Some promising signs
This early, we are seeing signs of good Cebu City governance. These indications come from both the executive and the legislative departments are culled from the pronouncements of our leaders.
On the executive front, His Honor Cebu City Mayor Michael L. Rama has designated former Sangguniang Panlungsod Member Eduardo Rama as his point man to attend to the needs of the mountain barangays. Of course, there are some detractors against this move. It cannot be helped that suspicions abound mainly because they are close family relatives. In the history of many national administrations that have gone astray, the designation of relatives to key positions led to unsavory, if not corrupt, practices. Along this line, the suspicions hold sway.
But, precisely because of the job description, Mayor Rama's appointing his own relative to a new office, deserves less criticism. Here is a caution though. I have not seen myself the document of such designation. I only reckon this column today from the newspaper reports. If I am wrong in my assessment, that is purely the result of my own shortcoming and certainly it is not ascribable to the mayor.
That the former councilor Edu is a Rama is the first positive angle to this issue. Many problems of the barangays have not been promptly acted upon because of administrative rigmarole. The processes are seemingly interminable. Starting from the identification of the problem as may be presented by barangay officials, to documentation, time is likely to pass. Long time, that is. These are daunting to the barangay officials. Not many of them have the understanding and time to follow their concerns every step of the way, so chances are that the delays might lead to putting these concerns in the archives.
In the new scene, a Rama relative of the Mayor Rama, like Edu, may not have to go to the tedious processes in addressing some pressing problems. There is no other person who can access the mayor faster and better than his own blood line. When problems are presented to Edu, he can act on them quickly and if it is his evaluation that the matter needs immediate response from the mayor, he can knock on the door of the mayor's residence and talk with him, a luxury that a purely administrative personnel does not enjoy.
I have been told that the former councilor was at the head of the campaign organization of Team Rama. That private position then will help him in his public office now. He will not be a stranger to the issues that barangay mountain officials may bring to his table. It is certain that during the campaign, he must have learned of the diverging natures of the different problem areas of the mountain barangays. For all we know, his team's campaign might have designed solutions to them. In his present seat, he will be able to actualize those solution concepts. His knowledge of those issues being actuarial, his actions are presumably realistic.
On the legislative front, the initial news reports are encouraging. We shall see a city council that is less prone to being a rubber stamp. Unlike in the past when the members of the council came from one group, the presence today of councilors belonging to a different color can lead to a better performance. Proposed measures will go thru the legislative mill under the scrutiny of councilors coming from the minority. That they will lose in the voting is a given. But when they point to the Cebuano voters some undesirable portions of intended ordinances, proponents, even if members of the dominant block, will be more circumspect than audacious.
One specific example was the voice of neophyte councilor, Hon. Mary Ann de los Santos. When she described the organization of the different committees of the city council as dictation instead of election, as reportedly listed in the agenda, she has given us the signal that she is poised to stand up and speak each time she feels something does not follow the correct line. Well, in some of her perceptions, she, like any other human being, can be wrong, but the promise to speak her mind out is mostreassuring. End.
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