EDITORIAL - Beware of those who call themselves principled

When Tomas Osmeña invited Mary Ann de los Santos, who ran and won under Team Rama, to join his BOPK and she accepted, taking along the entire officialdom of barangay Lahug which she used to head, that should have been it. All would have been well that ends well. If that was how the cookie was meant to crumble, then so be it. Sometimes you lose allies and make new ones. Politics is always like that.

But then they started talking principles and the whole happy thing collapsed in the public eye without them even noticing. But of course they are not expected to notice. Principles are never meant for self-proclamation. When a bunch of people begin extolling their own selves about how principled they are, you can bet your worthless peso they aren't.

One can almost puke watching and hearing them pat one another in the back, telling and retelling how the new alliance was struck. In Cebuano, there is a term for that -- "nagkinawtanay sa ilang kaugalingong mga l...t." The spectacle would have been truly credible if only there was a way to completely erase an acrimonious past that used to prominently figure the very same "principled" actors and actresses.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, their acrimonious past is much more effectively etched in the annals of this city's colorful political history than can be expunged and forgotten by a belated episode, no matter how festooned and bedecked in shallow glee it was made up to be. Happy faces may be a sight to see, but they can never mask and hide the wrinkles and the scars. Watch the tv footages again and see what we mean.

This is, of course, not intended to rain on their parade. It is not a concern of ours how political alliances are formed and reformed. Osmeña can court and win as many as he can from anywhere and Mary Ann can sidle up to any political grouping of her choosing and we can only wish everyone of them well. But when they start beating their breasts and have Cebuanos believe what a bunch of principled personages they are, that we take issue against.

Not that we have little faith in the ability of the Cebuano to discern the fake from the real. We are pretty sure many Cebuanos saw through the spectacle for what it was as much as we did. It is just that we cannot sit idly by and not do anything, if only to call attention to the fact that a real attempt is being made to tell a story differently from what it truly is.

Principle has never been a hallmark of most politicians. And in the rare occasions that there are indeed a few who would exhibit such an extraordinary trait, you can easily pick them out -- it is those who do not advertise it. Principle is exhibited not in word but in deed. It is noticed not narrated. One thing principle is not is for it to be self-proclaimed. Principle proclaims itself.