress yet but Congresswoman-elect Aileen Radaza came up with that cockamamie suggestion to create the Province of Mactan. Whoa there young girl! You don't know the impact of your suggestion! Perhaps you were too young to remember that way back in 2004, there was a woman who was practically still undergoing on-the-job training (OJT) under her father, the Cebu Governor, when she, just like you, without any experience ran for governor and won on a very slim margin. But history was made; Gov. Gwen Garcia became the 1st female governor of Cebu.

When she got to the Provincial Capitol building, she didn't come up with a foolish suggestion like what the young Radaza is proposing; rather she got into her jeans and started cleaning house and was the first governor who even climbed up the dome of the Capitol building. In her first three years as governor, a group emerged with an old proposal that dates back to 1967 to split the congressional districts into a new province. But this time, the idea came from last term members of the House of Representatives, Rep. Antonio Yapha, Jr. Rep. Clavel Asas Martinez and Rep. Sim Kintanar, with then Sen. Sonny Osmeña orchestrating behind these people. We called them the Sugbuak Group.

The Sugbuak Group proposed to break the Province of Cebu into Cebu del Norte, Cebu del Sur, and Cebu Occidental. It was their way of going around the Constitutional prohibition on term limits because with the proposal, these members of Congress can run for governor of their respective provinces. The public's reaction was a massive “No Way!” Even warring politicians like then Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Gov. Garcia were united against this proposal, including his eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal.

The Sugbuak initiative resulted in the creation of the One Cebu Political Party and in the 2007 elections, the people of Cebu gave a stunting victory to Gov. Gwen Garcia. The break up of Cebu into smaller provinces, according to the Sugbuak group, was to bring the government closer to the people. Yet, none of them even cared to talk about pushing for a federal state because what good is having smaller provinces when everyone else must line up to Imperial Manila for their funds?

So may I suggest to Congresswoman-elect Aileen Radaza to brush up on Cebu's recent political history and stop dreaming of turning Mactan into a province because we Cebuanos would never allow this to happen for the simple reason that we know what is the hidden agenda behind this plot… that is to put more Radazas into office. Aren't the mayorship and the House of Representatives enough for you guys? Please give us a break!

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While there is a boiling turmoil happening with the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) where that 60%-30%-10% formula was recently uncovered to benefit the Liberal Party, UNA and the independent candidates, respectively, instead of finding ways to solve this problem (actually it is not a problem because all this was pre-programmed into the PCOS machines so it cannot be considered a problem), Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes suddenly announced his proposal to defer the coming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections this coming October.

First of all, this decision to defer the polls is not for the Comelec to make. It is up to Congress to do so. But lo and behold, instead of concurring with his appointee, no less than Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III instantly responded to the call of Brillantes saying that the barangay elections should push through as scheduled in October.

While I concur that the Barangay and SK elections are just too close for comfort, the fact remains that all this stems from our faulty 1987 Constitution, which ordained elections every three years. The only way to solve this problem is to call for a constitutional convention (cha-cha) and return the old four-year term of our elective officials with another four-year reelection. These calls came from the allies of Pres. PNoy Aquino in the Liberal Party and I'm sure many others believe that the time has come to do the cha-cha.

However, I never reacted to that news because I know too well that no less than PNoy has always been against revising the charter that carries his mother's name. Well, as if on cue, PNoy doused cold water over the suggestion by his partymates to hold a cha-cha, saying, “I don't think that they are necessary detriment to getting foreign investors into the country. My stand has been public for the longest time.”

So what did I tell you? This nation will never see any charter changes under the Aquino Regime. So any talk of cha-cha will simply be put on hold until there is a new government. This is why I could never see a reformist heart in PNoy because true reforms can only be had through cha-cha.

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